Wall Street oriented investment advisors have applauded Murdoch's bid of $60 a share, amounting to $5 billion dollars, and protested its rejection by the Bancroft family which controls Dow Jones. But everyone is assumed to have a price, and insiders suggest that adding another $10 a share to the bid might convert enough Bancrofts to overcome any reluctance.
The dominance of Profit As Deity means that we look in vain for outrage, for public warnings about what will result when Murdoch has virtually a lock on the American mass media. Even allowing for Rupert Murdoch's big ego and even bigger greed, there is a question of timing: why now, and why the Wall Street Journal? Past scenarios of Rupert's media control provide a clue to his second, perhaps more compelling agenda. When Murdoch took over The Village Voice in New York, he quickly fired its outstanding investigative reporters Joe Conason and Wayne Barrett, making it quite clear that diversity of opinion would not be tolerated-- it is Murdoch's way or the highway, and his way is the ultra-conservative philosophy, no exceptions, and never, ever look beyond the latest company press release or the current talking points issued by Rove and Norquist. The serious WSJ reporters, whose in-depth reporting has often been at variance with the hard right conservatism of its editorial page, arethreatened with extinction.
According to AlterNet on 9 May 2007 (http://www.alternet....?) before he even has control of the WSJ Rupert has let it be known that he does not like "long stories." And what are long stories? Investigative reporting, of course, which will no longer be tolerated. Back in 1998 Murdoch censored publication by Harper Collins of the memoirs of Chris Patten, governor of Hong Kong, because Patten documented human rights violations by Communist China. Murdoch's reason for meddling was that he had business arrangements with the Communist bosses of mainland China, and he did not wish to upset his compadres. Another time he forced Fox Television to cancel a television drama based on the book "Strange Justice," which exposed the truth about Anita Hill's allegations against Clarence Thomas when he was up for approval as a Justice of the Supreme Court. Also in 1998, Murdoch hosted a fundraiser for John McCain, who happened to be Chair of the committee that oversees the Federal Communications Commission. His invitation to the fundraiser referred to Senator McCain as "an outspoken leader for the telecommunications industry" (not as its regulator, please note).
Perhaps Mr. Murdoch's bid for Dow Jones is a bid for more than business profits. It may well be another attempt by neo-cons to finalize control of the American mass media, in order to be in a position to arrange for the election of a Republican President in 2008. Such Big Thinking is in line with Rupert's past performance. Too bad George Soros, who is often accused of underhanded liberal maneuvers, doesn't one-up Murdoch and buy the WSJ himself.
Then, some people buy into it and use it as their bully pulpit. Most of the little and mid-sized papers, the ones read by most people, are these papers. They have no journalism ethics. They write about their pet projects and they kill stories about their friends.
Are you tired of ABC/Disney radio stations reporting "news" about what is on ABC TV? Interviewing the star of the latest Disney movie? One area news station reads a headline from the Examiner and tells us to get the rest of the story from its partner newspaper. WaPo owns several smaller papers as well as radio and TV. All of them have become "press release readers" for the current administration. This is the "news" you get from media conglomerates. Reagan made this possible by deregulating media ownership and allowing buinessses to own multiple media outlets in one media market.
If you haven't had a chance to read Farenheit 451, you might think it's about government burning books. It's not. It's about media conglomerates publishing garbage and mass pulp until people stop caring about information, and then the business phasing out the news. Accordinfg to SparksNotes,
Guy Montag is a fireman who burns books in a futuristic American city. In Montag's world, firemen start fires rather than putting them out. The people in this society do not ... think independently, or have meaningful conversations. Instead, they drive very fast, watch excessive amounts of television on wall-size sets, and listen to the radio on "Seashell Radio" sets attached to their ears.
Harrison Bergeron himself is far too intelligent to fit in, so the Handicapper General implants a little radio receiver in his ear. Every few seconds a jarring blast of sound is broadcast from Handicapper Headquarters to interrupt Bergeron's train of thought.
Bergeron nonetheless does manage to rebel and seize control of a TV studio, but he is quickly killed by the Handicapper General's armed goons.
Rupert Murdoch, who dislikes those long investigative stories in the current WSJ, seems to be the Handicapper General of today's media empires.
The once-respected WaPo is now our very own "Pravda on the Potomac."
And in a tangentially related note: today on NPR a Chrysler worker was interviewed about the likely effects of the imminent Cerberus (a private equity slash-and-burner) takeover. The worker meekly and passively responded that he would just have to "hope for the best." For the most part, the unions have been crushed or co-opted. The corporatists have won.
We. Have. Become. A. Nation. Of. Sheep.