Comments on: Murdoch to media: You dug yourself a huge hole

News Corp.'s feisty CEO slams a culture of "complacency and condescension" but says a fix for an industry healing its self-inflicted wounds remains within reach.

[maggarats]

Mr. Murdoch,
Could not have stated the case better.
Major media has lost their direction, they have become the propaganda wing of the leftist and socialist of our nation. Not much different than what went on in the 30's and 40's in Germany. Control the flow of information, schools, colleges, universities, newspapers, etc and you control the People without firing a shot. And now they want to control talk radio.
There will be a day of reckoning.

[dianeremarx]

This presidential election showed Americans (except the dilusional) that ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC and CNN wanted Obama to win at all cost. They gave up truth, reason and the respect of their readers to make that happen. They should have been ashamed but they weren't. Now they have what they wanted; what they sold their souls. They've won... or have they? I will never watch their news (or other shows) or buy their magazines or papers. They've lost my trust... forever!

Was it worth it?

[sanjosemike]

U.S. NEWS MEDIA: "SAINT OBAMA"

It could get worse.

During the Kennedy years, News Media refused to report that Jack Kennedy slept with everything and everyone who had a skirt. They knew about it for years, but because of his "sanctified" status, they never reported it.

The lack of reporting caused damaged to all of us. J. Edgar Hoover, the fascist, kept a running record of Kennedy's trysts. When Kennedy tried to get rid of Hoover, Hoover blackmailed Kennedy by threatening to out him.

Kennedy left Hoover alone.

Media gave Ted Kennedy a free ride after he murdered Mary Jo Kopechne. The Kennedy Clan paid off the family (I'm sure they're sorry to this day they accepted it).

Now we have "Saint Obama."

I'm not suggesting that Obama will screw around. I hope he doesn't. But if he does, we need to know about it. We have a right to know.

sanjosemike

[PAS824]

The concept of reporting on any given event fairly was tarnished when executives of news corporations began to feel like it was their duty to accomplish any given political goal. The problem is largely due to the amount sponsorships and contributions from outside corporations to media outlets which influence the reports and cause a certain 'bias.' Murdock is right, it's not the fault of either political party but the fault of the editors and executives who have become corrupt in publishing or reporting on stories from a specific angle while having ulterior motives. Journalism and members of the press should some of the most patriotic men and women in the country by recognizing their DUTY to readers to seek truth and act as servants to the public. NOT to those who buy-out their integrity.

[Profssr]

Bravo Mr. Cooper. Excellent article on Mr. Murdoch's opinions about what the newspapers are doing wrong that is alienating readers. I thought the lack of objectivity of the news media including the networks was appalling during the latest election cycle.

[sequel7]

I have always thought that an unbiase and truthful news is the symbol of the freedom of a nation. The self proclaimed bearers of the world's news have destroyed this democracy and for what? They have told me in no uncertain terms who they are and who they are not.

The Gibson, Williams, Couric, Millers, and steponyourfottpolous have become a disgust and a pariaih to my freedom. They should all be removed. and given a role in following lies and distortion somewhere? I will never watch their pontification ever again nor whom they represented.

This election was the most important right for me to be a part of and they and their bosses have deceived the people and the trust of the people. Their attack methods went beyond what truth was and they crippled a nation forever. They have succeeded in presenting America as a deceptive nation to the world and I hope this is realized by all truth loving people. Their acts will go back upon them and they shall get their deserved rewards as they followed the father of all lies.

[K9s-4-k8]

For those that have commented such idiocy like, "...the media has always been harder on dems than republicans" , I don't see much reason to respond anymore as 300 million of your neighbors and family disagree with you.
However, those that believe newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post, or L.A. Times will be going away, think again. After the big 3 bailout is signed by Barack Obama, they will be next in line for bailout. Whether they use the tarp or some other funding, the process is already quietly underway. The reasoning democrats will spin out will be that these meritorious symbols of American tranparency are vital to our democracy. They may try to make it look like some kind of compromise by not introducting Pelosi and Schumer's most sacred "fairness doctrine". This is a no-holds barred assault of free speech and freedom of the press. More specifically, freedom from conservative press.
Ultimately, there is no two ways about it. The leading liberal papers in the land will be bailed out with taxpayer dollars.

[dknelson353]

I cancelled 2 newspaper and 4 magazine subscriptions because of the bias in reporting during the presidential campaign and I do not intend to re-subscribe to any of them. I have lost all faith in most journalists that are out there today, that includes print, radio, and TV. How can we trust anything they say if they can't even make an unbiased report during an election?

[devan95]

This is the real problem - the government/media union complex.
"I am working on another "project" & would like to get some info from you. I am concerned about the influence of unions on the media (including the entertainment industry) and would like to know if the employees at _____ belong to a union? If so, which one and how long has it been there? Tennessee is a right to work state so our employees have the right not to join unions as "union shops" are illegal. I do know that the employees at our local paper are unionized. I don't think the local TV stations are but it's funny that 2 of the 3 are next door to union halls.... If there is extensive unionization in the media, I am researching if/how it influences reporting. And, since many government employees belong to unions, I am also interested in the interaction between media and government union employees. Specifically, does the fact that they are union "brothers" and "sisters" influence which stories get covered and how. For example, it seems we seldom see stories of corruption and/or wrong-doing within the government, media and entertainment unions. Why? We also only seem to see stories of employee wrong-doing in the military, which is non-union, and not in other government agencies such as HUD, OSHA, EPA, EEOC, DOE, within which the employees are unionized. Why? Also, since union member dues are used to support political candidates and most unions favor Democrats, can't it be said that union media members have a built-in bias in favor of Democrats and big government? Any info would be appreciated - and treated as confidential."

[gbauer2]

Having spent years in television news and watching Dan Rather treat his "servants" like they don't exist and seeing Katie Couric scream at her underlings, I wouldn't buy an apple from someone who worked in the old media. They know more about hair and makeup than they know about world events. 60 minutes made an institution out of personal assault journalism and then when it happens to them they act incensed? Papers are useless, you read the same leftist slant in New York that you read in Atlanta. You can predict what they'll say about each topic they cover.
"Gays good-Christians evil and crazy" "Obama smart cause he went to Harvard, Bush dumb even though he went to Yale."
Americans are bored with being told what to think.
"We spent six weeks telling our viewer that Sarah Palin is weird, stupid and dangerous. Then we polled our viewer and found that he thinks that Sarah Palin is weird, stupid and dangerous!
It's insulting.

[JamesFiala]

Dear Mr. Murdock, the media has a one view, I use to get the Post-Dispatch in St. Louis, and it was so one sided that we canceled the paper. We called it the Post-Disgrace. I don't understand why newspapers can be balanced. If for no other reason, to make money, why aggravate half the population. James Fiala

[jojojuan]

"Harvard did a study last year showing that the vast majority of opinion sources on television news were right-leaning"

Toomath, please cite and post the link to this study.
We would like to see what is ACTUALLY says

Thanks

[Yxzr]

There is no point in criticizing the news media, they preach, they don't listen. They get most everything wrong anyway.

[gtfgtfgtfgtfgtfgtfgtf]

It's the economy, stupids....

I have an alternative theory on this election cycle and its coverage: It wasn't ideology this time that sent the media on its Obama love-fest, it was the increasingly dire economic situations of most major news organizations. Here is what he offers them:

1. The first black president - a news story in itself, and one that could bring black viewers and readers, a group that has never consumed much news before this.

2. The first young, functional (which excludes the Clintons...) family in the White House in years. Lots of soft news fluff that people will eat up (Camelot 2, anyone?)

3. His celebrity status will bring his celebrity friends back to Washington. I remember a society "news" story from early in the current administration that bemoaned the fact that the Bushes don't throw parties, don't invite big names, and go to bed early every night. They were making Washington boring again. The members of the media like to celebrity gawk like anyone else, and know that Oprah will sell a LOT more papers than Chuck Norris.

4. The fairness doctrine - it may look like censorship to the Right, but it looks more like an economic bailout to the mainstream media. Put simply, it will eliminate the competition, especially the competition whose key selling point is telling people how crappy the mainstream media is. A decent study would probably show that Rush Limbaugh has been personally responsible for millions of lost newspaper subscribers and nightly news viewers (and even Katie Couric isn't getting paid $400 million). Don't forget, the typical viewer of the nightly news (and the largest consumer of news media overall) has always been old, white, and conservative. Rush, Hannitty, et al have taken those people away.

[Media101]

For years the media has lied until Fox News came along to add the truth.

There are so many reasons not to bother with some news outlets.

Palin's daughter the mother of her Down's baby..(not that anybody wouldn't find out the truth--real stupid lie)

Palin didn't know Africa was a continent was made up by some liberal blogger and given 100% accuracy by the media.
The list can go on and on .......

My most curious question for the bleeding heart liberals...
How do you feel about you (18-25 year olds) or the parents thereof --HOW do you really feel about Obama's "Mandatory Indoctrination Service Corp"?

I bet you didn't even research his agenda......

You trusted the Liberal media feeds.
Big MISTAKE.

Rahm even has an interview on youtube with a reporter asking him about it.

TOO LATE NOW, Canadians need to close the border.
Chew on that one.....stupid.

[binthere222]

The interrnational leftward movement has learned that to take over the political apparatus of a country you must first capture the broadcast news and "entertainment" and turn it into a political re-education tool.

As an example, There are two ways to kill 40 million Americans 1. Thermonuclear war or 2. Send Lawyers and journalists and convince the people that due to "overpopulation" you should pass Roe v. Wade.

Honest journalism is at the bedrock of any democracy.

[AnotherReader]

I'm not surprised. I still remember working with journalism majors at college. I was working as a master control operator at a PBS TV station on campus (it was a job. I was actually paying my own way through college), so I had a LOT of dealings with the assorted journalism majors as they worked on their assorted course credits.

In short, they where mostly idiots. Pretty idiots for the ones who aspired to be TV anchors and reporters, but idiots all the same.

Just look at your average journalism syllabus.

How much math do they need to take? Not much. I was taking harder math classes my freshman year in HIGH SCHOOL!

Science? Give me a break. They aren't required to actually UNDERSTAND how anything works, so long as they can look pretty on TV or type pretty prose.

And the list goes on and on.

Let's just say that working there REALLY lowered my already low opinion of the reporter breed. (And yes, I KNOW there are exceptions! They are just hard to find these days!)

[The_HVF]

Right or left it seems pretty clear that news sources need a return to a more objective editorial policy. And did anyone else notice the irony of Murdoch talking about trust? He has more counts of exploiting political leanings to sell the news than Dan Rather. He owns the Post (Obama), Fox News (McCain), and 173 other news sources. How many papers and advertising slots do you think he sold this last election? How many people angrily turn away from one of his biased news "outlets" only to find comfort in another? Some of you act as if this guy was Mr. Straight-Man just because he talks well.

[eproflab]

toomath is the epidemy of nowaday liberals, and what so called democrats. They have turned their own political party as a religion, a cult! 100% believe with blindness. So blind that they will turn black to white to meet their religious (political party's) agenda. See people like AlGore is stupid enough to claim he invented the internet... and there are people actually believing him. For those who are for AlGore, will blatently twisted the fact to make AlGore look like he did not lie. Do you see that much in news back then! If the conversative, or better yet anyone from the GOP, made such blatent lie, they would have last for more than 3 days because the media would have had them on news every wicked moment.

What sticked in my mind was John Kerry's arrogan wife,... making a statement about Bush's wife never really knows what it is like to have a job or career because she thought Bush's wife was a housewife. My GOODNESS! She blatently demeaned the role of motherhood! See what happened!? Nothing from the media! Nothing from the women's right group! I am a woman. That made me sick! The Women's Right Group's trustworthiess has deminished... just like than the trustworthiness to the news media!!!!!

[ChukarCory]

If the MSM (Main Stream Media) has an honest bone in their broken, putrified remains, they would have to admitt the following; They were overwhelmingly in the tank for Obama. They were overwhelmingly anti-Bush, and therefore anti-McCain. Anyone remember all those democrat attacks that McCain voted with Bush 90% of the time? How come the media never mentioned that Obama voted the democrat party line 96% of the time? How come the media didn't mention that in 2005/2006 Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) tried to pass an oversight bill to place a regulator over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae that might have given us a two or three year head start on fixing the credit crisis. You know how that vote went in congress? Strictly party line with Obama (who later employed the CFO and chief swindler of Fannie Mae, Franklin Raines) of course voting for his friends over at Freddie and Fannie. How come the media didn't mention the more then $800,000 givin tothe Obama campaign by Freddie and Fannie....

One other thing for all you Bush haters: At the end of his administration Mr Bush will have given the Right of Self Determination to 40,000,000 of his fellow humans. Yes it has been expensive, and difficult, and was blundered in many steps, yet this man, this PRESIDENT, stood by bis decisions and has seen them through. Thanks in part to the "surge" (which Obama and his foreign policy genius Biden opposed) Iraq is on the verge of becoming a reasonably stable PRO-WESTERN government in the middle east. If any of you so called Progressive Liberal Elites can tell me a way to actually end Islamic Facism through non-invasive military means, lets hear it.

What we conservatives learned from history is this: We punished Germany after WWI with rediculous impediments, and did nothing while those impediments created a National Socialism Nightmare. All this did was lead to WWII. After that great disaster we took a different tact, one that had the US allowing Germany and Japan to rebuild with dignity and SELF DETERMINATION.

See the connection now?