Depth of Hypocrisy
Rupert Murdoch was off on a rant against the news media, claiming during a lecture in Australia, that the press herd needed to be thinned of those reporters and editors who had lost the trust of their readers and viewers. What an irony, considering that Murdoch’s media empire has done more to undo the trust of media than everyone in the history of the media combined forever.
Granted that the media has failed, miserably, for the decades that I’ve been attending the news. Even the best outlets, like The New York Times, failed to stand up to McCarthyism and the war in Vietnam until late in the game. They also did little to stem the horror of U.S. policies in El Salvador and Nicaragua, and more recently supported the invasion of Iraq.
But their sins don’t hold a candle to the propaganda and outright lies that flooded out of Fox “News” and the Murdoch rags. If it hadn’t been for their reporting and endorsements, George Bush would never have been named president, and the U.S. would never have invaded Iraq.
That said, the Murdoch mouthpieces were preaching to the choir, so they are unlikely to suffer significantly for having lost the trust of their audience. A pox on all their houses.
While Murdoch is no more likely to see the light than Rush Limbaugh or the other prevaricating hate-mongers, there is something the mainstream media could do to rectify much of the mess they’ve made. They could fire their partisan polemicists on the OpEd pages and replace them with journalists representing the public’s need to know.
The Times could start by dumping William Kristol. While Dowd, Friedman, Krugman, and Brooks all took shots at their preferred candidates, Kristol never let facts get in the way of his neo-con crusade.
For all his deceit, Murdoch is right. We should be able to trust the news.
©2008 SetonnoteS
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