Dumbing down of compromised reporters comes back to bite them - September 2007
The recent sale of the Wall Street Journal to Rupert Murdoch reflects a classic example of the though provoking statement:
In Germany, they came first for the Communists,
And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And
I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t
speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that
time there was no one left to speak up."
Now we have the Wall Street Journalists rushing around protesting with banners because their salaries are going to fall in line with the rest of the prize turkeys who now make up Murdoch's empire. Where were they years ago when Murdoch started destroying the credibility of their industry as immortalised in the laughable Fox "News" station?
I have seen this happen over and over again to staff finding themselves sold off to this megalomaniac. Pay peanuts and if they complain piss them off. There are plenty of second rate journalists and editorial staff in Murdoch's media empire who bow to his every demand and have absolutely no interest in standing by their journalistic code of ethics. Ethics don't pay salaries if you are a turkey... gobble, gobble.... you are just happy to have a job.
So what has happened to the reporters who have credibility? They don't work for the major media companies here in Australia or elsewhere because they refuse to have their ethics compromised. Some have their own online publishing businesses, proof read or even write books. The cream has left the market. When you watch your news each night or read your newspaper reflect on the reality that it is the residue, the turkeys, who are dishing out this trash they loosely term news.
Why do they do it? They do it for the glory of being recognised as some kind of media "personality" because it is the only personality they have.
They are, in themselves, the victims of Murdochism. I call it an abuse of power.