Rupert Murdoch's chief tactic for undermining his competition (ie all networks besides FOX) has been a three-part scheme. First, he launched the network as a funky, liberal alternative to mainstream programming and thereby hooked a big share of viewers. Second, he started billing the news/commentary section of FOX as the ultimate in "unbiased" (We Report, You Decide). Third, he pushed FOX news/commentary further and further to the right until it is now just a short step away from allowing the KKK to have its own news hour (the next step from O'Reilly's hour). Meanwhile, the mainstream networks lean to the right, but are not yet "frothing at the mouth." But, by comparison, Murdoch can claim that the contrast between his KKK-ish leanings and the mainstreamers is due to their "liberal bias," not to the huge gap between "mildly rightwing" and way, way off in right field.

C-SPAN NOW BEING MADE PROPAGANDA OUTLET FOR RUPERT MURDOCH

As I said in an earlier commentary (er, rant), Rupert Murdoch is using his media empire to promote the Bush W-ar and to trash his opposition because he stands to gain the opportunity to expand his growing satellite TV network into "virgin territory" - ie., all those countries Bush plans to invade, level, and rebuild in the corporate image. Now Murdoch is apparently using not just his own media, but other corporation's networks to his advantage, specifically C-SPAN (which is operated by a consortium of US cable companies).

The past weeks, as you may have read, News Corps (Rupert's empire) media, including FOX and the New York Post, have been trashing their competition through "editorials" and "news reports." They succeeded in getting Pulitzer prize-winning war correspondant Peter Arnett fired by accusing him of treason. Worse yet, Rupert has discovered how to tap into the Freeper network. This is a group of rightwing minions who are schooled in the art of the organized and scripted "call in"/"write in" campaign as a way to exert pressure against people they don't like. The Dixie Chicks manager said the vicious outpouring of mail to Natalie Maines appeared to have been a Freep attack. The "thousands" of letters blasting Peter Arnett had an identical pattern.

Now I very strongly suspect that Murdoch is using Freepers to attack his competition through the C-SPAN "open phone" format - a favorite venue of Freepers. This morning, during the prime east coast drive time hour of C-SPAN (7:30-8:30, Washington Journal), there were no less than three highly suspicious calls. One of them was a woman who clearly seemed to be reading from a script or regurgitating memorized lines: Here's her spiel, roughly: "I don't like ABC, NBC, CBS, or CNN. I'm sick of the talking heads. I get all my news from FOX, but now I have DirecTV I watch the HOME AND GARDENING programs [free ad courtesy C-SPAN included in the spiel!!] and don't have to listen to all those other LEFT WING talking heads." Here's the script from another guy: "I just think everyone but FOX is totally biased. I only watch FOX and would never buy the New York Times [Murdoch's New York Post has lately been going after its chief competitor, the New York Times with a a vengeance]."

It is impossible to filter out all of these people, so the responsibility lies with the public - to learn to recognize the corporatepolitical plants. Although I do think C-SPAN could do a better job of cutting obvious "free ads" off.

They should have renamed the April 4 edition of C-SPAN's Washington Journal "The Rupert Murdoch Show". For the past 20 minutes, the editor of the "London Times," Robert Thompason (who is not even British - he's an Aussie), has been holding forth with a pro-Busn, pro-war, anti-liberal diatribe thinly disguised as an "interview. Guess who owns the London Times? Rupert Murdoch! The Bush-like propaganda spewed by Thompson sounds as if he were personally coached by Donald Rumsfeld, with special tips thrown in by

JOHN ASHCROFT GOES AFTER THE INTERNET

I am not a gambler and I think gambling is an addiction, like any other addiction. However, I am appalled to learn that John Ashcroft is "going after gambling" as a way to start dismantling the Internet as we know it. The Bush administration's greatest enemy is the Internet, because it is here that people can access the noncorporate truth, can safely communicate and organize quickly (the peace protests relied on Internet organizing). However, the popularity of the Net has made it difficult for the Bush Reich to find a chink in its armor that would not outrage the public. Now Ashcroft is trying an angle he imagines to be his "foot in the door" : gambling. To this end, he is going after PayPal as the broker of onling gambling funds.

HOWEVER, if Ashcroft were really going after online gambling for what it is - a vice, then the FBI vice people should be going after it - at least what's left of the domestic crime-fighting FBI. If the issue was unregulated money transfer, then the SEC should be on the case. But no, Ashcroft is accusing PayPal of violating the PATRIOT ACTS!!! More outrageous still, the charges originate from transactions that occurred BEFORE the Patriot Act was made law!! Even more suspicious, the case is focused on Missouri - Ashcroft's home state, where, as a former corporate-fed senator, he has all sorts of "markers" he can call in to try to rig his case and make it stick.

So, if he succeeds in making online gambling a violation of the Patriot Act, you can rest assured that this will be but the toe in door. By this time next year, nearly everything short of using email to send notes of support to G.W. Bush will be considered a "violation of the Patriot Act."

Just in time for his next war.

Here's the news release: ">http://news.com.com/2100-1018-994810.html?tag=sas_email