Franken-Lies-And-the-Lying-Liars-Who-Tell

owns twenty-four other magazines, including The Weekly Standard, the neo-conservative periodical
that tricked President Bush into going to war against Iraq. He also owns the Fox
Broadcasting Network, which produced Joe Millionaire, a hit show. And HarperCollins publishing.
Think about all those put together! Quite an empire, right?
But wait. He also owns 20th Century Fox, which owns the rights to over two thousand
movies, including Dr. Dolittle and Dr. Dolittle II. Dr. Dolittle II didn't do as well as Dr.
Dolittle, but Fox also owns Titanic, which was a huge hit. Plus, he has ownership or major
interests in satellite services reaching Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.
That's practically the entire world, excluding the "emerging" African market.
I would think that anyone would be satisfied with that much media. I know I would.
Heck, I'd be happy with just TV Guide, HarperCollins, Fox Broadcasting, and the satellite
companies. But even all this stuff doesn't satisfy K. Rupert Murdoch. No. He has to own the
largest group of television stations in the United States, plus 130 English-language newspapers,
including the London Times and the New York Post.
You might notice that many of these holdings have, shall we say, a rightward cant. So
you won't be surprised when I tell you that the cherry on top of Murdoch's corporate empire
is the Los Angeles Dodgers, the most notoriously right-wing team in the history of Major
League Baseball.
Plus he owns the Fox News Channel. Which brings us full circle.
But before I go into FNC, there's one other important thing you should know about
Murdoch. He's evil. I defer to the August Columbia Journalism Review:
Murdoch uses his diverse holdings ... to promote his own financial interests at the expense
of real news gathering, legal and regulatory rules, and journalistic ethics. He
wields his media as instruments of influence with politicians who can aid him, and savages
his competitors in his news columns. If ever someone demonstrated the dangers of
mass power being concentrated in few hands, it would be Murdoch.
But evil? How about a specific example, Al? Okay. In 1993, Murdoch, a staunch anticommunist,
began beaming programs into China from his Hong Kong-based Star TV satellite
network. At the time Murdoch expressed the noble sentiment that "advances in the technology
of telecommunications have proved an unambiguous threat to totalitarian regimes everywhere."