March 2008, Photobucket decided that showing bare behinds was nudity and threatened the safety and security of users… even if they were BABY pictures. Front-line staff manager and corporate trainer Monica M. Massad did finally concede and make allowances for baby pictures, but evidently the hearts of the moderators are so filthy and corrupt that they assume everyone lusts in their hearts when they see baby pictures. After all, why else would they look at a nude baby picture and deem it pornography? We seem to be heading toward the point where nothing will be considered art and even such things as exposed navels will be deemed vile and repulsive. Heaven forbid should someone post a picture of someone wearing a bathing suit. You might think that Photobucket is owned by Jerry Falwell’s Ministries.
You wouldn’t be far off the mark. Photobucket in fact is owned by the Australian-American media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, the same company that owns MySpace. Yes, Rupert Murdoch, the same man who owns Fox News… the network that pushes hate, fear, and ignorance to its viewers and supports the Christian Right and its “holy war” against the Muslim race; the same man who owns News International, the British arm of Murdoch’s News Corp. which publishes the News of the World, and was criticized by U.K. lawmakers for their illegal wiretaps, which they call “hacking.”
Rupert Murdock has long been known for cozying up to fundamentalists. It was his take-over of Fox Network that changed the course of programming in that start up Network from Gen. X hilarity to “Family Friendly” programming.
Rupert Murdock, most recently, has been criticized for his business affiliations with Saudi Prince Al-Waleed, who incidentally is Prince of a country which fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers were citizens of. What makes this tidbit of information interesting is that Murdock’s Fox News has made so many references to the evils of 9/11 and the evils of Islam. Add Fox News’ support for the large oil corporations, include some inside information of a large oil company bribing Iran to hold the hostages in the Middle East until after the election where President Carter was defeated; this information may give 9/11 New World Order conspiracy theories some credibility. Some insight into the inside information held by this reporter can be alluded to by the quote from Mark Danner’s blog in The New Yorker:
Danner writes, “a series of delaying tactics … by the Iranian Parliament stymied all attempts by the Carter Administration to act on the hostage question … before Election Day.”
Murdoch seems to like joining forces with religious extremists, first Christian right extremists, now Muslim extremists. He is buying his way to controlling more American media and threatening to cut off any rational thinking from media airwaves. Should we have given the conspiracy theorists a little more credence?
As if this weren’t enough, Rupert Murdoch’s madness seems to be spreading to other networks as well. Perhaps it’s because they feel the need to compete in the ratings, but if so, what happens to any shred of truth left in our media?
On February 18th, there was a breaking news story from CNN that said this:
“Plane crashes into building”
The building was in Austin, TX. The reporter was making the attempt to link it to 9/11 by leading with questions to direct the interview toward a 9/11 scenario. He was trying to make a frightening story of terrorism out of the incident. As it turns out the case had to do with a disgruntled individual behind on their taxes with anarchist leanings.
With FOX News recently winning its court battle that allows it, and subsequently all other news stations, to misinform, or in layman’s terms lie, on its “news coverage” is CNN trying to be the new FOX News? Are the other stations soon to follow? Does this mean that U.S. citizens will no longer be able to get news that relies on facts and will only get news that’s hype?
Jane Akre and her husband Steve Wilson, former employees of FOX-owned-and-operated station WTVT in Tampa, Florida, sued FOX under the Florida whistle-blower law and were awarded $425,000 for which FOX counter-sued. It was determined in court that WTVT’s (Fox) argument that the FCC’s policy against the intentional falsification of the news — which the FCC has called its “news distortion policy” — does not qualify as the required “law, rule, or regulation” under section 448.102. […] Because the FCC’s news distortion policy is not a “law, rule, or regulation” under section 448.102
Only FoxBGHsuit.com, InjuryBoard.com, ThirdWorldTraveler.org, CeaseSPIN.org, Purefood.com, Relfe.com, SourceWatch.org, OrganicConsumers.org, TheCorporation.com, and DailyKos.com and a couple others even reported on the FOX lawsuit. Not one of the major media outlets covered the story at all. The Daily Kos quoted the following:
“During their appeal, FOX asserted that there are no written rules against distorting news in the media. They argued that, under the First Amendment, broadcasters have the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on public airwaves. Fox attorneys did not dispute Akre’s claim that they pressured her to broadcast a false story, they simply maintained that it was their right to do so.”
Evidently, CNN was paying attention and decided to do some FOXy coverage of its own. Most likely many viewers could probably easily spot the hype, but how many others were scared needlessly by this type of coverage? How long will it be before the other U.S. television news stations follow suit and decide to do some FOXy coverage of their own simply for the sake of ratings? With jobs and pay declining, prices rising, homes being foreclosed on by the very banks for which the taxpayers are now footing the bills of their bail-outs, how many more of these types of incidents will we see? How much father will Murdoch’s Madness spread?
Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/02/18/vo.tx.plane.hits.building.news8austin?iref=allsearch
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/30/201231/262
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61N2W820100224
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2002/02/06/saudi.htm
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,44865,00.html
http://www.markdanner.com/articles/show/84
Cal, it seems every generation has its Hurst – and our cross-to-bear, media-wise, is Murdoch.
Unfortunately, he has influence far beyond the media.
-W
Yes… do you remember that Zen Arrow guy?
As a young girl, my father sat me down and explained the differences to me between conscientious news coverages and tabloids. What he couldn’t explain was why so many people read the sensationalist driven, ninety-seven percent fabricated, unsubstantiated drivel of tabloids. He shrugged it off as a matter of taste and i grew up somewhat baffled by tasteless motivations.
Tabloid coverage, i couldn’t help noticing, was not only a cheap thrill for the reader, it required very little skill and virtually no research for the writer. If the tail end of the neighbor’s yellow dog was seen escaping through the fence one night, the story could quickly be crafted into a headline warning of invasive, life threatening coyotes.
As a general rule, the conversations of people thrive on gossip. This discovery that has made tabloids so popular, was bound to morph out, sooner or later, into other media aspects. We now have tabloid television news coverage. As gratifying as it must be to those who prefer a fantasy world of two headed aliens and blood sucking monsters, gossip remains purely gossip and has no place in the reality of conscientious journalism. The gossip mongers have no incentive to change even though gossip does hurt its victims when ordinarily sane people become believers. It has been in the past and is necessary again, when intelligent, aware people must dismiss the irresponsible prattle of fantasy coverage in order to discern the truth in quality journalism. Ultimately, it becomes a matter of reputation. Once labeled a gossip monger and a tabloid, it’s very difficult to change the image. FOX News will live on as the dietary supplement for those who believe the Vikings were shape shifters and the chupachiva is waiting to eat you alive.
Whaaa??? Vikings weren’t shape shifters and I no longer need fear the Chupacabre?