Murdoch and Morris: total incongruity

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by Jeffrey Joseph

Rupert Murdoch tends to avoid putting himself in the spotlight, generally preferring to allow his media conglomerate do the talking for him. His recent appearance on The Kalb Report yielded some explanation for keeping away from direct questioning -- Murdoch's statements about ethics in journalism and the actions of FOX appear totally incongruous. Though Murdoch complained other networks's contributors "tend to be Democrats" and that people at FOX "are not Republicans," he need look no further than to Dick Morris's many appearances on the network to find otherwise.

Morris has no qualms about pushing his Republican agenda throughout FOX's programming. Appearing on a show with Sean Hannity, who faces his own set of ethical quandaries, Morris introduced his "adopt-a-Democrat" campaign. Morris intended to create a program so that people could target specific Democrats they despised and fund their Republican opponents, candidates Morris would redirect them toward. As Morris put it, with "every penny you give, we'll go right on the air attacking the Democrat who you adopt." He also leaves no ambiguity to his target audience. Hardly a champion of the middle class, Morris hoped to "get wealthy people" across the nation to fund his Republican attack ads regardless of whether the people live within the district of the Democrat Morris seeks to depose.

In fact, Morris's turn to the right has gotten so hateful toward the Democrats that even fellow FOX personalities have felt compelled to temper his rhetoric. Peter Johnson, Jr., asked Morris on Fox & Friends if Democrats would regret voting for healthcare reform. Morris suggested that Democrats would more than regret it, but also that healthcare would "be a tombstone; the only question is how many Democrats are in the grave.

In light of all the particularly incendiary comments and actions in the current political climate, much of which FOX carries substantial blame for instigating, one would hope that FOX could exercise a little better judgment. Johnson had the wherewithal to correct Morris, in a way, by interjecting, "A political tombstone, Dick." Not long after Laura Ingraham derided MSNBC host Ed Schultz for saying that Dick Cheney's heart was a political football, Morris implying the death of Democrats because of healthcare reform appears in particularly bad taste. Since adding "political" before a sentiment proved inadequate for Johnson's colleague Ingraham, Johnson's qualification of Morris's statement fails FOX's own standard for rhetoric. Thus, Morris is left with a potentially violent and saliently Republican sentiment that he had the opportunity to push on several FOX shows. No wonder that Murdoch failed to name a single Democrat on his network.

Murdoch had a valid point in suggesting a serious news organization would have scores of ethical issues once it began promoting a specific political party. His criticism of the other networks for supporting Democrats, as he alleges, might have had more weight if not for his own network airing Dick Morris on so many shows overtly doing the work of the GOP. In attempting to claim the moral high ground, Murdoch hypocritically accused his competitors of political leaning while keeping unabashed political proponents on his own programming. Either Murdoch has no grasp of what goes on at his network or he simply does not care and the appeal to journalistic ethics serves mostly as window dressing. Whatever the case, viewers should demand Morris receive admonition for his potentially violent and obviously Republican rhetoric -- and in the meantime, choose to Turn Off FOX.

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Originally posted at Turn Off FOX.
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