An "unfit" but repentant Rupert Murdoch

OVER  THE YEARS, we've encountered countless assaults on the media, including the shopworn sniffy censures of a "liberal" press.  That the media is primarily owned by corporate America  with strong Republican tendencies seemed not to convince critics  that day-to-day journalism wasn't  living in the guest quarters at the Kremlin. As a survivor of a half-century in the field, I  have some nasty red-baiting letters in my files to prove that I know what I am talking about.

As the reach in content of the local media declines, there can be a lot to complain about.  The harsh events that seize the world have been largely marginalized in the eager commitment to "local" news - which is OK to a certain point, but is hardly inclusive at that.  Meantime, huge one-day feature stories (with ample photos) that could be produced in half the size  abound.  But they do fill space.   Except for the comics, humor is scarce - a fact that John S.Knight  lamented even in his day.  You can't count the artificial Romney-like ha-ha's that pass for having a Good Evening in America  on the local TV news programs.  Such feel-good canned cheerfulness has long been embedded in hometown TV's school- yard servings to its audiences, and is there anybody who will volunteer to tell me why?

So,  even for a First Amendment guy, it seems we have at least reached a worthy new level for the state of journalism (a word that is seldom mentioned anymore) when a parliamentary committee probing the phone-hacking scandal in Britain asserted that  Rupert Murdoch was "not a fit-person" to  run a mammoth media empire.

Wow!  The committee declared that Murdoch and his son James showed no interest in unraveling the ugly underhanded affair.    When the committee's report came out, it could not have been Morning in America for Fox News, which is a prominent member of the Murdoch colossus and well documented for its perverse manner of presenting its news commentary.

As for a repentant Murdoch,  he confessed:  "We certainly should have  acted  more quickly and aggressively in uncovering wrongdoing. There is no easy way around this but I am proud to say that we have been working hard to put things right."

But conservatives being conservatives these days,  Murdoch's admission of his NewsCorp's "wrongdoing"  wasn't good enough for the dissenting chairman on the committee, Philip Davies, a conservative  who found the report to be   "ludicrous."  Other conservatives accused the political opposition of cheap tricks. (Fortunately, in England, they have yet to blame President Obama for any of this. )  The Davies response, of course, leaves him little wiggle room on the nature of confessed wrongdoing with the biggest conservative gorilla  in the mix, Rupert Murdoch himself.

Murdoch in London: Not having a very good day

THESE HAVE NOT BEEN the best of times for world media colossus Rupert Murdoch. The hacking scandal in London has forced him to regroup with one less newspaper - the scoop-driven tabloid that had been the biggest English-language newspaper in the world. You don't get that way without juicy peekaboos of the rich and the famous. And you don't get shut down by owner Murdoch unless he is in the greatest damage control mode in media history. Few, if any, outside the Murdoch empire are inclined to weep.

The ugly slop that Murdoch's News Corp. is trying to ooze out of specifically centers on the company's News of the World, whose sneaky intrusions reached as high as the country's beloved royalty to various other victims along the way. It now embraces private investigators, politicians, the prime minister , bribed police and anyone else that the paper found useful in titillating its readers. It has been going on for a decade, which shows you the depths of tolerance and benign neglect that some public officials exercised in the paper's behalf.

But it wasn't until the scandal sheet hacked the voicemail of a girl before she was found dead that people started to take the paper's unlawful tactics seriously enough for officials to respond.

Team Murdoch, which presides over Fox News in America, reacted to the perilous news about its gossipy ways to set up funds for potentially explosive law suits that would get quite monstrously costly.(By the way, Media Matters is reporting that the gang at Fox News has largely ignored the nasty cause celebre. Are you surprised? Wouldn't think so.)

Murdoch, his son James and his top editor, Rebekah Brooks have now been asked to appear before Parliament to to explain the paper's bad habits.

The scandal couldn't have come at a worse time for Murdoch as he is deeply engaged in a multibillion dollar takeover of BSkyB, Britain's largest pay TV provider. (Murdock never thinks small.) There is growing disaffection for the deal by Parliament as well as for Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, who has been described as a close friend of the Murdochs. It was Cameron, after all, who hired f0rmer Murdoch editor Andy Coulson, as Cameron's press spokesman. A few days ago Coulson was arrested and charged with, um, "inappropriate' payoffs to some police who were in on the deal.

More damage control: Cameron now stands with those who oppose the Murdoch TV takeover. Makes sense to me, in a survival sort of way

UPDATE: MURDOCH HAS WITHDRAWN HIS $12 BILLION BID TO TAKE OVER BSKYB. You bet I am swept with schadenfreude.

Kasich and Murdock:Million dollar transaction among pals

IF YOU HAVE ANY doubt about where John Kasich's million-dollar loyalties lie today, would the name Rupert Murdoch help you in your decision? As it is being widely reported, the masterful megamedia owner of News Corp., whose holdings include Fox News, has found a way to inject $1 million into the Kasich campaign for governor in Ohio. He did so with a convenient channel passing through the Republican Governors Association. From there it was a simple conversion to Kasich's political ads.

Kasich, who is forever glib about his work-room lifestyle, will doubtless pass it off as nothing more than a casual over-the-back fence relationship with Murdock. He's done the same for questions involving his handsomely paid work for Lehman Brothers, the bankrupt Wall Streeters. It should be obvious that in politics, Kasich is not a cheap date.

If these ties to the vast powers of the corporate world don't inspire confidence in Kasich's glowing vision of Ohio's future, you obviously haven't followed Fox's equally inspirational takeover of the Republican Party. (But wait: A Kasich spokesman told the Columbus Dispatch that his candidate didn't really solicit the contribution. I feel much better about it now.)

Murdoch obviously had an eye for Kasich's talent when the candidate showed up from time to time as a substitute commentator for Bill O'Reilly, the Fox News marquee conservative.

Murdoch has also contributed a million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has been bashing any Democrat to the left of Herbert Hoover. He said he just wanted the Chamber to know tha he was trying to be a good member. But according to a report in the blog Politico, he confessed that he thought the contributi0n "would not become public knowledge."

How fair and imbalanced!

Murdock:A way to the candidate's heart

IN A DAY OF cash-and-carry politics, when former eBay boss Meg Whitman can boast that she has already spent $104 million of her own money in her Sothby's-style bid to become governor of California, a mere $1 million would hardly jiggle a piggy bank. But when media emperor Rupert Murdock's News Corporation tosses in that much for Republican gubernatorial candidates, you must wonder why they would not demand a lot more from the Bank of Mephistopheles for their souls. As we have seen, for the first time in history a powerful news conglomerate - particularly national TV - is openly aligned with a major party and is making its presence felt 24/7.

Of course, when approached by the NY Times about the deal, company spokesman Jack Horner came out of his corner to deny any connection between what the corporate owners do and what is presented on Fox News. asserting,

"There is a strict wall between business and editorial."

Cool. So we must conclude that it is strictly a seasonal coincidence that the news department reflects the company line across the board.

I can't let Horner off that easily. To him goes the the Grumpy Abe Linguistic Lunacy (GALL) Award and it won't be a coincidence.