Life
Why black America is rooting against Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch has apologized for everything, but admitted responsibility for nothing.
The 80-year-old multi-billionaire and Chairman of News Corp. International, appeared before a special investigations committee in the British parliament yesterday to answer charges and allegations that his tabloid newspaper News of the World, had engaged in illegalities ranging from bribing police authorities, to the telephone hacking of murder victims, celebrities, politicians and members of the British royal family.
The scandal has gained larger attention in the United States, where News Corp is headquartered, after it was revealed that specific hacking victims included a murdered 13-year old girl, Milly Dowler, relatives of deceased British soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, and victims of the 7/7 London bombings of 2005.
Public outrage ensued and the British prime minister, David Cameron, immediately called for parliamentary action. Murdoch was forced to cease production of the News of the World, a 168-year-old British publication.
But the questions have only just begun. Murdoch’s media empire is vast and international. Among his holdings are the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Fox News Network. Rumors surfaced that the corrupt hacking practices were not limited solely to the News of the World tabloid, but systemic throughout the Murdoch empire. And when allegations arose that the phone records of victims of the 9/11 attacks and their family members may have also been hacked, United States Senators John D. Rockefeller, Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez each sent letters to the Justice Department calling for a formal inquiry into whether the privacy of United States citizens had been violated. On July 15th, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed that the Department of Justice was following up calls for an investigation into the company.
But for those of us already aware of the tactics used by Murdoch’s Fox News Network, none of the present allegations seem all that shocking.
Fox, admittedly, is the most successful cable news network in America. But its journalistic integrity is largely non-existent, with the entire operation geared toward promoting a conservative political agenda and platform. Facts are written and re-written to fit the story that Murdoch, Roger Ailes and their cronies are invested in promoting. Ailes, Fox’s president served as a media consultant to Republican presidents Nixon, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush.
Nearly every potential Republican presidential candidate either has or had a contract as a Fox News Contributor: Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee. Ailes’ conservative loyalty is evident and so is his tolerance for suspect news practices, with African-Americans often the intended victims.
Besides the fact that all the Fox News Network presenters and anchors are all white, hardly a coincidence, the network often seems to have a decidedly anti-Obama, anti-black agenda. This was perhaps best articulated by former Fox star Glenn Beck, who in response to Obama’s remarks on the Henry Louis Gates controversy in 2009, argued that Obama had displayed “a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture”, saying “I’m not saying he doesn’t like white people. I’m saying he has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist.”
In many ways Beck and his fellow presenters helped fuel the worst elements of the Tea Party movement. Often giving voice to the far-right, and often racist elements evident at their rallies and gatherings. Although Beck would eventually lose many of the advertisers for his daytime show, the damage was already done, and he continued to spew his rhetoric all under the watchful and forgiving eye of Rupert Murdoch.
In the same month, July 2009, Beck began his one-man attack machine against Van Jones, Obama’s Special Advisor for Green Jobs for the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Beck devoted hours of airtime to criticize Jones’ past involvement in STORM, a left wing non-governmental group, and his support for death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, who had been convicted of killing a police officer. And highlighted old videos in which Jones had used profanity when referring to Republicans.
