Mike Royko said it best: "No self-respecting fish would want to be wrapped in a Murdoch paper"

[marym625]

Posted on Facebook by John Mathieu

Mike Royko said it best: "No self-respecting fish would want to be wrapped in a Murdoch paper"

National Geographic was an established, venerated institution by the time the oldest person on earth today, was born. During that time the non-profit has educated the entire world about science, ecology, geography, astronomy, oceanography, climate, conservation, culture, history, war, refugees, zoology, biology, new discoveries, disease, endangered species and myriad other subjects. They have funded exploration, education and science. They have been unequivocally on the side of critical thought, making the world a better place and have opened millions of minds. This list of accomplishments could go on for pages. In all likelihood, that list is also about to become a thing of the past. With the acquisition of the National Geographic Society by Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox, the best anyone can hope for is a gradual degradation of the society, followed by a mild commercialization of the media they control.

No one, not even those who watch nothing but Fox News and let it shape their complete worldview, should welcome this change. Murdoch has been commercializing media, dumbing it down and trading information for propaganda, and sensationalism for information for decades. This purchase of National Geographic by Murdoch is a monumental loss for everyone – even Murdoch and those who will profit from the change in ownership. (They will own 73% of the society.) And even for those who don’t understand what has been lost.

[Kath1]

1. I always loved National Geographic.

Sorry to see it will be dumbed down.

That really sucks.

[marym625]

2. It's just never going to mean the same thing it always has in the past.

Very sad.

[Kath1]

3. I agree.

It will never be the same. And I am sad about that,

[suede1]

4. This is terrible! Is there any way to stop it?

[marym625]

5. not unless you have the money to buy it.

I wish that monopolies were truly against the law. Against US and International law. Unfortunately, as we know from the current mainstream media,,that's not the case.

[BlueJazz]

6. I've canceled my subscription. My feelings for Murdock are indescribably psychopathic.

[marym625]

7. Have to agree with that!

Or better said, same here.

[mucifer]

8. Yeah Royko quit his job at the Chicago SunTimes when murdoch bought it and he

ended up at the Chicago Tribune which he used to ridicule because it is a republican paper. He preferred the republican paper to the new murdoch one.

That was a long time ago.I don't think murdoch even owns the Suntimes now.

I miss Royko.

[marym625]

9. Mike Royko rocked!

I miss him too.

I remember when he did that. I remember it well.

You're correct about the Sun-Times.

Royko didn't like the kennedys. Only thing I disagreed with Royko about.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

10. He was a big homophobe.

[ProfessorGAC]

12. Really?

I had not heard that said about him. I used to read him all the time when he was with the Chicago papers.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

14. I personally remember one of his columns during the Illinois domestic violence...

..... debate concerning same sex couples. I had lawyer friends working on the subject with the Illinois State Rep. Larry McKeon(first openly gay Illinois state rep). Something about two guys who work out in the gym should be able to beat each other up without involving the police.

I came out around 93-94. I too was a fan of his stuff. Then I started paying attention. Sure, it was a different time, say, in 1974 through 1995. He was an equal opportunity jokester. Everybody said and wrote insensitive things about gay people back in the day. But he focused some of his worst stuff at the gay rights movement.

The Advocate has him listed in their top 45.

http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/advocate-45/2012/08/21/45-biggest-homophobes-our-45-years


Royko, then a Chicago Daily News columnist, wrote an elaborate story in 1974 of a faux world in which men “in love with monkeys” try stupidly to gain public acceptance. Royko, who later went to the Chicago Sun-Times and then the Chicago Tribune, was syndicated nationally to more than 600 newspapers and often made gays the subject of his jokes. He wasn’t laughing, though, in 1994 when caught using antigay slurs during a drunk-driving arrest.

The 1974 column was some Anita Bryant level hate. Even if one wanted to excuse it as "a differnt era." But going in to the 1990s? Yeah, there is some there there.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. Wow, That's A Bummer

I don't recall that column either, but i certainly don't remember every one i ever read. Not many of us could. That's a shame. I wish he had been a bit more enlightened. He was definitely capable of being so.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

16. I do remember the kerfuffle over his DUI arrest when he pulled a Mel Gibson.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/whos-destroying-roykos-rep/Content?oid=887669

The blotto, belligerent Royko of last December 17, immortalized in a Winnetka police report that mysteriously burst into the public eye last week, was a gay's worst nightmare--and certainly his own. This is the Royko who, according to the report, pushed one cop in the chest and shouted, "Fuck you, fag. Get your fucking hands off me. Jag off, queer," and yelled at ambulance attendants trying to examine his bleeding head, "Get away from me! What are you--fags? Why are you wearing those fag gloves for?"

From the same article:

My own ears tell me that gays and lesbians are not genetically incapable of laughing at heteros' humor, yet Royko's often rubs them the wrong way. "Gay and lesbian groups have long accused Royko of homophobia," wrote Windy City Times reporter David Olson. "For example, in 1990, while ridiculing gay and lesbian pride parades, Royko wrote, "After all, the rest of the nation doesn't hold parades and cry: "Impotent pride" or "Premature ejaculation power."'

"In 1991, Royko discussed how gay men contract HIV, writing, "Love isn't an issue at all, unless you define love as having anal sex with a stranger in a bathhouse, which would be kind of stretching love's definition."'

Here are some other columns at which, perhaps, few gays guffawed.

In '92 Royko weighed in on the Saint Patrick's Day parade in Boston. "I suspect that the parade leaders are right: The gay marchers are more interested in advertising their gayness, and irritating devout straights, than they are in showing their love for the old sod. Other groups don't wave signs that say they are proud to be Irish and heterosexual, or Irish and impotent, or Irish and subject to premature ejaculation."

[marym625]

20. yikes!

As disgusting as this is, it doesn't change the fact that he was right about Murdoch and that this is a very sad day for education. Education that nearly everyone received when picking up a National Geographic magazine

[marym625]

17. I didn't remember that

Too bad. He had a biting tongue, or pen I guess you would say.

I'm going to assume, had he lived longer, he would have evolved. So very many have. But that doesn't excuse him. It's a damn shame.

[AngryAmish]

13. Royko was a member at Ridgemoor Country Club

You can hit the halfway house five times during a round at Ridgemoor. A very well lubricated club.

[marym625]

18. I'm sorry,

I don't get it. Maybe it's too early but can you be clearer?

[AngryAmish]

25. My point was Royko liked to drink and Ridgemoor was well suited to it.

I play many rounds a year there. Nice property but tight. Langford got a lot of the property. First hole is terrible. The "Short" on 4 is a barrel of monkeys. Tillinghast's 18 is awesome, but Doak's 3 par at Medinah 1 18th is better. 10th green is about everything you want out of a push-up green.

[marym625]

26. Thank you.

Yeah, I remember he was a drinker. And if you put that with golfing, it's a bad combination.

Most of what you said went over my head. I know very little about golf. Only went once, with my dad, about 100 years ago. Used to watch it when John Cooke (maybe Cook) played because I had a crush on him.

[20score]

11. This is something I hope all people on this site will agree on.

[marym625]

19. can't fathom they don't.

No one here likes Murdoch and everyone likes, or liked, National Geographic

[20score]

23. Good. You never know, though.

I have seen some pretty surprising viewpoints on this site. So far so good.

[marym625]

27. sadly,

That's true. But I don't recall anyone talking well about Murdoch and his media empire

[Octafish]

21. Royko pegged ''The ALIEN''

https://books.google.com/books?id=SBTPBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT3255&lpg=PT3255&dq=mike+royko+murdoch+the+alien&source=bl&ots=TTpSfDaz7Y&sig=6DV8wl3ykVjE3yAX3p8V7oCvVBs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CGcQ6AEwDmoVChMIyoPU2Yj3xwIVRBmSCh3KGQ6c#v=onepage&q=mike%20royko%20murdoch%20the%20alien&f=false

[marym625]

22. Thank you!

I'll have to check it out later. I can't read it on my phone

[Octafish]

24. Scroll up toward 1984 at beginning of book...

The column is about being printed in two papers. Guy roasts Murdoch and predicts what was ahead.

I'm on my phone, too. Can't scroll or anything on this thing.

[marym625]

28. Thank you!