Murdoch is an endangered species - and he knows it

Image via CrunchBase

Make no mistake -- The Associated Press and the Rubert Murdochs of the world know the current news system is doomed. That's why they want to charge for their content -- their role is to protect power and the interests of the financial elite. The AP and Murdochs of the world want to maintain their superior priest-like positions as Godly news oligarchs. They want to stifle the new paradigm of citizen journalism that's gaining critical mass -- a paradigm where news is distributed horizontally.

Murdoch and his ilk are in imminent danger of extinction and they know it. They aren't simply going to lay down and die. They'll use every last dollar from their millions to destroy bloggers and the growing monumental shift in information gathering bloggers represent. Media moguls are aware that to some extent they have bloggers over a barrel. It costs money to finance news gathering teams across the globe. And there's only a handful of wire services that dominate the entire news landscape, a landscape all of us are imprisoned and beholden to for what the media monopoly decides is news.



Murdoch losses of $136 million this year and $57 million a year earlier, have nothing to do with free content. "Quality journalism is not cheap," said Murdoch, "and an industry that gives away its content is simply cannibalizing its ability to produce good reporting."

The only quality journalism and good reporting Murdoch has achieved is how well he's managed to cannibalize the truth. Murdoch's media group spews out a shameless stream of lies, deception, and propaganda. Murdoch's only interest is in preserving his media mogul status and proto-fascist, top-down structure of information distribution; the same can be said for rags like the Huffington Post that serve as a mouth piece for Obama.

Murdoch's pathetic pledge to charge for content will fail, pure and simple. He will not create a mass parade of would-be content followers. On the contrary, his pay-for-content scheme will only hasten the destruction of his entire media mega-structure. Murdoch may generate revenue from those of like minds willing to pay for his hysterical evangelistic version of news, but it will all backfire.

His greedlust will foster the healthy media competition he clearly opposes. Murdoch may succeed in attracting a small, loyal band of paying Jim Jones-like followers who will worship him as a journalistic hero, but the real heroes are bloggers forced to wade through the manure he and others call news. As it stands now, bloggers must arduously sift through information from wire agencies -- and the subsequent spin by retail outlets -- for little nuggets of truth: it's like panning for a few small specks of gold in a murky river of lies.