Let me put it this way. Rupert Murdoch is to legitimate news what Donald Trump is to real estate. A couple of slick 3rd level hustlers, with a slick line of bullsh*t, and the drive to make it work.
If Donald Trump is The King of Debt, than Rupert Murdoch is The King of the Tabloids. Murdoch is the international equivalent of The National Enquirer. Even his prized Wall Street Journal has been cheapened by his interference in their editorial board. The sole exception is Sky News, which has incredible journalists dong great reporting, especially in foreign conflict zones.
Look, you can takes what Rupert Murdoch knows about running a legitimate news organization, and put it on the head of a pin, along with a transcript of The Lords Prayer. In large font.
Rupert Murdoch is a mogul, he’s a big vision guy, with the deep pockets of his own, and deep pocket backers to make his dreams come true. Murdoch didn’t embroil himself in details, he had minions to do that.
Rupert Murdoch didn’t make FUX News. Murdoch already owned the FOX Corporation. Murdoch created FOX News as an independent subsidiary of FOX Corporation, intended to be a conservative news alternative to what he perceived as the liberal media bias. But what does a bi-national mogul know about American conservative politics, other than rich sh*tpoke cocktail talk?
When he created FUX News, Murdoch turned to his notorious sexual predator and far right wingman, Roger Ailes, to make his dream come true. He turned the reins of FUX over to Ailes, and told him to spin some gold out of straw.
The best way I can think of to describe Roger Ailes is that he’s Roger Stone, but with a brain. A natural alley fighter, with sharp knuckles and a lively knee for the nuts, Ailes set out to make Murdoch’s dream a reality.
I’m old enough to have been around for the inception of both FOX News as well as MSNBC. MSNBC is exactly what it sounds like, a collaboration between Microsoft and NBC to create a cable new service. And with Bill gates at the helm of Microsoft, it’s not difficult to believe that MSNBC would have a liberal bent to their news coverage.
FOX News was the conservative alternative to the liberal media in news. And for a while it worked. FOX actually covered news for the majority of the day, in a straightforward way, although their prime time lineup veered more into commentary than news. But then the paradigm changed.
At some point, as FUX got more popular, Ailes realized that FUX News didn’t just have viewers, they had true believers. And that’s when FUX News went off of the rails as a legitimate news organization.
Ailes was nothing if not power hungry. And at some point, he realized that his star lineup could actually shape conservative news rather than just reporting on it, by the way they crafted their broadcasts. And with FUX’s viewership, it was a short step from reporting the news to shaping the news through commentary, using their viewers slavish allegiance on FUX to change the way that GOP politicians looked at the issues.
FUX stopped reporting on the national conservative agenda, and took over creating the national conservative agenda. Which gave FUX News prime time hosts incredible power, since if GOP politicians wanted to stay on the right side of the FUX News audience, ie voters, they had better damn well toe the FUX line.
If you doubt me, just look at historical context. The downfall for FUX only started after Roger Ailes got just a little too touchy-feely for his own good. Faced with multiple sexual misconduct allegations, Murdoch made the difficult decision to cut Ailes loose. The media was killing FOX News.
But what the hell did Rupert Murdoch know about running FUX News? Jack sh*t. But Ailes was gone, and he wasn’t the sort to trust underlings for the fear that they would rise up to smote him. Murdoch named a place keeper to clean up the mess, but he got into trouble himself. And more importantly, the Ailes toxic culture at FUX was completely out of control, especially with the prime time lineup, who felt bulletproof with their ratings.
This FUX downfall doesn’t amaze me, in fact I’ve been waiting for it. FUX has been out of control since Ailes took over, and as long as he was bringing home the bacon, Murdoch was as happy as hell to let him do what he wanted. And it was only when Ailes was gone that Murdoch finally figured out that all of the wheels had fallen off.
But what was he supposed to do? FUX News was a monolithic behemoth. It ran on its own! And the only thing that Rupert Murdoch could do was to let it keep right on keeping on. And now it’s cost him $787 million, FUX’s reputation, and almost certainly Rupert Murdoch his control of FOX. What goes around comes around.
What a sad story. I’m crying in my beer right now, not for myself but for poor Rupert. He gave the world so much. And now it’s come to … this.
Facebook. Russian money (and influence, and tech bros). Twitter. Ibid. For me that just leaves only one social media place : YouTube. Funny that that particular place also “seems” to have the algorithms… biased towards Fox and like minded fools. I start watching Tyt… and other folks… less bs in my feeds. Although get prager bs ads. Back to the story: somehow got an old interview with Linda Ronstad (? and sic). Didn’t know she was Hispanic and windiest she went from English songs to Spanish (duh). Well on a morning show. Hehehe. She wanted to thank Australia for sending their finest… as in most vile, most bs, most tabloid nasty and detestable (wait for it… deplorable) person to USA. & bringing his rags’ crappy operation with him. Hmm maybe being a celebrity and an activist (or a sane decent knowledgeable person) can cut through the nonsense. Murdoch did spread his filth to UK. The papers were rags but they already had a tradition. He upped it to 11. For some reason they told him … back off on sky news (think he owns but still must be … egads and darnation… news. Heavens to Betsy, the horror). But sky Australia??? Noticed it had different streak. One host loved Biden’s gaffes, falls, and obvious age regression. (Must have missed dolt 45…). Ps: really need to get a desktop or laptop. (Ffs … oopsie )
Rupert is laughing all the way to the bank. That “settlement” was chump change. His viewers could care less about the truth and congress could care less about passing laws that gets these foreign terrorists off of our airwaves……
rupert has boats that cost more than that.
Bill Gates, a well-known liberal? Sorry, I nearly choked on my coffee when I read that.
MSNBC is the love child of two corporate behemoths, Microsoft and GE (NBC’s parent at the time). Its sole purpose is to spew corporate propaganda to make older Democrats think they’re liberal (and sell them reverse mortgages).