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| Rupert Murdoch in his pirate persona |
To illustrate the scope of the carrot / stick behavior of Rupert Murdoch and his corruption, was this latest story from the UK, about how Murdoch media tried to gather dirt to pressure, even blackmail, members of parliament in the UK:
From the Independent:
According to Mr Thurlbeck, reporters were told by those in "deepcarpetland" to obtain evidence of affairs or gay relationships. The aim, he claimed, was to "to find as much embarrassing sleaze on as many members as possible in order to blackmail them into backing off from its highly forensic inquiry into phone hacking". In a letter – a copy of which has been obtained by The Independent – to the Deputy Assistant Commissioner leading the Met's inquiries into News International, Sue Akers, Mr Watson wrote: "If these allegations are found to be true, it suggests there was a conspiracy to blackmail."
Yet Another Survey: Fox News Viewers Worst-Informed, NPR Listeners Best-Informed
by Andrew Kirell | 10:29 am, May 23rd, 2012
» 264 comments
A new survey from Farleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind finds that people who watch no news at all can answer more questions about international current events than people who watch cable news outlets like Fox News and MSNBC. The survey also finds that Fox News viewers are the worst-informed on domestic and international current events, while NPR listeners are the best-informed.The poll report claims that “NPR and Sunday morning political talk shows are the most informative news outlets, while exposure to partisan sources, such as Fox News and MSNBC, has a negative impact on people’s current events knowledge.”
Each surveyed individual was asked four of the eight questions listed at the bottom of this post. People who watch MSNBC and CNN exclusively were able to answer questions about domestic events than people who watch no news at all. Only people who watch Fox did worse than people who watch no news at all. NPR listeners answered more questions correctly than people in any other category. Here’s a breakdown of the results:
The report says of its findings on Fox News:
The largest effect is that of Fox News: all else being equal, someone who watched only Fox News would be expected to answer just 1.04 domestic questions correctly — a figure which is significantly worse than if they had reported watching no media at all. On the other hand, if they listened only to NPR, they would be expected to answer 1.51 questions correctly; viewers of Sunday morning talk shows fare similarly well. And people watching only The Daily Show with Jon Stewart could answer about 1.42 questions correctly.The survey also controlled for partisanship. Cable news viewers answered more questions correctly when their political views aligned with those of the outlets they watched. Moderates and liberals who watch only Fox did worse than the conservatives who watch it. Similarly for MSNBC, its conservative viewers struggled compared to the liberal viewers. FDU political scientist Dan Cassino said this shows that “Ideological news sources, like Fox and MSNBC, are really just talking to one audience. [...] This is solid evidence that if you’re not in that audience, you’re not going to get anything out of watching them.”
The findings are similar to another FDU survey conducted last November. A few of my Mediaite colleagues debated the methodology of that survey, which involved calling only 612 New Jersey residents. But this time, FDU surveyed 1,185 random people by landline and cell phone.
Update: Fox News responded to the University, as this is the second study from the university saying the same:
“Considering FDU’s undergraduate school is ranked as one of the worst in the country,” said the FNC spokesperson, “we suggest the school invest in improving its weak academic program instead of spending money on frivolous polling – their student body does not deserve to be so ill-informed.”SURVEY QUESTIONS:
• To the best of your knowledge, have the opposition groups protesting in Egypt been successful in removing Hosni Mubarak?
• How about the opposition groups in Syria? Have they been successful in removing Bashar al-Assad?
• Some countries in Europe are deeply in debt, and have had to be bailed out by other countries. To the best of your knowledge, which country has had to spend the most money to bail out European countries?
• There have been increasing talks about economic sanctions against Iran. What are these sanctions supposed to do?
• Which party has the most seats in the House of Representatives right now?
• In December, House Republicans agreed to a short-term extension of a payroll tax cut, but only if President Obama agreed to do what?
• It took a long time to get the final results of the Iowa caucuses for Republican candidates. In the end, who was declared the winner?
• How about the New Hampshire Primary? Which Republican won that race?
• According to official figures, about what percentage of Americans are currently unemployed?
(H/T Poynter)
and here is the story about the revelation - not really much of a surprise, is it? - exposing the corrupt ALEC / Murdoch connection. We need to hold ALEC accountable, we need to demand they shut down, that they cease to corrupt our government, that they end their secrecy, and most of all, that they lose their tax exempt status which they do not deserve.
Here is the story from PR Watch:
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Is an ALEC Member
Yes, News Corp. is an ALEC member. It has funded ALEC operations.
Documents obtained and released by Common Cause show that News Corp. was a member of ALEC's Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force as of April 2010. Adam Peshek, who staffs ALEC's Education Task Force, told Education Week that News Corp. has been a member of both ALEC's Education Task Force and Communications and Technology Task Force since January 2012. However, the public does not have complete records indicating when News Corp. first started supporting ALEC or the duration of its involvement on these two task forces or other ALEC task forces, if any, in 2011 and prior years. (The Common Cause documents begin in 2010, and ALEC has stopped circulating its task force member list even to other task force members.)
Rupert MurdochNews Corp. also owned News of the World, the tabloid that closed its doors in the wake of the UK phone-hacking scandal. Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, the British newspaper subsidiary of News Corp., has been charged with attempting to conceal evidence in the case. Her husband and four close associates have also been charged.
Rupert Murdoch and his son James, the former executive chairman of News International, have not been charged but testified together before a UK Parliamentary committee. James Murdoch stepped down from his position as chairman of News International in February 2012 before it folded, and in April 2012 he also resigned as chairman of the board of broadcaster BSkyB. James Murdoch has testified three times before Parliamentary committees, most recently in April 2012, when he again "blamed his subordinates for keeping him ill-informed about the extent of hacking at newspapers then under his control," according to the New York Times.
Emails released in April 2012 also indicate collaboration between a News Corp. lobbyist and the office of Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt, who would have made the decision on News Corp.'s bid for BSkyB. This expanded the focus of the investigation to the political influence of News Corp. UK Prime Minister James Cameron has been a close friend of Rebekah and Charlie Brooks. James Murdoch attended Christmas Dinner with Cameron and the Brookses in 2010.
In July 2011, the US Department of Justice said it had spoken to the UK's Serious Fraud Office about how to investigate claims that News Corp.'s News of the World title had paid police for information. According to the BBC, "The US Department of Justice's interest in News Corp. stems from the fact that its headquarters are in New York, but its shares are listed in both the US and Australia. It is illegal for any US company to pay bribes to overseas officials, under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act."
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 was introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senator William Proxmire from Wisconsin and prohibits bribing any foreign official for business gain. Multinational corporations involved in ALEC and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are working to carve out major exceptions in the law to make it harder to enforce.
University of Arizona education professor Kenneth Goodman suspects that Murdoch is bringing his conservative ideology to his education ventures: "They'd like everything to be privatized," he told Mother Jones last year.
Notably, in the summer of 2011, New York state considered a $27 million contract with Wireless Generation to track student performance. The New York teachers' unions objected to this outsourcing. "It is especially troubling that Wireless Generation will be tasked with creating a centralized database for personal student information even as its parent company, News Corporation, stands accused of engaging in illegal news-gathering tactics," representatives from the state and New York City teachers' unions wrote. The state decided against the contract, citing "vendor responsibility issues involving the parent company of Wireless Generation."
About a year after the purchase of Wireless Generation, in September 2011, Murdoch was the keynote speaker at former Florida governor Jeb Bush's education "reform" summit. Jeb Bush is the Chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, an ALEC member organization that hosted the summit.
According to Mother Jones, Murdoch's "speech to a collection of conservative ed reformers, state legislators, and educators is just the latest step in Murdoch's quiet march into the business of education, which has been somewhat eclipsed by the phone-hacking scandal besieging his media empire." MoJo reported that his agenda in the "business of education" seems to be to divert taxpayer dollars away from public schools into for-profit education outfits, including online schools, private charter schools, and homeschooling services.
In the months following that gathering, Murdoch also donated to ex-DC school chancellor Michelle Rhee's new group, StudentsFirst, which according to The Nation "has pledged to spend more than $1 billion to bring for-profit schools, including virtual education, to the entire country by electing reform-friendly candidates and hiring top-notch state lobbyists." At an earlier Media Institute awards dinner in Washington shortly before he bought a financial stake in privatizing education through purchasing Wireless Generation, Murdoch called Rhee a "bona fide reformer."
As CMD has reported, ALEC's education agenda encompasses a more than 20-year effort to privatize public education through an ever-expanding network of school voucher systems, which divert taxpayer dollars away from public schools to private schools. ALEC bills also divert public funds into private charter schools or for-profit internet school corporations. ALEC bills also allow public and for-profit schools to loosen standards for teachers and administrators, change the education plans for students with physical disabilities and special educational needs, escape the protections of collective bargaining agreements, and aid other pet causes such as diverting tax dollars to subsidize schools focused on the right-wing political and religious indoctrination of students. Learn more about ALEC's education agenda in The Nation here.
At the meeting April 2010 meeting attended by Guidera, the task force hosted a panel on the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan. The Reason Foundation's Steve Titch, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association's (NCTA's) Rick Cimerman, and AT&T's Hank Hultquist discussed the National Broadband Plan. Intuit's Jim Ruda presented on and introduced a proposed "Resolution on Government Tax Preparation & Electronic Filing." The resolution was approved by the legislative and private sector members of the task force. (Intuit subsequently dropped ALEC this spring in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting and other controversial information about ALECs agenda and operations, as documented by CMD/ALECexposed.)
Additionally, NetChoice's Braden Cox discussed the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which relates to requirements for law enforcement access to internet and other online or stored records. And Rep. John Evans (R-PA) discussed legal penalties and approaches to the problem of "sexting," sexually explicit communications on cell phones by teens. NetChoice also introduced a proposed "Resolution Opposing the Expansion of the Federal Trade Commission's Rulemaking Authority." The resolution was approved by the task force's private sector and public sector members.
News Corp. is a multinational, multi-platform media conglomerate. The ALEC Communications and Technology Task Force, on which News Corp. has a seat, has long had a far-reaching agenda to deregulate the communications industry and has opposed key protections of the public's airwaves for ordinary citizens, such as "net neutrality" and the "Fairness Doctrine." However, News Corp.'s particular business interests in the jurisdiction of this ALEC task force are not fully known.
Color of Change, along with CMD, Common Cause, People for the American Way, and others are now asking Amazon, State Farm, AT&T, and Johnson & Johnson to cut ties with ALEC.
Documents obtained and released by Common Cause show that News Corp. was a member of ALEC's Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force as of April 2010. Adam Peshek, who staffs ALEC's Education Task Force, told Education Week that News Corp. has been a member of both ALEC's Education Task Force and Communications and Technology Task Force since January 2012. However, the public does not have complete records indicating when News Corp. first started supporting ALEC or the duration of its involvement on these two task forces or other ALEC task forces, if any, in 2011 and prior years. (The Common Cause documents begin in 2010, and ALEC has stopped circulating its task force member list even to other task force members.)
News Corp.'s News of the World Phone-Hacking Scandal
Rupert MurdochNews Corp. also owned News of the World, the tabloid that closed its doors in the wake of the UK phone-hacking scandal. Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, the British newspaper subsidiary of News Corp., has been charged with attempting to conceal evidence in the case. Her husband and four close associates have also been charged.Rupert Murdoch and his son James, the former executive chairman of News International, have not been charged but testified together before a UK Parliamentary committee. James Murdoch stepped down from his position as chairman of News International in February 2012 before it folded, and in April 2012 he also resigned as chairman of the board of broadcaster BSkyB. James Murdoch has testified three times before Parliamentary committees, most recently in April 2012, when he again "blamed his subordinates for keeping him ill-informed about the extent of hacking at newspapers then under his control," according to the New York Times.
Emails released in April 2012 also indicate collaboration between a News Corp. lobbyist and the office of Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt, who would have made the decision on News Corp.'s bid for BSkyB. This expanded the focus of the investigation to the political influence of News Corp. UK Prime Minister James Cameron has been a close friend of Rebekah and Charlie Brooks. James Murdoch attended Christmas Dinner with Cameron and the Brookses in 2010.
In July 2011, the US Department of Justice said it had spoken to the UK's Serious Fraud Office about how to investigate claims that News Corp.'s News of the World title had paid police for information. According to the BBC, "The US Department of Justice's interest in News Corp. stems from the fact that its headquarters are in New York, but its shares are listed in both the US and Australia. It is illegal for any US company to pay bribes to overseas officials, under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act."
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 was introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senator William Proxmire from Wisconsin and prohibits bribing any foreign official for business gain. Multinational corporations involved in ALEC and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are working to carve out major exceptions in the law to make it harder to enforce.
News Corp.'s New Interest in Privatizing Education
When News Corp. acquired Wireless Generation, a for-profit online education, software, and testing corporation, for $360 million in cash in 2010, Rupert Murdoch called the for-profit K-12 education industry "a $500 billion sector in the US alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed." A few weeks before the closing of the deal, News Corp. hired Joel Klein, then the chancellor of New York City schools, to run its education division.University of Arizona education professor Kenneth Goodman suspects that Murdoch is bringing his conservative ideology to his education ventures: "They'd like everything to be privatized," he told Mother Jones last year.
Notably, in the summer of 2011, New York state considered a $27 million contract with Wireless Generation to track student performance. The New York teachers' unions objected to this outsourcing. "It is especially troubling that Wireless Generation will be tasked with creating a centralized database for personal student information even as its parent company, News Corporation, stands accused of engaging in illegal news-gathering tactics," representatives from the state and New York City teachers' unions wrote. The state decided against the contract, citing "vendor responsibility issues involving the parent company of Wireless Generation."
About a year after the purchase of Wireless Generation, in September 2011, Murdoch was the keynote speaker at former Florida governor Jeb Bush's education "reform" summit. Jeb Bush is the Chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, an ALEC member organization that hosted the summit.
According to Mother Jones, Murdoch's "speech to a collection of conservative ed reformers, state legislators, and educators is just the latest step in Murdoch's quiet march into the business of education, which has been somewhat eclipsed by the phone-hacking scandal besieging his media empire." MoJo reported that his agenda in the "business of education" seems to be to divert taxpayer dollars away from public schools into for-profit education outfits, including online schools, private charter schools, and homeschooling services.
In the months following that gathering, Murdoch also donated to ex-DC school chancellor Michelle Rhee's new group, StudentsFirst, which according to The Nation "has pledged to spend more than $1 billion to bring for-profit schools, including virtual education, to the entire country by electing reform-friendly candidates and hiring top-notch state lobbyists." At an earlier Media Institute awards dinner in Washington shortly before he bought a financial stake in privatizing education through purchasing Wireless Generation, Murdoch called Rhee a "bona fide reformer."
News Corp. and the ALEC Education Agenda
Although ALEC's new staffer for its Education Task Force told the press that News Corp. became a private sector member of that task force just four months ago, the prior task force staffer, David Myslinski, told Education Week that the fact that News Corp.'s new subsidiary, Wireless Generation, had previously been an ALEC member (from 2007 to 2009, according to a Wireless Generation spokesperson) could have led the subsidiary to being listed mistakenly on the Education Task Force meeting agenda as a new member in place of its parent, News Corp.As CMD has reported, ALEC's education agenda encompasses a more than 20-year effort to privatize public education through an ever-expanding network of school voucher systems, which divert taxpayer dollars away from public schools to private schools. ALEC bills also divert public funds into private charter schools or for-profit internet school corporations. ALEC bills also allow public and for-profit schools to loosen standards for teachers and administrators, change the education plans for students with physical disabilities and special educational needs, escape the protections of collective bargaining agreements, and aid other pet causes such as diverting tax dollars to subsidize schools focused on the right-wing political and religious indoctrination of students. Learn more about ALEC's education agenda in The Nation here.
News Corp. and the ALEC Communications Agenda
ALEC's news education staffer, Peshek, said that News Corp. also joined the Communications and Technology Task Force in January 2012. However, records obtained by Common Cause show that News Corp.'s Senior Vice President, Bill Guidera, attended ALEC's April 2010 Spring Task Force Summit in St. Louis, Missouri, as a member of what was then called the Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force. The reason for this discrepancy between documentary evidence and ALEC's recent public statements about this is not known.At the meeting April 2010 meeting attended by Guidera, the task force hosted a panel on the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan. The Reason Foundation's Steve Titch, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association's (NCTA's) Rick Cimerman, and AT&T's Hank Hultquist discussed the National Broadband Plan. Intuit's Jim Ruda presented on and introduced a proposed "Resolution on Government Tax Preparation & Electronic Filing." The resolution was approved by the legislative and private sector members of the task force. (Intuit subsequently dropped ALEC this spring in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting and other controversial information about ALECs agenda and operations, as documented by CMD/ALECexposed.)
Additionally, NetChoice's Braden Cox discussed the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which relates to requirements for law enforcement access to internet and other online or stored records. And Rep. John Evans (R-PA) discussed legal penalties and approaches to the problem of "sexting," sexually explicit communications on cell phones by teens. NetChoice also introduced a proposed "Resolution Opposing the Expansion of the Federal Trade Commission's Rulemaking Authority." The resolution was approved by the task force's private sector and public sector members.
News Corp. is a multinational, multi-platform media conglomerate. The ALEC Communications and Technology Task Force, on which News Corp. has a seat, has long had a far-reaching agenda to deregulate the communications industry and has opposed key protections of the public's airwaves for ordinary citizens, such as "net neutrality" and the "Fairness Doctrine." However, News Corp.'s particular business interests in the jurisdiction of this ALEC task force are not fully known.
The Rush to Dump ALEC
16 corporations have announced they have cut ties to ALEC in recent weeks, including Amazon.com, Scantron Corporation, Kaplan Higher Education, Procter & Gamble, YUM! Brands, Blue Cross Blue Shield, American Traffic Solutions, Reed Elsevier, Arizona Public Service, Mars, Wendy's, McDonald's, Intuit, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, and Coca-Cola. Four non-profits -- including Lumina Foundation for Education, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA), the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), and the Gates Foundation -- have cut ties to ALEC, bringing the total number of ALEC private sector members who have left to 19. In addition, 54 state legislators have also left ALEC in the past two months.Color of Change, along with CMD, Common Cause, People for the American Way, and others are now asking Amazon, State Farm, AT&T, and Johnson & Johnson to cut ties with ALEC.
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