Rupert Murdoch ‘tried’ to shape the Iraq war agenda

February 5, 2007

Once in a great while, a Fox News exec will slip and acknowledge the network’s ideological agenda. At the Davos conference last week, it was none other than News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch.

In a session moderated by Charlie Rose and available via Webcast, Murdoch lamented the fact that big media conglomerates have less influence and power than they used to, in large part because of the Internet. The result is less power, which undermines Murdoch’s ability to drive an agenda.

Asked if his News Corp. managed to shape the agenda on the war in Iraq, Murdoch said: “No, I don’t think so. We tried.” Asked by Rose for further comment, he said: “We basically supported the Bush policy in the Middle East…but we have been very critical of his execution.”

“We tried”? “We basically supported the Bush policy in the Middle East”? How’s that, exactly? One might get the impression that maybe, just maybe, Murdoch was referring to his “news” network’s propagandistic efforts on behalf of the Bush administration. Shocking, I know.

On a more substantive note, Murdoch’s complaints about media “pluralism” strike me as inherently misguided.

The News Corp. CEO reportedly noted the rise of news websites, blogs, and podcasts as undermining the power of the traditional TV news outlets.

I enjoy some occasional blog triumphalism as much as the next guy, but Murdoch’s complaints come across as misplaced whining. Blogs and podcasts can’t drive the national political discussion like television can. It’s not even close. The lowest rated program on MSNBC still has a larger audience than almost any blog online. FNC heavyweights like O’Reilly and Hannity bury most of the A-list bloggers combined.

Fox News may be on the decline, with lower ratings and weaker influence, but if Murdoch is looking for an explanation, the answer isn’t to blame media “pluralism.” The network is a pathetic joke that no one can take seriously. If Murdoch wants FNC to have more power, he might look into giving it more credibility.

“The News Corp. CEO reportedly noted the rise of news websites, blogs, and podcasts as undermining the power of the traditional TV news outlets.”

Yes and no. If the traditional news outlets actually reported the news and didn’t patronize me by spinning the events, tabloidify them and push a stupid agenda then I would still read the local paper, watch the local TV news, read Time and believe what the MSM sez.

Damn, I sound like a right winger from the 80s. However, unlike the Alex P. Keatons of the world, I like to think I can handle the truth.

  • If this country would just drop the phony distinction between “network” and “cable” TeeVee, Fox “News” wouldn’t have its advantages in shaping our nation’s policies. Not that having to compete with the big boys would suddenly give it a conscience, or even a decent sense of citizenship — it would still be a large corporate business after all — but it might force it to have to at least pretend to be fulfilling a public need.

    And just a little thought would convince anyone that a blogosphere which covers the entire political spectrum from Torquemada to St. Francis can hardly compete with the well-funded, narrow corporate mindset dominating everything from Fox to NPR.

    America hasn’t been very good at acting on, or even seeing, the obvious of late.

  • Actually, I’m going to have to disagree with this one—Murdoch is at least partially correct. I can go out just about anywhere now and hear people talking about what’s on such-and-such a blog—and the blogs are pretty much text-only. They instill critical thinking in a way that just doesn’t happen with “tee-vee;” much the same as a good book with few—if any—illustrations will incite the imagination much more than something that’s all pictures, and no words.

    The blogosphere also gives people an uncontrolled access to “subjective-free” truth that the television conglomerates cannot give, because the big broadcast outfits are driven by advertising sales, and the massive power behind those sales. Truth becomes “versionized” in order to sell it.

    You take away that “versionizing;” you take away the glitz-n-glimmer that stifles creative thought and imagination, and people begin to see through the fog of clown-gangs like FOX. They begin to see; they begin to think; they begin to talk to others. And THAT’s what Murdoch is afraid of; that’s what he’s complaining about: His complete inability to control the minds of the masses with his big expensive toy….

  • Propaganda functions on the lie and the fear of the lie. With so many blogs exposing Murdoch’s mendacity no wonder he doesn’t appreciate blogs and the pesky decentralization of information distribution.

  • Well, Newscorp bought MySpace last year, so it’s not as if Murdoch doesn’t have a idea about how to deal with the new media.

    For me, it’s only a matter of time before Google or Yahoo either buys or gets bought by a newsmedia outlet – of course all these folks are little gun-shy after the TimeWarner AOL fiasco, but someone will try it again, and if it turns out to be Murdoch, well he does have a track-record of making these things work.

  • Asked if his News Corp. managed to shape the agenda on the war in Iraq, Murdoch said: “No, I don’t think so. We tried.” Asked by Rose for further comment, he said: “We basically supported the Bush policy in the Middle East…but we have been very critical of his execution.”

    Yeah right, asshole. You shaped it, you supported it 100% with your flag-waving fascist propaganda, and despite your cheerleading it went to shit from DAY ONE, so now you’re trying to rewrite history to say you were “very critical of his execution” even though you still have droves of idiots spewing venom at anyone who is actually critical of this administration and its disastrous war.

    Shove your rewrite of history up your lying ass, Murdoch. We don’t do 1984. The blogs are burying you one post at a time, and it might take us awhile without Viagra, Raytheon, and Girls Gone Wild sponsoring us, but we will bury your ass.

    Die.

  • Racerx

    Well put. I’ll bring my shovel. Speaking of shoveling, but here I am going on again about FNC.

  • I think you’re misreading Murdoch. I don’t think he’s complaining about increasing “pluralism”, just noting that it exists. In fact, his comments about blogs in the rest of the article are generally positive; the phrase “put right immediately” is definitely an approving one, for instance.

  • Rupert doesn’t seem to get that his bastardization of the news through his little empire is exactly what is fueling the rise of alternative media like the blogosphere. Folks like us have sought out news through other forms specifically because we don’t want to buy what he sells. He hates blogs because he doesn’t own them and therefore can’t engage is his right wing mind control messages.

  • Dear racerx: tell us how your really feel about FOX.

    I agree with everything you write on the subject of the blogosphere. The blogs have to be a huge threat to any control freak like Rupert. He really can’t control the mesage and it is probably very frustrating for someone who wanted to be King.

    If it had not been for the internet and the sane left wing blogs such as this forum, I would probably have done some violence to some cowardly public figure by now, or left the country for more rational digs.

    A lot of very intelligent people would have given up after the election in 2004, and many of them expressed real dispair to me after those results. But I believe that through the internet, we are taking back control of our country, one blog post at a time. Thank God we have found our voice and we have a place to use it. Too Bad Rupert, but even you, like the rest of us, will only have your “three-score and ten” to spread your evil.

  • ***Well put. I’ll bring my shovel.***
    ——————-colonpowwow

    Gimme that blasted shovel so I can dig a hole. I’m bringing a trailer-load of firewood, an old telephone pole, and some barbed-wire. I’m gonna plant that pole in the hole. I’m gonna tie “Roo-pee” to that pole with the barbed-wire. Nice and tight. Then I’m gonna pile the firwood up around him and set it on fire. I’m gonna watch him burn to ashes, throw the ashes in the back of the trailer, drive to the coast, and put those ashes in a derelict navy ship destined to become a deep-water reef. Then, I’m going to pay the Navy to let me set off the charges that’ll send that derelict to the bottom of the Atlantic.

    You guys have just GOT to stop talking about Murdock. It’s turning me violent….

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