Moyers On Murdoch: All Appetite, No Taste

Rupert Murdoch may have taken umbrage at the recent coverage he's received in the New York Times, but for our money, no one has quite lowered the boom on Murdoch the way Bill Moyers will tonight on his eponymous Journal program on PBS. Certainly, the Times coverage was exhaustive and well-researched, but, frankly, it did a better job serving up an indelible portrait of an unstoppable force than it did offering a scabrous depiction of a coming threat to journalism. For all Murdoch's demonstrated grievance at the Times coverage, deep down, he probably treasures it more than anything else.

On the other hands, Moyers (whose essay has been YouTubed in advance) very calmly deploys a raft of toxic metaphors--our favorite being "He is to propriety what the Marquis de Sade is to chastity"--in as biting a piece of thoroughgoing damnation as you are likely to hear on this subject.

To his credit, Moyers has an eye on the big picture:

"His pursuit of the Wall Street Journal is just the latest in a cascading series of mergers, buyouts, and other financial legerdemain that are making a shipwreck of journalism."

Indeed. At any rate, click above and enjoy.

(Side Note: Moyer's brief barb at one of our Presidential contenders ("Now Bill and Hillary Clinton, who know on which side their bread is buttered, like having it slathered by their new buddy, Rupert.") is worth noting as well, as it sows a fertile field from which a line of attack might bloom. Murdoch and the Dow is only the biggest media story of the year, and among the aggrieved are lefty intellectuals, Wall Street professionals, and reporters in revolt. There's no doubt that newsrooms across the country are filled with people who sympathize with those protesting WSJ reporters from yesterday. Where's Hillary going to look for friends?)