{"id":432,"date":"2007-05-09T12:44:17","date_gmt":"2007-05-09T19:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=432"},"modified":"2007-05-09T13:40:04","modified_gmt":"2007-05-09T20:40:04","slug":"big-media-we-are-the-sioux-nation-google-is-custer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=432","title":{"rendered":"Big Media: We Are The Sioux Nation – Google Is Custer"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the giant multi-national media conglomerates continue to grow, they are becoming even more brazen in their ambition and arrogance. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., in the midst of a proposed acquisition of Dow Jones, doesn’t intend to slow down. The president of Fox Entertainment, Peter Chernin, spoke at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association conference yesterday and declared that<\/a>…<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
This is a market that Murdoch and his ilk do not intend abandon to the unwashed hordes of a free blogiverse.<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

“You’ll see more acquisitions. This is a world where the big get bigger. You’ll see increased consolidation.”<\/span><\/p>\n

That statement should not be construed as an executive assessment of future corporate activity. It is a threat.<\/strong> It is a loaded missile launcher aimed at free thinking, independence minded citizens of America and the world. These words must be taken as seriously as the man who uttered them.<\/p>\n

Even as Chernin spoke, his boss News Corp. was in the process of gobbling up Photobucket<\/a>, an image storage and sharing web site. While this may not be as consequential as the Dow Jones deal, it does give Fox’s Interactive Media group another 41 million users and advances the imperial interests of its MySpace division. The impact of this should not be underestimated. In this morning’s, release of its quarterly earnings, Cisco’s CEO, John Chambers predicted that<\/a>…<\/p>\n

“…consumer Internet traffic will surpass corporate traffic for the first time this year ‘because of next-generation services such as blogs and wikis.’<\/em>“<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a market that Murdoch and his ilk do not intend abandon to the unwashed hordes of a free blogiverse. Time Warner CEO, Dick Parsons spoke at the same NCTA conference where he boastfully vowed that he and his corporatist troops will not surrender ground to upstarts and insurgents:<\/p>\n

“The Googles of the world, they are the Custer of the modern world. We are the Sioux nation. They will lose this war if they go to war. The notion that the new kids on the block have taken over is a false notion.”<\/span><\/p>\n

It is somewhat beyond ironic that Parsons would align himself analogously with the oppressed and overwhelmed nation of Native Americans when he has so much more in common with a clueless general fighting for an aggressive and imperialistic state. His words reek with hostility toward a new media world he seems incapable of comprehending. This is not the first eruption of Parsons’ cluelessness. He was quoted in Siva Vaidhyanathan’s book, The Anarchist in the Library<\/a>, defending corporate dominion over creative and intellectual property and making the absurd and repulsive assertion that such authority is a requirement for the advancement of culture:<\/p>\n

“This isn’t just about a bunch of kids stealing music. It’s an assault on everything that constitutes cultural expression of our society. If we fail to protect and preserve our intellectual property system, the culture will atrophy. And the corporations won’t be the only ones hurt. Artists will have no incentive to create.<\/strong> Worst-case scenario: the country will end up in a sort of Cultural Dark Age.”<\/span><\/p>\n

If Parsons thinks that the reasons artists create is for material compensation, he has no business running a company that represents artists. His astonishingly ignorant point of view deserves an extended essay all its own. For now I’ll just link to this well articulated response from The Future of the Book<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the Cultural Dark Age to which Parsons alludes is a very real possibility, though not for the reasons he suggests. It is corporations like the one he heads that will lead us over that cliff. Big Media still has more in common with Custer’s army than with the Sioux. The difference is that in today’s theater of war Custer’s reinforcements would be a phone call away and the Sioux nation would be reduced to rubble. That’s kind of the way it turned out anyway, it would just happen faster today.<\/p>\n

The commoditization of culture is much more harmful to open societies than is its free distribution. The American Idolization of America<\/a> presents a truly nightmarish scenario that trivializes creativity and expression. And as the media behemoths expand beyond all proportion, there is a risk of the bubble bursting like a car bomb in the marketplace of ideas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the giant multi-national media conglomerates continue to grow, they are becoming even more brazen in their ambition and arrogance. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., in the midst of a proposed acquisition of Dow Jones, doesn’t intend to slow down. The president of Fox Entertainment, Peter Chernin, spoke at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association conference […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12,1,7,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-media","category-general","category-internet-freedom","category-socialmedia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-6Y","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":496,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=496","url_meta":{"origin":432,"position":0},"title":"Murdoch On Murdoch","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/30\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Time Magazine joins the rush to profile the 21st century's Minister of Propaganda, Rupert Murdoch. In case you missed it, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Slate, Keith Olbermann, and others have taken turns trying to analyze the man and\/or the deal to consume Dow Jones and it's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Media"","block_context":{"text":"Big Media","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":100,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=100","url_meta":{"origin":432,"position":1},"title":"Give Me Liberty, But Not Too Much","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/1\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The commencement of a new year brings with it an almost genetic predisposition for optimism. There is a sense of starting over with fresh enthusiasm and a renewed determination to realize your hopes and dreams. Unfortunately, the White House has entered the new year clinging stubbornly to the one whose\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":1036,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1036","url_meta":{"origin":432,"position":2},"title":"To Fox News Hurricane Gustav Is A Political Problem","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/28\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Currently a top story for Fox News is one that is blaring this headline: Gustav Threatens GOP Convention Plans That's right...The category 3 hurricane that is bearing down on the vulnerable population of New Orleans and the rest of the gulf coast, is identified by Fox News as merely a\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":1126,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1126","url_meta":{"origin":432,"position":3},"title":"A Boycott Of Fox News By Conservatives","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/7\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Bloggers on Free Republic, AKA Freepers, are mad as Hell and they aren't going to take it any more. The treatment of Sarah Palin by Fox reporter Carl Cameron and others has incensed them to the point where they are vowing never to watch again. I've compiled some of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8474,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8474","url_meta":{"origin":432,"position":4},"title":"Fox Nation vs. Reality: The White House Did Not Edit CIA Talking Points","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/19\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Earning a place at the top of the Fox Nation web site this morning is story that complies perfectly with the non-existent journalistic standards of Fox News. The article cites the uber-conservative blog FreeBeacon and features the headline \"White House Deleted Al Qaeda From CIA Talking Points.\" Get the New\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":64,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=64","url_meta":{"origin":432,"position":5},"title":"More Paid Propaganda From BushCo.","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/7\/2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The Department of Education has not learned its lesson about payola and propaganda. After having been caught greasing the palms of Armstrong Williams, the DOE has just been slapped by its Inspector General for improperly paying \"...education advocacy groups to produce newspaper opinion pieces, advertisements, and other public materials that\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\/432","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=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}