Older Post - December 2009

Monday 12/21/09 - Murdoch's "Hari-Kari" with Google

 

In the most recent news industry development, Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp. who also owns The Wall Street Journal has just committed “hari-kari’ by forcing Google to allow publishers to limit free views for readers.

 

Murdoch blamed Google’s allowing public free access to news as “people steal our stories” without payment.  It’s a shame he doesn’t blame himself for helping to orchestrate the fall of the newspaper industry with other mainstream media agencies by reporting “biased news” in the past to toe the line of the warmongers - namely Bush, Blair, and Howard. It’s more shameful that he thinks he can now FORCE people to pay for his so-called “real news”. Google brings about 14% of incoming traffic to News Corp's U.S. news websites. It’s most shameful that he doesn’t understand the meaning of free speech under the First Amendment by forcing Google to restrict public’s access to free news. Yet, he heads a news corporation that is supposed to uphold the First Amendment as the core value in the freedom of the press.

 

Why does Murdoch resent Google? Simply this: Google makes lots of money from the advertisements placed next to news search results. The motivation behind Murdoch's unethical demand  is no other than old fashioned greed. He wants to get a cut of the action.

 

Google corners 65 percent of the U.S. search market.  Many newspaper publishers whose websites depend on advertising sales need Google to supply them with readers. If all of the major newspapers and the major news sources including the AP and Reuters were to follow suit, then it would be an illegal cartel which could raise consumer's complaints of media companies choking off access to news and fall under suspicion of price-fixing, as well as draw lawsuits for breaching the First Amendment.

 

Any publisher who follows his example will not only lose readerships but also its reputation for not honoring the essence of free speech. Let’s see how fast Murdoch’s News Corp. take a nose dive into obscurity.