After reading Devona Walker's piece on Fox News's blatant use of racism to promote its far right agenda ( "Glenn Beck Outdoes David Duke In Shameless Race Baiting", Alternet, 8/10) I came to a rather simple conclusion. A subsequent reading of Max Blumenthal's updated epilogue to his book "Republican Gomorra" on the same site only kicked in the point.
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Rupert Murdoch ain't no friend of mine.
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Now here's a guy who's built a media empire using our lesser instincts to construct a temple (FOX News) dedicated to our own hatred, a hatred that, coincidently, makes a "ka-ching" sound for our boy every time it rears its ugly head. As if a demented charlatan, Murdoch's turned our self-loathing outward with an exaggerated, pre-packaged flourish featuring clinical aberrations the likes of Orly Taitz, Andrew Brietbart and Ryan Sorba to tease the show along. And, like it or not, it's still working like a charm.
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I knew Murdoch was trouble from the day I first read about him back in the day. A driven Aussie -- all pluck and cheek and outsized ambition with enough charisma to reach the stadium seats -- out to conquer the world. There was a hint of menace to the article, an almost veiled indictment of future crimes, a kind of "What if?" that seemed almost too horrible to contemplate. But contemplate we must as "What if?" rapidly devolves to a grim and flustered "What now?"
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A rich boy from the get-go (his father ran a chain of Australian dailies), Murdoch bared his teeth early on, dropping into Pop's shoes and never looking back as he clawed his way through home media (and politics) before extending his reach to include New Zealand, then England and then beyond. Dropping anchor on these shores in the late 70s he soon cast aside citizenship in the country of his birth, the newly-minted eminence grise taking the star-spangled pledge just in time for Clinton's media de-regulation -- and that's a knife, mate.
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No slouch, Murdoch caught the right-wing wave as the swells had only begun to churn, picking sides with the calculated audacity of a Machiavelli all dolled up like Lonesome Rhodes. Launching Fox News in 1996 he cuddled up to any corporate shoulder that would have him... and they were soon paying way more than scale. Aligning himself with the right if only for business purposes he cultivated the emerging neocon faction like a florist with an orchid, nurturing the principle characters until they near burst.
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