Yes, I am really talking about Rupert Murdoch, the evil genius behind the Fox News Channel who is now in the news (when is he not?) with a new $5 billion dollar offer to buy the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Company to add to his other “assets.”
So far, the press has pictured his this almost as a Mafia maneuver with competing families eyeing each other nervously and playing a waiting game. Here’s Rupert reassuring the New York Times of his intentions and playing against any “crazy like a fox” suggestion.
(Hmm, hasn’t Murdoch had more than a bit of “trouble” in his own family with a divorce from wife #1 followed by a marriage to a much younger employee who became wife #2 and then the defections of one son and a daughter from top posts?)
Reports the Guardian, “The New York Times asked what would happen if a large majority of the family ended up clearly rejecting his bid. “It would be ugly – depending on your perspective, it might be admirable too,” he said. “I think it would cause quite a lot of argument.”,,,
“IF I HAVE ANY…”
How humble, proper and polite it all sounds with the world’s most controversial mogul and rightwing media manipulator suggesting he would let the paper stay the same, not meddle and even appoint an independent editorial board, although true to form, he assured the public and his own board at the Orwellian sounding News Corp that he would “keep an eye on it.”
It is already two newspapers in one and if Murdoch assumes control, it could become three. The current editorial board is already to the right of Fox News. A little tabloid glitz might heighten its appeal.
Yet, a dissent to this good versus evil narrative of is in order. Forgotten in this discourse so far are two words—television and broadband. That’s the direction the media is going in, and for Murdoch who has been secretly creating a new TV business channel to compete with CNBC and Bloomberg et al, Dow Jones could add tremendous value as a news service while the Journal would give the whole package a marketable brand.
Bear in mind that foxes don’t always signal their real intentions.
According to a Wikipedia entry, “Fox families keep in contact with a wide array of different sounds. These sounds grade into one another and span five octaves; each fox has its own characteristically individual voice.
The best-known vulpine noise is a sort of barking that spans three to five syllables.”
And then there’s….
This monosyllabic sound is made by an adult to warn cubs of danger. ”
And there’s more, in the fox world:
This is a stuttering, throaty noise made at aggressive encounters.”
And Finally,
This is a long, drawn-out, monosyllabic, and rather eerie wail most commonly made during the breeding season; it is widely thought that it is made by a vixen in heat summoning dog-foxes. Contrary to common belief, however, it is also made by the males, evidently serving some other purpose as well.”
Unfortunately, the real reasons for this deal, and its likely impact are still shadowy, like much of his global galavanting.
News Dissector Danny Schechter is “blogger-in chief” of Mediachannel.org, His new film is IN DEBT WE TRUST: America Before the Bubble Burst (Indebtwetrust.com) Comments to Dissector@mediachannel.org
