Murdoch....

[johnny9fingers]

I've been thinking of Rupert Murdoch's coming attempt to charge for news and his ongoing battle with the BBC.

Murdoch has stated that he will attempt to charge for online access to News Corp's various online titles like The Times, and The Sun, and Fox News sometime next year. Evidently this will be after the Conservative Party win the coming general election in the UK, and his tame puppets-in-government enact legislation to prevent the BBC from putting its news content online.

Now, for all my US chums, which news organisation would you rather read or watch online? Fox News? or The BBC? And even if you'd rather read or watch Fox, which organisation would you trust to give accurate facts?

I think the Tory Party have to distance themselves from Murdoch. The old model of newsgathering and journalism is dead, much like the old model of the Music Biz, or the old model of the retail book trade before Amazon. Recognising this fact, and also recognising the fact that this is the last election which an old-fashioned newspaper Baron will ever be able to influence, does David Cameron really want to emasculate the BBC just to pander to either Roops, or the anointed son James.

If he does I will not forget, nor will many other folk.

As is Roops appears to be batting on a losing wicket. Even if he manages to charge for news on the web, he won't be able to stop people from disseminating the information across the web. I await to see the stroke-of-genius (apart from, of course, suborning the Tory party) which will rescue the old-fashioned notion of journalism from the evils of the interweb.

Comments

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

But then again you're a rare sort of Libertarian. Most of them object to paying for a 'public' service, even if measurably and demonstrably better than any private alternative.

For me, I prefer whatever works best. And screwing up something which functions better than all the alternatives for ideological reasons strikes me as being proof of either insanity, idiocy, or mendacity.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Ah well....I was giving you a chance there. Never mind.

[mister-bitters.livejournal.com]

Honestly, don't waste your time trying to get Libertarians to understand that such things like the common good exist and that public funding of those things is for the benefit of everyone. They don't see it, they don't want to see it, and they refuse to see it. It's all about about them and reasonable, rational explanations don't work. Don't mind the fact that the American Constitution's own Preamble sets forth the very policy and belief that the common welfare is to be worked for by the Federal government. Libertarians have foolishly bought into the belief that the selling of goods is all important and that everything is a commodity to be traded. They are one of the many reasons I'm working to leave the USA for good. If and when I can take up residence in a more intelligent nation, I will gladly work for citizenship and happily renounce my American citizenship.