There has lately been an excess of rage expressed over a couple of charitable donations by George Soros. Both NPR and Media Matters were beneficiaries of Soros’ generosity. These are both media-related entities that play no direct role in politics.
But the same rightist critics of donations don’t seem to have any problem with Rupert Murdoch giving millions of dollars to overtly political enterprises: the Republican Governor’s Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. That money is used to buy ads against Democrats on Fox News, so the money Murdoch donated ends up right back in his pocket. And another big difference in these donations is that Soros was open and honest about announcing his largesse, while Murdoch gave in secret and even remarked that he had anticipated that his donations would remain secret.
A fair observer would have to wonder why the munificence of Soros is problematic but the fact that Right-wingers are just as generous to their ideological allies isn’t worthy of discussion. They will never mention, for instance, that uber-rightist Richard Mellon Scaife has given millions to the conservative Media Research Center (which runs several right-wing operations like NewsBusters). And while Soros remains outside of the organizations to which he contributes, Murdoch has moved inside as a board member of the Associated Press.
The hypocrisy demonstrated by the right is world-class. While the left is taking heat for being totally transparent, the right takes pride in enforcing silence about its clandestine activities. Since they have admitted that they aspire to fund their friends in secret, we have no way of knowing what other donations have been made by folks like Murdoch and his billionaire comrades. Murdoch confessed that he gave the RGA money due to his friendship with John Kasich, a candidate for governor in Ohio and a former employee of Fox News. Karl Rove is presently an employee of Fox News. Is he also receiving financing from Murdoch? We don’t know because they are not required to disclose it and they keep it obsessively private.
What we do know is that Fox News has a record of shilling for the right. Their daytime anchor Jon Scott (who, ironically, is also the host of their Fox News Watch) once read an RNC document on the air as if it were his own research. He even displayed a graphic on screen that contained the same typo that was in the original RNC memo.
We also know that Fox News relies heavily on the work of the Media Research Center and NewsBusters. We know this because their top news anchor at the time, Brit Hume, said so in public:
Hume: I want to say a word, however, of thanks to Brent and the team at the Media Research Center […] for the tremendous amount of material that the Media Research Center provided me for so many years when I was anchoring Special Report, I don’t know what we would’ve done without them. It was a daily buffet of material to work from, and we certainly made tremendous use of it.
The left has nothing to compare with the media domination of the right. Only the right has their own cable news network. They rule talk radio in part because of conservative broadcasters who deliberately shut out liberal programming. Independent studies show that even the supposedly liberal segments of the press actually lean more to the right in their editorial positions, their guests and sources, and their staffing.
So it seems curious that all of sudden we have right-wingers going bonkers over a couple of donations that will certainly help those organizations, but will have little impact on the broader media landscape. It just proves that the right is focused on maintaining their competitive advantage, that they know the value of “working the refs,” and that they have no shame when it comes to acting out their hypocrisy.
“The left has nothing to compare with the media domination of the right. Only the right has their own cable news network. They rule talk radio in part because of conservative broadcasters who deliberately shut out liberal programming”.
You cannot be serious!!
MSNBC is a shill for left. There is also the New York Times, LA Times, Atlanta Journal Constitution and many more whose editorial pages are littered with left wingers.
The right rules talk radio because the left can’t get the ratings when they are on the air. Just look at Air America.
How can MSNBC be shill for the left with Joe Scarborough? This is the typical rightist claim of equivalency, and it makes no sense. Scarborough has as much airtime as Schultz, Maddow and Olbermann combined.
Let’s talk again after Fox News gives their three hour morning block to Dennis Kucinich.
Dude your thick as a brick. Ain’t got a damn clue who bought up the majority of radio stations do ya?
It doesn’t matter who bought radio stations. What matters are ratings. Liberals couldn’t get enough listeners to fill a phone booth.
But if the corporations who bought up all the radio stations (i.e. Clear Channel) never put on a liberal program, how would they know what the ratings would be? And that’s exactly what happened.
There are plenty of successful liberal shows. Stephanie Miller beats Rush Limbaugh in most of the markets where they both run. The problem is that Miller can’t get into many markets, even though her ratings are high in the markets she is in. That’s because the conservative radio conglomerates simply won’t give her a slot. It’s not a “free market” decision. It’s a built in ideological bias.
MSNBC’s motto is not “fair and balanced.” Yet their programming is a great deal more so than that of FOX. Why is that?
Dave; Cmon Man are you serious, Air America. Broke. nobody listened. NPR will go down too. The Media has never been so much in the tank for a president. If the programs that reflect your views were popular with people. Then Others would listen. There not so people dont. You will. OK then
“Scarborough has as much airtime as Schultz, Maddow and Olbermann…”
You must have flunked math. A handful of hours for Scarborough early in the morning (when thare hardly any viewers), and then you have Dylan Ratigan, Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz, Matthews again, Olbermann, Maddow, and then Laurence O’Donnell. Of course MSNBC is lefty shill.
I flunked math? Because I didn’t add up people that I never mentioned? You are really stretching the boundaries of dishonest nonsense.
Let me summarize for you: Schultz, Olbermann, and Maddow = three hours. The same as Scarborough. Now, tell me again, how many hours does Kucinich (or any liberal congressman) have hosting their own show on Fox?
One conservative has a program on MSNBC and this somehow relates to being fair. Typical liberal logic.
Where is your logic? That one show is three hours long.
And I never said that MSNBC is fair, just that it is fairer. Because Fox doesn’t even that one show of any length.
Also, some MSNBC hosts like Olbermann may harshly criticize Republicans, but I have never heard him call John Boehner or Sarah Palin a fascist or a minion of Satan. But I hear that sort of rhetoric on Fox everyday about Obama and Dems. So even where MSNBC is politically biased, at least it is still based on facts and in reality.
“…because I didn’t add up people I never mentioned?…”
That fact that you never mentioned them shows that you are the one who is dishonest.
“Schultz, Olbermann, Maddow,…”
Then add two hours of Chris Matthews and one hour of Laurence O’Donnell. You flunked math, and you’re dishonest.
“I never heard Olbermann call John Boehner or Sarah Palin a fascist…”
He called George W. Bush a fascsist and worse, and he did so repeatedly. He also has called Sarah Palin an idiot so often that he probably gets sexually aroused when he does so. And I have never heard anybody on Fox call Obama a minion of Satan or a fascist.
“MSNBC is based on facts and reality…”
Bovine excrement.
You are really becoming tedious. To call me dishonest because I made a comparison that one three hour program is equal to three one hour programs is just plain stupid. And if you have never heard Obama called a fascist on Fox you either don’t watch it very much or you are deaf and blind (and, of course, dumb).
You still haven’t addressed the fact that Fox has ZERO programs comparable to Scarborough’s on MSNBC.
And Sarah Palin is an idiot, so that is an example of “facts and reality.”
HEy genius, George W. Bush was the idiot. Boner and Palin are the fascist.
You are both lying. And I already proved it.
No, you didn’t. You repeat your talking points and continue your defense of a far-right “news” channel. Go spew your BS to the other teabaggers who agree with you.
Yes, you did lie. They are not idiots or fascists. And Sarah Palin is smarter than Mark could ever hope to be in his entire pathetic life.
And yet you can’t stay away from my web site. You love me, admit it.
That is just super. I doubt Mark would think that “What do you read?” qualifies as gotcha journalism. He also doesn’t need to write his biggest talking points on his hand because he can’t remember them. I’m also certain he wouldn’t screw over a whole state by resigning a governorship during the hardest economic times in 70 years to become a celebrity and make millions of dollars doing what Paris Hilton does. Doubtful Mark claims he’s a family values candidate but isn’t involved enough to keep his teenage daughter from getting knocked up. Hunting from helicopters, seeing Russia from her house, ‘refudiate’, death panel lie, tryg 2 b tken srsly on twitter. Yeah, we clearly have no basis for thinking she’s a goddamn retard.
P.S. It’s ok, I was using satire.
Thanks for defending me. I agree with most of it except the part about becoming a celebrity and making millions of dollars. I’d do that in a flash.
“…And yet you can’t stay away from my website. You love me, admit it…”
Well, when you throw big, fat pitches right down the middle of the plate, it is rather irresistible. Now go retrieve your ball. It’s out on Waveland Avenue.
I can just see you getting out of a fighter jet with a huge banner behind you saying, ‘I Win!’ I bet you laugh at you’re own jokes, too.