Skip to main content

Rupert Murdoch's hand on the tiller.....

The Wall Street Journal is under threat of a Rupert Murdoch take-over. It is said to be resisting. Many fear what the Sun King would "do" to his prize if he were to succeed in acquiring the newspaper.

The WSJ has done an in depth piece on Rupert Murdoch - obviously with an agenda! That aside, The Salt Lake Tribune has re-published the interesting article. A vew vignettes [the full piece here]:

"Murdoch's focus on News Corp.'s bottom line has often allowed market considerations to influence editorial moves, and different markets have led to starkly different approaches. In the U.S., Fox News has thrived by tilting to the right, filling a niche left open by its network and cable rivals. In Italy, a 24-hour television news channel launched by Murdoch in 2003 has positioned itself as a relatively reliable and objective source of news - in contrast to the political bias of Italy's more-established channels.

At all newspapers, owners have a say in broad editorial direction. Murdoch has a long history of being unusually aggressive, reflecting his roots as an old-fashioned press baron. From his earliest days, like some other newspaper proprietors of the last century, he ran his companies with his hands directly on the daily product, peppering reporters and editors with suggestions and criticisms."


And:

"Murdoch's vision and appetite for risk have created a global media empire unlike any other, starting with a single Australian newspaper he inherited from his father in 1952. Today, it includes more than 100 papers in Australia, Britain, the U.S., Fiji and Papua New Guinea; Twentieth Century Fox Film; the Fox TV network; HarperCollins Publishers and the popular MySpace Internet site. In the four quarters ended March 31, encompassing parts of two fiscal years for the company, News Corp. reported a total of $28 billion in revenue and $3.38 billion in net income."

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Robert Fisk's predictions for the Middle East in 2013

There is no gain-saying that Robert Fisk, fiercely independent and feisty to boot, is the veteran journalist and author covering the Middle East. Who doesn't he know or hasn't he met over the years in reporting from Beirut - where he lives?  In his latest op-ed piece for The Independent he lays out his predictions for the Middle East for 2013. Read the piece in full, here - well worthwhile - but an extract... "Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the idea of freedom does at present agitate some minds even in Mecca...” So let’s say this for 2013: the “Arab Awakening” (the t...

Palestinian children in irons. UK to investigate

Not for the first time does MPS wonder what sort of country it is when Israel so flagrently allows what can only be described as barbaric and inhuman behaviour to be undertaken by, amongst others, its IDF. No one has seemingly challenged Israel's actions. However, perhaps it's gone a bridge too far - as The Independent reports. The Foreign Office revealed last night that it would be challenging the Israelis over their treatment of Palestinian children after a report by a delegation of senior British lawyers revealed unconscionable practices, such as hooding and the use of leg irons. In the first investigation of its kind, a team of nine senior legal figures examined how Palestinians as young as 12 were treated when arrested. Their shocking report Children in Military Custody details claims that youngsters are dragged from their beds in the middle of the night, have their wrists bound behind their backs, and are blindfolded and made to kneel or lie face down in military vehi...

Wow!.....some "visitor" to Ferryland in Newfoundland