Russ Baker: Rupert Murdoch undermined liberty

UNDERMINING LIBERTY: Russ Baker is thoroughly unimpressed with Rupert Murdoch and his band of merry pranksters, arguing that the media mogul has undermined liberty and the public's faith in the media as a dependable guardian of society.

He has undermined liberty: His outlets led the drumbeat for restriction or elimination of certain fundamental rights, including those under the US Fourth Amendment, while at the same time supporting unrestrained wiretapping, the  harsh treatment of suspects who may have done nothing wrong, and fueling panic justifying the build-up of the national surveillance state.

He has turned the public against the press. By the generally inferior product produced, with a few exceptions, by the majority of the news outlets he controls and the tawdry methods sponsored by many of them, he has eroded the public’s confidence in media in general, tarnishing its belief even in those outfits whose work deserves to be taken seriously. He has also used his outlets to convince the public that other, more conscientious news organizations are ideologically suspect and biased.

I'm actually inclined to be a little more sympathetic towards Murdoch, but each to his own. (There you go, pedants; happy now?) Baker also gives a number of other thoughts on Murdoch, claiming that the media mogul has also 'dumbed down the media' and hence the public. He's clearly a fan.