The Foxification of America

By Weekly Archive On Aug 7, 2007

Lured by the irresistible bait of $5 billion, the Bancroft family finally agreed to sell the Wall Street Journal to right-wing robber baron Rupert Murdoch. Chalk up one more big victory in the Foxification of America.

For those who follow the news, that means there will be one less place you can look for good, strong, objective reporting — and one less newspaper that publishes the truth.

And the truth is, the Wall Street Journal is a great newspaper. Yes, it has a bunch of Neanderthal editorial writers. But its news team is first-rate, with hard-hitting, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters. And there has always been a firewall between its news and editorial departments. But that firewall will disappear once Murdoch gets his hands on the WSJ, for his goal is not just to make money — it’s to push his own right-wing political agenda.

Today, the Journal is the second-best-selling newspaper in the country. Will Murdoch be able to resist the temptation to push his political views off its editorial page and into the news stories? No way. Look at his track record. He created Fox News and the Weekly Standard, both propaganda arms of the Bush White House. He took the New York Post, once the Big Apple’s most liberal paper, and turned it into a far-right megaphone. He turned the mighty London Times into another British tabloid.

With every property he has purchased, Murdoch has pledged to run a "hands-off" operation — and broken that pledge within weeks. No doubt, sooner or later, he’ll do the same thing with the Journal and the new Fox Business Channel. It’s in his genes. He can’t help himself.

That’s bad news for journalism, and bad news for the country. Bad news for journalism because it further undermines the credibility of an already-distrusted media. When one newspaper openly shows its bias, all other newspapers are suspected of having their own bias. One disgruntled WSJ staffer summed up feelings in the newsroom: "Rupert is my boss. Rupert Murdoch has bought Dow Jones. Dow Jones owns my paper. So I am now an underling in the world’s most evil corporate empire."

Murdoch’s purchase of the Journal is bad for the country because it puts too much media control and power in the hands of one man. In addition to the Post, Fox News and the Weekly Standard, the 76-year old media mogul owns Harpercollins Books, Twentieth Century Fox Film, Fox Broadcasting, SkyNews, DirecTV and MySpace. Add the Wall Street Journal and Murdoch has the functional equivalent of the Evil Empire. Why doesn’t he just buy the White House next and get it over with?

And what does Murdoch do with all those media properties? He builds political support for his conservative politics. During the run-up to the Iraq war, for example, all 175 newspapers around the globe controlled by Murdoch enthusiastically supported an invasion of Iraq. Every last one of them. Coincidence? Hardly. But it shows the power Murdoch has and is not afraid to use to further his right-wing brand of politics.

As Gene Kimmelman of the Consumers Union has warned: "Murdoch has extended the most blatant editorializing in the entire world through his media properties, and that is exactly the example of what we need to worry about when any one entrepreneur owns and controls too many media outlets." After all, in a democracy, the media are supposed to serve as watchdogs for the general public. Under Rupert Murdoch, more and more of the media have been turned into lapdogs — for the Republican Party.

So what’s a good liberal to do? Complaining about Rupert Murdoch’s not enough. If conservatives do, in fact, dominate America’s media today, it’s not by accident. Recognizing the power of the media to shape public opinion, conservatives went out and bought newspapers, radio stations and TV stations and turned them into conservative mouthpieces — while liberals sat on the sidelines, shedding crocodile tears. No wonder there’s such imbalance in the media today: Liberals refuse to put their money where their mouth is.

Certainly there are wealthy liberals with the financial wherewithal to give Rupert Murdoch some stiff competition. Why don’t they?

Bill Press is host of a nationally syndicated radio show and author of a new book, "How the Republicans Stole Religion." His email address is: bill@billpress.com. His Web site is: www.billpress.com.