https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/21/media/rupert-murdoch-steps-down-fox
Rupert Murdoch announced Thursday that he will step down as chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corp.
His son Lachlan Murdoch is taking over. Lachlan has been co-chair of News Corp since 2014, and a director before that. Given that Rupert is 92, I'm sure that Lachlan has already been calling the shots for a long time. This is not really a change.
Unfortunately his other son who was against his dad's ways publicly attacked him so he's got put aside while the smart move would have been to play his game, take over the company and change it.
If you changed fox news, the people who watched fox news would go elsewhere, it wouldn't reprogram them.
The tail wags the dog in this case. Fox is lie based propaganda because its audience demands lie based propaganda.
Why would that have been the smart move? If given the choice of having money and no obligations or having money and inheriting a dumpster fire while lying about what you belief for decades which would you pick? Maybe he doesnt want to be king of the shit pile.
I am only through season 01 so far but I cannot say there is any choice that would be good.
Yep, complete hypocrite that doesn't stand behind a single thing she supposedly believes in.
Well his son is now the sole chairman. I'm sure he doesn't share his father's ideas, connections or beliefs.
Surely the child of a billionaire conservative who was given control over his daddy's media empire will have more reasonable and nuanced beliefs that don't further destroy the world like his father did.......right?
I'm assuming he's still running he company and this is just for appearances or financial reasons. There's no way he won't have control of what they do or say
Things always change. They just never get "perfect" because a new problem is always around the corner. Life is certainly no utopia though, nor will it be any time soon. We will not live to see the end of problems.
That's what it seems like people are hoping for anyway, some kind of problem-free world. It is unrealistic.
..... I think you're pretty ignorant to how murdoch has been spitting up the same problems for 40 years....
He’s been focusing on the same problems because it works. Why change a successful formula?
No, I just see 40 years on a scale bigger than my own lifetime. Again, I don't expect to live to see the end of these problems. I will probably die of old age before they are all completely solved. Just like many other problems were actually solved before I was ever born.
You sound like someone at a book club talking about the book they didn’t read. Murdoch was the one causing the problems. His son will likely continue to use his father’s media empire to lie and manipulate.
They sound like someone using AI to write their responses. Profile is interesting too.
No, he's not a cause. He's a symptom. This is an example of "great man history", where Murdoch is seen as somehow special, and if we had prevented him from fucking shit up, things would be fine.
I would argue that if he didn't do it, someone else would've, because it's a systemic problem, and he is just one example of it, just like Trump. They are not the cause of illness, but a symptom of illness.
Dude literally created the 24 hour news cycle and the dogshit that has been destroying the US for the last few decades. You think all those people would have gathered on January 6th without Faux News telling them the election was stolen?
Murdoch was responsible for a lot of horrible shit, Jan 6th for sure, but he did not create the 24 hr news cycle.
Why is everyone suddenly trying to pretend I'm defending Rupert Murdoch? I said things do change. That is not the same as liking Rupert Murdoch. I'm not in a kids sub, so wtf is going on...?
I'm not really confident enough to say. Like all things with society, its very complex, an equation with dozens or hundreds of variables, not just a few.
There's a lot of theories though, income inequality and expanding corporate influence are commonly attributed factors. It's really the rise of populism that we're looking at, and that's ultimately rooted in citizen dissatisfaction. That's what opens the door for people like Murdoch and Trump in the first place.
We've solved a lot of problems in the past few decades, just not all of them, and we added new ones on top.
Stop hoping for a problem-free world. Your children, if you choose to have some, will see problems of their own. Some will be those we've failed to address. Others will be brand new.
The problem of people like Murdoch have been around since time memorial. Patently bad people have always and likely will always exist.
It's only how much influence they are able to have that ebbs and flows over time.
And we're back in a period where these people have a whole lot of power.
Excellent point. This is how I view it as well. The problems that they bring are not without solutions.
I'd be happy to see a world where people don't actively create problems for others due to greed, ignorance, or bigotry.
We got enough problems from natural disasters, disease, accidents, etc. If people could just not be dicks and not fuck each other over constantly that would be cool.
That’s what it seems like people are hoping for anyway, some kind of problem-free world. It is unrealistic.
I think you are mistaken. People are upset for a lack of progress. How the pace of improvement is endlessly kneecapped.
We won't live to see the end of our problems. But there are several problems in our lives that could be ended very, very quickly if we actually gave a damn.
While I understand there's been some very disappointing backsliding in the past decade or so, in order to see no progress anywhere you need to cherry pick your examples to actually avoid areas of improvement.
I blane clickbait media and its doomerism.
Do you not understand how people work or something?
Nobody is saying there has been "no progress anywhere". But they'll still be upset when there is little progress, or backsliding, on issues that affect them or that they are passionate about.
It's really quite condescending to waffle on about how suffering people need to look at the big picture, and how it's unreasonable to expect their suffering to be alleviated during their lifetimes, when there really isn't a good reason why they should be suffering as much as they are to begin with.
I was specifically responding to someone who said "things don't change". It sure sounded to me like "no progress anywhere". Sorry if my response upset people, but I simply cannot agree that things don't change.
I was specifically responding to someone who said “things don’t change”.
The actual message was:
I’m hoping things will change. Things will not change.
Yeah I think people are upset because you are attacking positions nobody is taking, and disparaging progressives in the same breath.
I'm not disparaging progressives in the slightest, I'm saying we get some wins sometimes. We do succeed in improving things sometimes.
So, what's the difference between "things don't change" and "things will not change"?
Alright I am making a deal right now. If Murdoch goes on a submarine and what I really hope happens does happen I am going to seriously reconsider my atheism.
Come on deity I am pretty sure doesn't exist. Return me to the fold.
I have some nice aquatical themed gods if you're interested. You want a squid or a crab?
Ya dont need to worship the Old Ones when the Old Gods are right there, like look at Jormangander he's even an Oroboris!
Maybe, as long as it isn't Cthulhu since I am pretty confident that if he has a hand in this it is because he wants the man for some reason. Plus I am sorry but I don't trust anything that sleeps for strange aeons but doesn't die.
I'm running some sightseeing trips there using my newly designed submersible called the Schmoceangate Schmiton.
Even if he does, it doesn't really matter. He already caused immeasurable damage to the world, destroyed who-knows-how-many lives and got to live well into his 90s in unimaginable opulence.
Plus he's stepping down on his own terms, nobody ousted him. None of his enemies ever managed to take him down, and he's got his legacy all set up. When he does eventually die, it'll most likely be in a comfortable hospital bed surrounded by some the best doctors in the world making sure it goes as well as it possibly can.
He dedicated his entire life to being an evil bastard and he completely, utterly won. I don't think there's anything much that could even hurt him at this point.
Why do the evil always live long lives? Is it because they're pickled in poisonous thoughts?
I'm not sure you could point to any other single person who has had a more damaging impact to the country than this piece of crap. In any case, it will probably get worse.
Harry Anslinger!
Yup. One of my favorite scumbags to tell people about.
Marijuana was Anslinger’s golden ticket. He used his office to trumpet the association between weed and violence, so that it could be criminalized. “You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother,” he was known to have said. McWilliams explains that in this effort, “Anslinger appealed to many organizations whose members were predominantly white Protestant.”
From the beginning, Anslinger conflated drug use, race, and music. “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men,” he was quoted as saying. “There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.”
https://timeline.com/harry-anslinger-racist-war-on-drugs-prison-industrial-complex-fb5cbc281189
Let's include Ehrlichman as a runner up though!
“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people,” former Nixon domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman told Harper’s writer Dan Baum for the April cover story published Tuesday.
"We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news."
"Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."
https://www.businessinsider.com/nixon-adviser-ehrlichman-anti-left-anti-black-war-on-drugs-2019-7
I have a hard time thinking of someone who has done as much damage to democracy, truth and decency worldwide as Murdoch. He's a truly deplorable person. May he fade away and no longer darken our futures.
“Rupert Murdoch created all of this and so much more across America and the globe,” Hemmer said. “His life’s work has left an indelible imprint on the global media landscape. His contributions are both innumerable and extraordinary and we thank him for letting us be a part of it all.”
I love how nothing in this paragraph says that he was a good person, good leader, or contributed anything beneficial to anybody, ever.
I saw his name and was looking forward to reading an obituary. Unfortunately he’s still going to be pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Joke answer is that he is actually the nephew of Atilla the Hun and failed to maintain the Hunnic horde after Atillas death by nose bleed.
Actual answer is he's 92.
Maybe he was visited by three ghosts during the night... and that's why he's stepping down. I doubt he learned his lesson though.
When you think of evil men, he's gotta be on the list.
Enjoy that lengthy retirement, Rupert. You've earned every hour of it.
Edit: Minute? Second?