[lbo-talk] Tabloid Journalism Crime Syndicates in Print and on TV

Nicholas Roberts nicholas at themediasociety.org
Mon Jul 11 09:12:30 PDT 2011


as I was saying http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/11/news-international-murdoch-gordon-brown-hacking_n_894588.html

now we need Fox News whistle-blowers to come out !

The Corporation has some, there must be many more

- - Nicholas Roberts US 510-684-8264 http://Permaculture.TV http://permaculture.coop

On Sat, Jul 9, 2011 at 12:26 PM, Nicholas Roberts < nicholas at themediasociety.org> wrote:


> few comments about Counterpunch article below;
>
> 1. News Corp executives are in it for life, its a ruthless kiss up and kick
> down culture, where scheming and conspiring IS the culture. There is no room
> for sentimentality or even personal lives. You are married to the Company.
> Execs and Editors this is extremely true. Most of the editors I knew where
> workaholics and if they where married it was often suffering. One very long
> serving editor's wife was dying of a degenerative disease and he took time
> off, and was obviously effected by this. He was also basically a
> center-left-moderate and part of the pre war on terror, pre neoliberal old
> guard. The fact that his wife was dying and he was not suffering meant stuff
> all, even though he literally was one of the longest serving, most loyal and
> decent editors. He was shifted sideways to set-up an educational foundation,
> research and develop it, and then something like 12 months later, once
> safely out of the editorship, the foundation was defunded and he was
> practically retired, kicked up stairs. He was replaced by a neoliberal,
> ultraconservative, luddite as editor who was gung-ho for tabloid journalism
> (at a broad sheet).
>
> I'd suggest that the reason the NoTW and the News Corp culture generally,
> is so capable of sensationalism, cruelty and sociopathic behaviour, as
> evidenced by the missing girls case, the 77 victims families and war
> veterans circus is that the editors and executives are not normal people,
> with families and relationships. Except the the Company. They have no
> decency because they have no connection to reality. I imagine the same is
> true for Ms exec and Cameron's media advising consulare. They are married to
> the job, to the family, and are capable of ritual, media assassinations. Its
> part of the rites of passage up the levels.
>
> 2. TABLOIDS: the article below focusses on tabloid print and ommits to
> mention that the US is dominated by NoTW-style tabloid journalism. its
> called Fox News. The UK has a very sophisticated TV industry, and the level
> is set by an overfunded BBC which has incredible budgets and programming.
> PBS is a sad joke in comparison. ITV is the commercial rival to the BBC and
> hosts such serious leftist, Murdoch hating, ant-war, socialist journalists
> as John Pilger. Even BSkyB is a quality TV network. Standards are higher in
> TV in the UK. Also, there are strong criminal libel and slander laws. i.e.
> you can go to jail for speech or written acts against the powerful. Indeed
> Jimmy Goldsmith, father of Cameron's billionaire minister Zac Goldsmith,
> former editor of The Ecologist and strategist behind the Tory Vote Blue Go
> Green strategy (which has basically co-opted the environmental movement,
> with the alignment of the Green Prince Charles).. Jim Goldsmith spent a
> small fortune taking the editor of Private Eye to court for criminal libel,
> trying to get the editor to prison. Big media have a legal filter and make
> every editorial decision based on how much it will costs in court to settle
> or defend vs how much circulation will be increased. Its ok to hurt people,
> you can buy them off, and you get sales. Same with war, its ok to hurt
> people, it sells papers. Just like 911, huge boost, next to JFK and Dianna
>
> Fox News is tabloid journalism in the extreme and to focus on the print
> media is to ignore the fact that News Corp is a global integrated mass multi
> media corporation (thanks Tony Blair for the definition).
>
> 3. NoTW is a shell. The Wapping production facility that houses NoTW also
> houses the Times and The Sun and who knows what else. Its an media factory.
> There are mastheads on shelves ready to be rolled out. Every ambitous young
> journo (and some older) have plans for products that get partially developed
> in house and sit, waiting for a chance to be incubated and released. Its
> interesting that Murdoch family are ok with firing journos i.e. workers, but
> execs are special. No doubt a pissed off former exec could really be a
> liability. better to keep her in house and defend her then let her loose.
> Maybe she will take a fall but she is unlikely to talk. Many of the journos
> may be rehired in a month, who knows, but it will be nothing for the Sun to
> roll-out a Sunday paper, whats one more day ? They may even use the same
> office as the NoTW. Even if they have a physical difference, they will use
> the same platforms and processes and its a global integrated multi media
> corporation after all
>
> http://counterpunch.org/cockburn07082011.html
> --
> Nicholas Roberts
> US 510-684-8264
> http://Permaculture.TV
> http://permaculture.coop
>
>



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