WP: Rupert Murdoch, Bending With the Wind (change in the air at Fox?)

[DeepModem Mom]

Rupert Murdoch, Bending With the Wind
By Tina Brown
Thursday, September 15, 2005; Page C01


Could the post-Katrina mood swing take the heat off the bellicose Fox News brand?

Its media competitors keep scanning its ratings -- in vain at the moment -- for signs that Rupert Murdoch's cable station will wilt along with President Bush's poll numbers. At New York gatherings, one much-masticated indicator of possible zeitgeist shift is that even though Fox still leads the pack, CNN's increases during Katrina were greater in percentage terms than Fox's.

Transatlantic Murdoch watchers can tell you that all this is wishful thinking even without the demonic TV skills of Fox's supremo Roger Ailes. Less publicized than Murdoch's fierce political conservatism -- undoubtedly his private conviction -- is his readiness to turn on a dime when it's commercially expedient. That suppleness is one of the things that make him such a formidable opponent. Nothing distracts him from his business goals -- not ideology, not friendship, not some inconvenient promise, not even family....

***

The difference between Fox News and Murdoch's other news outfits is that Ailes is almost as formidable a figure as the boss. And Ailes is a former GOP operative to boot. During the Katrina crisis Fox has excelled at the basics of covering the story while toning down some of the political bluster. Ailes does not spend his day reading Rupert's tea leaves, but if Bush continues to slump in the polls, a shift of gravity to the center -- or any rate a lowering of the bullhorn -- might ultimately serve his interests as well as Rupert's. Being constantly tagged as a Bush stooge has become a drag for Ailes, whose success at Fox owes more to his inventive TV gifts than to Republican positioning.

Recent friendly meetings between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Murdoch, recorded in the New York Observer, may be early signs of embryonic bet-hedging. Has Rupert begun to stir and put his loyalties in play again? Given his oft-expressed contempt for "gabfests" (second only to Bleeding Heart Journalism as a Murdochian term of abuse), it's interesting that he will be showing up for the Clinton Global Initiative that starts in New York today....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/14/AR2005091402628.html

[leftofcool]

1. Insanity is gonna swing to the left?????????????

Absolutely NOT. Hey Murdock, you keep your creepy assholes like Hannity and O'Reilly to yourself. We don't want them or you!!!!!!!!!

Left of Cool

[Catfight]

5. Insannity follows the money as well. Idiotic statements make people

want to tune in. If Insannity was actually fair and balanced, no one would watch him. People who think just like him, that is, like an arrogant bigot pig in a suit, will always either watch or listen to something that confirms their bigotry. It's the gang mentality, birds of a feather, flock together.

All the right wing hate radio mongers will still appeal to right wing hate listeners.

[ovidsen]

2. WaPo is right about Rupert

Murdoch's primary motivation, above politics or even family, is money. And he's very very good at making money.

The conflict between Fox News (pro-Bush, pro-"family values") and Fox TV or FX (titillating, disrespecting authority, even sacreligious) doesn't surprise me at all. They all make money.

What newspaper first broke the Downing Street Minutes story? The Times of London, a Murdoch paper, which makes money.

It's ironic that the property that Rupert seems most taken personally with, the New York Post, has lost money since he bought it around 25 years ago.

[Frances]

3. Very interesting article

My family and friends in the South watch Fox news. The pro-war and pro-religion cafes in my small northern California town are also turned onto Fox News.

I think that if Ailes were to get too moderate, then these people would get angry. They like the hard right spin (Blacks loot and whites find food). So even if Ailes stops running interference for Bush, I don't think he will stop spinning for Repubs in general.

[punpirate]

4. Well, that was a rather inane bit of...

... twittering about nothing from the WA-llowing PO-ses.

Murdoch loves money! I'm in awe of the insight. :boring:

[still_one]

6. bull, the washingtonpost has become another rag just like faux

[Reciprocity]

7. A difference that makes no difference, is no different.

His core audience are fanatical.