Who Is Rupert Murdoch?
Rupert Murdoch has finagled a stranglehold on the worlds news media and feeds us whatever he thinks will advance his own fortunes and agendas. This old man may be more dangerous than Putin, Bush or Ahmadinejad. If he would turn his vast propaganda machine against Islam’s aggression, he could reverse it. So far that doesn’t seem likely.
The following is taken verbatim from the Center For American Progress website. They appear to be Centrist and Progressive, and patriotic.
In recent years, Australian-born billionaire Rupert Murdoch has used the U.S. government’s increasingly lax media regulations to consolidate his hold over the media and wider political debate in America. Consider Murdoch’s empire: According to Businessweek, “his satellites deliver TV programs in five continents, all but dominating Britain, Italy, and wide swaths of Asia and the Middle East. He publishes 175 newspapers, including the New York Post and The Times of London. In the U.S., he owns the Twentieth Century Fox Studio, Fox Network, and 35 TV stations that reach more than 40% of the country…His cable channels include fast-growing Fox News, and 19 regional sports channels. In all, as many as one in five American homes at any given time will be tuned into a show News Corp. either produced or delivered.” But who is the real Rupert Murdoch? As this report shows, he is a far-right partisan who has used his empire explicitly to pull American political debate to the right. He is also an enabler of the oppressive tactics employed by dictatorial regimes, and a man who admits to having hidden money in tax havens. In short, there’s more to Rupert Murdoch than meets the eye.
MURDOCH THE WAR MONGER: Murdoch gave “his full backing to war, praising George Bush as acting ‘morally’ and ‘correctly’ and describing Tony Blair as ‘full of guts’” for his support of the war.
MURDOCH THE OIL IMPERIALIST: Murdoch has acknowledged his major rationale for supporting the Iraq invasion: oil.
MURDOCH THE BUSH SUPPORTER: Murdoch told Newsweek before the war, Bush “will either go down in history as a very great president or he’ll crash and burn. I’m optimistic it will be the former by a ratio of 2 to 1. (He sure called that one wrong. This mans fallibility is frightening considering his power.)
MURDOCH THE BUSH FAMILY EMPLOYER, MURDOCH THE NEW YORK CITY POLITICAL BOSS, MURDOCH THE DEFENDER OF REPRESSIVE REGIMES, MURDOCH THE APOLOGIST FOR DICTATORSHIPS, MURDOCH THE PROPAGANDIST FOR DICTATORS, MURDOCH THE ENABLER OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATORS, MURDOCH THE HIDER OF MONEY IN COMMUNIST CUBA, and more. You can read it all here.