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

[tripinthehead33.livejournal.com]

I rarely pay attention to the news of any sort, being that nearly any sort of news is a half-truth at best. Something bent and twisted, repainted and fluffed up in order to make a profit off of it. When I do, it is generally due to something popping up on my computer that catches my eye when I go into my email account. Which point, if it seems important, I cross reference this with other sources in order to find out if it's reasonably accurate. Generally, whats provided through my Yahoo! links are roughly on par with the other sources I cross reference from what I have found.

That being said, I avoid TV news like the plague.

[wc-helmets.livejournal.com]

I can think of no better way to kill his influence on the media than by people having to pay to go to the internet for news. If you're giving me a choice, I'd prefer BBC over Murdoch, Inc, but I usually just go to google news and pick one from there. My real preference is the Christian Science Monitor for some reason.

Still, there's talk of BBC not being able to print online? That just sounds scary, but can't you guys just like go out on a boat and upload to the net from there?? It can be like Radio London all over again, and The Who can use snippets of it on their next album!

"...go to the church of your choice..."

[vlion.livejournal.com]

I like that Fox has chosen to stand for the conservative side. I can dig up Democrat issues there easier(if I choose to). I think having the ability to dig up disparaging facts is good and - taken together with a liberal site, can give a reasonably 'less biased' view of things. I abhor their focus on opinion and editorials.

That said, I think the BBC is probably the best news service out there today. The others I know about are definitely biased. BBC seems to uphold a certain journalistic integrity ideal.

The WSJ comes close, but I wish it would be independent from Fox/The Sun. It's standards are perceptibly shifting and moving closer to the Fox's ranting.

I deeply want to be able to read an online US Newspaper by Real Journalists and know that they have made best efforts at giving the full, factual story from all responsible sides. I don't want to see biases peeping in and editorializing away uncomfortable facts or preaching a point of view.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Murdoch has realised that he's on a losing wicket. His main competitor for a fee-based news empire is the free news empires. Those with credibility are those that are funded by the public. It must be driving him nuts.

[winterlion.livejournal.com]

Faux news or BBC... hmmm
well if BBC dissappears, I'll go back to watching Canadian comedy - it's more accurate, more reliably reported and less biased than Faux news ;)