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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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 Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 12:23 pm Post subject: Murdoch brokers Obama �truce� |
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Rupert Murdoch brokered a �tentative truce� between his Fox News network and Barack Obama at a secret meeting with the Democratic presidential nominee, accor�ding to the author of a book on the News Corp chairman.
Fox News is seen by the Obama campaign as among its most hostile critics. Mr Obama initially rebuffed efforts by the Kennedy family to secure a meeting with News Corp executives, Michael Wolff writes in the current issue of Vanity Fair.
However, Mr Obama agreed this summer to meet Mr Murdoch and Roger Ailes, president of the Fox News Channel, at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York.
While the senator for Illinois was �deferential� towards Mr Murdoch, who also owns the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, he �lit into� Mr Ailes, Mr Wolff reports.
�He said that he didn�t want to waste his time talking to Ailes if Fox was just going to continue to abuse him and his wife, that Fox had relentlessly portrayed him as suspicious, foreign, fearsome � just short of a terrorist,� the report states.
Mr Ailes responded that Fox�s coverage might have been more favourable had Mr Obama been more willing to appear on its programmes. The three men agreed upon �a tentative truce�, Mr Wolff writes.
Nick Shapiro, Obama campaign spokesman, said: �They had an open and frank conversation where they got the opportunity to clear the air.�
Fox News has been accused of below-the-belt coverage of Mr Obama this year. One news segment asked whether a fist-bump greeting between Barack and Michelle Obama � a gesture commonly used by American athletes � was a �terrorist fist-jab�. The network also referred to Michelle Obama as Obama�s �baby mama�, slang that refers to a mother who never married her child�s father.
A News Corp spokeswoman would not comment on the report. One person at News Corp challenged its subsequent assertion that Mr Murdoch was becoming �embarrassed� by Fox�s strident rightwing positioning as �going a little far�.
John McCain�s campaign has accused the US media of giving Mr Obama an easy ride. Mr Wolff�s article is likely to focus attention on the growing importance of cable news networks in setting the political agenda.
Fox, MSNBC and CNN all reported sharply higher viewing figures for last week�s Democratic National Convention than at the same stage of the 2004 presidential election, while broadcast networks confined their coverage to one hour in primetime each evening.
Mr Wolff was given extensive access to Mr Murdoch, his executives and family for The Man Who Owns the News, the biography he plans to publish in February.
Mr Wolff�s article also claims that Mr Murdoch is working on the �far-fetched� idea of buying the New York Times, to combine the paper with the Wall Street Journal.
�I�ve watched him go through the numbers, plot out a merger with the Journal�s backroom operations, and fantasise about the staff�s quitting en masse as soon as he entered the sacred temple,� Mr Wolff reported.
For �an hour or so�, he adds, Mr Murdoch even considered buying the 20 per cent stake in Bloomberg that Merrill Lynch sold back to the financial data group in July. |
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/807f4324-7936-11dd-9d0c-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
I don't get Fox but I understand that their coverage has been neanderthal'ish in content. |
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Czarjorge
Joined: 01 May 2007
Location: I now have the same moustache, and it is glorious.
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| Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 1:46 pm Post subject: |
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As your avatar demonstrates. The general nine to five daytime coverage is hostile, and Fox clearly hires its talking heads with their political slant in mind given comments made during general coverage. The real nasty stuff happens during the specialty shows, the personality led stuff like Hannity and Colmes, and the stuff on TV is nothing compared to what is said on Fox talk radio. Hannity is a partisan ass on his tv show, a bit worse that Olberman is as a clear lefty, on the radio he becomes a scold whose rhetoric is as bad or worse than Rush.
This article is interesting though. Fox clearly was in cahoots with the Bush administration, some employees going so far as to use their talking points. Because of this Fox got increased access to the administration while other news outlets were ignored or even pushed out. I think Fox fears the same thing happening to them, and can smell the fact that Obama is going to win this election. In the early days of the Dem run there were similar stories that Fox had spoken to the Clinton camp about giving more favorable coverage for increased access.
It will be interesting to see if the changes made during Bush's terms will stand under Obama, things like: increase VP presence and power, obfuscation, and manipulation of the press by allowing or disallowing access. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 6:57 pm Post subject: |
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| My avatar is a product of photoshop or a similar program, btw. |
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Milwaukiedave
Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Location: Goseong
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| Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:22 pm Post subject: |
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| Interesting...rumor has it that Obama is going to appear on Bill O's show this week. I wonder if that was in anyway tied to this "truce"? |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Yeah, the article in the print edition of the FT said he would. Also said Rupert wanted to buy the NYT and merge it with the WSJ. |
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Manner of Speaking
Joined: 09 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:31 pm Post subject: |
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World Sex Journal? Wow!  |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:33 pm Post subject: |
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| I'd subscribe. |
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Czarjorge
Joined: 01 May 2007
Location: I now have the same moustache, and it is glorious.
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| Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:38 pm Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
| My avatar is a product of photoshop or a similar program, btw. |
Is it? Odd that I just assumed it was a screenshot of the network, eh? |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:44 pm Post subject: |
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| Czarjorge wrote: |
| mises wrote: |
| My avatar is a product of photoshop or a similar program, btw. |
Is it? Odd that I just assumed it was a screenshot of the network, eh? |
I did too. But Mother Jones blog said it was a photoshop. |
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