2/13/2007

Significance of quotes

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s vast media conglomerate, News Corporation, or News Corp, disseminates information and has the capacity to control the groupthink of 4.5 billion people within his company’s reach worldwide. 4.5 billion people!

He openly admits his Fox News channel attempted to influence U.S. policy on Iraq?

He openly states he will rally ‘round big business - and the little guy be damned?

The significance of this lies in Murdoch’s vast media holdings, all of which have the power to influence the way people think.

Back in 1789, this was not what John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, old Ben Franklin et al had in mind when insisting on protection of the press. They could never have envisioned Murdoch’s vast empire.

Scanning the complete, up-to-date list of Rupert Murdoch’s media holdings is at once overwhelming, shocking and, yes, frightening. Click on the TITLE of this post to see for yourself this man’s capacity to influence thought - worldwide.

1 comment:

B.J. said...

RUPERT MURDOCH’S CURRENT NEWS CORP HOLDINGS:

FILMED ENTERTAINMENT:

20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox Espanol
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Fox International
20th Century Fox Television
Blue Sky Studios
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Fox Studios Australia
Fox Studios LA
Fox Studios Baja
Fox Television Studios

TELEVISION:

Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Sports Australia
STAR
Fox Television Stations

(A few words about Fox television stations, located in Australia, Japan, Italy, Serbia, Spain, Portugal, South America, Turkey, Canada and the United States.

In 2003, it was estimated that Fox was viewable by 96.18 percent of all U.S. households, reaching 102,565,710 houses in the United States. Fox has 180 VHF and UHF owned-and-operated or affiliate stations in the United States and U.S. possessions, and began broadcasting in HDTV in September 2004. Fox hit a milestone in February 2005 by scoring its first-ever sweeps-month victory among all viewers. This was largely due to the broadcast of the Super Bowl, but also on the strength of “American Idol.”

Each of these U.S. stations runs local and national news, the latter fed from Fox News.)

CABLE TELEVISION:

Fox Movie Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox Sports Digital
Fox Sports Enterprises
Fox Sports Espanol
Fox Sports Net
Fox Sports World
FUEL
FX channel
National Geographic Channel
SPEED Channel (NASCAR)
Stats, Inc
TV Guide channel
Direct Broadcast & Satellite Television - News Corporation
DIRECTV (satellite service)
FOXTEL (Australia, cable news channel)
Sky Italia

MAGAZINES:

Inside Out
Donna Hay
News America Marketing
Smart Source
The Weekly Standard (bible of the neocons, run by Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes)
Gemstar

BOOKS (PUBLISHING):

Harper Collins Publishers
- Australia
- Canada
- Children’s Books
- United States
- United Kingdom
Regan Books (the one which had planned to publish O.J. Simpson’s new book about Nicole’s murder)
Zondervan

OTHER INVESTMENTS:

MySpace.com Profile (one of America’s hottest Web sites)
Festival Mushroom Records (Australia)
National Rugby League (Australia)
News Interactive
News Outdoor
Nursery World
Sky Television (Great Britain)
BSkyB (Satellite, dominates British Pay TV market)
Network of 24 regional channels with a programming company which provides them news and talk shows.

(A word about Rainbow Media Sports Holdings: a few years back Murdoch was a major stockholder in this company, which owns Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks basketball and Rangers hockey teams and regional sports networks in Ohio, New England, San Francisco and Florida. He was attempting to negotiate owner James L. Dolan out of the lucrative sports networks, but I can find no information as to the outcome of the deal.)

NEWSPAPERS:

AUSTRALIA:
Major newspapers:
The Australian (Sydney, national circulation)
The Weekend Australian
The Mercury (Hobart, Tasmania)
The Sunday Tasmanian
Derwent Valley Gazette (Tasmania)
Northern Territory News (Darwin)
The Daily Telegraph
The Sunday Telegraph
Weekly Times
Sportsman
Herald Sun
Sunday Herald Sun
The Courier Mail (Brisbane)
The Sunday Mail (Brisbane)
The Gold Coast Bulletin (Queensland)
The Advertiser (Adelaide)
Sunday Times (Perth)
Post Courier
Townsville Bulletin
Sunday Territorian
Centralian Advocate (Alice Springs)
Cumberland Newspaper Group (20 titles in Sydney suburbs)
Quest Community Newspapers (17 titles in Brisbane suburbs)
Leader Community Newspapers
Cairns Post Group (42% ownership)
North Queensland Newspaper Group
Newsphotos
Newspix
Newstext
NT News

UNITED KINGDOM:

The Sun
The Times (London)
The Sunday Times (London)
News of the World
News International
thelondonpaper
Times Education Supplement
Times Higher Education Supplement
Times Literary Supplement
TSL Education

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

The New York Post
San Antonio Express-News (Murdoch’s first U.S. acquisition)

OTHER:
The Star supermarket tabloid was Murdoch’s second U.S. purchase and helped him build his fortune.