Ownership of the Media

Module Title: Media Analysis Assignment B Keith Allen

Word Count: 2496 Table of Content

Table of Content...... 1 Introduction...... 2 Body...... 2-7 Method...... 2 Ownership and Corporate Takeovers in the Media...... 3 Rupert Murdoch - Media Mogul...... 3 Rupert Murdoch – Business and Politics...... 3-4 Fox News...... 4 Outfoxed Exposé - Fox News Corruption...... 4-6 Damning Reports and Statistics...... 6 Discussion...... 7 Conclusion...... 8 Recommendations...... 8-9 Bibliography/References...... 9

Introduction

This report aims to reveal how the majority of the main stream media is owned by just a few corporations in total, with particular awareness being made of the media structure in the U.S. Rupert Murdoch will be revealed as the major kingpin of this media empire. Questions will be raised with regards to this enormously responsible role and the dangers of this centralization shall be put forward to contemplate.

Topics which shall be addressed will range from the vast domain in which Murdoch is in control of, its powers and therefore his powers, and the actual outcome of the path in which this structure has defined. Special attention will be made to the documentary “Outfoxed - Rupert Murdoch’s War Against Journalism, Robert Greenwald, 2004, 77 min” in which the corruption of Fox News (The United States most viewed news channel according to Nielsen television ratings) is revealed by former workers.

Various websites will be used in the construction of this report. Those said website will be mentioned in the bibliography.

Body Method

With the help of the internet and references given in the classroom, I have searched through relevant information to compile this report, which can be used as a focused delivery of factual data with regards to the American media dangerously being in the hands of capitalist corporations. Importance should be recognised in this as the media acts as a backbone in a democratic system and also because the United States has a leading role in world affairs and not just in a media/broadcasting sense. Corporate control and concentration of the media is a major issue!

Findings

Ownership and Corporate Takeovers in the Media The book “Understanding Television (2005), Karen Lury, Great Britain, Hodder Education” teaches us that since the 1970’s there has been a gradual process of deregulation in the televised aspect of the media and therefore an increase in the amount of commercially viable channels owned by capitalist corporations. These corporations are motivated by profit which is in stark contrast to public service broadcasting which is publicly funded by a television licence scheme and aims to operate as a beneficiary to the public as an educational tool etc. The said book tells us that in the U.S, commercial television has always been the dominant model, thus the American television model is controlled by capitalist corporations.

Since 1995, the number of companies owning commercial TV stations has declined by 40 percent (See www. commoncause.org ...). Today the U.S media is dominated by six major corporations. Viacom, Walt Disney, General Electric, News Corp, Time Warner and CBS all have a major stake in American media, producing content not just contained to the televised domain, but also film and publishing. These companies are vertically integrated, meaning they have taken over all the smaller companies previously hired by them to run everything from the initial production phases through to the end result and final distribution. They are the definition of corporate power! All the while, the public has known little to nothing about these corporate take over’s.

Rupert Murdoch

Media Mogul

Rupert Murdoch is the founder, chair man and managing director of News Corp. Beginning with just one Australian newspaper, he has built up a media empire which spans the entire globe, dominating all markets but Britain, Italy and large areas of Asia and the Middle East. He has interests in all media formats including television, film, pay TV, the Internet, newspapers, and publishing. This said empire is a mass of media companies that reach audiences of 4.7 billion people, which is three quarters of the entire population. At any given time, one in five American homes will be tuned into a program that was either produced or delivered to them directly by News Corp.

Business & Politics

Having strong opinions and mixing business with politics seems to be a natural manner for Murdoch. Having supported both British conservative party leaders, Margaret Thatcher and John Major with his Sun newspaper (which even crediting itself with helping Major to win his election), the Sun followed Murdoch’s lead in dropping its affiliation with the conservative party to support the new labour candidate, Tony Bair. News Corp’s other British newspapers all followed suit and concurred. This in turn led to a Blair backing a “communications bill” which loosened restrictions on foreign media ownership, after he became prime minister. Murdoch supported the bush administration and the war in Iraq. He openly admitted that the fundamental reason for him supporting the war was oil. The Guardian of London newspaper quotes him as saying “Murdoch wasn't so reticent. He believes that deposing the Iraqi leader would lead to cheaper oil" (See www.guardian.co.uk...).

Fox News

The Fox News Channel is owned by the Fox Entertainment group, one of the subsidiary companies of News Corp. It is available to view internationally, but in the U.S alone, it is on hand to 102 million households and according to Nielson T.V ratings it is the most viewed news channel in the U.S (See www.en-us.nielson.com...).

In the film “Outfoxed – Rupert Murdoch’s War Against Journalism, Robert Greenwald, 2004, 77 min”, huge concerns have been raised about Fox’s capability to convey fair and just news reporting and political commentary. With its findings it is safe to say that Fox News promotes conservative republican political positions at the expense of neutrality. Although this seems to be prevalent, Fox news has been voted as being the most trusted news channel in the U.S (See www.politifact.com...). Fox maintains that its news reporting and political commentary are unbiased and work independently of each other.

Outfoxed Exposé - Fox News Corruption

Lies and Misleading

“Outfoxed” reveals a vast amount of corruption in the Fox News operation. So much so, that the network seems to be a complete propaganda system. Former workers tell of its failure in its central obligation, which is to tell the truth. During their time at Fox, managing editors had made it clear to them what they wanted broadcast, by controlling what is said and how it is said. The news reporters’ job was to execute their plan. They assert that Fox News asked them to lie, and when they refused, they were fired (When the reporters sued Fox in court, providing proof of their claim, the court ruled that there is no current law against lying on a news program).

Leaked internal Fox News memos from Vice President John Moody reveal how the news of the day is guided and therefore biased. Here are some examples of the said memos in relation to cementation to presidency candidates and the war in Iraq;

06/04/2004 From: Moody

“Kerry’s speech on the economy at Georgetown is likely to move onto the topic of Iraq. We should take the beginning of Kerry’s speech, see if it contains new information (aside from a promise to create 10 million jobs) and see if other news at the time is more compelling. It is not required to take it start to finish.” -This memo is from the campaign phase of when Bush and Kerry were competing against each other for the American Presidency. It is clearly pro Bush since public remark and possible criticism of his conduct of “the war on terrorism” and the 2003 invasion of Iraq was being avoided. After all, Murdoch is openly a Bush supporter and a supporter of the war in Iraq...

28/04/2004 From: Moody

“Let’s refer to the U.S Marines we see in the foreground as “sharpshooters”, not snipers, which carries a negative connotation.”

-This memo clearly is an attempt in aiming of winning extra public cooperation and avoiding making the audience think negatively of the Marines or the Iraqi war. The war which Murdoch supports!

Other Tactics

Subtle techniques seem to be another way of Fox’s implementation of its “news”. “Some people say” has been pointed out as being used quite a lot to evade giving actual sources of quotation. This is a clever way of inserting anonymous information, rather than the normal journalistic approach. “Some people say Kerry is loved by North Koreans”, this sentence has been aired on Fox. It is a blatant attempt to attack his character and candidate standing because of the negative connotations associated with North Korea. This type of behaviour occurs not only on account of presidential candidates, but against left wing democratic views and policies in general.

Other approaches taken by Fox is during debates, a good looking all American representative stands up for matters of importance from a republican viewpoint, while representing the liberal democrats, a political figure which is contrastable with the Fox representatives apparent visually endearing qualities, making viewers even subconsciously warm to the right wing opinions.

In an analysis of Fox’s Special Report with Brit Hume, a record was taken every day from June to December of 2003. Over the concurrence republican guests had been noted to appear five times more than democrats. Of these said democrats; all affirmed bush administration policies and leaned towards centre.

All of this is corresponding with graphics which deceive people into believing and agreeing in situations and ideologies. This can even make them think certain principles were their own believe or even idea. Banners with negative remarks have been used on screen, while left wing politicians have been talking. This facade works in the same way as pairing a visually endearing representative with an opposite. A graphic designer at Fox noted how a “news alert” animation which originally was used when reporting the Columbine incident, is now being used to report celebrity gossip. Damning Reports and Statistics

Newspapers

• Inter Press Service 02/10/2003 “T.V news bad for truth”

• Knight Rider (Newspaper Publicist) 03/10/2003 “Study: Misperceptions about Iraq war contributed to support for it”

• Seattle Times 06/10/2003, “Fox leads in misleading the public about Iraq”

The PIPA/Knowledge Networking Poll, October 2003

1. Has the U.S found WMD in Iraq?

Fox viewers who said yes – 33%

PBS – NPR viewers who said yes – 11%

2. Does world opinion favour the U.S invasion of Iraq?

Fox viewers who said yes – 35%

PBS – NPR viewers who said yes – 5%

3. Has the U.s found links between Iraq and Al Qaeda?

Fox viewers who said yes – 67%

PBS – NPR viewers who said yes – 16% (See www.pipa.org...)

Bob Mc Chesney, author of The Problem with the Media, has said “Fox people have a confused notion of the world, especially foreign policy in the Middle East and also have a strong support of the government in power.”

Discussion Rupert Murdoch is a man with a massive power over the masses. With his media empire muscle, he can and has hindered or assisted people into a position which would make them the most powerful person in the world. The media paints a picture of democratic candidates, it decides what to show and what not to show. It can embarrass, humiliate and demine one individual, while enhancing and enforcing a desired image of the other. This is not journalism, this is propaganda!

It is peoples trust in the media which enables this to happen. Their inability to recognise it for what it is is the sole basis of how it works in the first place. There is no integrity in this kind of journalism, if that is what it can be portrayed as. Forced ideology would be a more accurate description. It is a set of aims and ideas that directs one's goals, expectations, and actions. It is a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to all the members of this society. Therefore, carrying out the wealthy elite’s interests. All the while, people believe that they are being informed, advised and educated.

Rupert Murdoch, foremost, is a politician and he will use his powers to shape the news to further his profits and career, and of his associates. Fox News is a twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, international political advert for the Grand Old Party of the U.S. Murdoch’s empire decides what matters and who matters. Being at the top of this hierarchy, he can decide what route to lead people. Then through his media powers, a ripple of false information is consumed and recycled by the whole.

The media can keep the adult public’s attention diverted away from the real social issues and captivates them by matters of no real importance. For unless people are controlled, they will challenge power. This has always been the way of society. The average person of today’s society knows more about celebrities than world events. Are the public being kept ignorant to keep them unorganised?

FACT: The nation’s largest broadcast companies that will benefit from looser ownership standards have given more than $13.3 million in political contributions to federal candidates and national parties since 1995. These same media giants have spent more than $68 million lobbying Washington since 1999 (See www.commoncause.org...).

Conclusion

• Unbeknown to the majority of the public, capitalist corporations have carved out huge stakes in the worlds media systems.

• Rupert Murdoch is a major kingpin of these systems.

• This Media Empire conforms to his and his associates ideologies. • Fox News and News Corp are major tools in implementing these ideologies.

• Its viewers have confused notions because of this.

• People seem to be distracted in order to keep them ignorant of the truth.

Recommendations

There is an answer to the problems and dangers highlight in this report. Firstly private monopolies should be dispersed and brought into public hands. Secondly, Libertarian Socialism should be put into practice. It is as simple as that!

Libertarian socialism (sometimes called socialist anarchism and sometimes left libertarianism) is a group of political philosophies that aspire to create a society free of coercive hierarchies. Adherents assert that a desirable synthesis of societal equality and freedom could be achieved, at least in part, through abolishing authoritarian institutions that own and control certain productive means as private property. Libertarian socialism also constitutes a tendency of thought that informs the identification, criticism and practical dismantling of illegitimate authority in all aspects of social life. Accordingly, libertarian socialists believe that "the exercise of power in any institutionalized form– whether economic, political, religious, or sexual– brutalizes both the wielder of power and the one over whom it is exercised." Libertarian socialists generally place their hopes in decentralized means of direct democracy such as municipalities, citizens' assemblies, trade unions, and workers' councils. Many advocate doing away with the state altogether, while others propose that a minimal, non- hierarchical version is unobjectionable. (See www.wikipedia.org...)

Bibliography/References “Understanding Television (2005), Karen Lury, Great Britain, Hodder Education”

http://www.outfoxed.org/

http://en-us.nielsen.com/tab/measurement/tv_research

http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=2127045

http://www.freepress.net/ownership/chart/main

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2004/07/b122948.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2003/feb/17/mondaymediasection.iraq

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News_Channel http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/feb/10/bill-oreilly/oreilly-claims- poll-shows-fox-news-most-trusted-ne/

http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/Pres_Election_04/Report09_29_04.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_socialism