[NYTr] The Murdoch Factor: Lies Dumb Amerikans Believe Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 22:41:44 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit The New York Times - Jun 29, 2007 http://select.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/opinion/29krugman.html The Murdoch Factor By PAUL KRUGMAN In October 2003, the nonpartisan Program on International Policy Attitudes published a study titled bMisperceptions, the media and the Iraq war.b It found that 60 percent of Americans believed at least one of the following: clear evidence had been found of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda; W.M.D. had been found in Iraq; world public opinion favored the U.S. going to war with Iraq. The prevalence of these misperceptions, however, depended crucially on where people got their news. Only 23 percent of those who got their information mainly from PBS or NPR believed any of these untrue things, but the number was 80 percent among those relying primarily on Fox News. In particular, two-thirds of Fox devotees believed that the U.S. had bfound clear evidence in Iraq that Saddam Hussein was working closely with the Al Qaeda terrorist organization.b So, does anyone think itbs O.K. if Rupert Murdochbs News Corporation, which owns Fox News, buys The Wall Street Journal? The problem with Mr. Murdoch isnbt that hebs a right-wing ideologue. If that were all he was, hebd be much less dangerous. What he is, rather, is an opportunist who exploits a rule-free media environment b one created, in part, by conservative political power b by slanting news coverage to favor whoever he thinks will serve his business interests. In the United States, that strategy has mainly meant blatant bias in favor of the Bush administration and the Republican Party b but last year Mr. Murdoch covered his bases by hosting a fund-raiser for Hillary Clintonbs Senate re-election campaign. In Britain, Mr. Murdoch endorsed Tony Blair in 1997 and gave his government favorable coverage, bensuring,b reports The New York Times, bthat the new government would allow him to keep intact his British holdings.b And in China, Mr. Murdochbs organizations have taken care not to offend the dictatorship. Now, Mr. Murdochbs people rarely make flatly false claims. Instead, they usually convey misinformation through innuendo. During the early months of the Iraq occupation, for example, Fox gave breathless coverage to each report of possible W.M.D.bs, with little or no coverage of the subsequent discovery that it was a false alarm. No wonder, then, that many Fox viewers got the impression that W.M.D.bs had been found. When all else fails, Mr. Murdochbs news organizations simply stop covering inconvenient subjects. Last year, Fox relentlessly pushed claims that the bliberal mediab were failing to report the bgood newsb from Iraq. Once that line became untenable b well, the Project for Excellence in Journalism found that in the first quarter of 2007 daytime programs on Fox News devoted only 6 percent of their time to the Iraq war, compared with 18 percent at MSNBC and 20 percent at CNN. What took Iraqbs place? Anna Nicole Smith, who received 17 percent of Foxbs daytime coverage. Defenders of Mr. Murdochbs bid for The Journal say that we should judge him not by Fox News but by his stewardship of the venerable Times of London, which he acquired in 1981. Indeed, the political bias of The Times is much less blatant than that of Fox News. But a number of former Times employees have said that there was pressure to slant coverage b and everyone Ibve seen quoted defending Mr. Murdochbs management is still on his payroll. In any case, do we want to see one of Americabs two serious national newspapers in the hands of a man who has done so much to mislead so many? (The Washington Post, for all its influence, is basically a Beltway paper, not a national one. The McClatchy papers, though their Washington bureaubs reporting in the run-up to Iraq put more prestigious news organizations to shame, still donbt have The Journalbs ability to drive national discussion.) There doesnbt seem to be any legal obstacle to the News Corporationbs bid for The Journal: F.C.C. rules on media ownership are mainly designed to prevent monopoly in local markets, not to safeguard precious national informational assets. Still, public pressure could help avert a Murdoch takeover. Maybe Congress should hold hearings. If Mr. Murdoch does acquire The Journal, it will be a dark day for Americabs news media b and American democracy. If there were any justice in the world, Mr. Murdoch, who did more than anyone in the news business to mislead this country into an unjustified, disastrous war, would be a discredited outcast. Instead, hebs expanding his empire. * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================