NewsCorp Blockers For Your Browser
Afraid that you or your family could unwittingly stumble into the tentacles of the NewsCorp empire? Murdoch Block for Chrome and MurdochAlert for Firefox claim to keep you safe:
MurdochAlert warns you whenever you visit one of the 100+ Murdoch Family-controlled websites. If you’re not ready to block them all, MurdochAlert can warn you instead. Also it’s handy for identifying news sources controlled by the Murdoch Family.
NewsCorp agents in multiple countries have been arrested for hacking into the phones and computers of at least thousands of innocent people. Since the Murdoch family controls 100+ high-traffic domains, it is difficult for average users to know which sites could potentially place them at risk.
MurdochAlert identifies the domains that may place users at risk for Murdoch-related hacking. MurdochAlert shows a bottom warning box whenever you visit a Murdoch-controlled sited.
Rupert Murdoch Optical Illusion
Via The World’s Best Ever, while being grilled by Britain’s Parliament yesterday, the News Corp. head was revealed in him true form thanks to an extremely unfortunate background:
Rupert Murdoch’s Tabloid Hacked To Report His Death
The woes keep piling on for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, as the homepage of its popular Sun paper was altered to feature an amusing fake report on the mogul’s committing suicide “in his topiary garden”. The Guardian notes:
News International websites for the Times and the Sun were taken down last night after hackers targeted the Sun’s web pages and redirected traffic to another page falsely reporting that Rupert Murdoch had been found dead. The breach was apparently the first hack of a major UK newspaper’s website.
The LulzSec hacking collective hacked the tabloid’s site, and also claimed to be “sitting on their [the Sun's] emails” and that they would release the emails on Tuesday.
‘News of the World’ Phone-Hacking Whistleblower Found Dead
Not thought to be suspicious but is unexplained. Hell of a dark omen with Rupert Murdoch due to appear before Parliament tomorrow. Amelia Hill, James Robinson, Caroline Davies report in the Guardian:
Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbiz reporter who was the first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead, the Guardian has learned.
Hoare, who worked on the Sun and the News of the World with Coulson before being dismissed for drink and drugs problems, is said to have been found dead at his Watford home.
Hertfordshire police would not confirm his identity, but the force said in a statement: “At 10.40am today [Monday 18 July] police were called to Langley Road, Watford, following the concerns for the welfare of a man who lives at an address on the street. Upon police and ambulance arrival at a property, the body of…
Adam Curtis Paints Rupert Murdoch As Satan
Rupert Murdoch at the 2007 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. (CC)
The British phone hacking saga has brought to light the Machiavellian machinations of Rupert Murdoch and his News Corporation like never before. Ted Hope reminds us on his blog today that the BBC’s amazing Adam Curtis (The Power of Nightmares) wrote very revealingly about Murdoch earlier this year (using great video clips — go to the source to view them):
Rupert Murdoch doesn’t like the BBC.
And sometimes the BBC doesn’t seem to like Rupert Murdoch either.
Following the principle that you should know your enemy, the BBC has assiduously recorded the relentless rise of Rupert Murdoch and his assault on the old “decadent” elites of Britain.
And I thought it would be interesting to put up some of the high points.
It is also a good way to examine how far his populist rhetoric is genuine, and how far its is a smokescreen to disguise the…
Osama Bin Wankin’
Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post once again demonstrates that his tabloid “newspapers” (he owns The Sun in the UK among others) are in a class of their own when it comes to cover headlines.
In addition to this classy example, the Post suggests that some of the titles in Osama’s porn collection include:
- Talibuns
- Oral Qaeda
- 1,000 Arabians In One Night
- Debbie Does Abbotabad
… and the list goes on. Makes you wonder what’s in Rupert’s own collection…
John Pilger Interview With Julian Assange: ‘I Have Murdoch Insurance’
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Perhaps as a return favor for posting bail for him, Julian Assange has given veteran British journalist John Pilger an exclusive interview. It will appear in the print edition of New Statesman, but some choice excerpts are on the New Statesman site:
… On Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused of leaking diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, Assange says: “I’d never heard his name before it was published in the press.” He argues that the US is trying to use Manning – currently stuck in solitary confinement in the US – to build a case against the WikiLeaks founder:
“Cracking Bradley Manning is the first step,” says the Australian hacker. “The aim clearly is to break him and force a confession that he somehow conspired with me to harm the national security of the United States.”…
Yesterday, Assange’s lawyers warned that if he is extradited to America he could face the death penalty – for embarrassing…
You Are What You Read: Sarah Palin
The Wall Street Journal curiously allows Christian film company Walden Media’s president and co-founder Micheal Flaherty to write an article in defense of Sarah Palin’s newfound love of the novels of C.S. Lewis, some of which Walden has adapted into the Chronicles of Narnia series of movies. Well actually it’s not curious at all because the Journal is a division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which not so coincidentally owns 20th Century Fox Films, distributor of the latest Narnia movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Not that you’d know that unless you did the research for yourself, because there is no such disclosure at the head or tail of the article, sampled below:
Since Katie Couric first asked the question a couple of years back, journalists continue to pepper Sarah Palin with that classic ice-breaker: “So, what are you reading?” The subject came up again in a recent profile in the New York…
Merry Christmas From Fox News… But No Other Holidays
Thanks to Tim Molloy at The Wrap for noticing yet another dig at Fox News Channel by the producers of The Simpsons:
Two weeks after “Simpsons” executive producer said the show would lay off Fox News for a while, the Fox News helicopter made another appearance on the show — this time with the words, “Merry Christmas from Fox News… but no other holidays.”
The copter flew over Springfield for the Nov. 21 episode with the slogan, “”Not Racist, But #1 With Racists,” and returned the next week with the slogan changed to “Unsuitable for Viewers Under 75.”
In an interview with TheWrap, Jean said the day after the copter’s second appearance that the show would leave Fox News alone for awhile. His comments came after a Fox News insider laughed off the jokes, saying at least “The Simpsons” was funny…
[continues at The Wrap]
Simpsons: Fox News ‘Not Racist, But #1 With Racists’
The boundary-pushing Simpsons team risk the wrath of Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp minions by bashing Fox News Channel (remember that the Fox network carries The Simpsons). As well as having a dig at FNC, the gang also suggest there’s a mainstream media conspiracy to create one crisis or another to take our minds off what’s “really” happening (as if!, right?). Check it out:
Fox’s Roger Ailes Calls NPR Nazis
Roger Ailes giving Congressional testimony
Way to go Roger, the rest of the media is going to love you more than ever. Sample quote from Howard Kurtz’s interview with Ailes for the Daily Beast, where he discusses the executives at NPR:
They are, of course, Nazis. They have a kind of Nazi attitude. They are the left wing of Nazism. These guys don’t want any other point of view. They don’t even feel guilty using tax dollars to spout their propaganda. They are basically Air America with government funding to keep them alive.”
Elsewhere in the interview Ailes says Obama thinks differently from most Americans; defends Murdoch’s GOP donations; admits Glenn Beck sometimes goes too far; slams Jon Stewart as a conservative-basher; explains why he rode to Juan Williams’ rescue; and sees NPR as taxpayer-funded propaganda. The kind of man you’d like as your neighbor, right?
Part 1 of the interview here. Part 2…
All Hail The Tea Party
For me this is the clearest sign yet that Rupert Murdoch has turned the Wall Street Journal into just another political mouthpiece, little different in its Republican boosterism from his tabloid New York Post. The Journal’s lead story today, titled “Birth of a Movement” is a fawning assessment of the Tea Party with the message that it’s here to stay and that’s a wonderful thing:
Less than two years ago, Amy Kremer and Jenny Beth Martin were 30-something suburbanites in metro Atlanta, frustrated by recession, dismayed by the election of Barack Obama and waiting for the next chapter of their lives.
Ms. Kremer, a former Delta Air Lines flight attendant, had quit her career to raise her daughter. The child had grown up and just moved out, and now Ms. Kremer was filling her time with two blogs—one on gardening, one on politics.
“I had this empty space in my life,” Ms. Kremer recalls.
Ms.…
Why Glenn Beck Will Win
Photo: Erna-Louisa (CC)
No, not the 2012 presidency! At least I hope not, but Brandweek’s Todd Wasserman says he will beat the attempted advertiser boycott urged by progressive groups:
It seemed like a good idea: To get a program canceled, go after the advertisers. But such logic doesn’t seem to apply in Murdochland.
A yearlong attempt to have advertisers boycott Fox News’ Glenn Beck Program—by organizations including StopBeck, People for the American Way and MediaMatters.org—has actually resulted in more than 100 advertisers fleeing the highly rated program. But try telling that to News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch. Fielding questions during a News Corp. shareholder meeting this month, Murdoch flatly denied that the advertisers had pulled out of the controversial show even though many have been quoted on the record. “That’s not true,” said Murdoch. “Maybe four or five have been moved over to [Bill] O’Reilly’s program. [But] no one has taken any money…
Banksy, Fox and The Simpsons Video
Thanks to Alexia Tsotsis at TechCrunch [go there for full commentary] for showing us how megamedia corporations are conveniently using copyright law to promote their intellectual property:
In case you haven’t been reading Twitter at all in the past day or so, last night “Banksy” was both the sixth search term on Google Trends and the number six trending topic on Twitter (where it remains to this morning), all because of the elusive street artist’s unbelievably dark and meta storyboarding of the animated series’ infamous intro, which Fox just removed from YouTube for copyright violations.
Before Fox pulled it down, the YouTube video had currently amassed 42,305 views, and it’d be safe to say that almost none of us actually watched it on TV…
Oliver Stone’s New ‘Wall Street’ Is Heavy On Atmosphere, Light On Anger
The lead headline in the New York Times is “EXTENSIVE FRAUD APPEARS TO MAR AFGHAN ELECTION.” The line below, “A BLOW TO CREDIBILITY,” as if anyone who follows Afghanistan, a country known for blatant and notorious corruption was at all surprised by this latest “blow.”
Today’s “blow” followed an earlier “blow” a few weeks back with the disclosure of the crash of the Kabul Bank with $300 billion still unaccounted for.
In America, another fraud: CNN reported the next morning that the pathetic blonde beauty-celebrity Lindsay Lohan put up $300,000 to get out of jail. That’s the kind of story American media considers worthy of constant “Breaking News” attention.
When will we see the headlines like “EXTENSIVE FRAUD APPEARS TO MAR ECONOMIC RECOVERY” or “EXTENSIVE FRAUD LED TO FINANCIAL COLLAPSE?’
I ask this question, sort of knowing the answer, after two recent back-to-back film experiences.
On Thursday night, I spoke at a packed screening of my…
How Rupert Murdoch’s Sleazy Journalists Hacked British Royals’ Mobile Phones
The New York Times declares open season on a favorite liberal media pastime: bashing Rupert Murdoch and his “news” empire with this lengthy Magazine article on how the News of the World, an unabashedly lowbrow UK tabloid, hacked the mobile phones of Princes William and Harry and many other celebrities, possibly with some covert assistance from the police:
In November 2005, three senior aides to Britain’s royal family noticed odd things happening on their mobile phones. Messages they had never listened to were somehow appearing in their mailboxes as if heard and saved. Equally peculiar were stories that began appearing about Prince William in one of the country’s biggest tabloids, News of the World.
The stories were banal enough (Prince William pulled a tendon in his knee, one revealed). But the royal aides were puzzled as to how News of the World had gotten the information, which was known among only a small, discreet…
Fox News, Rupert Murdoch and the ‘Terror Mosque’
Thanks to Andrew Lander for sending this little bit of Fox News hypocrisy our way, from Yahoo News:
The opponents of the proposed Cordoba Initiative Islamic center planned for Lower Manhattan are fond of suggesting, by way of lengthy and often confusing chains of causation and association, that its principal planner, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, is connected to terrorism. “The imam has been tied to some shady characters,” Fox Business Channel’s Eric Bolling recently said, “so should we worry that terror dollars could be funding the project?” Blogger Pamela Geller, who has become a regular talking head on cable-news channels to denounce the mosque, has noted Rauf’s involvement with a Malaysian peace group that funded the group that organized the Gaza flotilla under the headline, “Ground Zero Imam Rauf’s ‘Charity’ Funded Genocide Mission.”
On last night’s “Daily Show,” Jon Stewart skewered these antics as a “dangerous game of guilt by association you can play with almost anybody,” and proceeded to tie Fox News to al-Qaida…
Murdoch Says NY Times Publishes ‘Anything Obama Wants’
Is this a case of the pot calling the kettle black? I mean come on, Rupert, it’s not as if your newspapers and TV networks (Fox News Channel fuhchrissakes) don’t have a very obvious bias. From TheWrap.com:
News Corp. Chairman-CEO Rupert Murdoch described himself as “maybe a radical” Tuesday night and accused the New York Times of being too close to the Obama administration.
“I have great respect for the Times, except it does have very clearly an agenda,” Murdoch said in an interview at the National Press Club in Washington with Marvin Kalb. “You can see it very clearly in the way they choose their stories, what they put on Page 1 — anything that Mr. Obama wants.”
Murdoch, whose Wall Street Journal soon will start to more directly compete with the Times by publishing a sections that covers New York also denied he has a personal tiff with Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.,…
Glenn Beck On Conspiracy Theories, His Critics On The Right And Left, And How He Resembles Howard Beale Of ‘Network’
James Taranto, a member of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, writes a fawning profile of the increasingly loonie Glenn Beck. Does this mean that we can expect the Journal to become a semi-respectable print version of another of Rupert Murdoch’s “news” outlets, Fox News Channel (which of course is home to Mr. Beck’s TV show)?
Glenn Beck didn’t always believe in what he was doing. “When I was young, I used to hear people say, ‘He’s a golden boy. Look at that guy. Can you imagine what he’s going to be like when he grows up?’ Well, I unfortunately bought into that. And I hadn’t even found myself. Quite honestly, I was running from myself. But I knew how to work Top 40 radio.”
“Golden boy” was no exaggeration. “I was in Washington, D.C., on the morning show, by the time I was 18, programming a station by 19, No. 1 in the…
