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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Suma who wrote (12597)	2/18/2006 9:23:50 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 541319

They fund TV stations, publish magazines and therefore my conclusion is that what I read or watch will be slanted. That may be the case but you haven't supported that argument. Your Jewish station owner didn't slant what his stations produced. He simply made money off of what the market wanted. Maybe Murdoch is doing the same thing. You have to recognize that right-wing news has been a big money maker. That it happens to coincide content-wise with Murdoch's politics may well be incidental.

To: Suma who wrote (12597)	2/18/2006 9:38:15 AM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541319

The thing to remember about anyone now in government, political or civil service, is that everything that comes out of their mouth comes out for a purpose, to serve an agenda agreed on in that agency. I am constantly amazed how people will take government employees at face value and believe they are getting honest, candid information and views. The information may be true - it often is - but it has been selected and spun to put that agency and the government in the best possible light. The interpretations will be selective and limited to what makes the agency look best. Many of Bush's current Cabinet officers strike me as empty mouthpieces, except in the most critical positions (State and Defense). But this is why government propaganda is usually so ham-handed, as I mentioned before. And it's why I don't take anything said by a political appointee at face value. Those people were appointed due to their devotion to a particular candidate, party and cause, not because they were objectively the best talent available to do the job. Now that most administrations are very political and agenda-oriented, the current and former appointees are even less trustworthy as information sources. The simple solution is not to believe any of them at first glance, from any administration going back to...well, they all had their axe to grind, even the JFK crowd that is still alive. They will talk about Camelot, Reagan appointees were almost all ardent conservative activists, the Clinton crowd has their own spin topped by spinmeister Carville, and so on. Speaking to the press is a constant act of political manipulation for these people. I wish more voters recognized that. Instead most demonize anyone from the OTHERS and take what THEIR team says as gospel most of the time.

To: Suma who wrote (12597)	2/18/2006 9:54:25 AM
From: KonKilo	Respond to of 541319

One always has to dig deeper to really know from whence the tabloid content comes... You might be interested to peruse the Columbia Journalism Review's webpage entitled, Who Owns What?, wherein they list all the corporate ownership of the two dozen or so top media conglomerations: cjr.org Consumer Beware indeed.

To: Suma who wrote (12597)	2/18/2006 10:20:28 AM
From: Tom Clarke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541319

"What do Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Brit Hume have in common? They all work under a Democratic fund-raiser." The Politics Behind Fox News By Cliff Kincaid \| August 24, 2004 There can be no doubt that Fox News Channel has been a success. Its owner, Rupert Murdoch, understood there was a demand for news from a conservative-oriented perspective. And a Pew Research study shows that Republicans are gravitating toward Fox. But does that mean that Murdoch is a conservative? Not necessarily. Fox News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch served as vice finance chairman for a Gore fund-raiser in 2000, and contributed $50,000 to the Gore campaign. He also signed off on a deal allowing the Democrats to use the Staples Center for the 2000 Democratic Convention in Los Angeles at no charge. That was worth $10 million. CorpWatch, a group that monitors corporate influence in campaigns, notes the influence in the Kerry campaign of Ivan Schlager, an attorney for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. This is a legal firm that represents News Corp. Schlager once worked for Kerry as the Democratic Chief Counsel and Staff Director to the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. He arranges meetings between industry lobbyists and the candidate. This year, Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer of the News Corporation, parent of the Fox Network, is listed as having raised over $50,000 for the Kerry campaign. The Center for Responsive Politics' website, OpenSecrets.org, discloses Chernin contributions not only to Kerry but to Reps. Richard Gephardt and Howard Berman. Chernin's role in the Kerry campaign prompted the New York Times to ask: "What do Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Brit Hume have in common? They all work under a Democratic fund-raiser." The paper cited a study showing that, as of June 1, employees of the News Corporation and their families had given almost $350,000 in campaign contributions, 60 percent of which went to Democrats. It said that at least four Fox executives have given money to the Kerry campaign. The Times reported left-wing writer Eric Alterman as saying that, if Kerry were to win the presidency, "viewers may begin to see a different sort of Fox News…." But Alterman said that Fox News would never move too far to the left. None of this, of course, is mentioned in the film, "Outfoxed," which tries to portray the Fox News Channel as some kind of conservative Republican plot by Murdoch to move America to the right. This film highlights the fact that the head of Fox News, Roger Ailes, used to be a Republican operative. Ironically, the film features socialist Rep. Bernard Sanders attacking the network when he uses his congressional website to highlight his own appearance on Fox News Channel. Another very liberal Representative, Barney Frank, has been quoted as saying that he enjoys appearing on Fox News. USA Today reports that the recent attacks on Fox News Channel, most notably by Outfoxed, "have actually helped ratings, according to the network." Fox's total viewers were up 13 percent since July 8 over the same period last year. Whatever the politics of Murdoch and his top executives, their network continues to be a success. But they have always been careful to play both sides of the street politically. aim.org