Defend the Indefensible - Rupert Murdoch

best bit: Fox news having the scrolling message "rupert murdoch: terrefic dancer"

John Lanchester wrote a good piece on Murdoch in the LRB recently - argued that Murdoch thrives on a certain type of media, and that as the cosumers of that media, all his money ultimately comes from us. It was more sophisticated than that obv, but the basic points holds. L:anchester starts by saying Murdoch is the kind of media mogul we deserve, and concludes that he's the mogul we want.

He's right though. Murdoch's empire is responsible for excessive competition facing the Virgin/ntl group the erosion of parliamentary democracy in this country.

who's whining that the big boys stole his lunch money.

(although fox DOES make 'the shield'...)

i never defended maggie neither, just suggested that MAYBE she wasn't responsible for EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED in the last three decades of UK politics and economics.

yesterday at work i argued *very hard* with this guy who'd come in to explain the new labour agenda for training in the nhs. he was an internal market true believer. they're doing things the tory right of the late 80s dreamt about. alas i work for one of the old royal colleges, and thus represent a 'conservative' vested interest of um people who know things about health care. hence the doh has set up a quango to replace us.

anyway *he* used thatcher as an example of the bad old days in the nhs. it was useful cover.

Tonight:
Malcolm in the Middle
Malcolm in the Middle
Simpsons
Simpsons
Stargate
Stargate
Lost

Tomorrow evening:
Malcolm in the Middle
Malcolm in the Middle
Simpsons
Simpsons
Simpsons
Simpsons
Bones

Friday evening:
Malcolm in the Middle
Malcolm in the Middle
Simpsons
Simpsons
Football Icon 2
Raod Wars
Las Vegas

Saturday evening:
Malcolm in the Middle
Malcolm in the Middle
Futurama
Futurama
Mission Implausible
The Big Idea

4 different episodes of Stargate SG-1 in one day is better than just repeating the same one or two in that same time i guess

i don't get sky. i paid for murdoch-produced films and tv shows though. if itv could do one (1) show worth watching... that'd be nice.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article5859108.ece

strange days

Rupert Murdoch vows to take all of Newscorp's websites out of Google

don't let the door smack ur arse on the way out, rupe

Petition vs Murdoch's takeovers here:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/murdoch_bskyb/97.php?cl_tta_sign=7ecb089befcae54ba8fc64edcbd1dcf4

Adam Curtis on Rupert Murdoch. The Wogan interview is especially bizarre.

Can't really defend him too much, if at all, but today his Sun newspaper boasted the sentence

"Her clients simply arrive at the cockroach-infested motel, undress, then have hardware store silicone pumped into their backsides."

It caused me to wriggle in a pleasing way and to think that there are things going on in the world that I want to know more about.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/3421071/Claudias-death-is-tragic-but-it-wont-stop-my-illegal-booty-shots.html

The Wogan interview is especially bizarre.

otm - was fascinating to watch, from such a different time (wogan actually really good and provocative but blatantly biased in a way you surely couldn't get now)

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has been given government approval for its controversial takeover of BSkyB.

The green light follows News Corp's offer to spin-off Sky News as an independent company.

The decision follows concerns about the concentration of media outlets in the hands of one organisation.

The decision follows ignores concerns about the concentration of media outlets in the hands of one organisation.

fixed.

fucking tories

Love the spin about Murdoch "hiving off" Sky News when the details say he'll still own the same size stake in it he always did.

Least surprising decision ever.

So the new Sky News will be dependent on revenues from Sky/NewsCorp, will be contracted to NewsCorp, and will rely on NewsCorp for permission to use the Sky brand. That doesn't make it an independent company, it means that NewsCorp becomes a client of Sky News, its only client. So if Murdoch doesn't like the way a supposedly independent Sky News is covering something, it has to change. There's no independence there at all.

Just saw this being talked about on a blog, can't recall seeing ANYTHING about this in the news here in the US.

http://www.adweek.com/news/press/news-corp-phone-hacking-scandal-never-ends-131391

http://www.adweek.com/michael-wolff/devils-due-132653

While the phone hacking scandal is omnipresent in the U.K., it is a story that continues to unfold in the U.S. as though by sporadic telegraph, and always seems to require a ritual recap for the implacably unaware American audience. In sum: It is now well-documented that employees of Murdoch’s News of the World British tabloid eavesdropped on the voice mail messages of practically anybody who was anybody in Britain for the better part of the last 10 years—the most recent revelations put Kate Middleton and Tony Blair on this list—including, undoubtedly, some of the people who went to the News Corp. party. Although this might not have seemed like much of a crime while it was being committed by myriad News Corp. reporters, and sanctioned by their bosses—just hacks being hacks—it has since transmuted into a profound breach of the civil trust. And to date, each next domino in the inquest has fallen.

The informed speculation in U.K. media and political circles is about which present and former members of the top circle of News Corp. management in London will next be frog marched in front of a tribunal. In addition to company chief Rebekah Wade Brooks (who herself appears to have been hacked by NoW reporters) and her predecessor Les Hinton, who now runs The Wall Street Journal, this might naturally include Rupert’s son, James, who approved the early settlements in the case—settlements so large they could only reasonably be hush-money payoffs.

done

DIE BITCH DIE

yr 20 mins late

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth/110808_peacock-1_p465.jpg

When a peacock escaped from the Central Park Zoo on Tuesday, the photographer Landon Nordeman, a frequent contributor, happened to be in the neighborhood. Choosing not to defy any peacock stereotypes, the bird had settled into a posh building on the Upper East Side, 838 Fifth Avenue, in a fifth-floor ledge with a Park view. He may have been free from captivity, but was no less the object of gawking. While passers-by spent the day photographing the bird on the lam, Landon spent the day—from 11 A.M. until 10:30 P.M.—photographing them. (The bird outlasted them all, staying until 6:45 the next morning.)

One of the rubberneckers turned out to be Rupert Murdoch, who lives in the co-op next door, at 834. (See slide 6.) His recent tribulations seem not to have dimmed his childlike sense of wonder. (He may even have been strutting; it was the same day that his pie-throwing assailant was sentenced to six weeks in prison.)

“There’s something about the variety of people within this series that I can’t let go of,” Landon wrote in an e-mail. “Old people, kids, Murdoch, the guy collecting cans, a cop, the guy in the suit and hat, the old ladies, the families, the tourists,” he said, “all democratically lumped together by a fugitive peacock!”

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth/2011/08/peacock-escaped-rupert-murdoch.html

i think this deserves to be brought to the wider ilx

A rant by the owner of Heart of Midlothian FC Vladimir Romanov aka Mad Vlad

Mr Vladimir Romanov today issued the following statement after recent revelations that have had a hugely damaging affect on the game in this country.

Mr Romanov, who has been consistent in his views since investing in Scottish football in 2005, said:

"The opinion of Heart of Midlothian FC in regards to the current situation of Scottish football is clear and robust.

"The football mafia represented by former owners of Rangers FC and Rupert Murdoch's media are to blame for some of the worst problems to hit Scottish football and must not be allowed back in under any circumstances.

"As regards the club itself, we can only express our deepest condolences to its supporters, who have been lied to for so many years.

"It had to happen sooner or later. Victories were achieved not by sporting merits, but through slander, conspiracies amongst players and their poaching via third parties, unfair pressuring of referees, who in themselves are as valuable to the fabric of football as the football stars themselves.

"All of this brought hollow victories and destroyed football. We can also mention the attempts to eliminate Hearts with the help of the tax petitions, through false accusations and threats to revoke the club license. There is a saying about digging a grave for someone: you get it for yourself …

"Without these people football will become cleaner and stronger. Without Murdoch the whole of society will improve, in particular sport and culture.

"Supporters deserve a new beginning and have to accept the fact that their club has to start from the lower league, keeping order in the SPL and without creating unfair competition with other clubs.

"As regards the pitiful state of Scottish football finances, a lot of the blame should be placed at the doors of Murdoch's media. They pay huge sums to English clubs, whilst in Scotland, where football is better supported per capita than anywhere else in Europe and there are more cable or Sky subscribers per capita than in England, clubs receive peanuts for their broadcasting rights.

"At the very least this is discrimination and protectionism for the English football product, which at the same time stunts the development of the game in Scotland, that is regarded as the cradle of football.

"I feel that it is absolutely realistic to create a company that would bring to Scottish clubs at least the same broadcasting income, and even grow it by 50-100% over the next two to three years. This company should be in the hands of Scottish clubs and work with those who want to earn money the honest way, instead of conducting business the Murdoch way.

"They have lived beyond law and all morals, and should now be declared beyond the pale. A society that allows the destruction of integrity in sport, which is a crucial part of Scottish culture, is destroying itself - and all for the benefit of a media aborigine

http://www.heartsfc.co.uk/articles/20120621/vr-statement_2241384_2818454

i know hes mad vlad but i thought someone might've taken exception to what he said in the last line.

And then there's his wife

http://gawker.com/5926705/it-was-like-a-war-zone-a-former-nanny-for-rupert-murdoch-and-wendi-deng-speaks-out

RT @rupertmurdoch Why Is Jewish owned press so consistently anti- Israel in every crisis?

Why no hashtag, Mr. Murdoch?

RM reached out to general petraeus, begging him to run, offering full support from fox ews and the use of roger ailes as campaign manager?

http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2012/12/04/president-petraeus-fox-news-sure-liked-the-ring-of-it/?cxntfid=blogs_jay_bookman_blog

fair and balanced!

That's big news. Wonder if anything will come of it.

On RM's behalf, I'd like to say that he has probably managed to undermine the prestige and influence of the WSJ, which if true would be a good thing.

Every time this thread gets revived I get my hopes up.

I thought this revive was either going to be about today's fucked up NY Post cover or The Daily going under

guess there's a lot going on in Murdoch land

his mom died

His mother was still alive? She must have been at least 100...

103 even

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-en7uMFB0Bys/UxYF4t1M_tI/AAAAAAACxL0/Q6aY2Nhk8rg/s1600/Murdochtweet4.JPG

There is no extant big mess that I can point to, ergo the required big mess must be coming. QED.

kinda feel like destroying National Geographic is the worst thing he's ever done. A rightly revered genuine institution, down the drain in my lifetime.

http://boingboing.net/2015/11/05/shortly-after-rupert-murdoch-b.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/national-geographic-chief-says-layoffs-done-to-avert-financial-derailment/2015/11/04/83fae59a-8314-11e5-9afb-0c971f713d0c_story.html

Current Ceo Knell says he ordered the cuts prior to Murdock taking over. The Post doesn't address whether Knell's pension will be cut. Of course it won't, until Murdoch tires of him.

Murdoch is trying to spin this, by claiming only 4 people are being canned from the magazine; as if canning folks from a still financially successful entity who work for their tv channel is ok; or freezing pensions is fine...

earlier W. Post article
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/national-geographic-society-sets-biggest-layoff-in-its-history/2015/11/03/2966e1b4-8252-11e5-a7ca-6ab6ec20f839_story.html

The reduction, the largest in the organization’s 127-year history, appears to affect almost every department of the nonprofit organization, including the magazine, which the society has published since just after its founding in 1888. The reduction also will affect people who work for the National Geographic Channel, the most profitable part of the organization. Several people in the channel’s fact-checking department, for example, were terminated on Tuesday, employees said.

Sad about this. It's the one magazine I still had a subscription to. I cancelled that yesterday, which was the first I'd heard of Murdoch taking over.

can someone count up the times new management of a major publication promised to not fire/mess with editorial and actually held to those promises

King James Bible

What In The Living Fuck?

Murdoch's life is like the grossest Woody Allen movie

So, Jerry, what first attracted you to multi-billionaire, Rupert Murdoch?... and so on.

For those who've always wondered how he sleeps at night, finally the answer they've been hoping for.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/sep/13/rupert-murdoch-hurt-by-closeness-of-wendi-deng-and-tony-blair-editor-reveals?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Funny that he's left twitter, I wonder what the motivation was in the first place

“It seemed to me at the time that, in the post-phone-hacking media world, Rupert’s marriage breakdown was treated vindictively and that a man well in to his 80s losing a wife with whom he had fathered two children was given no room to grieve for his loss.”
*Lilliputian Pagnini holds the world's tiniest Stradivarius aloft*

the lack of self-awareness is genuinely remarkable

the rich have no need for self-awareness

i live for the day this morally bankrupt fuckfaced sack of shit dies, in chronic and untreatable and excruciating pain

the ONLY reason i wouldn't piss on his grave is that it would not be fair to subject my bodily waste to this revolting bigoted fuck

goddammit i was hoping this was a ‘he’s dead lol’ revive

technically he has been dead for decades

i assumed losing 150 mil to theranos was no big whoop but acc to bad blood it’s by far his biggest investment loss ever so that’s something

Hopefully that will take a few years off his life.

good

also i like to think the scuppered bskyb acquisition made him cry and gave him syphilis

Murdoch seems like the Mr. Potter character in It's a Wonderful Life, but instead of just spinning his evil web over Bedford Falls, MA, he fucks up whole nations.

Haven't read this thread but I didn't know he was nearly done.

6 December 1990: the day Rupert Murdoch almost went out of business. If the Pittsburgh National Bank had only stood firm and refused him that ten million dollars!

— Elvis Buñuelo (@Mr_Considerate) April 20, 2020

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/dec/09/rupert-murdochmedia-empire-children

before i click

does it defend him

Rupert, no

James comes out about the way I would expect

Dead? Oh...

Rumour is that he’s had dementia for years