{"id":445,"date":"2007-05-22T00:31:36","date_gmt":"2007-05-22T07:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=445"},"modified":"2008-01-22T13:11:55","modified_gmt":"2008-01-22T21:11:55","slug":"murdochs-definition-of-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=445","title":{"rendered":"Murdoch’s Definition Of Independent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever since Rupert Murdoch announced his bid to acquire Dow Jones and its star property, the Wall Street Journal, people have been speculating as to how the new management would deal with the journalistic direction of the renowned newspaper. In an effort to quell a firestorm of anxiety, Murdoch quickly stepped up to assure all concerned that he had no intention of interfering with the paper’s editorial independence. Said Murdoch<\/a>…<\/p>\n

“Apart from breaching the public’s trust, it would simply be bad business.”<\/span><\/p>\n

It would be hard to elicit a more comforting endorsement of independence than that. It suggests an awareness of both public service and the inherent value of a free press. There’s just one problem: It’s Rupert Murdoch talking.<\/p>\n

Thanks to a legal dispute currently playing out between Murdoch’s New York Post and former gossip columnist Jared Paul Stern, we have access to testimony that reveals precisely what Murdoch means when he refers to independence. Ian Spiegelman, a former Post staffer called as a witness for Stern, discloses the reality of life<\/a> in a Murdoch-run newsroom:<\/p>\n

“Spiegelman claims that Murdoch ordered his editors at The Post to kill any negative stories about President Clinton and his wife Hillary.”<\/span> And if that’s not enough…“He also said that Murdoch ordered a story about a Chinese diplomat and his visits to a New York strip club to be killed because it might have angered the Communist regime and endangered News Corp’s broadcasting privileges in China.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Ordering editors to kill stories does not fit any definition of independence that I have been able to uncover. This should put into perspective Murdoch’s professed interest in the public trust. And if you take seriously his quote above, then by his own standard he is engaging in bad business practices.<\/p>\n

Contrary to his assurances, any news organization with Murdoch at the helm is very likely to be compromised in the same manner as the New York Post, the Fox News Channel, or any other News Corp. enterprise. These revelations should weigh heavily on the minds of the shareholders of Dow Jones and the staff at the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever since Rupert Murdoch announced his bid to acquire Dow Jones and its star property, the Wall Street Journal, people have been speculating as to how the new management would deal with the journalistic direction of the renowned newspaper. In an effort to quell a firestorm of anxiety, Murdoch quickly stepped up to assure all […]<\/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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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],"tags":[30],"class_list":["post-445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-media","category-general","tag-rupert-murdoch"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-7b","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19914,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=19914","url_meta":{"origin":445,"position":0},"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":3771,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=3771","url_meta":{"origin":445,"position":1},"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":[]},{"id":6204,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6204","url_meta":{"origin":445,"position":2},"title":"Rupert Murdoch Tweets Up A Storm For SOPA","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/16\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"New Twitter user, Rupert Murdoch, has been busily cramming his support for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) into 140 characters. His advocacy for SOPA is a thinly disguised scheme to squeeze out more profits for his company at the expense of free speech and a vibrant, innovative Internet environment.\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":6228,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6228","url_meta":{"origin":445,"position":3},"title":"Rupert Murdoch Calls Blogosphere Terrorists For Opposing SOPA","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/18\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It's good to know that the Chairman of the parent company of Fox News isn't a histrionic panic-monger who wallows in absurd hyperbole. No, it is perfectly reasonable for Rupert Murdoch to call members of the Internet community terrorists just because he disagrees with their position in opposition to 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":10055,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10055","url_meta":{"origin":445,"position":4},"title":"Rupert Murdoch Was Secretly Recorded Admitting Violations Of American Law","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/3\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A recording of a board meeting of Rupert Murdoch's Sun newspaper in Britain has surfaced and it contains some rather damning evidence of Murdoch's knowledge of illegal activity, including possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in the United States. Murdoch and his staff were discussing the fallout\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":2372,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=2372","url_meta":{"origin":445,"position":5},"title":"Rupert Murdoch Doesn’t Own Me","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/11\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"He thinks he owns the sky. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is embroiled in a trademark dispute over the name of its European TV division, BSkyB, which operates under the name Sky TV. It has recently been revealed that News Corp is challenging Skype and seeking to prevent them from using\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\/445","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=445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}