fake news
6:10 p.m. - 04.25.03
this is kinda funny in a pathetic sort of way ....
below is an article i just read about ted turner - calling the fox news guy a 'warmonger.' he also said that it is wrong to have only 5 major media companies controlling our news.
i think he's right on both accounts. the funny part is that he is the prime media mogul - it was turners companies (not murdoch's) that joined forces with AOL - Turner is responsible for one of the (if not THE largest) largest media conglomerations ever. it's like a cfo getting fired from a corrupt company. he played the game with a smile on his face until he was let go - then, he releases his illegal documents under immunity, busts his old boss to screw him over, then proclaim to the world how horrified you were at all the corruption going on under your nose.
it's interesting to see him on the poduim telling the world that the US media is corrupt - more interesting in knowing that his company is facing federal investigations.
ok - so now with the possibility of him getting in trouble - and if he does he'll probably have to separate his empire into a lot of little companies, he's blowing the whistle on his competors - saying that they are crooks.
yes - the US media is NOTHING but an INFO-TAINMENT vehicle for advertising ratings. i've been in sales long enough to know that a city magazine's first interest is NOT promoting their city, but to make money; although their mission statement sounds nice and cozy. i worked in radio long enough to know that the radio biz has NOTHING to do with music.
and, let me let you in on another thing -- those radio contests - where you are mailed sweepstakes numbers and you have to listen to see if your number is called -- FIXED -- well, not completely fixed, but if there is a zip code area not getting enough ratings, guess where they mail the winning numbers??? and, yes, the winning numbers are already determined before the first sweepstakes gets mailed. with ratings and all that prize money on the line, you can't take any chances (paraphrasing my old programming director) .
do you think it's any different when there are BILLIONS of dollars to be made instead of thousands??? i'd guess the stakes are a bit higher.
hey - also read the article and see that the head of the BBC says about our media coverage. again, i think it's just a matter of the pot calling the kettle black - but again, i totally agree with him.
By Duncan Martell
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Ted Turner said on Thursday too few people owned too many media organizations and called rival media baron Rupert Murdoch a warmonger for what he said was Murdoch's promotion of the U.S. war in Iraq (news - web sites).
Asked by an audience member for his thoughts on Fox's larger ratings share than CNN's, Turner said, "Just because your ratings are bigger doesn't mean you're better."
"It's not how big you are, it's how good you are that really counts," Turner said, drawing hoots from the audience.
Turner, who has pledged to give $1 billion to the United Nations and is a vocal proponent of population control and nuclear-arms elimination, criticized the concentration of ownership of the vast majority of U.S. television networks, radio and TV stations and newspapers in a few corporations.
"The media is too concentrated, too few people own too much," Turner said. Asked whether he would again try to launch a new network, Turner, who is the vice chairman of AOL Time Warner and has been critical of the merger of AOL and TimeWarner, said: "No. I think the space is filled with the people already there.
FIVE COMPANIES "There's really five companies that control 90 percent of what we read, see and hear. It's not healthy."
Earlier on Thursday, BBC Director General Greg Dyke said U.S. broadcasters' coverage of the Iraq war was so unquestioningly patriotic and so lacking in impartiality that it threatened the credibility of America's electronic media.
Dyke singled out for criticism Fox News Channel and Clear Channel Communications Inc., the largest operator of radio stations in the United States.
"Personally, I was shocked while in the United States by how unquestioning the broadcast news media was during this war," Dyke said in a speech at a University of London conference.
After Turner's initial remarks, the moderator for the question and answer session noted that Turner would not be able to comment on the ongoing federal investigations into AOL Time Warner. The moderator had scarcely finished her statement when he leaned into the microphone and said: "I can say one thing. As the largest shareholder and the biggest shareholder (of the company), it's been brutal." Turner said he also liked bison. "I got 35,000 of them," Turner said in response to a question about bison. "I do eat them. You've got to eat." The final question of the evening to Turner: What will be his epitaph. "I have nothing more to say," Turner said. "And that's what it is."
fake news - 04.25.03
a>