If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
History shows that if conservative papers weren't subsidized by deep-pocketed owners, they would fail in a free market. By contrast, at least until the current paradigm shift from print to online, newspapers dismissed as "liberal" had generally been thriving -- many of them under publicly owned companies.
My journalism has set out to expose the ideologues and profiteers engaged in dismantling the democratic ideals of public education. And yet, I just got hoodwinked by Joel Klein and the Rupert Murdoch-owned company he leads.
Rupert Murdoch is almost certainly the most powerful person in the most influential business on earth. And yet he is treated as a kind of innocent bystander to the criminal activity allegedly undertaken in his name.
His reputation in the UK may lay in tatters, but Murdoch remains without a doubt the most powerful media player in Republican circles today simply because of the right-wing megaphone Fox News.
This week was all about the Supreme Court -- and the suddenly surprising John Roberts. First, the Chief Justice guided the court through a split-the-baby decision on Arizona's immigration law, allowing the noxious "show-your-papers" provision to stand while striking down three others. (Splitting the baby was very much in vogue: see News Corp.) Then came the landmark health care ruling in which Roberts, perhaps mindful of a recent poll showing three-quarters of Americans think he and his fellow justices allow political views to influence their decisions, found a narrow way to uphold Obamacare -- a move that left many conservatives fuming, caused Justice Kennedy to accuse Roberts of "vast judicial overreaching," and prompted Albert Brooks to tweet: "It's a terrific day in America. I'm gonna go out and get wildly sick." Much closer to home, we mourned the passing -- and celebrated the life -- of Nora Ephron (see here, here, here, here, here -- and read Nora's HuffPost posts here).
Testifying on Tuesday before Lord Justice Sir Brian Leveson's inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal surrounding Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, former U.K. Prime Minister John Major revealed under oath one of the ways Murdoch does business.
If you want proof that the growing Hispanic population and its impact will change the way people experience popular culture in a colossal and immediate way - look no further than the big changes happening at the nation's biggest media players.
Corporations can be prosecuted as criminals and every year some get convicted of crimes. However, over the past decade the government has not stepped up corporate crime enforcement. In fact, the evidence is to the contrary.
The parallels between Murdoch and Nixon are striking. Unfortunately for the media mogul, the similarities are only growing more undeniable as his signature scandal approaches its one-year anniversary of detonating in Great Britain last summer.
By requiring full disclosure, the FCC could go a long way toward shedding light on political influence peddling in 2012, and exposing the media's role -- both constructive and otherwise -- in our democracy.
It was a surreal chapter in the Leveson inquiry. In a break from barrister Robert Jay's forensic inquiry, questions were temporarily suspended and Rupert Murdoch was allowed to wax lyrical on the future of newspapers and the media.
If newspapers were a baseball team, they would be the Mets -- without the hope for "next year."
The continuing and escalating scandals in the United Kingdom relating to Murdoch-owned and -operated news gathering organizations raise serious questions about whether they are fit to run a company that owns and operates cable stations under US law.
News Corp.'s fortunes are turning, and Rupert Murdoch must now answer for all that has happened under his watch. If he or his executives broke the law, they must be held accountable in the United States.
It is time for technology companies especially to adopt radical transparency of how they operate so they can't find themselves in gotcha moments when the hysterical "discover" something they've been doing all along.
Cultivating a culture of corruption can be expensive. Just ask Rupert Murdoch. His media behemoth News Corp. has spent nearly $900 million dollars in recent years cleaning up legal messes created by the unethical behavior of his employees.
