{"id":342,"date":"2007-02-05T14:18:05","date_gmt":"2007-02-05T21:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=342"},"modified":"2007-02-06T00:26:24","modified_gmt":"2007-02-06T07:26:24","slug":"murdochs-senior-moment-in-davos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=342","title":{"rendered":"Murdoch’s Senior Moment In Davos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since Saturday, when I first posted this article, Murdoch Confesses To Propaganda On Iraq<\/a>, the news has been defying Mark Twain’s axiom that “A lie can make it half way around the world before the truth has time to put its boots on.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The truth’s boots are on and it is logging miles like crazy. Rupert Murdoch’s admission that he tried to use his media empire to shape the agenda on Iraq is spreading like wildfire. Newshounds<\/a>, Crooks and Liars<\/a>, Huffington Post<\/a>, Carpetbagger<\/a>, Juan Cole<\/a>, Raw Story<\/a>, and scads of lesser known but just as dedicated bloggers are trumpeting this surprising shard of honesty that escaped from Rupert’s lips.<\/p>\n

I’m still trying to figure out how such an unguarded comment could have occurred. Is he just so brazenly arrogant now that he thinks he can come clean without repercussions? Is it a coded appeal to his neo-con audience for help to reverse the downward ratings spiral he’s engulfed in? Was it a run of the mill slip of the tongue by a 77 year old with weakening cognition skills?<\/p>\n

While I can’t explain what was going through his diabolical mind, I can point to the reason that this story is getting so much play. And, ironically, it’s also something that Murdoch said in Davos. Referring to the Internet, he said that:<\/p>\n

…traditional media are also “put right immediately”<\/em> these days when making mistakes. […] Similarly, Murdoch said “government now has to be much more open” because of the Web<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, the Internet has proven to be the conventional media’s fact-checker. And it isn’t just government whose openness has to be reaffirmed. It’s getting more difficult to use the propagandistic arts because there now exists a public forum over which the message controllers have not yet<\/em> imposed their domination. I emphasize “not yet.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The Internet is a powerful medium and the most significant contribution to a democratized media since Gutenburg. But it is not impervious to attack or capture. There is a reason that the Big Media megaliths want to kill network neutrality. There is a reason they want to remove ownership caps for television and newspapers. There is a reason the right wing elements at the FCC, the FEC, and other government agencies relentlessly push for deregulation. These are all ways of transferring the brute force of the Internet into the hands of corporatist elites who will lower its volume and polish its edges. When they are done it will no longer be fit for discourse or dissent. But it will serve nicely for comfort and commerce.<\/p>\n

The manner by which this story has been propelled by bloggers and citizen journalists should serve as a reminder that the people still have a voice. But we, the people, must not get complacent either. Events like this will surely stir the media bears, and they are still the most dangerous beast in the forest. Be vigilant and be active because, if you are not, this medium will be lost to us – like all other media before it. Think about that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since Saturday, when I first posted this article, Murdoch Confesses To Propaganda On Iraq, the news has been defying Mark Twain’s axiom that “A lie can make it half way around the world before the truth has time to put its boots on.” The truth’s boots are on and it is logging miles like crazy. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-internet-freedom","category-propaganda"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-5w","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":277,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=277","url_meta":{"origin":342,"position":0},"title":"Murdoch On U. S. Deaths In Iraq","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/7\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"When the Godfather of tabloid propaganda speaks, people listen. So Rupert Murdoch is contributing his fair and balanced assessment of the human toll wrought by the war in Iraq: \"The death toll, certainly of Americans there, by the terms of any previous war are quite minute.\" For a billionaire media\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":341,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=341","url_meta":{"origin":342,"position":1},"title":"Murdoch Confesses To Propaganda On Iraq","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/3\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Last Friday, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Rupert Murdoch sat on a panel where he lamented what he described as a \"loss of power\" due to the ascension of the Internet and other new media. The notion that this captain of one of the most dominant media\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19914,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=19914","url_meta":{"origin":342,"position":2},"title":"Get To Know Rupert Murdoch, The Man Who Wants To Buy Time Warner","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/23\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week there was a surprising announcement that international media baron Rupert Murdoch had made a bid to expand his empire even further. He submitted an offer to acquire Time Warner in an $80 billion stock transaction. Be Sure To \u201cLIKE\u201d News Corpse On Facebook This would be an atrocious\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Media"","block_context":{"text":"Big Media","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rupert Murdoch","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/notw-murdochalypse11.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1316,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1316","url_meta":{"origin":342,"position":3},"title":"Murdoch Newspapers Fall For Fake Email","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/27\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I have little to add to this example of another attempt by Rupert Murdoch's factory of falsehoods to fabricate stories designed to either advance his interests or harm those of his adversaries. In this case Murdoch's newspapers in Australia hyped a suspicious email that cast Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":790,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=790","url_meta":{"origin":342,"position":4},"title":"Fox Business Network Jinxes The Markets","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/12\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Dow Jones announced today that it will be adjusting the components of its Dow 30 stock index. This is the first change since Dow Jones, parent of the Wall Street Journal, was purchased by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, parent of Fox News and the recently launched Fox Business Network. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3771,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=3771","url_meta":{"origin":342,"position":5},"title":"Rupert Murdoch Is De-Pressed","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/28\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Woe 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}