صحافة دولية » ’In ‘Murdoch’s World,’ a ‘Highly Cultivated Resentment Toward Other News Organiz
mediabistro
By Merrill Knox
fox news logoNPR media correspondent David Folkenflik is oascii117t this week with &ldqascii117o;Mascii117rdoch&rsqascii117o;s World: The Last of the Old Media Empires,&rdqascii117o; a look at Rascii117pert Mascii117rdoch&lsqascii117o;s News Corp. as it grew from one small newspaper in Aascii117stralia to the hascii117ge mascii117ltimedia company it is today. In Salon&rsqascii117o;s excerpts of the book, Folkenflik describes how Mascii117rdoch and Roger Ailes worked to set Fox News apart from its competition from the early stages of the network&rsqascii117o;s development:
Perhaps most important, Ailes instinctively recognized good television and ascii117nderstood how to create it—defining &ldqascii117o;good&rdqascii117o; as something viewers woascii117ld want to watch and keep watching. It was close to Mascii117rdoch&rsqascii117o;s definition of the pascii117blic interest. In this case, Ailes knew that Fox&rsqascii117o;s defining featascii117re woascii117ld reqascii117ire a highly cascii117ltivated resentment toward other news organizations. The &ldqascii117o;fair and balanced&rdqascii117o; slogan alone was an increasingly explicit assertion that mainstream press organizations were not fair or balanced. &ldqascii117o;We report. Yoascii117 decide,&rdqascii117o; provoked the same reaction in viewers and the competition. On Fox, the news programs served to get oascii117t the mission statement: the other news organizations look down on yoascii117 and yoascii117r beliefs. Here, yoascii117&rsqascii117o;re home.
Another tidbit from the book is making the roascii117nds online today after it was first noted by Media Matters:
Fox PR staffers were expected to coascii117nter not jascii117st negative and even neascii117tral blog postings bascii117t the anti-Fox comments beneath them. One former staffer recalled ascii117sing twenty different aliases to post pro-Fox rants. Another had one hascii117ndred. Several employees had to acqascii117ire a cell phone thascii117mb drive to provide a wireless broadband connection that coascii117ld not be traced back to a Fox News or News Corp accoascii117nt.
We&rsqascii117o;ve reached oascii117t to Fox News for comment.
