PBS’s Moyers Disgracefully Rips Fox Owner Rupert Murdoch

Photo of Noel Sheppard.

I’m not sure what derangement syndrome Bill Moyers is currently suffering from, but on Friday’s “Bill Moyers Journal” broadcast on PBS, the outspoken host went into an invective-filled tirade about media tycoon Rupert Murdoch that frankly was one of the most disgraceful exhibitions of liberal bias so far this year.

In his closing monologue, Moyers compared Murdoch to the Marquis de Sade, Imelda Marcos, and Satan himself.

I kid you not.

For those that can stomach it, what follows is a full transcript of this piece of…detritus. Those with a healthier GI tract can watch the video available here. And, more information concerning the press' biased coverage of Murdoch is available at the MRC’s Business and Media Institute.

Without further ado (h/t Dan Gainor, emphasis added, better fasten your seatbelts!):

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If Rupert Murdoch were the Angel Gabriel, you still wouldn't want him owning the sun, the moon, and the stars. That's too much prime real estate for even the pure in heart.

But Rupert Murdoch is no saint; he is to propriety what the Marquis de Sade was to chastity. When it comes to money and power he's carnivorous: all appetite and no taste. He'll eat anything in his path. Politicians become little clay pigeons to be picked off with flattering headlines, generous air time, a book contract or the old-fashioned black jack that never misses: campaign cash. He hires lobbyists the way Imelda Marcos bought shoes, and stacks them in his cavernous closet, along with his conscience; this is the man, remember, who famously kowtowed to the Communist overlords of China, oppressors of their own people, to protect his investments there.

The ambitious can't resist his blandishments, Nor his power to get or keep them in office where they can return his favors. Mae West would be green with envy at his little black book of conquests. Tory Margaret Thatcher. Labor's Tony Blair. George Bush. Even Jimmy Carter couldn't say no.. now Bill and Hillary Clinton, who know which side of their bread is buttered, like having it slathered by their new buddy Rupert. Our media and political system has turned into a mutual protection racket.

You will not be surprised to learn that Murdoch's company paid little or no federal income tax over the past four years. His powerful portfolio positions him to claim a big stake in Yahoo and his takeover of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, now owned by the Bancroft family, which, like Adam and Eve, the parents of us all, are tempted to sell their birthright for a wormy apple.

Murdoch and THE JOURNAL's editorial page are made for each other. They've both pursued the right's corporate and political agenda of the past quarter century. Both venerate what THE JOURNAL editorials call the "animal spirits" of business. But THE JOURNAL's newsroom is another matter - there facts are sacred and independence revered. Rupert Murdoch has told the Bancrofts he'll not meddle with the reporting. But he's accustomed to using journalism as a personal spittoon. In the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq, he turned the dogs of war loose in the newsrooms of his empire and they howled for blood. Murdoch himself said the greatest thing to come out of the war would be "$20 a barrel for oil."

Of course he wasn't the only media mogul to clamor for war. And he's not the first to use journalism to promote his own interests. His worst offense with Fox news is not even its baldly partisan agenda. Far worse is the travesty he's made of its journalism. Fox news huffs and puffs, pontificates and proclaims, but does little serious original reporting. His tabloids sell babes and breasts, gossip and celebrities. Now he's about to bring under the same thumb one of the few national newsrooms remaining in the country.

But the problem isn't just Rupert Murdoch. His pursuit of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL is the latest in a cascading series of mergers, buy-outs, and other financial legerdemain that are making a shipwreck of journalism. Public minded newspapers are being dumped by their owners for wads of cash or crippled by cost cutting while their broadcasting cousins race to the bottom. Murdoch is just the predator of the hour. The modern maestro of a financial marketplace ruled by money and moguls. Instead of checking the excesses of private and public power, these 21st century barons of the first amendment revel in them; the public be damned.

How utterly disgraceful.

—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters.


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The left are VERY Scared of Murdoch.

They seem to have no problem with the Sulzburgers using the NY Times to promote their liberal ideology. They have no problem with the recent study that found that journalists donate to liberal organizations 9:1 over conservative organizations thus providing yet another data point to prove that the media is seriously tilted toward leftist ideology (as if there were more needed). Yet they have a problem with a conservative Murdoch.

I posit that it is because the left-wing leadership knows that they have no editorial control over any of Murdoch's media outlets and they are scared that they are about to lose their almost total control of the media.

So...what do left-wing leaders who preach tollerance do in this situation? Why, they engage in personal attacks and defamatory editorials to try and demonize the one they see as their opponent. How very "big tent" of them.

The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic

The Sulzburgers are "mai

The Sulzburgers are "mainstream," don't you know?

Cuban or Republic of China ma

Cuban or Republic of China mainstream?

Thanks for telling it like it

Thanks for telling it like it is, Bill.  Journalism, which used to be deemed a public service profession, is rapidly being taken over by those who use it to control minds and make huge profits.  If 15 GIs are killed in Iraq, you can bet your bippy that Fox News and other major outlets will lead the top of their news line up with a Paris Hilton story, a cat that plays piano, or some other similar bit of tripe.   

For those of you who claim to be concerned about integrity in journalism, I am surprised that you aren’t as outraged as I am about this self-serving media mogul trend that enriches a few and disserves the rest of us who like in-depth news reporting.

Regards, Dave High

troll

lol

Dear Dave High - blame everyone else for Journalistic Bankruptcy

Dear Dave High - blame everyone else for Journalistic Bankruptcy.

Just like Mr. 'bright bulb' in the room, Moyers.

Self-serving mogul trend, indeed.  When the so-called journalism at the NYT continues to drive that once proud rag into bankruptcy - disenfranchised stockholders due to the rather fascist control structure of that public company, a sham that dupes unenlightened folks into thinking the Times is a 'real' corporation  - and thereby destroys what little stockholder equity that now exists, who will you blame, Murdock?

Your comments are as usual, not very informed or lucid.

Slovenly Regards,

ACA

...

Quoted from:  'Acaiguana Notes from the Bomb Shelter' (soon to be a movie at theaters near you)

Moyers/Soros

Moyers isn't in George Soros' bed either, is he?

Lysdexics untie!

When the so-called journali

When the so-called journalism at the NYT continues to drive that once proud rag into bankruptcy - . . . who will you blame?

Why, Dave High will blame Fox News, of course!

A no brainer.

D


I don't support our liberals or their mission.

DFTTAfter all we've been thro

DFTT

After all we've been through, you should know it's Bush's fault.

Supreme Court,  National Security,  Borders,  Fiscal Restraint, my litmus test for President.   

You are angry again.  What a

ACA:

You are angry again.  What a surprise!

Regards, Dave High

 

Truth is to conservatives as salt is to snails.  ~ Me

 

ACA:You are angry again.  Wh

ACA:

You are angry again.  What a surprise!

You're projecting again  

Truth is to conservatives as salt is to snails.  ~ Me

What is truth?

Thanks for telling it like it

Thanks for telling it like it is, Bill. 

If "telling it like it is" means lying, I concur.

High, Dave! Can you spare a b

High, Dave! Can you spare a blast of Maui Wowie?

It may interest you to know that a couple of years ago, I e-mailed NY Times "Editor" Bill Keller with several comments, a complaint or two, and a couple of questions, as I had been a daily reader of the NYT for almost a half a century at the time.

To my surprise, Mr. Keller graciously responded, with reasoned, thoughtful responses to my concerns.

However, he absolutely refused to answer one of my questions. Maybe you can answer it for us:

The NY Times, in reporting going back several decades, always referred on its Page One to attacks against civilians as "terrorism" attacks, and the people who perpetrated them were always called "terrorists". Yet suddenly in the early 1990's, the T word disappeared from the NY Times' dictionary. Why was that?

Dave some facts

Ah Mr. High, some facts for you.

There never has been journalism. There was only bards selling gossip or bards selling the kings propaganda all through history.

General Sherman called all reporters spies as they had not regard for US soldiers in getting them killed in the Civil War and Mark Twain rightly called them all drunks.

From the yellow journalism which attacked Jefferson setting up the lie of his adultery, to the attacks on Mrs. Andrew Jackson, to Hearst's spewings to the current lie by lie of the New York Times and other "journalism" exposed here daily there is nothing and absolutely nothing journalistic about journalism.

Bill Moyers simply proved that again in a quite psychotic tantrum, because Moyers gets his entire empowerment and persona from "journalism" and that is why he reacts so malevolently to anyone who is taking his 5 year old schism of dictatorship from him. Mr. Murdoch can not just be a successful man, no Moyers has to create an immoral man and satan. If you notice Moyers uses sex in his psychotic attack which reveals entirely that Moyers in his psyche thinks sex is the ultimate dirty thing. His household growing up must have been a real Psycho type house on the block.

Mr. High, no one ever takes the time to reveal what is behind the things which drives people like Bill Moyers. It has nothing to do with journalism, patriotism, reality or even Truth. Bill Moyers is just an old guy not able to come to grips that his house of cards existence is not protecting him and he this time is furious that Mr. Murdoch is taking some of the entire Wall of China which has kept Moyers safe from himself all his life.

Bill Moyers is to be pitied Mr. High and not congratulated. Hopefully in knowing this you will join in in setting the stage for the mythical journalism and call for Mr. Moyers to seek counselling as he needs care and our concern as he is hiding in journalism which does not exist.

Have a wonderful 4th.

*HIC IACET ARTORIVS REX QVONDAM REXQVE FVTVRVS

Sell Public TV!

If only President Bush would ask ol' Rupert to make an offer on PBS...

When you put the clowns in charge, don't be surprised if a circus breaks out.

Was Moyers sounding just a

Was Moyers sounding just a bit bitter? He thinks Murdoch is a predator. Really? Imagine that, a financial predator in a capitalistic society. There should be a law against that.

Kettle, meet pot. The liberal media are indeed preditorial in many ways. Possibly more so. I just watched an example of it. Murdoch is less political than he is trying to make a buck. The better financial opportunities just happen to be on the right side of the media (for now), to Moyer's chagrin.

The take away is this: Buy Newscorp. Sell PBS. Whoops!

}}----> Moyers' shame

He's the little kid trying to rationalize his own sordid deeds by pointing the finger saying :  "Mommy he did it too"

As LBJ's Press Secretary, he defended the Democrat war in Vietnam and told J. Edgar Hoover to dig up homosexual dirt on Barry Goldwater.

In much the same manner that Dems revere Castro for his longevity as a (now) benevolent dictator, and Jimmy Carter as an elder statesman (though he is really a clear thinking antizionist), Dems love Moyers for his hard hitting liatribes against America.

Lysdexics untie!

cool arrow

He is a little kid! It is amazing to me that it was/is OK to be a Democrat and do a dirty deed. Why is not OK to be a Republican and do same deed? Then you're in the news as a liar, etc.

Enjoy your posts, cool arrow.

And don't forget, Moyers work

And don't forget, Moyers worked for a crooked President who had been in bed with Halliburton starting in 1936. It was perfectly OK for Lyndon Johnson to give them no-bid contracts during the Vietnam War (Clinton also gave them no-bid work during his war of choice in Kosovo). But if you have a R after your name, it's forbidden.

$$$hillary

Shouldn't he get some credit from the Liberals for raising money for Hillary?  Or is my memory acting up again?

He does mention the Clintons

He does mention the Clintons briefly in his rant, but you have to read carefully to find it. It's hilarious!

At least with Rupert,  I hav

At least with Rupert,  I have a choice, to pay him or NOT to pay him.. HOWEVER  with Bill ,   

 I AM FORCED TO PAY HIM OR GO TO JAIL!!

The tax payer that I am! 

Bill you're nothing but a tin pot  BLATHERING reporter,

COMPLETE WITH PATCHES ON YOUR  60's SWEATER     putz

IRANIAN  URANIMUN, 220 lbs and counting. 

COMPLETE WITH PATCHES ON YOUR

COMPLETE WITH PATCHES ON YOUR  60's SWEATER     putz

Supreme Court,  National Security,  Borders,  Fiscal Restraint, my litmus test for President.   

Moyers is a putz, but then again, he fits right in w/ the libs

Our tax dollars at work.  Unbelievable.  Journalism has been such a great industry and profession except for Murdoch and those pesky right wingers at Fox.  Give me a break.  The ABC, CBS and NBC newscast transcripts are the same thing.  Every newspaper simply pulls the AP newswire and prints it.  No one does orignal reporting...if it is anti-Bush it gets printed or aired.  By the way...how many NYT articles were plagarized?  How many were filled with errors?  You are a coward Mr. Moyers...sitting behind your tax dollar funded job, standing behind Big Bird as cover when someone suggests we don't need to have a state sponsored broadcasting system.  SAVE Sesame Street is the war cry.  Get off the airwaves you obnoxious, condenscending elitest liberal short sighted punk.

Red v. Blue Charity Link

Moyers and a couple handful o

Moyers and a couple handful of others of our country's enemy's within, must be assassinated. It's that simple. When the enemy is found they have to be killed. And if anyone here thinks I'm sounding like the wackos at moveon.org, wait a couple more years when the situation is doubly worse than now, and you'll think I wasn't such a nut case after all. When a cancer is found and recognized as such, you kill it quickly before it can metastasize further, or does one wait until it kills it’s host, and only then attack it? Remember Germany in 1934, Stalin, Mao, and others.

}}----> Sonny

It's not that simple.  I can't stand with you in advocating this action.  I agree Moyers is against the values that once unified Americans, but I won't call for his execution.

His right to spout lies in the public arena is as protected as the rights of his brothers in the Klan.  I hate both messages and recognize they share the same goals, but Conservatives have limits beyond which we will not proceed.

Lysdexics untie!

What's so utterly hilarious a

What's so utterly hilarious about this whole Bill Moyers circus is that the fever swamps of the Moyers-worshipping left are giving this guy a free pass for many things that they would never give to someone from the "dark side". Just goes to show that George Orwell was right-some of us ARE "more equal" than others!

After all, Mr. Moyers was picked up in the liberal haven of Vermont in 2002 for DUI, and the liberals in charge let him cop a plea to a lesser and far less serious charge of "negligent driving". Can you imagine the outcry if someone from the "dark side" had gotten similar treatment?

In 1964, Moyers, as President Johnson's Chief of Staff, allegedly ordered J. Edgar Hoover to investigate Barry Goldwater's staff for signs of homsexual activity. This was after Johnson aide Walter Jenkins had been arrested in a men's room in DC doing the same thing. If Moyers' counterpart from the "dark side" had been accused of the same thing, the howls of indignation from the leftists would drown out all other noise on the planet.

And speaking of Lyndon, Moyers was the right-hand man for a crook who had been in bed with Halliburton for three decades (at the time). LBJ's long tie to that company makes Dick Cheney's association pale in comparison.

}}----> Yo Del

Libs&Dems squeal when you mention LBJ.  His war only cost 58,000 American lives.

Lysdexics untie!

Bill Moyers suffers from a Brain Infarction

Perhaps it was all that boozing that got DUI Moyers brain into atrophy, but he is the Jimmy Carter of nut case.

I have written of him absolutely looking orgasmic listening to Jon Stewart prattle on like Stewart is delivering the Sermon on the Mount in every burp. Moyers is a man so uncomfortable in his own skin he is suffering from psychosis. Perhaps it is age in being serious about this sick mind or it is being without God's Peace and into liberalism, but the hatred Moyers have for certain people is pathological.

He is no longer thinking, but reacting like Pavlov's dog to names like Cheney, Bush or now Murdoch. People who are simply people and nothing more.

For Moyers to lurch into calling Murdoch, satan, apparently is the new wave of "religion" which uncomfortable liberals going to hell have decided they too like Carter can talk about God, but act like their demonic influenced selves in spewing hatred at "all not their kind" like literal nazism. That is interesting in the past Mario Cuomo tossed about "nazi" labels at people like Pat Buchanan as the low of the low, now regressive Bill Moyers has got "nazi religion" and just like Hitler is spewing the same kind of semitic hate at others in calling people satan.

Oh well, Happy 4th Bill, but honestly your waking up every day having to be you is nothing you will ever be happy about in being lost without a Christian compass to guide you.

*HIC IACET ARTORIVS REX QVONDAM REXQVE FVTVRVS

}}----> OH, Cherry, that's sick

For some reason you post planted a disgusting picture of Moyers burying his head in Jimmy Carter's unzipped flap.  Thanks a lot.

Lysdexics untie!

I find myself in an awkward p

I find myself in an awkward position. But if I do not post that which I know about the topic of Rupert Murdoch, then I am no better than the main stream media who refuses to be their own persons even if it means at times that they disagree with their own.

So, with the utmost respect, I say the following:

Rupert Murdoch truly is a scoundrel of the worst degree. Most know about him owning FOX, but many do not realize his ties to Pornography, as in he has porn channels (see this WND article). Many also do not know that he is the owner of HarperCollins, which is a parent publishing company that owns many others publishing companies. One of the companies owned by HarperCollins, Zondervan owns the North American rights to the NIV, which many people believe to be a translation, though it is an interpretation and does not claim to be a translation either. (The NIV was commissioned for one reason only, to tap into the money made on the Bible.) Another publishing company that HarperCollins owns puts out the Satanic Bible. If you go to, www.HarperCollins.com, and type in a search on the site for Satanic Bible, you will see it come up.

Nelson books is also owned by HarperCollins. Nelson books owns Promise Keepers and Women of Faith, both are organizations that are using Christianity to sell books. Women of Faith will not even speak against homosexuality, has Dr. Phil's wife as a speaker and promotes her book. (Dr. Phil and his wife had no problem with their son marrying a woman who poses in suggestive porn with her two sisters who she is a triplet with.)

Rupert Murdoch is in control of the main news source that most believe to be conservative, FOX, yet he is clearly anything but conservative. It does not surprise me that Hillary and Bill Clinton would be getting in with Rupert Murdoch. I would think that they are fully aware of the control that Rupert Murdoch has over the conservative media. And I am sure that they seek to use it.

There is only one thing better than destroying the enemy, and that is gaining control over him. Think about it. Rupert Murdoch in a large way owns his enemy, by owning the largest source of conservative news. This is why we see such compromising happening on FOX news. He has his top employees by their livelihoods. Most are not willing to lose their jobs in order to do what is right. He gives them just enough rope so that people watching the news will believe the news to be conservative, but he runs the show.

Do any of you recall the book that O.J. Simpson had written? I believe it was covered here on NBs, the day that Rupert Murdoch fired a top employee for having published the book, AFTER the huge public outcry from both sides of the political coin. AFTER thousands of books had gone to print, and an interview with the high-up in his company had been aired, Rupert Murdoch offered his sacrifice, the employee, by firing her. It was no surprise to Rupert Murdoch that the book was published by HarperCollins. HarperCollins is his baby. Are we really to believe that he did not know prior to the public outcry? He knew full well that it was being published. He only changed his mind and fired the woman after the outcry in order to gain his standing with the public. Had there not been the huge outcry, that book would have stayed on the market and the woman would have been promoted to an even higher position than she already had.

Oh, one more TID-BIT, the WND article shows another interesting bit of info. Rupert Murdoch's church is none other than "Saddleback Church." The church pastor is Rick Warren. Why is this interesting? This is the same church that Obama has spoken at. See this WND article.

Debra...

Debra is correct, but

Dear Debra,

It is wonderful to read how intelligent the bloggers are on this site in being informed. You have stated the case of capitalism against Rupert Murdoch compared to idealism and morality which is what Bill Moyers if he had half your God given ability should have done. That though is impossible for him as he does not operate in your soulful examination which all seekers of Truth administer daily.

If I might though state this, here am I not sticking up for Mr. Murdoch nor what he has done, but there is a difference from being a businessman who taps into a Bible market for profit which Mr. Murdoch is and the satan with all sexual overtones which Mr. Moyers spews out. This does not make Mr. Murdoch evil and only means he is a capitalist engaging in venues which brings him and New Corp more power.

I agree it is distasteful in what Mr. Murdoch has engaged in at times and the neutralized things happening at Fox now showing perhaps the debt has been paid to Conservatives for Newt Gingrich getting Murdoch's ownership legal in America. It is though who Rupert Murdoch is and not the evil which Bill Moyers attempts to make it out to be.

Frankly, Debra, I would have really enjoyed your analogy being that of the New York Time and Bill Moyers as it said more in a few paragraphs than their attacks said in volume. You are a great credit to this site in what you posted here today.

All of my best and God bless you with the Truth.

*HIC IACET ARTORIVS REX QVONDAM REXQVE FVTVRVS

Hi Lame Cherry,I listened aga

Hi Lame Cherry,

I listened again to the video of Bill Moyers, while keeping in mind what you said here. And I see what you mean, that Bill Moyers is largely focusing on Rupert Murdoch's ability to use our capitalistic form of government. I used what you showed me as an opening to a commentary on my weekend headline commentary for InformingChristians.

Thanks for showing me this,
Debra...

Hi DebraI'm not trying to &qu

Hi Debra

I'm not trying to "defend" Murdoch here, but according to that WND article you link to (the first one), Rupert doesn't actually "own" any porno channels, he simply pays the channel owners to broadcast those channels. His News Corp. is the major owner of DirecTV, and the porno channels DTV carries aren't owned by him.

It should be noted that Rupert also picks up many religious networks and stations to carry on DirecTV. In alphabetical order, they include BYU TV (Mormon), EWTN (Roman Catholic), a new network called "GodTV", NRB (for what they call "The Historical Christian Faith"),  TCT (also Christian programming), The Word (urban religious programming), TBN (Trinity), World Harvest TV,  and his DirecTV international package includes many foreign language religious networks as well.

He also carries the far-left cable news outlets like MSNBC and the Al Gore channel. I think all he's doing is giving the customer what they want, no matter what it is!

Hi Dolemonte,I see what you a

Hi Dolemonte,

I see what you are saying, but I don't see a difference in how he obtains the porn channels that are offered on what he owns.

It does not surprise me that he would have all of those different religions on either. He claims to be a born again Christian --he is no doubt a fake Christian.

I would never knowingly enter into any contract with Rupert Murdoch. And I would be sick if someone I had a contract with, sold it to him.

Debra...

Your tax dollars at work!http

Your tax dollars at work!

http://conservativesuperiority.com

Murdock's Mortal Sin

If it weren't for Fox News, the media would pass off Murdock as "colorful" or "eccentric".  But because he owns Fox News, he must be consigned to the hottest fires of hell, as far as the libs are concerned.

When you put the clowns in charge, don't be surprised when a circus breaks out.

I thought that Moyers retired

I thought that Moyers retired? He is like that little rock in your shoe, you think its gone and then its back under your heel again. What an utter JACK ASS.

These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc.
Ronald Reagan- 40th Anniversary of D-Day

SICKO!  I mean this guy doe

SICKO!  

I mean this guy does exactly what Murdoch and yet PBS is not privately owned it's owned by the government and also private donations.

Another LEFT WING NUT CASE to medicate!

Moyers: The Devil Incarnate

   After reading this creature's rant, I am reminded of , believe it or not, a conservative professor's remark about Moyers. He said Moyers is living proof that a creature can be hatched by the Sun after the Devil  masturbates on a rock. He truly is from the depths. And if we let him, he will bring down civilization as we know it.