Mainstream Media ... Asleep at the Press

Hello? Are you you awake? Are you all too busy chasing Brittany Spears for photos of her bald head? Or spreading vicious gossip about Anna Nicole Smith?

I picked up this "tidbit" of news from reading the latest edition of Boston's Weekly Dig - one of the best free weekly papers around. The fact that I only heard about it weeks later, and from an "alternative" news source further illustrates how crappy corporate media is.

Rupert Murdoch (of News Corp - that's Fox in the US) admitted at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that News Corp. tried to shape the agenda on Iraq. Since I'm having problems with the Dig website currently, I'm pulling this from the January 29th article from Editor & Publisher's website. (You should read the entire article. It's very interesting - the Murdoch thing is just a blip in the larger topic of big media influence in the age of the internet.)

Asked if his News Corp. managed to shape the agenda on the war in Iraq,Murdoch said: "No, I don't think so. We tried." Asked by Rose for further comment, he said: "We basically supported the Bush policy in the Middle East ... but we have been very critical of his execution."

Now, a few comments.

1. Throughout history, media (whether radio, newspapers, or TV) have tried to sway issues according to their ideology. So on one level, this isn't much of a revelation.
2. We all know that Fox loves the Bush administration like a ... well, like a cheap slut loves her sugar daddy.
3. In context of the larger discussion, Murdoch's statement is not quite so incriminating.

However:

1. I still can't figure out how, in this age of the 24-hour-multi-media news industry, neither CNN or NPR or PBS or ABC or CBS or NBC or anyone mentioned this. 'Cuz if they did - and it seems like the kind of isolated statement that The Times or The Globe could run away with for days of shocking headlines and media punditry.
2. The most irritating fact about Murdoch's and Fox News's blatant pro-Bushism/Republicanism is their insistence that they're not. That they are "spin-free" with no agenda. When any clear-sited person sees that this is not true.

I don't know what else to say, people. It's a crazy, crazy world.