Rupert Murdoch

Why Does Fox News Keep Glenn Beck Around?

Posted by on March 16, 2011 at 10:43 am. 10 Comments :

In a discussion on the fairness and balance of Fox News, the network’s CEO Roger Ailes famously told Barbara Walters that, “I’m not in politics. I’m in ratings. We’re winning.”

If we are to take Ailes at his word, then we have to wonder why he keeps Glenn Beck on the schedule. The program has been shedding viewers like a mongrel with a scalp condition for months. His year-to-year numbers dropped 40% in January and another 32% in February. He is sinking faster than any other program on cable news. A couple of weeks ago Rachel Maddow drew more viewers than Beck for the the first time ever. Over 300 companies have declined to advertise on his program due to offensive content like his anti-Semitic rants against George Soros and his bloodthirsty allusions to having to “shoot them [radicals] in the head.”

Last week Beck was on vacation and Fox Business host Andrew Napolitano filled in for him. The result was the ratings barely budged. And on Tuesday Rachel again drew more viewers than Beck’s program with its guest host. This is fairly conclusive evidence that the audience for that time period is constant regardless of who is on the air. Consequently, Fox could replace Beck at any time (as some speculation suggests is under consideration) without suffering any ill effects in the ratings.

So why don’t they? They could certainly fill that hour with another conservative mouthpiece that would cost them far less to employ. They could make much more money by recovering the A-List advertisers who have previously abandoned the program. And they would not have to endure the embarrassment of being associated with Beck’s delusional conspiracy theories that are lately drawing criticism from even the most stalwart advocates of conservatism.

The only reason that a so-called “news” network would continue to employ someone whose analyses and assertions are so distant from any sane definition of journalism, and so reviled by more rational observers, is because the network approves of, and agrees with, his inane proclamations of doom and his determination to transform political discourse into a feast of demonization and personal destruction.


The lesson from Beck’s absence last week is profound. If after learning that their ratings would remain constant in a post-Beck world, Fox News elects to keep him in the lineup anyway, we must conclude that Ailes and his boss Rupert Murdoch, are on board Beck’s crazy train. That’s the answer to the question in the headline. Ailes and Murdoch cannot disassociate themselves from the Beck Doctrine. They obviously regard Beck’s contribution to their mission as more important than either money or respect. So the next question is: What the hell is their mission?

Rupert Murdoch Falls For Global Warming Hoax

Posted by on March 1, 2011 at 11:35 am. NO Comments :

The big environmental news of the day is that News Corp CEO, Rupert Murdoch, has announced a major milestone in his empire’s march to “energy efficiency and environmental sustainability.” In a memo to employees he wrote…

Murdoch: I am proud to announce that News Corporation has reached its first major sustainability milestone: We have become carbon neutral across all of our global operations and we are the first company of our kind to do so.

With this statement Murdoch has revealed himself to be another cog in the worldwide conspiracy to concoct a crisis over claims of Climate Change and the environmental risks associated with it. Never mind that, according to Murdoch, News Corp will save tens of millions of dollars a year as a result of its eco-initiatives, in addition to reducing its output of carbon emissions by fifteen percent. The larger issue is the deception for which Murdoch is responsible and his promotion of Global Warming as a credible theory.

Rupert Murdoch

Fox News has been a stalwart clarion for exposing Global Warming as a hoax. Their indisputable proof generally consists of video of snow storms in New England during February. Sean Hannity has said that such compelling evidence proves that, “The debate’s over. There’s no global warming.” Glenn Beck contends that Climate Change is a conspiracy to enrich General Electric and other environmental profiteers. The network’s Washington managing editor, Bill Sammon, ordered his anchors and reporters to “refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed,” and to “IMMEDIATELY” (his emphasis) point out that the data has been “called into question.” He fails to note that the data was called into question by representatives of ExxonMobil.

With this history of attacking the proponents of Climate Change science, we should expect Fox News to begin its probing new series denouncing Rupert Murdoch as a deceitful purveyor of environmentalist propaganda any day now. He ought to replace Al Gore as the new eco-terrorist of the year. Perhaps they will even examine his relationship to environmentally friendly technology providers in the newsprint and workspace energy fields. There may be a financial incentive for his deceit. If so, I’m sure Fox will get to the bottom of it. Right after they’re done exposing the plot against incandescent light bulbs and the Global Teachers Union Caliphate.

Liba Rubenstein, News Corp’s global energy initiative director, confirmed the company’s commitment to the environment as well as its respect for an independent press saying that…

“Our corporate commitment from an operational and business leadership perspective doesn’t bring with it an editorial mandate.”

In other words, despite the fact that the parent corporation is convinced that Climate Change is a real problem, they will permit Fox News to continue to deceive their audience by falsely asserting that Global Warming is a hoax, even as Fox is required to participate in the reforms sent down from corporate. So we can expect Fox News to continue to bash environmental science, but I wouldn’t expect them to report on this announcement from their boss.

Murdoch Media Ignores Charges Against Fox News Boss Roger Ailes

Posted by on February 25, 2011 at 3:23 am. 3 Comments :


Yesterday the New York Times published a bombshell story revealing allegations that Fox News chairman Roger Ailes asked an employee to lie to federal investigators to protect a close friend and political comrade.

The article said that Ailes had asked Judith Regan, then head of a publishing unit at News Corp’s HarperCollins, to conceal her affair with Bernard Kerik, whom President Bush had nominated to be Secretary of Homeland Security. Kerik was an associate of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani who was mounting a presidential campaign. Giuliani was a friend of Ailes.

Giuliani’s nascent campaign might have been grounded before takeoff if news of Kerik’s affair had gotten out. Plus, there were concerns that Regan had information about Giuliani that would also have been embarrassing for the candidate.

Fragments of this story were revealed in a lawsuit that Regan had filed after Ailes fired her, but no names were disclosed. The new story in the Times fingers Ailes as the executive who had told Regan to lie to investigators.

This revelation could have harsh consequences for Ailes. His actions may constitute a federal crime. Short of that, it could impact his status at Fox News. Having a chairman who is potentially a criminal, and whose alleged criminal activity was aimed at protecting a political ally, is not the sort of thing a news network ought to condone. Lucky for Ailes, the only thing his network has to do with news is that they put it on their logo.

In keeping with their aversion to reporting the news, Fox News has blacked out any coverage of the story about Ailes. This story has been picked up by dozens of news enterprises including the New York Daily News, Forbes, USA Today, Politico, and the Hollywood Reporter, since having been reported first by the Times. But in the Murdoch empire it doesn’t exist. It is unquestionably newsworthy subject matter involving the head of one of the nation’s biggest media companies. It contains all the elements of compelling reading, including crime, sex, and political and corporate intrigue. Yet there has been no sign of it on Fox News, or in the Wall Street Journal, or in the New York Post, or on Fox Business Network. Neither has it been covered by notable conservative news outfits like the Washington Times, or Andrew Breitbart’s “Big” sites, or WorldNetDaily, or Human Events, or National Review, or NewsMax, or the Weekly Standard.

Perhaps even more disturbing is the fact that there has yet to be any mention of this by the big broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC. These networks in the past have taken pains to cover for Fox News when it has been under attack for shoddy and biased reporting. There seems to be a mutual defense treaty in the television news community that calls for members to support one another, even though Fox isn’t actually a news network by objective standards. But what other explanation is there for the broadcast nets to ignore this story while their colleagues in print are all over it?

This is our so-called “liberal” media at work. The chairman of the top cable news network is accused of a federal crime that involves political shenanigans, and much of the press averts their eyes and waves it off. And while the media at large deserve criticism for not honestly informing the public, the Murdoch empire earns extra condemnation for hypocrisy. After all, they have unrestricted access to the subject of this scandal, yet they choose to shield him.

[Update:] The industry trade paper AdWeek confirms that News Corp has failed to report on the allegations against Ailes.

WTF: Glenn Beck Says Reform Jews Are Like Islamic Radicals

Posted by on February 22, 2011 at 2:55 pm. 2 Comments :


In yet another exhibition of clueless hate-spittle, Glenn Beck declared this morning on his radio show that Reform rabbis are just like Islamic radicals (i.e. terrorists):

“When you talk about rabbis, understand that most people who are not Jewish don’t understand that there are the Orthodox rabbis and then there are the Reformed (sic) rabbis. Reformed rabbis are generally political in nature. It’s almost like Islam – radicalized Islam – in a way to where radicalized Islam is less about religion than it is about politics.”

First of all, there is no such thing as “Reformed” rabbis. Perhaps he is confusing them with reformed drug and alcohol abusers like himself. There are Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform rabbis, and all of them are practitioners of faith. They are all also permitted to participate in political affairs and there are as many Orthodox rabbis as Reform who do so.

Beck’s ignorance is both offensive and dangerous. He is deliberately misinforming his audience and fomenting hatred. What does he think the result will be when his disturbed congregation “learns” from him that most American Jews (because Reform Jews are a plurality (pdf) in the U.S.) are just like Islamic radicals? Does he think that will endear his followers to their Jewish neighbors?

This sort of anti-Semitic rhetoric is common amongst hate mongers who seek to demonize Jews and divide them from the community. It is how societies throughout history have advanced irrational prejudices and instigated Holocausts. And while many people recoil from Nazi analogies, the comparison here is just too close to ignore. You simply cannot associate a group of people with those who are your mortal enemies and expect to be excused.

Beck has a pattern of disparaging Jews and others he regards as different. He recently made a list of the nine people whom he said most contributed to the 20th century being the Era of the Big Lie. Eight of them were Jewish. His attacks on George Soros as a tyrannical “Puppet Master,” another common derogatory insult aimed at Jews, are infamous. And Beck has even perpetuated the intentionally incendiary allegation that Jews killed Jesus.

How is it that Beck doesn’t understand why people think he’s an anti-Semite? Even more perplexing, how is it that this repulsive, psychotic, purveyor of paranoid conspiracies and undisguised hatred manages to stay on the air despite dwindling ratings and scores of advertisers refusing to permit their ads to be aired during his hour of malevolent madness?

As disgusting as Beck is, we cannot let his protectors off the hook. Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch are just as culpable for providing the platform for Beck to disseminate his vile ravings. And so is Steve Lehman and the apologists at Premiere Radio Networks. They know full well what he is doing and have repeatedly expressed their support and agreement. On any other network, someone spewing the lies and hate that Beck does would have been fired long ago. Lucky for him he is employed by people who share his disdain for Jews, African-Americans, Muslims, Latinos, and anyone else they consider to be outside their exclusionary club.

Glenn Beck is a repugnant bigot with a diseased brain who needs to be, not just removed from the airwaves, but ostracized from society along with his Klan. Let him live in a mountainous compound with a militia of morons who believe he’s the Messiah, as he does himself. I am as strong an advocate of free speech as there ever was but, as we know, there are exceptions for incidents that incite imminent harm. Beck has already incited several cases of violence and we should not permit him to use the mass media to recruit more soldiers for his demented cause.

Now Beck has expanded his campaign of hate to tarnish a broad subsection of Judaism as akin to terrorists. A sane and compassionate culture ought not to tolerate this racist, Apocalyptic idiocy.

[Update:] After having his remarks denounced by the Anti-Defamation League as “bigoted ignorance,” and by the Union For Reform Judaism as “profoundly offensive,” Beck has issued an apology in which he concedes his ignorance and blames his repulsive comments on not having “done his homework.”

“To Abe [Foxman of the ADL] and everybody else, if I offended you it was not my intent. I see how I did that and I apologize for the action and the words. Nuff said.”

Nuff Said? Oh OK. Everything’s fine now and all of the other examples of bigotry, and the pattern of hate he has exhibited, is forgiven and forgotten. The attacks on George Soros, Francis Fox Piven, Cass Sunstein, Ezekiel Rahm, and his frequent use of Nazi and Holocaust analogies, none of which he has ever apologized for, are now wiped from the blackboard of accountability. Yeah sure. Beck’s apology wasn’t half bad until he got to the “nuff said” part. But it should be noted that he directed the apology to Abe Foxman and some vague “everybody else” rather than the real victims of his vitriol, Reform Jews. This shows that he is more intimidated by the ADL than he is remorseful toward those he offended.

The Real Reason Glenn Beck Is Bashing Google

Posted by on February 16, 2011 at 7:40 pm. 5 Comments :

It’s getting harder and harder to keep up with Glenn Beck’s conspiracy delusions. If it isn’t health care reform being a backdoor to reparations for slavery, it’s Cash-for-Clunkers being a plot to let the government take control of your computer. Or food safety regulations being an excuse to raise prices so that people starve. Or that chemical trails from airplanes are actually missiles from a Chinese submarine off the coast of Santa Monica.

Lately Beck has taken to accusing Google of somehow being in cahoots with the federal government to foment unrest around the world or recruit our youth into socialist conclaves or … who knows what. He is certain that whatever it is, it is evil. On Monday’s program Beck gave this ominous warning to his legion of disciples:

“May I recommend, if you’re doing your own homework, don’t do a Google search. Seems to me that Google is pretty deeply in bed with the government. Maybe this is explaining why Google is being kicked out of all the other countries? Are they just a shill now for the United States government?”

Beck continued his assault on Google today, accusing it of being a hard-left enterprise with ties to many of his favorite enemies. These include FreePress.net, the Tides Foundation, MoveOn.org, Van Jones, and (gasp) George Soros.

So what got Beck’s panties in a bunch over Google? Is he really disturbed by its size and lack of respect for privacy? He never really cared that much about those issues if it were Koch Industries or Microsoft. In fact he ordinarily celebrates large, successful, intrusive business like banks or insurance companies as representative of America’s opportunity. Is it his innate distrust of technology and youth culture? He clearly has an animosity toward young people and an affinity for an analog past that favors blackboards over digital displays.

These things may tell a part of the story, but there is something more fundamental that may explain Beck’s Google bashing. His boss, Rupert Murdoch, has had it in for Google for about a year now. He believes that Google is appropriating his content and failing to compensate him for it, and he has taken this battle to extremes asking, “Should we be allowing Google to steal all our copyrights?”

Of course, Google is doing no such thing. They are simply aggregating news from many sites across the web. They are providing links to Murdoch’s web sites, and others, that actually increase traffic and revenue. And this is something he could stop easily at any time with one line of code that would block Google from including his sites. What’s more, Murdoch does the very same sort of news aggregation on many of his own sites like Fox Nation. But the issue is that Murdoch wants to force Google to pay him for the extra business they send his way and Google had the audacity to decline.

Another wrinkle involves Murdoch’s brand new iPad-only application, The Daily. Murdoch has high hopes for this fee-based news product. He has said that it is the future of news and that it will be the cornerstone of his news empire going forward. He launched it in conjunction with Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who will also share in the earnings. Apple also announced that it is offering a new service that will provide access to other news and magazine publications on a subscription basis. That service will be competing with a similar service recently announced by Google.

Google is also competing with Apple on cell phones and cell phone operating systems, Internet browsers, advertising, and even computer tablets. So Murdoch’s partner and publisher, Apple, will be going up against Google in numerous businesses, including his cherished iPad app, The Daily.

Glenn Beck is a notorious profit whore. He exploits every type of media available. And he sells, not just advertising, but his own endorsement, to gold dealers, survivalist gear, and right-wing lobbyists. Should we be suspicious that Beck is now attacking Google when his employer is in fierce competition with them? Well, only if we are already suspicious of Beck for being otherwise obsessively driven by a profit motive, so you tell me. Do your own homework.

[Update 2/17/11:] Beck is apparently feeling the heat after embarking on a another paranoid journey down a conspiracy riddled path with regard to Google. He must have gotten some complaints because now he is backtracking and attempting to soften his stance. He whined on his radio program this morning that he is being wrongly accused of advocating a boycott of Google.

It is true that he told his TV viewers yesterday that he was against boycotts and wasn’t calling for one. But can you really assert that you are not calling for a boycott after ranting that Google is in bed with an evil government; is aligned with radical leftists; is fomenting violent uprisings; and is engaged in espionage? Then he explicitly told his audience not to use Google, and even posted a video on his web site instructing people on how to find alternatives. But he’s not calling for a boycott? He must have another name for it.

This is similar to how Beck incites violence and then denies that he has done so. He tells viewers that Francis Fox Piven, or George Soros, or whatever enemy he is fixated on that day, that they are evil incarnate; that they are working to destroy America; that they are determined to harm you and your family, and to blaspheme your God. Then, after building a frightening case for imminent danger on your doorstep, he says that he doesn’t believe in violence. Yeah, right. But you should do your own homework. If you believe in violence, well then…..

Jubilant Crowds Rejoice As Murdoch Steps Down

Posted by on February 11, 2011 at 10:51 am. 8 Comments :

News Corporation Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch has resigned and left New York City for his resort in Montauk ending his fifty year reign as a media monarch.


The era of Murdoch has officially ended and citizens the world over are celebrating. There has been no word yet as to the whereabouts of Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, but reports indicate that the news enterprise is being handed over to leaders within the Public Broadcasting System.

The announcement, delivered during Fox & Friends, set off a frenzy of celebration, with protesters shouting “America is free! No more lies! No more lies!”

PBS issued a communique pledging to carry out a variety of media reforms in a statement notable for its commitment to diversity, independence, and free speech. PBS’s statement alluded to the delegation of power to local broadcasters and it suggested that NPR would supervise implementation of the reforms.

Responding to the rapidly unfolding events, the White House released a statement saying that they are monitoring the situation closely and the President will speak directly to the issue very soon. The spokesman added that, “We are hopeful for a positive outcome and we congratulate the American people for their stunning and well-deserved victory.”

A thrilled Keith Olbermann said, “The American people have won. But it is now up to us to insure that journalistic ethics are restored and maintained.” Senator Al Franken, a former comedian and radio broadcaster, stopped to comment on his way to an emergency White House briefing and told reporters, “Ha ha ha ha ha. Oh God. Ha ha.”

Glenn Beck was reached at his gold-brick bunker in South Dakota surrounded by an armory and barrels of non-fluoridated water. But when asked for a comment he shouted from a crack in the door. “Marxists. Oh Mommy, Marxists. The Archduke Ferdinand Caliphate has begun. I won’t talk to the Jew media. Leave my property and take George Soros with you.” He then commenced firing genetically modified corn seeds at the press causing numerous tiny bruises, but no serious injuries.

The State Department was in disarray as news reports continued to update the situation. As diplomats scurried from ….. Oh wait a minute. There is new information coming in over the wire right now. What’s that? What is…..It wasn’t Murdoch, it was Mubarak?

Umm…..Never mind.

Glenn Beck’s Sanity Questioned By (Almost) Everyone

Posted by on February 3, 2011 at 2:32 pm. 16 Comments :

Glenn BeckIf you are thinking about getting a net and a straight-jacket and trying to capture Glenn Beck so that he can be admitted to an asylum…..get in line.

For years Beck has been alienating even those who would be regarded as ideological allies. Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs denounced Beck as “an alcoholic, weeping, ranting, creationist talk show host who idolizes John Birchers and Ron Paul.” Eric Burns, formerly the host of Fox News’ News Watch said that he was glad that he does not “have to face the ethical problem of sharing an employer with Glenn Beck.” And former colleague Jane Hall said that Beck was a factor in her decision to leave Fox News.

But since his bizarre rendition of the events in Egypt earlier this week, Beck’s critics are rushing to disassociate themselves from him and his patently insane foreign policy delusions.

Here is just a sampling of the reviews:

Reason Magazine Senior Editor, Michael Moynihan:
This is seriously the dumbest thing ever broadcast on (non-cable access) television.

Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish Senior Editor, Conor Friedersdorf:
…Fox News Channel puts this man on the air fully understanding that large parts of his program are uninformed nonsense mixed with brazen bullshit.

U.S.News & World Report, Scott Galupo, former John Boehner aide:
The man has finally blown a gasket. His pattern-recognition machine is spewing smoke and shards of metal. In Beck’s bizarro world, the Ayatollah Khomeini and Abbie Hoffman are like the Ponch and John of anti-Americanism. All that rolling around naked in the mud at Woodstock was really a harbinger of Western women one day being forced to wear burqas.

David Frum, FrumForum:
Many people have suggested that since the crisis in Egypt began Fox News’ Glenn Beck sounds crazier than usual.

William Kristol, Editor, Weekly Standard:
[H]ysteria is not a sign of health. When Glenn Beck rants about the caliphate taking over the Middle East from Morocco to the Philippines, and lists (invents?) the connections between caliphate-promoters and the American left, he brings to mind no one so much as Robert Welch and the John Birch Society. He’s marginalizing himself, just as his predecessors did back in the early 1960s.

With all of these conservative analysts bailing out on Beck, it is notable that he still has the support of two very important people in his life: Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch. Ailes and Murdoch are toughing it out. They are amongst the last to still believe that Beck is a credible voice of conservatism. As such they must be regarded as agreeing with Beck’s fantastical theories of Muslim domination of Europe and America, and the worldwide implosion that is imminent. Remember, Beck has stated on several occasions that if anything he said was untrue, Murdoch would have fired him:

“Do you think he’s going to let a guy at five o’clock say a bunch of stuff, put this together, it’s completely wrong, and stay on the network? Do you think he became a billionaire because he’s stupid? No, so that’s not it. Because Fox couldn’t allow me to say things that were wrong.”

Neither Ailes nor Murdoch have ever disputed that statement. In fact they have both affirmed their agreement with Beck. Consequently, they must not think that there is anything wrong with what Beck is saying. Therefore, it is as if they are saying it themselves.

So if Glenn Beck is crazy, as is apparent, what does that make Ailes and Murdoch?

[Update:] Joe Klein, Time Magazine:

“I’ve heard, from more than a couple of conservative sources, that prominent Republicans have approached Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes about the potential embarrassment that the paranoid-messianic rodeo clown may bring upon their brand. The speculation is that Beck is on thin ice.”

Joe Klein is not the most reliable source, but it is encouraging to hear nonetheless. Two questions spring up: 1) Who are the “prominent Republicans” Klein references? And 2) What about the embarrassment that Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes bring upon their brand?

Fox News Biggest Ratings Loser Of The New Year

Posted by on February 1, 2011 at 9:51 pm. 7 Comments :

In what may be a bullish sign for America’s IQ, Fox News suffered the biggest ratings decline of all the cable news networks from January 2010 to January 2011.

Hopefully this means that television viewers are getting tired of brazenly biased news coverage that foments division, spreads disinformation, and insults the intelligence of the audience.

The past year has seen some of the most blatant propagandizing by the disreputable crew at Fox. They were caught deliberately lying about global warming and health care. They were exposed for donating millions of dollars to right-wing politicos. Their role in inciting violence became a headline story itself. An academic study proved that the more you watch Fox News the stupider you get. A recent poll revealed that Fox News is the least trusted news network.

Glenn Beck was particularly hard hit. He lost 40% of his total audience and fully half of viewers in the critical 25-54 year old demo. And he is still losing advertisers as well. It is long past the point where any reputable business would have cut this loser loose. But Fox News is run by political activists, not journalists. And there may even be a fear factor involved in that Fox execs may be afraid of angering Beck’s mentally unstable disciples. In any case it is clear that Rupert Murdoch is not a businessman, he’s a crusader for his confederacy greed.

The legacy of ill repute had to catch up with Fox sooner or later. Granted, Fox is still the number one cable news network, but they are headed in the right direction. Time will tell if this is the start of an era of enlightened television viewers or a temporary dip into sanity. But it is a promising development that will be watched closely in the weeks and months to come.

Rupert Murdoch Is De-Pressed

Posted by on January 28, 2011 at 1:56 pm. NO Comments :

Rupert MurdochWoe is he. Media baron Rupert Murdoch is said to be depressed over setbacks to his compulsive efforts to acquire ever more media platforms from which to spew his international rightist propaganda. The news of Murdoch’s depression comes from a trusted ally, Andrew Neil, founding chairman of Sky TV and former editor of Murdoch’s Sunday Times in London.

Neil describes Murdoch’s dismay that criminal activity by his newspapers may frustrate his attempt to assume control over the 60% of satellite network BSkyB that he doesn’t already own. It seems that his minions at News of the World were caught hacking into the phones of politicians and celebrities to obtain information for salacious stories. That behavior may have an impact on Britain’s regulators approving the Murdoch acquisition.

According to Neil, Murdoch is now taking radical steps to salvage the deal. Though years have past since the hacking was first discovered and reported, Murdoch is only now attempting to hold anyone accountable. So he fired an assistant editor. That’ll show ’em. And this new demonstration of hardball tactics comes after he previously paid millions in hush money to prevent the scandal from being exposed. So his first instinct was to sweep it under the rug and, now that the deal is teetering, he shifts to punishing low-level scapegoats.

The BSkyB deal has also been criticized by media watchdogs because it would give an unprecedented degree of control over the British media to one man. And that one man has made it clear that he would exercise editorial control over the Sky News division of BSkyB. He told a parliamentary inquiry that “Sky News would be more popular if it were more like the Fox News Channel.”

That’s what British news consumers have to look forward to if Murdoch is successful. For their sake, I hope he is not. And if that only makes him more depressed I suppose he’ll just have to live with it.

The Unmitigated Hate of Fox News

Posted by on January 27, 2011 at 9:58 pm. 20 Comments :

In response to a long and repulsive record of anti-Semitism and insensitive allusions to Nazis and the Holocaust on the part of Fox News, a coalition of 400 rabbis published an open letter calling on Rupert Murdoch to sanction Glenn Beck and demand that Roger Ailes apologize for their atrocious behavior. The letter was printed in a full page ad in Murdoch’s own Wall Street Journal, and said in part…

“We share a belief that the Holocaust, of course, can and should be discussed appropriately in the media. But that is not what we have seen at Fox News. It is not appropriate to accuse a 14-year old Jew hiding with a Christian family in Nazi-occupied Hungary of sending his people to death camps. It is not appropriate to call executives of another news agency ‘Nazis.’ And it is not appropriate to make literally hundreds of on-air references to the Holocaust and Nazis when characterizing people with whom you disagree.”

Rather than take the responsible path and accept that the criticism of hundreds of independent rabbis is sufficient evidence that Fox has stepped way over the line, Joel Cheatwood, senior vice president of development for Fox News, took a confrontational stance that proved once again that Fox News is committed to an agenda of hate. He said…

“We haven’t seen the ad, but this group is a George Soros backed left-wing political organization that has been trying to engage Glenn Beck primarily for publicity purposes.”

Really? The 400 rabbis who signed the letter are from a diverse spectrum of congregations, from reform to orthodox. They include liberals and conservatives and they have no organizational affiliation other than their common faith and a shared disgust for those who tarnish the memory of their families and heritage. But Cheatwood insults them by accusing them of being publicity seekers. And worse, he asserts that they are but minions of the “puppet master,” as Glenn Beck dubbed George Soros, thus recycling the same sort of vilification that Jews were subjected to in Hitler’s Germany.

There is simply no excuse for this overt hostility and insensitivity. This is no longer confined to the brutish ignorance of a few television hosts. It extends to the network management from Cheatwood, to Ailes, and all the way up to Rupert Murdoch himself. These people have no respect for others who have suffered under the most horrendous circumstances. They are only concerned with their own obsession for spreading hate and division. Ironically, Glenn Beck spoke of this on his program today:

“We can’t treat everyone as an enemy. We need to stop focusing on the things that divide us, but the things that unite us. […] Do you know why you can shoot a cop or beat somebody at Wendy’s; why you can call neighbors – neighbors – enemies because they voted for a different person? Because we no longer see people as human beings.”

If that wasn’t so sick coming from someone who spends every waking hour demonizing his ideological foes, it would be a laugh riot. Beck is the man that has likened progressives to cancer and warned that they can only be dealt with by shooting them in the head. And now he wants to deliver sermons on unity and respect for fellow Americans?

Glenn Beck has spoken more about the Nazi affiliations of Democrats and liberals than anyone on radio or television. It is an obsession with him. Hardly a day goes by that he doesn’t make some comment about the Holocaust. Which is interesting because today was one of those rare days when he never brought it up at all. He completely ignored the subject of the Holocaust today – the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this day Beck remains silent on the subject. A silence that speaks volumes.