Is Fox News the Biggest and the Original Fake News?
Has Rupert Murdoch’s Global Propaganda Machine been Publishing & Broadcasting Fake News for Decades?
July 13, 2017 / Murdoch Media Madness Section / NYC Business & Politics / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.
It didn’t take long after Rupert Murdoch bought into his first British newspaper, News of the World, before he changed the tone and quality of its content in such a manner that Murdoch soon became known as the ‘dirty digger’. At first Murdoch dug for dirt on the rich and powerful by sensationalizing the headlines about them to sell more newspapers and ads.
But make no mistake about it, media mogul and mega-billionaire Keith Rupert Murdoch appears to be a man who has made his fortune by destroying the reputations and lives of countless other human beings.
After Murdoch started running News of the World, he appears to have found that he could re-purpose his dirty digging research into a second profit making venture, by using it to manipulate the public’s perceptions of politicians prior to the Plebeians going to the polls. It seems he took the public perception-manipulating low road to fake journalism during one of the British Prime Minister election cycles. After the election was over, in a Nazi propagandist fashion, he proclaimed in the front page headlines of his British newspaper that “The Sun Had Won It’ … for British Prime Minister Thatcher.
It seems this was to be the beginning of Keith Rupert Murdoch’s lifelong descent into an unethical, bottomless, journalistic Hell.
The following incidents are really just a few of what appear to be the tip of the iceberg of the mass produced media manipulations rolling off the production line of Murdoch’s fake news fabrication factory - since roughly the time of the Fox TV Network launch in 1996.
I have included a few incidents from before that time as I think they’re important for the British to keep in mind as they evaluate Murdoch’s bid for Sky TV – Britain’s most powerful, privately owned, national TV network. And I have not included much from the 2016 presidential campaign in America, nor of the Trump presidency of 2017, since each of those periods could fill an entire book by themselves.
The British Ofcom Department may not think that Murdoch is unfit to serve, but I recommend they put on their eyeglasses, as the following record – in tandem with the multitude of allegations of sexual and racist misconduct which recently became public at Fox News in NYC – should provide proof that further consideration be given to the possibility that he is not.
Murdoch’s organization appears to be guilty of a cesspool of journalistic abuses of the public stewardship entrusted to him - by the people of America - through the grants of the FCC broadcast licenses his company controls. I pray that Britain will not make the same mistake, by enabling him to take full control of Sky TV.
Leading up to his abuse of media power in the United States, mega Billionaire Keith Rupert Murdoch appears to have been practicing the propagandist darks arts in Britain. Buckle up and here we go.
Click here to read the rest of our report on Fox News Fake News?
Is Fox News the Biggest and the Original Fake News?
Has Rupert Murdoch’s Global Propaganda Machine been Publishing & Broadcasting Fake News for Decades?
July 13, 2017 / Murdoch Media Madness Section / NYC Business & Politics / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.
I. Hillsborough - 1989
Murdoch’s Bizarro World Begins where The Truth is discredited as a Lie and the Lies are asserted as Truth
The Hillsborough Incident of 1989 wherein according to Digital Spy report on September 13, 2012 Murdoch’s Sun had reported that the
“police and emergency services made strenuous attempts to deflect the blame for the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans at the FA Cup semi-final on April 15, 1989 on to innocent fans … [the Sun story] alleged that fans picked pockets of victims, urinated on brave cops and beat-up PC’s giving the kiss of life.” They did this under the headline entitled ‘The Truth’.
Fast forward 23 years later, after a long drawn out court battle, and we finally hear the truth.
According to the same Digital Spy story,
“Under the headline ‘The Real Truth’ Mohan [the editor] wrote, “… The Sun … published an inaccurate and offensive story about the events at Hillsborough. We said it was the truth – it wasn’t. … The Sun is deeply ashamed and profoundly sorry … “
Murdoch’s British newspapers were so deeply sorry that both Murdoch’s The Sun and The Times – both of which had stoked the same fake news story – reportedly moved their apology off the front page before the end of the day / evening editions [see graphic]. But it’s a Bizzaro world at the Murdoch propaganda factory where white means black and sorry means go fuck yourselves.
II. It’s the Sun Wot Won It - 1992
Murdoch’s Sun Announces its Propaganda Win for John Major in 1992
Take from prior report of Sept 2016
III. Bush Wins - 2000
Premature Election Victory Reported by NY Post & Fox News in November 2000 which some believe was a ‘Media Coup d’etat”
A bit after 2 am on the morning after election day of November 2000, Murdoch’s Fox News reversed its call the prior night that Al Gore had won Florida and Fox called the state for Florida in favor of Bush. The NY Post echoed Fox News call in the morning paper in New York City giving that premature declaration of Bush as a winner enough momentum to make it presumed true.
At the time Fox reported the victory it was fake news because it was very unclear which candidate had won. The vote came to within 224 votes after Fox made the call, which I believe is enough to validly call for a recount.
According to History Commons website [www.historycommons.org] – which is a great source for many other Fox News erroneous reports – Democratic Congressman (CA) Henry Waxman made the following statement in a February 14, 2001 House Committee Hearing on Fox News’ premature call.
““[O]f everything that happened on election night this was the most important in impact. It created a presumption that George Bush won the election. It set in motion a chain of events that were devastating to Al Gore’s chances and it immeasurably helped George Bush maintain the idea in people’s minds than he was the man who won the election.”
Murdoch’s propaganda machine may have stolen the election from the candidate he opposed [Al Gore] by using his propaganda outlets assertively to promote his political choice [George W. Bush] in what one pundit termed a ‘Media Coup d’etat”
IV. WMD / Weapons of Mass Destruction - 2002 - 2003
The Fake News that Launched a Trillion Dollar War & Boosted Cable News Ratings
On April 3, 2003 the NYT did a story headlined Mr. Murdoch’s War attributing the Iraq War to Murdoch’s personal lobbying for it in Australia, Britain and the U.S., as well as all of his media properties unanimously beating the war drums to the public.
The war was based on reports [designed to?] which scared to public into thinking the nation had no other choice. Sadam Hussein has WMD – Weapons of Mass Destruction – we were told.
Pulitzer Prize winner David Barstow did an expose in April 20, 2008 in the NYT, which alleged the Pentagon had devised a propaganda program using RMA’s – Retired Military Analysts to go on network TV and support the war. Many of these Retired Military Analysts stood to benefit from contracts or lobbying gigs from the war.
In Barstow’s story he tells us that,
“Robert L. Maginnis, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who works in the Pentagon for a military contractor, attended the same briefing and recalled feeling “very disappointed” after being shown satellite photographs purporting to show bunkers associated with a hidden weapons program. Mr. Maginnis said he concluded that the analysts were being “manipulated” to convey a false sense of certainty about the evidence of the weapons. Yet he and Mr. Bevelacqua and the other analysts who attended the briefing did not share any misgivings with the American public.
Mr. Bevelacqua and another Fox analyst, Mr. Cowan, had formed the wvc3 Group, and hoped to win military and national security contracts.
“There’s no way I was going to go down that road and get completely torn apart,” Mr. Bevelacqua said. “You’re talking about fighting a huge machine.””
In an October 7, 2004 report on Fox News entitled ‘No WMD Made After 1991’, we are told,
“… Vice President Dick Cheney said in an Aug. 26, 2002 speech, 6 1/2 months before the invasion, that "simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies and against us."
Barstow’s report tells us that,
“Over time the Pentagon recruited more than 75 retired officers … the largest contingent was affiliated with Fox News, followed by NBC and CNN, the other networks with 24-hour cable outlets.”
I think it’s worth mentioning here that the RMA’s on network TV outlets story wasn’t given much airtime on any of the networks [the other networks were apparently ‘less’ used] except PBS, which according to Wikipedia, aired two stories.
Another story not getting any airtime is that former VP Dick Cheney and Rupert Murdoch are partners [again?] in Genie Oil, which bought the development rights from Israel for the illegally occupied section of Golan Heights in Syria. Do a search and confirm for yourself and then ask yourself if you think that Murdoch’s oil investment has anything to do with President Trump going back on his promise to focus on America first, dropping the MOAB in Syria and most recently cutting a deal to go into Syria with Russia?
V. The Dean Scream – January 2004
One Distorted / Edited Sound Recording, with Background Noise Minimized, Sinks a Promising Insurgent Candidacy for President
An April 4, 2011 report in Accuracy In Media [www.aim.org] entitled ‘Howard Dean: Fox News is Propaganda, MSNBC’s Facts are True’ author Don Irvine tells us that Howard Dean said that,
“…the difference between Fox and MSNBC is that they’re biased, because they both are, but Fox often says things that they know aren’t true and they say them anyway. He went on to say that Fox isn’t a news organization but an incredibly well funded right-wing propaganda organization.”
“Dean also briefly mentioned that his now famous Dean Scream from 2004 wasn’t what it seemed and that it looked different once Fox was finished with it.”
I was following Howard Dean’s candidacy at the time and I heard it aired multiple times, including on the other networks [Wikipedia says 633 times in four days by all the media]. If my memory serves me correctly, only ABC showed the Dean Scream in its proper context, which was that Dean was yelling amidst an ecstatic crowd and could barely be heard, but the recording aired only broadcast him yelling into the microphone.
VI. Murdoch's Fox's Right to Lie? – 1996 / 2003
Fox News Wins Verdict wherein it Asserted the Right to Fire People at One of its Stations who didn’t Want to Allow Edits to Their Work that the People Knew to be False
Here’s what I believe to be the most accurate summary of this story by Campaign Freedom org in a November 2003 post entitled ‘Fox, Lies & Videotape: debunking an internet myth.
“While WTVT has raised a number of challenges to the judgment obtained by Akre, we need not address each challenge because we find as a threshold matter that Akre failed to state a claim under the whistle-blower’s statute. The portion of the whistle-blower’s statute pertinent to this appeal prohibits retaliation against employees who have “[d]isclosed, or threatened to disclose,” employer conduct that “is in violation of” a law, rule, or regulation. § 448.102(1)(3). The statute defines a “law, rule or regulation” as “includ[ing] any statute or . . . any rule or regulation adopted pursuant to any federal, state, or local statute or ordinance applicable to the employer and pertaining to the business.” § 448.101(4), Fla. Stat. (1997). We agree with WTVT that the FCC’s policy against the intentional falsification of the news – which the FCC has called its “news distortion policy” – does not qualify as the required “law, rule, or regulation” under section 448.102.
The FCC has never published its news distortion policy as a regulation with definitive elements and defenses. Instead, the FCC has developed the policy through the adjudicatory process in decisions resolving challenges to broadcasters’ licenses…”
Sorry, but …
In the interest of getting this out prior to the end of the Ofcom comment period ending on July 14, 2017 – I have to end here.
Since 2004 Murdoch’s propaganda machine has probably grown bolder, if anything. They reportedly dropped their slogan ‘Fair & Balanced’ because too many people were mocking it. A June 14, 2017 report in The Blaze quotes “New York Magazine’s Gabrielle Sherman [said] One insider told the outlet that it had ‘been mocked’ while another executive said the tagline was “too closely associated with Roger”.
I documented what appeared to be Murdoch’s Fox News propagandist reporting of the 2016 Republican and Democratic Party Conventions of 2016, wherein most of the negatives were directed at Clinton and most of the positives directed toward Trump by about a 9/1 marin going both ways.
I reported on what appeared to be Murdoch’s Fox News and NY Post propagandist attack coverage of allegations and innuendo about NYC Mayor de Blasio beginning in April 2016. The Mayor was never charged after a review by a Grand Jury.
This section contains all the reports mentioned above and a whole lot more about Rupert Murdoch's propaganda machines like Fox News, the NY Post, the WSJ, the Sun, the London Times - many of which disseminate fake news.
Here are some other sources you might find of interest.
- NYT story on June 7, 2017 entitled Russian Propaganda Spread from Parody Website to Fox News by MacFarouhar & Rossback.
- Jon Stewart of Comedy Central – type in Fox propaganda on Youtube.
- OutFoxed – also on Youtube has a number of videos that might be of interest.
- Look up Fox News Death Panels with Hannity & Sarah Palin.
- Or Fox News Obama Birth Certificate
- Or Fox News and darkening Obama’s skin color
Since Trump it appears Murdoch's Fox Propaganda Machine Falsehoods, Deceptions, Chaos, Distractions & Spins are in Overdrive
- OReilly’s false / phony Swedish immigration problem story – not the guy’s name / never had the title and was living in Montana.
- Hannity on McCain, the death of Seth, pro Russia vs FBI, pro Assange vs CIA, Immigration depiction like O’Reilly, beats down Republican Party, Comey & FBI
- Hannity tells Trump on show to Fire U.S. Attorneys & he does it w/in 24 hours
A lie travels … before shoes on truth. These days it seems nearly impossible for anyone to keep up with the lies and distortions disseminated by Murdoch’s organization on nearly a daily basis.
IT SEEMS THERE ARE JUST TOO DAMNED MANY TO KEEP UP WITH
Australia - Birthplace of the Murdoch Monster?
And then there’s Australia where Murdoch has over 60% of the newspapers and control of the dominant TV network and cable?
The previous Prime Minister, Tony Abbot, used to be an employee of one of Murdoch’s propaganda outlets. You don’t get a more puppet government than that. And I think monopoly control of media disqualifies you as a real democracy.
And Australia no longer has much regulatory oversight on the books with regard to its telecommunications industry. Wonder why?
You’ll have to confirm this, but I believe in Australia foreigners can own as much media as they want, and foreigners [including governments?] can spend as much as they want on media leading up to political campaigns.
If you love your country and / or your children, you will reject with great finality, Murdoch’s effort to take control of Sky TV.
And then you’ll write or reinstate the media laws that limit foreign ownership, limit number of outlets and types of media owned in any market, and limit total coverage nationally, so that multiple voices may be heard. That is, afterall, what democracy is all about.
In America I think they were pretty wisely laid out in the early / mid 1940’s - right around the end of WWII in the FCC rules.
Good luck. I’ll clean this up and add visuals, when I can find the time.
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