THE PROPOGANDISTS
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It was part political spectacle, part American Idol , part YouTube extravaganza, a pure Roger Ailes production—and the latest sign that the Fox News chairman is quietly repositioning America’s dominant cable-news channel. Hours before last week’s presidential debate in Orlando, Ailes’s anchors sat in a cavernous back room, hunched over laptops, and plotted how to trap the candidates. Chris Wallace said he would aim squarely at Rick Perry’s weakness: “How do you feel about being criticized by some of your rivals as being too soft on illegal immigration?
Roger Ailes Repositions Fox News
James Murdoch and his brother Lachlan, sons of billionaire Rupert Murdoch , should be replaced on the News Corp. (NWSA) board to improve accountability at the company, an Australian pension fund group said. The brothers and four other board members shouldn’t be re- elected because the company needs “credible skilled outside directors,” the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors, whose members manage more than A$250 billion ($244 billion) in pension assets, said on its website. Enlarge image News Corp.
Murdoch Sons’ News Corp. Re-Election Opposed
TV News Outlets Ignore Keystone XL Email Release
The environmental group Friends of the Earth released e-mails this week revealing a cozy and collaborative relationship between TransCanada Corporation lobbyist Paul Elliott and an employee at the U.S. State Department, the agency currently weighing approval of TransCanada's permit application for the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. A New York Times report notes that the emails show the State Department official providing "subtle coaching and cheerleading" for TransCanada: A State Department official provided Fourth of July party invitations, subtle coaching and cheerleading, and inside information about Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton's meetings to a Washington lobbyist for a Canadian company seeking permission from the department to build a pipeline that would carry crude from the oil sands of Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
Rupert Murdoch should be voted off News Corp. board, advisors say
An influential consulting firm is advising that shareholders vote News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch and 12 others off the board of directors of the media giant at its annual meeting later this month. Calling the phone-hacking scandal that led News Corp. to close its British News of the World tabloid and has led to government probes of the company both in England and the United States, a "failure of board stewardship," Institutional Shareholder Services said Monday that an overhaul was necessary. News Corp. is scheduled to hold its annual meeting on Oct. 21 in Los Angeles. "The company’s phone-hacking scandal, which began its public denouement in July 2011, has laid bare a striking lack of stewardship and failure of independence by a board whose inability to set a strong tone-at-the-top about unethical business practices has now resulted in enormous costs — financial, legal, regulatory, reputational, and opportunity — for the shareholders the board ostensibly serves," ISS said.
Fox Business launches war on 'anti-corporate' Muppets
Do we really have to do this? C'mon. I mean ... c'mon : It ain't easy being green, but according to Fox Business, Kermit the Frog and his Muppet friends are reds. Last week, on the network's "Follow the Money" program, host Eric Bolling went McCarthy on the new, Disney-released film, "The Muppets," insisting that its storyline featuring an evil oil baron made it the latest example of Hollywood's so-called liberal agenda. Bolling, who took issue with the baron's name, Tex Richman, was joined by Dan Gainor of the conservative Media Research Center, who was uninhibited with his criticism.
As Fox News celebrates its 15th anniversary, Media Matters looks back on 15 of the network's most outlandish smears since 2004. Fox News: Kerry Just Loves His Manicures. Loves them! On October 1, 2004, Fox chief political correspondent Carl Cameron wrote a fake news story about Sen.
15 Years & Smears With Fox News
Rep. Maxine Waters (Getty Images) Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. says that it's important for Democrats to up the ante during these arduous political times and points out that Rep.
Democrats Need to Take on the Tea Party
Phone hacking: Jonathan Ross has claimed his phone was targeted – but not just by the News of the World. Photograph: Jonathan Hordle/Rex Features Jonathan Ross has said he is convinced his phone was hacked – but not just by the News of the World .
Jonathan Ross: I was a phone-hacking victim | Media
Qatar-run Al Jazeera announced this morning in a statement that Wadah Khanfar , the network’s director of eight-years, has resigned and is to be replaced by a member of the royal family. Khanfar has been credited with both revolutionizing the Arab media landscape and extending Al Jazeera’s global reach. Khanfar explained this morning on his well-kept twitter that he has “ served Al Jazeera with pride as a correspondent, bureau chief, managing director and director-general ” and “ Everyone will agree that Al Jazeera is stronger than ever ,” but that “ 8 years is a long time to be leading a Network. Renewal and change is always good. ” T he Gaurdian notes, however, that his departure is “a sudden and dramatic move at a time of unprecedented turmoil across the Middle East.” While Al Jazeera’s official statement makes clear that Khanfar’s resignation has been planned since the beginning of the summer, but there might be something more to timing.
Al Jazeera Director Resigns Following Wikileaks Release Showing Close Ties To U.S. Government
On August 2, President Obama signed the Budget Control Act, a controversial compromise bill that raised the nation's debt ceiling in order to avoid default while also cutting government spending by hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade. Many economists criticized the deal, saying that budget cuts would only weaken the economy and further drive up unemployment. But their voices were largely absent from CNN's, Fox News', and MSNBC's coverage of the debt-ceiling negotiations. Of the 1,258 guest appearances during segments that discussed the issue in the month leading up to the debt deal, only 52 -- or 4.1 percent -- were made by economists. View a larger chart here .
REPORT: Economists Shut Out Of Debt-Ceiling Debate
Writing about government ineptitude or corporate corruption can feel like shaking your fist at the cosmos.
The Other Media Crisis: Irrelevance
Elizabeth Dore After a recent trip to the United States (New York and Texas) we are reminded of the comment by the US journalist Lincoln Steffens after a trip to the Soviet Union in the 1920s, “I have been over to the future and it works”. In the case of what most people call “America” (there is a bit more in the Western Hemisphere than the fifty states plus Puerto Rico), we recommend injecting “doesn’t” between “it” and “works”.