Fox TV has quit reporting the news… to become the news.
To promote its corporate political agenda, Fox has surrendered any pretense of media integrity. Earlier this year, the far-right poobah of Fox, Rupert Murdoch, bolted from his journalistic hidey hole to donate a million dollars from his corporate coffers to defeat Democrats running for Congress. He followed with another million dollars to elect Republican governors.
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Then came Proposition 24 – a California ballot initiative to help stem that state’s festering budget crisis by repealing nearly $2 billion in tax giveaways for big, hugely-profitable, out-of-state corporations. Unfortunately, Prop 24 failed, thanks in large part to an unprecedented, unethical push by Murdoch and his Fox minions to kill it. Among the biggest recipients of this special tax break was – guess who? – Murdoch & Company.
Rupert poured $1.3 million into the “No on 24” campaign. But cash was not his sole weapon. He also deployed his Fox Business Network to carpetbomb the initiative. Just one of his so-called reporters broadcast five consecutive hours of live reports that repeatedly assailed the initiative in the last week of the election. Another Fox Business shill exploded into on-air hyperbole, declaring that Prop 24 “was setting up businesses to be destroyed, quite frankly.”
Frankly, Murdoch and his “journalistic” embarrassments don’t know the meaning of frankness. For example, none of those involved bothered to inform viewers that Fox was partisan with a direct conflict of interest in the issue. Astonishingly, a top network executive tried to claim innocence: “We didn’t know,” he cried.
And these guys call themselves journalists! It’s time for them to resign – or admit that they’re just hired political hacks for Murdoch.
“A Donation Clouds Fox New Report,” The New York Times, November 1, 2010.
“The fallout of fear and favor,” The New York Times, October 7, 2010.
“Murdock Defends Donations,” The New York Times, October 16, 2010.
“Voters reject Prop. 24, keeping corporate tax breaks in place,” www.latimes.com, November 2, 2010.
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