Is Fox News the Biggest and the Original Fake News?
Has Rupert Murdoch’s Global Propaganda Machine been Publishing & Broadcasting Fake News for Decades?
July 13, 2017 / Murdoch Media Madness Section / NYC Business & Politics / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.
It didn’t take long after Rupert Murdoch bought into his first British newspaper, News of the World, before he changed the tone and quality of its content in such a manner that Murdoch soon became known as the ‘dirty digger’. At first Murdoch dug for dirt on the rich and powerful by sensationalizing the headlines about them, to sell more newspapers and ads.
Did the Dirty Digger Transform his Sensationalist News Organization into a Propaganda Machine?
After Murdoch started running News of the World, he appears to have found that he could re-purpose his dirty digging research, into a second and possibly more profitable venture, by using it to manipulate the public’s perceptions of political candidates just prior to those plebeians going to the polls. It seems Keith Rupert Murdoch developed a habit of taking the low road during one of British Prime Minister Thatcher's election cycles. After the election was over, in a Nazi propagandist fashion, Murdoch proclaimed in the front page headlines of his British newspaper that “The Sun Had Won It’ … for British Prime Minister Thatcher.
It seems this was to be just the beginning of Murdoch’s lifelong journalistic descent into an unethical, Faustian, bottomless Hell.
Is Fox Fake News America's First & Largest Fake News Factory?
The following incidents are really just a few of what appear to be the tip of the iceberg of the mass produced media manipulations rolling off the media production line of Murdoch’s fake news fabrication factory since around the time of the Fox TV Network launch in 1996.
I have included a few incidents from before the Fox launch as I think they’re important for the British to keep in mind as they evaluate Murdoch’s bid for Sky TV. Sky TV is Britain’s most powerful, privately owned, national TV network. And I have not included much from the 2016 presidential campaign in America, nor of the Trump presidency of 2017, since each of those periods could fill entire books by themselves.
Murdoch Seek to Take Full Control of Britian's Largest, Privately Owned Broadcaster
The British Ofcom Department recently ruled that Murdoch is fit to serve the public, but I recommend they put on their eyeglasses, as the following record – in tandem with the multitude of allegations of sexual and racist misconduct which have recently become public at Fox News in NYC – should provide proof that further consideration be given to the possibility that Murdoch is not fit to serve the public.
Murdoch’s organization appears to be guilty of a cesspool of journalistic abuses of the public stewardship entrusted to him - by the people of America - through the grants of the FCC broadcast licenses his company controls. I pray that Britain will not make the same mistake, by enabling him to take full control of Sky TV.
Leading up to his acquisition and abuse of media power in the United States, mega Billionaire Keith Rupert Murdoch appears to have been practicing the propagandist darks arts in Britain. So buckle up, and here we go.
Click here to read the rest of our report on Fox News Fake News?
Is Fox News the Biggest and the Original Fake News?
Has Rupert Murdoch’s Global Propaganda Machine been Publishing & Broadcasting Fake News for Decades?
July 13, 2017 / Murdoch Media Madness Section / NYC Business & Politics / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC. Continued.
I. Hillsborough - 1989
Murdoch’s Bizarro World Begins where The Truth is discredited as a Lie and the Lies are asserted as Truth
The Hillsborough Incident of 1989 wherein according to Digital Spy report on September 13, 2012 Murdoch’s Sun had reported that the
“... police and emergency services made strenuous attempts to deflect the blame for the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans at the FA Cup semi-final on April 15, 1989 on to innocent fans … [the Sun story] alleged that fans picked pockets of victims, urinated on brave cops and beat-up PC’s giving the kiss of life.” They did this under the headline entitled ‘The Truth’."
Fast forward 23 years later, after a long drawn out and expensive court battle, and we finally hear the truth.
According to the same Digital Spy story,
“Under the headline ‘The Real Truth’ Mohan [the editor] wrote, “… The Sun … published an inaccurate and offensive story about the events at Hillsborough. We said it was the truth – it wasn’t. … The Sun is deeply ashamed and profoundly sorry … “
Murdoch’s British newspapers were so deeply sorry that both Murdoch’s The Sun and The Times – both of which had stoked the same fake news story – reportedly moved their apology off the front page before the end of the day / evening editions [see graphic]. But it’s a Bizzaro world at the Murdoch propaganda factory, where white means black, and sorry means go fuck yourselves.
II. It’s the Sun Wot Won It - 1992
Murdoch’s Sun Announces its Propaganda Win for British Prime Minister John Major in 1992
The day of the 1992 election the Sun mocked Labor candidate Neil Kinnock on the front page telling readers that if Kinnock wins to turn off the lights on their way out of the nation.
Professor Allan who is a political scientist at Wittenberg University in Dublin, Ohio, tell us that Opposition Leader Neil Kinnock made the following statement in his resignation speech in April 1992,
“I make, and I seek, no excuses, and I express no bitterness, when I say that the Conservative-supporting press has enabled the Tory Party to win yet again when the Conservative Party could not have secured victory for itself on the basis of its record, its programme or its character.”
The day after the election Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper, the Sun, declared,
“It’s the Sun Wot Won It.”
Up until this time Kinnock’s party had been ahead in the polls.
In 2012, during the Leveson Inquiry of the Murdoch’s organization’s criminal phone hacking and bribe scandal, the Guardian reports,
“Rupert Murdoch has told the Leveson inquiry the Sun's notorious 1992 general election headline, "It's the Sun wot won it", was "tasteless and wrong".”
But Murdoch has been known to repeatedly made false statements of regret or claims of his support for certain policies - only to do them again or flip flop to serve his own agenda.
III. "Bush Wins" - 2000
Premature Election Victory Reported by NY Post & Fox News in November 2000 which some believe was a ‘Media Coup d’etat”
A bit after 2 am on the morning after election day of November 2000, Murdoch’s Fox News reversed its election call of the prior night - that Al Gore had won Florida - and Fox called the state for Florida in favor of Bush. Murdoch's NY Post amplified Fox News call reversal in its morning edition in New York City - the media capital of the nation - giving its premature declaration of a Bush victory enough momentum to make it presumptively true.
At the time Fox reported the victory it was fake news because it was not known which candidate had won the majority of votes and many believe it never will be. The vote tallies came within 224 votes of each other out of millions after Fox made the call, which I believe is enough to validly call for a recount.
According to History Commons website [www.historycommons.org] – which is a great source for many other Fox News erroneous reports – Democratic Congressman (CA) Henry Waxman made the following statement in a February 14, 2001 House Committee Hearing on Fox News’ premature call.
“[O]f everything that happened on election night this was the most important in impact. It created a presumption that George Bush won the election. It set in motion a chain of events that were devastating to Al Gore’s chances and it immeasurably helped George Bush maintain the idea in people’s minds than he was the man who won the election.”
Murdoch’s propaganda machine may have stolen the election from the candidate he opposed [Al Gore] by using his propaganda outlets assertively to promote his political choice [George W. Bush] in what one pundit termed a ‘Media Coup d’etat”
IV. WMD / Weapons of Mass Destruction: 2002 - 2003
The Fake News that Launched a Trillion Dollar War & Boosted Cable News Ratings
On April 3, 2003 the NYT did a story headlined Mr. Murdoch’s War attributing the Iraq War to Murdoch’s personal lobbying for it in Australia, Britain and the U.S.. ALL [or nearly all] of his hundreds of media properties aournd the world unanimously beat the war drums urging the public in multiple nations to go to war.
Murdoch's war reporting was based upon fake news of weapons of mass destruction or WMD. Murdoch's propaganda machine reports about the WMD were used to scare the public into thinking the nation had no other choice but to pre-emptively attack Iraq and Sadam Hussein. It's worth noting that another player, a top ranked political insider, was also working that narrative pretty hard - Vice President Dick Cheney. And it's worth noting that these two men, Murdoch and Cheney, have teamed up by making an investment in an oil exploration firm which has development claims in the illegally-occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
Pulitzer Prize winner David Barstow did an expose in April 20, 2008 in the NYT, which alleged that around that time the Pentagon had devised a propaganda program using RMA’s – Retired Military Analysts to go on network TV and support the war. Many of these Retired Military Analysts stood to benefit from contracts or lobbying gigs from the war.
In Barstow’s story he tells us that,
“Robert L. Maginnis, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who works in the Pentagon for a military contractor, attended the same briefing and recalled feeling “very disappointed” after being shown satellite photographs purporting to show bunkers associated with a hidden weapons program. Mr. Maginnis said he concluded that the analysts were being “manipulated” to convey a false sense of certainty about the evidence of the weapons. Yet he and Mr. Bevelacqua and the other analysts who attended the briefing did not share any misgivings with the American public."
Mr. Bevelacqua and another Fox analyst, Mr. Cowan, had formed the wvc3 Group, and hoped to win military and national security contracts.
“There’s no way I was going to go down that road and get completely torn apart,” Mr. Bevelacqua said. “You’re talking about fighting a huge machine.”
In an October 7, 2004 report on Fox News entitled ‘No WMD Made After 1991’, we are told,
“… Vice President Dick Cheney said in an Aug. 26, 2002 speech, 6 1/2 months before the invasion, that "simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies and against us."
Barstow’s report tells us that,
“Over time the Pentagon recruited more than 75 retired officers … the largest contingent was affiliated with Fox News, followed by NBC and CNN, the other networks with 24-hour cable outlets.”
I think it’s worth mentioning here that the story about the use of the RMA’s on network TV outlets wasn’t given much airtime on any of the networks [the other networks were apparently ‘less’ used] except PBS, which according to Wikipedia, aired two stories.
As mentioned above, former VP Dick Cheney and Rupert Murdoch are partners [again?] in Genie Oil, which bought the development rights from Israel in an illegally occupied section of the Syrian Golan Heights [likely the real reason for all the fighting there]. Do a search and confirm for yourself and then ask yourself if you think that Murdoch’s oil investment has anything to do with President Trump going back on his promise to focus on America first, dropping the MOAB in Syria, and most recently cutting a deal to go into Syria with Russia? Increasing American involvement in the Middle East is likely a story that will continue, but without many / any providing a reasonable look into the possible backstory.
V. The Dean Scream – January 2004
One Distorted - possibly edited - Sound Recording, with Background Noise Minimized, Sinks a Promising Insurgent Candidate for President
An April 4, 2011 report in Accuracy In Media [www.aim.org] entitled ‘Howard Dean: Fox News is Propaganda, MSNBC’s Facts are True’ author Don Irvine tells us that Howard Dean said that,
“…the difference between Fox and MSNBC is[n't] that they’re biased, because they both are, but [that] Fox often says things that they know aren’t true and they say them anyway. He went on to say that Fox isn’t a news organization but an incredibly well funded right-wing propaganda organization.”
“Dean also briefly mentioned that his now famous Dean Scream from 2004 wasn’t what it seemed and that it looked different once Fox was finished with it.”
I was following Howard Dean’s candidacy in 2004 and I heard the 'Dean Scream' aired multiple times, including on the other networks [Wikipedia says 633 times in four days by all the media]. I also saw one televised report, that showed a simultaneous broadcast of the scream with the video and background noise, and amidst an ecstatic crowd, Howard Dean's scream could barely be heard [if my memory serves me correctly, it was shown on ABC].
What Murdoch's Fox Fake News appears to have done is taken the Dean Scream audio, edited completely out of context, in an effort to discredit Howard Dean's candidacy ... and it worked.
VI. Murdoch's & Fox's Right to Lie? – 1996 / 2003
Fox News Wins Verdict wherein it Asserted the Right to Fire People at One of its Stations who didn’t Want to Allow Fox Station Edits to Their Work that the People Knew to be False
Here’s what I believe to be the most accurate summary of this story by Campaign Freedom org in a November 2003 post entitled Fox, Lies & Videotape: debunking an internet myth.
“While WTVT has raised a number of challenges to the judgment obtained by Akre, we need not address each challenge because we find as a threshold matter that Akre failed to state a claim under the whistle-blower’s statute. The portion of the whistle-blower’s statute pertinent to this appeal prohibits retaliation against employees who have “[d]isclosed, or threatened to disclose,” employer conduct that “is in violation of” a law, rule, or regulation. § 448.102(1)(3). The statute defines a “law, rule or regulation” as “includ[ing] any statute or . . . any rule or regulation adopted pursuant to any federal, state, or local statute or ordinance applicable to the employer and pertaining to the business.” § 448.101(4), Fla. Stat. (1997). We agree with WTVT that the FCC’s policy against the intentional falsification of the news – which the FCC has called its “news distortion policy” – does not qualify as the required “law, rule, or regulation” under section 448.102.
The FCC has never published its news distortion policy as a regulation with definitive elements and defenses. Instead, the FCC has developed the policy through the adjudicatory process in decisions resolving challenges to broadcasters’ licenses…”
So there isn't any law on the books prohibiting broacasters from intentionally lying to the public? Was there one that somehow was taken off the books?
VII. Additional Source Info
A. Earlier Murdoch & the infamous Fox Fake News Factory Work
Here are some other sources you might find of interest that detail select events and incidents of Murdoch's Fox Fake News Factory.
- In Google copy and paste - Russian Propaganda Spread from Parody Website to Fox News by MacFarouhar & Rossback - for NYT story dated June 7, 2017.
- On Youtube type - Jon Stewart Fox News propaganda.
- On Youtube type - OutFoxed – they have a number of videos that might be of interest.
- In Google copy and paste - Fox News Death Panels with Sean Hannity & Sarah Palin.
- In Google or Youtube try - Fox News Obama Birth Certificate & Hannity.
- In Google try - Fox News and darkening Obama’s skin color.
B. Post Trump Inauguration Murdoch's Fox Fake News Factory in Overdrive
Here are just a few of some of Fox News and their pseudo anchormen's outright falsehoods, allegedly phony conspiracy theory accounts, and televised [Manchurian candidate-like] instructions from Murdoch to the President.
- OReilly’s false / phony Swedish immigration problem story - click the link and scroll down.
- Hannity retweets fake tweet about Senator John McCain after McCain makes negative statement about Trump.
- Hannity does multiple broadcasts alleging there's a Democrat conspiracy surrounding the death of Seth Rich.
- Hannity tells Trump on show to Fire U.S. Attorneys & he does it w/in 24 hours.
There's a saying that goes something like this: A lie travels halfway around the world before truth has its shoes on.
These days it seems nearly impossible for anyone to keep up with the lies and distortions disseminated by Murdoch’s Fox Fake News organization on nearly a daily basis.
C. Australia - Fun Facts & Birthplace of the Murdoch Media Monster
And then there’s Australia where Murdoch has over 60% of the newspapers and control of the dominant TV network and cable?
The previous Prime Minister, Tony Abbot, used to be an employee of one of Murdoch’s propaganda outlets. You don’t get a more puppet government than that. And I think monopoly control of media disqualifies you as a real democracy.
And Australia no longer has much regulatory oversight on the books with regard to its telecommunications industry. Wonder why?
In Australia I believe [not yet confirmed by reliable source] foreigners can own as much media as the locals, and foreigners [possibly including governments?] can spend as much as they want on media leading up to political campaigns.
D. Click Link Below for Section on Murdoch & the Rise of the 21st Century Propaganda Press
In the interest of getting this out prior to the end of the Ofcom comment period ending on July 14, 2017 – I have to conclude this report.
Since 2004 Murdoch’s propaganda machine appears to have grown far more aggressive, if anything. In 2017 they said they dropped their slogan ‘Fair & Balanced’ because too many people were mocking it. A June 14, 2017 report in The Blaze states,
“New York Magazine’s Gabrielle Sherman [said] One insider told the outlet that it had ‘been mocked’ while another executive said the tagline was “too closely associated with Roger”.
I think Murdoch dropped the 'Fair & Balanced' slogan before someone sued Fox News for false advertising claims.
Click to this section which contains a whole slew of reports about Rupert Murdoch's propaganda machines including Fox Fake News, the NY Propaganda Post, the WSJ, the Sun & the London Times - many of which have been proven to disseminate fake news.
I'll add visuals to this report at a later date.
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