Comments on: News Corp loses its news

By: TFF

TFF — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 02:24:07 +0000

Congrats on the award, Felix, always interesting around here!

By: FifthDecade

FifthDecade — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 01:07:43 +0000

Congrats on the award Felix. There are quite a few regular commenters to your blog that deserve some recognition too for the interesting discussions your articles generate. Your readership is (for the most part) of the highest quality.

By: crocodilechuck

crocodilechuck — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 21:01:00 +0000

Think the Antipodean print operation will go to Lachlan. And congratulations, Felix!

By: Matthew_Saroff

Matthew_Saroff — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 19:14:26 +0000

I think that the shareholders, and perhaps Felix, miss the value of Newscorp’s “news” operations.

The newspapers and the news channels allow the other side of the operation to derive regulatory and political benefits.

If Murdoch did not own those newspapers, do you think that his proposed takeover of BskyB would have progressed as smoothly or as quickly?

His papers are how he rewards his friends, and punishes his enemies, and it creates an environment where bureaucrats, and politicians, are much more likely to do his bidding.

Remove that, and much of his success goes away.

By: youniquelikeme

youniquelikeme — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 18:20:11 +0000

(none of what I have to say about Murdoch is printable, so won’t comment, but I wish to congratulate you on the blog award Felix)

By: right

right — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 17:34:33 +0000

Why do you think the Murdoch discount will be eradicated? Both companies will still be controlled by Rupert.

I also find it farfetched to think Fox News relies all that much on News Corp’s presence in other (print) news media. CNN succeeded for a very long time in a stable of Turner entertainment channels.

By: Eericsonjr

Eericsonjr — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 16:46:59 +0000

Leaving aside, for the moment, the question of whether ANY “gazillionaire” can be truly “benign,” one wonders how you could possibly put Mr. Murdoch in that category.

Elaborate, please.

By: krimsonpage

krimsonpage — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 16:35:48 +0000

Indeed, congragts, Mr Felix. You’re doing God’s work.

As for Mr Murdoch, I dont’t care how much he is or is not a “news man”. He’s still a greedy, arrogant, corrupt, lyin’ you-know-what.

By: JustinCormack

JustinCormack — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:52:12 +0000

Might give them a chance to clear up the bizarro split voting structure that you have long ranted about too I guess. James Murdoch never seemed to me as much a news man as Rupert, and he must hate it even more now. Best do this now while the news portion is still worth something…

By: knoblet

knoblet — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 12:48:05 +0000

I know it was a little off-topic, but you fail to mention that you won a Loeb Award yourself last night at that ceremony. Such modesty. Congratulations, Felix.

By: FifthDecade

FifthDecade — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 10:00:56 +0000

The problem for The Empire is that the Leveson Inquiry in the UK is shining light onto more than just how News was handled, but on the behaviour and cover ups of the people at the top. Splitting the company will not change the accusations of not being ‘fit and proper people’ to run the company.

From Murdoch’s point of view though, he obviously likes steering people’s views in the direction he wants them to go in, and that’s not going to change. These days this can be done perhaps even more effectively through managing the entertainment schedules, and ensuring issues he wants to influence are scripted into the more popular shows so as to have people subconsciously follow the one sided arguments that, for instance, Fox have become known to offer.

I suppose one question will be, are shows such as Rush Limbaugh’s classed as News/Opinion, or Entertainment/Invention?