Media Madness & Politics

It’s falling apart, but as the Rupert Murdoch media empire goes supernova, expect it to take a LOT of people with it.

First, start with the 10 questions that no one in Britain will ask Rupert Murdoch this afternoon.  This is because it seems like ALL of the British establishment is tainted with a disease known as “media madness” that has been rampaging their corridors for decades.

Which begs the question:  does Rupert Murdoch really give a shit about an inquiry?

Probably not.

‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone’, some dude in a desert once said.  It’s more true today than ever.

Taint.  It’s an ugly word.

The disease runs deep and the cure is not going to be pretty.

To appreciate what I’m talking about, we have to go back.

It all begins with commercial media getting more crass and useless since the dawn of the age of television.  Yes … that far back.  One might argue that the symptoms go back even further into the early days of print (example:  William Randolph Hearst), but the level of magnitude and collusion really hit stride in the 1960s when TVs quickly became a way of our lives.

Example:  John F. Kennedy won the 1960 Presidential election because he knew (or at least someone did) that TV would expose how unattractive Richard Nixon was.

The taint begins en masse.  Mass production became a no-brainer in the early days of mass communication because we all trusted the advertising that came with media because we all trusted the people within the media.

Flip forward to today.

Rupert Murdoch has his fingers in many pies.

And these are just the media companies.  We need to know (but will never know the truth) about things like the relationship between media and the police and the politicians that they’re protecting.  Or exposing.  How close are these relationships and what’s the true meaning of this for all of ‘lay people’ who just want to get on with our lives?

In Canada, our ‘mainstream media’ has become very tainted by the same symptoms:  supporting those that throw our money at them.  The taint continues.  For the last half decade, it’s been the Conservatives, but the Liberals are equally tainted.

They nosh and rub elbows with the media elite in order to get buy-in from the editorial staff.

The reward:  billions in ad spend.  The taint runs deep.

Time and time again, the federal government tends to be one of the biggest buyers of media.  Canada’s ‘Economic Action Plan’ diverted nearly $500 million in advertising dollars to the big media companies in the past few years and it probably won’t stop any time soon.

With this kind of close relationship, Canada may be in a similar media minefield as Murdoch and the folks in Britain.

For example, who ‘exposed’ the story about Jack Layton supposedly getting a ‘massage’ just days before the election date?  Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone has the stones to really find the answer to this question, including myself.  The cost is too high and the secrets too close.

However, there’s no doubt here:  as Murdoch media madness evolves into something bigger and uglier, the citizens of the world need to ask why we let ourselves get into this mess.

More importantly, how do we get out of it?