Thank you Thom for another “yellow blinking light “ article to highlight the ever growing threat to our democracy by malevolent right wing billionaires. We on the progressive side of the world view (and the right side of history) have too few choices in the public viewership. Over the years I have gradually turned away from corporate media and have developed total contempt for the Fox propaganda network and its copycat media channels. I am open to alternate options in discussions but won’t tolerate lying and sensationalism just for clicks so I have come to depend on Thom’s site as well as The New Republic, MeidasTouch Network ( and all the great contributors on the site) EmptyWheel, Brian Tyler Cohen and David Feldman on You Tube and others but unfortunately it’s taken years of looking for alternatives to the legacy right leaning media and their both sides BS. I was hoping Dominion would stick it to Fox/Murdoch more than they did but I also can understand why they settled as they did. Here’s hoping Smartmatic (not sure on spelling?) nails Fox bigly also. Just think when Kamala wins the presidency in November, it will be despite Fox and friends 24/7 propaganda Enquirer style BS catering to the brain dead amongst us.
Be careful of the Midas Touch Network. I heard one of their guests blame Obama and "cooperating Democrats" for Citizens United. He said nothing about the SCOTUS.
Meidas Touch are firmly on the side of democracy. Occasionally, a guest will say something they disagree with, but they won’t allow lies to go unchallenged. I have been following them for years.
A guest Gloria. But the Meidas Touch hosts. They sit down with all kind of people for their podcast, what was the response to such a claim that Obama and cooperating democrats were responsible for Citizens United?
No one can accuse Joy Reid of being conservative, much less extremist, but on occasion whe will have a guest on her show that says an outrageous and untrue thing.
Fox has caused so much damage to this country. In an age of information, our worst threat is a disinformation outlet that operates with reckless abandon.
It has been amazing how well Murdoch has been able to find the sensationalist formula which has undermined democracy all over the world. He didn’t just do it for the money, he has always been a white supremacist.
There is a man who could do the world a favor by not waking up tomorrow.
Rupert has named this action "Project Harmony". How damn funny is that?!
Keep a stash of popcorn just in case this SOB suddenly departs, because THAT would be better than the ending of Succession. Have to wonder how much improved the world will be without him.
He wants all the board votes to go to his mini-me, Lachlan, while the others retain their ownership. Awkward!
From what I see on-line this applies:
"Irrevocable Trusts: Once these are set up, they generally cannot be changed or canceled. Murdoch's trust is an Irrevocable Trust that was created back in 1999 after he divorced his second wife, Anna Murdoch Mann. It was designed to ensure that his children would inherit part of the family empire."--Geiger Law Office
Thom: I am happy that you mentioned Sir Keith Murdoch who-according to American GI'S- was anti-American. During WWII Sir Keith Murdoch owned a tabloid named Truth. He accused American soldiers of raping Australian women and seducing married women. His tabloid caused continues strife between American's and Australian's. Which, in one fight, caused the death of an American GI. Source: "The US Army In The Pacific War, 1942-1943 Fire And Fortitude" John C McManus. pgs. 227-230
American soldiers only seduce the wives of Australians, when given half a chance, especially at bars on women's night out! To think the American soldier behaves properly overseas is pretty delusionary. This is one issue I don't think Rupert Murdoch lied much about. All the foreigners need to protect their women from American soldiers!
I'm looking forward to reading Hartmann's new addition to his "Hidden History" series, "The American Dream: the Demise of the Middle Class and How to Rescue Our Future," because I'm always looking for a remedy for the predatory system we now live in and that most of us probably have always lived in.
All of Hartmann's books end with suggestions for how to turn things around for the middle class. I don't see the world that way. All the classes are under a small ruling predatory class that has greater and lesser power over the people. Everybody who earns a paycheck, no matter how large or small, is in one class, including small business owners who are also under the system manipulated by the money class. There are only two classes: a small wealthy ruling class and the rest of us.
I watched a lengthy video from 2012 on the YouTube channel during the night when. I couldn't sleep that I found from a search for the economic history of the world, "Wall Street Greed: Financial Crisis Since 3500 BCE." It was interesting and very educational and it covered financial classes from the Tulip Bubble and Crash to 1711-1720, something through the 1929 crash, and on through to the crashes of the 2000s. I couldn't wait for the final results of why the crashes kept recurring, but I learned nothing new and was very disappointed.
Because two persons consulted were Michael Hudson and Robert Reich, and going back to the 1900s philosophers and economists and the 20th century Keynes, I expected something revolutionary. In a nutshell, the conclusion was that the emotions of greedy people looking for the pie in the sky lose their money to the also greedy but more clever Wall Street persons who create financial instruments that make the bubbles through a symbiotic-like relationship that always results in the wealthiest gaining a bigger piece of the economic pie after every recession and depression than they had to begin with. Daaaaah.
People will never change, and the system favors the predators. Even in Rome, democracy was only for the oligarchs, as it is today. The system sucks. It doesn't work for the rest of us. I am losing faith in the system where voting in large enough numbers should give the people what we need and want, but it doesn't work. How do we reverse Citizens United when that has already given the wealthy the ultimate control over the system? The majority don't get what they want, as evidenced by the 2014 Gillens and Page research.
I ordered Hartmann's new book from The Frugal Muse in Darien, Illinois, where the book signing will be held. I am very eager to see what Thom comes up with this time. I can't give up hope because I want a better, more secure world for my descendants.
I try not to repeat too often, the family unit has stopped the evolution of the human race, along with the church that supports the family unit! The rich like it that way because they have a lot of cheap soldiers and slaves and servants.
Please do not lose faith in a better world Ms. Maloney. Maybe you can learn something encouraging as well as enlightening by watching Richard Wolff, you might also like to read about Marx and his ideas, as well as reading Marx himself. The model offered by the Basques in Northern Spain is encouraging as well. The reason the elite in Madrid hate and fear the Basque system is that it is an economy which is overwhelmingly based on cooperatives, and it is stable and successful. I admire your enquiring attitude.
In October of 2022 we lost another great news station, KGO San Francisco. That station was fair and balanced. It is now a sports betting station from what I read on the internet. KGO News talk was around between 1962 and 2022.
I grew up listening to KGO. At night in Southwest Oregon, you couldn't get many radio stations at night back then. That is where I learned to think about world events outside of myself as a young child!
All of the divisive right-wing hate radio stations, that exist for billionaires propaganda and installing a dictatorship in America, need to be forced to have a warning top of every hour, "Fascist propaganda station, opinions are hazardous to all living things", like a pack of cigarettes does, "warning smoking maybe hazardous to your health!"
The billionaires are betting that the rural American voters are dumber than a box of rocks and that their minds have been turned into mush by irrational thinking from their parents and their church!
We need an Attorney General with integrity and a Supreme Court with integrity, who will rule that hate speech and lying are not protected free speech! With punishment of public flogging if no apology is given. The reason for flogging is because the rich have enough money fines do not harm them and there are so many liars in this nation, poor and rich, we can't possibly afford to throw them all in prison where they belong!
Lol. I empathize with your anger and frustration. In the video about the history of economics and the recurring Bubbles and crashes, the punishment for those who caused a financial crash in England in the early 1700s was to put them in a bag full of live snakes and drop them overboard. Wouldn't that have been cathartic for all the misery they caused because they were greedy? They were much more creative with punishments in the old days.
Gloria, to the already abused, it is easier to torture and to kill than it is to keep from torturing and killing! We risk ripping the fabric of civilization with a civil war that is anything but civil! The American people have been abused by the rich and they're too stupid to even know it!
There was a liberal talk show in the Seattle Area,it broadcast from Issaquah, it was bought out by Clear Channel,now i Heart, and turned into a Sports show, probably hate radio now. I stopped listening.
Unfortunately the profit based propaganda machinery seems to favor ultra right wing nonsense. So I’m wondering what the best way would be to immunize people against it ?
The right wing is gullible, because it is fearful, easily triggered by threats (mostly manufactured), and thus not at all thoughtful or perceptive. The left, in general, is less fearful, and more thoughtful.
Look at how readily the right impoverishes itself to enrich Trump, look at the scams and grifts, he has made millions off the fools. You have old folk barely getting by on social security checks, sending him money, after time he plays martyr, and forking out hundreds for useless crap like NFT's, Crypto sneakers and Bibles.
They are rubes, but don't tell them that, they will entrench and double down.
Rupert Murdoch should be charged with treason and inciting violence and his citizenship should be revoked along with his ability to run any business in the United States.
Murdoch and Musk. Are these more examples of immigrants who are taking advantage of, and harming, the American system and its people? Do I have my tongue in my cheek?
Hi Gloria, I agree with your warning about not taking everything at face value. I read and watch many sources including Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC, The Bulwark (love Tim Miller ‘s podcasts) and Jeff Tiedrich, The Atlantic and many others. Favorites like Thom’s site , Palmer Report and Raw Story are my daily favorites. So overall it takes effort to search for credible media sources and the choices are improving in number. It’s sad that the MSM wants to throw away their credibility and integrity by sanewashing the crazy Maggat mob boss and his minions but I hope they pay a price for abdicating their self respect for clicks and $$
Rupert Murdochs rise to power and wealth, and the co commitment descent of Democracy hasn’t happened in a vacuum.
It has happened because Murdoch has tapped into the dirty underside of the human psyche.
It is the racist, fascist,misogynistic readers that have made him rich and powerful. Brexit would never have happened were it not for the fact that Murdoch’s warped ideology found a welcome home.
MAGA and Trump would never have happened for the same reason.
Murdoch didn’t destroy Australia, Britain and America. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.
Murdoch as Darth Vader, invoking the dark force to come out everywhere.
What was it Pogo said during the Vietnam war?. I've seen the enemy and it is us?
OK not all of us, but if the polls approximate reality, well then 48 - 50% of us.
Hello Thom: the cogency with which you present the Truth to my eyes with this piece warms my heart and sends happy chills down my spine. To have your work available for our edification is a great Blessing and contributes great energy to the tide which might save humanity and the rest of creation. I am grateful.
Bottom line, people are basically lazy and will listen to and believe whatever suits their fancy. This is a gross generalization of course but the habit of absorbing information that leans in one direction quickly leads to it becoming truth that cannot be easily dislodged. What to do?
Chris, what you say is true, people are lazy and believe whatever suits their fancy, the question is what suits their fancy. And based on the evidence before us, it is reinforcement of their fears and needs, in other words he who appeals to the lizard brain, has captured them by their short and curlies.
Thank you Thom for another “yellow blinking light “ article to highlight the ever growing threat to our democracy by malevolent right wing billionaires. We on the progressive side of the world view (and the right side of history) have too few choices in the public viewership. Over the years I have gradually turned away from corporate media and have developed total contempt for the Fox propaganda network and its copycat media channels. I am open to alternate options in discussions but won’t tolerate lying and sensationalism just for clicks so I have come to depend on Thom’s site as well as The New Republic, MeidasTouch Network ( and all the great contributors on the site) EmptyWheel, Brian Tyler Cohen and David Feldman on You Tube and others but unfortunately it’s taken years of looking for alternatives to the legacy right leaning media and their both sides BS. I was hoping Dominion would stick it to Fox/Murdoch more than they did but I also can understand why they settled as they did. Here’s hoping Smartmatic (not sure on spelling?) nails Fox bigly also. Just think when Kamala wins the presidency in November, it will be despite Fox and friends 24/7 propaganda Enquirer style BS catering to the brain dead amongst us.
Be careful of the Midas Touch Network. I heard one of their guests blame Obama and "cooperating Democrats" for Citizens United. He said nothing about the SCOTUS.
Meidas Touch are firmly on the side of democracy. Occasionally, a guest will say something they disagree with, but they won’t allow lies to go unchallenged. I have been following them for years.
A guest Gloria. But the Meidas Touch hosts. They sit down with all kind of people for their podcast, what was the response to such a claim that Obama and cooperating democrats were responsible for Citizens United?
No one can accuse Joy Reid of being conservative, much less extremist, but on occasion whe will have a guest on her show that says an outrageous and untrue thing.
Fox has caused so much damage to this country. In an age of information, our worst threat is a disinformation outlet that operates with reckless abandon.
It has been amazing how well Murdoch has been able to find the sensationalist formula which has undermined democracy all over the world. He didn’t just do it for the money, he has always been a white supremacist.
There is a man who could do the world a favor by not waking up tomorrow.
Rupert has named this action "Project Harmony". How damn funny is that?!
Keep a stash of popcorn just in case this SOB suddenly departs, because THAT would be better than the ending of Succession. Have to wonder how much improved the world will be without him.
He wants all the board votes to go to his mini-me, Lachlan, while the others retain their ownership. Awkward!
From what I see on-line this applies:
"Irrevocable Trusts: Once these are set up, they generally cannot be changed or canceled. Murdoch's trust is an Irrevocable Trust that was created back in 1999 after he divorced his second wife, Anna Murdoch Mann. It was designed to ensure that his children would inherit part of the family empire."--Geiger Law Office
I'm on Team JEP---James, Elizabeth, and Prudence.
Thom: I am happy that you mentioned Sir Keith Murdoch who-according to American GI'S- was anti-American. During WWII Sir Keith Murdoch owned a tabloid named Truth. He accused American soldiers of raping Australian women and seducing married women. His tabloid caused continues strife between American's and Australian's. Which, in one fight, caused the death of an American GI. Source: "The US Army In The Pacific War, 1942-1943 Fire And Fortitude" John C McManus. pgs. 227-230
American soldiers only seduce the wives of Australians, when given half a chance, especially at bars on women's night out! To think the American soldier behaves properly overseas is pretty delusionary. This is one issue I don't think Rupert Murdoch lied much about. All the foreigners need to protect their women from American soldiers!
I'm looking forward to reading Hartmann's new addition to his "Hidden History" series, "The American Dream: the Demise of the Middle Class and How to Rescue Our Future," because I'm always looking for a remedy for the predatory system we now live in and that most of us probably have always lived in.
All of Hartmann's books end with suggestions for how to turn things around for the middle class. I don't see the world that way. All the classes are under a small ruling predatory class that has greater and lesser power over the people. Everybody who earns a paycheck, no matter how large or small, is in one class, including small business owners who are also under the system manipulated by the money class. There are only two classes: a small wealthy ruling class and the rest of us.
I watched a lengthy video from 2012 on the YouTube channel during the night when. I couldn't sleep that I found from a search for the economic history of the world, "Wall Street Greed: Financial Crisis Since 3500 BCE." It was interesting and very educational and it covered financial classes from the Tulip Bubble and Crash to 1711-1720, something through the 1929 crash, and on through to the crashes of the 2000s. I couldn't wait for the final results of why the crashes kept recurring, but I learned nothing new and was very disappointed.
Because two persons consulted were Michael Hudson and Robert Reich, and going back to the 1900s philosophers and economists and the 20th century Keynes, I expected something revolutionary. In a nutshell, the conclusion was that the emotions of greedy people looking for the pie in the sky lose their money to the also greedy but more clever Wall Street persons who create financial instruments that make the bubbles through a symbiotic-like relationship that always results in the wealthiest gaining a bigger piece of the economic pie after every recession and depression than they had to begin with. Daaaaah.
People will never change, and the system favors the predators. Even in Rome, democracy was only for the oligarchs, as it is today. The system sucks. It doesn't work for the rest of us. I am losing faith in the system where voting in large enough numbers should give the people what we need and want, but it doesn't work. How do we reverse Citizens United when that has already given the wealthy the ultimate control over the system? The majority don't get what they want, as evidenced by the 2014 Gillens and Page research.
I ordered Hartmann's new book from The Frugal Muse in Darien, Illinois, where the book signing will be held. I am very eager to see what Thom comes up with this time. I can't give up hope because I want a better, more secure world for my descendants.
Gloria: You said "People will never change" Voltaire said the same. no more than a leopard can change his spots.
We self styled homo sapiens sapiens are still the same people as the cro magnums
I try not to repeat too often, the family unit has stopped the evolution of the human race, along with the church that supports the family unit! The rich like it that way because they have a lot of cheap soldiers and slaves and servants.
Please do not lose faith in a better world Ms. Maloney. Maybe you can learn something encouraging as well as enlightening by watching Richard Wolff, you might also like to read about Marx and his ideas, as well as reading Marx himself. The model offered by the Basques in Northern Spain is encouraging as well. The reason the elite in Madrid hate and fear the Basque system is that it is an economy which is overwhelmingly based on cooperatives, and it is stable and successful. I admire your enquiring attitude.
In October of 2022 we lost another great news station, KGO San Francisco. That station was fair and balanced. It is now a sports betting station from what I read on the internet. KGO News talk was around between 1962 and 2022.
I grew up listening to KGO. At night in Southwest Oregon, you couldn't get many radio stations at night back then. That is where I learned to think about world events outside of myself as a young child!
All of the divisive right-wing hate radio stations, that exist for billionaires propaganda and installing a dictatorship in America, need to be forced to have a warning top of every hour, "Fascist propaganda station, opinions are hazardous to all living things", like a pack of cigarettes does, "warning smoking maybe hazardous to your health!"
The billionaires are betting that the rural American voters are dumber than a box of rocks and that their minds have been turned into mush by irrational thinking from their parents and their church!
We need an Attorney General with integrity and a Supreme Court with integrity, who will rule that hate speech and lying are not protected free speech! With punishment of public flogging if no apology is given. The reason for flogging is because the rich have enough money fines do not harm them and there are so many liars in this nation, poor and rich, we can't possibly afford to throw them all in prison where they belong!
Lol. I empathize with your anger and frustration. In the video about the history of economics and the recurring Bubbles and crashes, the punishment for those who caused a financial crash in England in the early 1700s was to put them in a bag full of live snakes and drop them overboard. Wouldn't that have been cathartic for all the misery they caused because they were greedy? They were much more creative with punishments in the old days.
Gloria, to the already abused, it is easier to torture and to kill than it is to keep from torturing and killing! We risk ripping the fabric of civilization with a civil war that is anything but civil! The American people have been abused by the rich and they're too stupid to even know it!
There was a liberal talk show in the Seattle Area,it broadcast from Issaquah, it was bought out by Clear Channel,now i Heart, and turned into a Sports show, probably hate radio now. I stopped listening.
Thanks for this look behind the scenes Thom.
Here's hoping that FOX Noise dies.
Nature abhors a vacuum- what might fill the void if this evil empire was altered by the courts or some other means?
Still, I’d like to see Fox go up like the Hindenburg…it will take time for some other entity to fill its airspace.
Unfortunately the profit based propaganda machinery seems to favor ultra right wing nonsense. So I’m wondering what the best way would be to immunize people against it ?
The right wing is gullible, because it is fearful, easily triggered by threats (mostly manufactured), and thus not at all thoughtful or perceptive. The left, in general, is less fearful, and more thoughtful.
Look at how readily the right impoverishes itself to enrich Trump, look at the scams and grifts, he has made millions off the fools. You have old folk barely getting by on social security checks, sending him money, after time he plays martyr, and forking out hundreds for useless crap like NFT's, Crypto sneakers and Bibles.
They are rubes, but don't tell them that, they will entrench and double down.
Can you say "Musk"?
Rupert Murdoch should be charged with treason and inciting violence and his citizenship should be revoked along with his ability to run any business in the United States.
Murdoch and Musk. Are these more examples of immigrants who are taking advantage of, and harming, the American system and its people? Do I have my tongue in my cheek?
Hi Gloria, I agree with your warning about not taking everything at face value. I read and watch many sources including Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC, The Bulwark (love Tim Miller ‘s podcasts) and Jeff Tiedrich, The Atlantic and many others. Favorites like Thom’s site , Palmer Report and Raw Story are my daily favorites. So overall it takes effort to search for credible media sources and the choices are improving in number. It’s sad that the MSM wants to throw away their credibility and integrity by sanewashing the crazy Maggat mob boss and his minions but I hope they pay a price for abdicating their self respect for clicks and $$
Rupert Murdochs rise to power and wealth, and the co commitment descent of Democracy hasn’t happened in a vacuum.
It has happened because Murdoch has tapped into the dirty underside of the human psyche.
It is the racist, fascist,misogynistic readers that have made him rich and powerful. Brexit would never have happened were it not for the fact that Murdoch’s warped ideology found a welcome home.
MAGA and Trump would never have happened for the same reason.
Murdoch didn’t destroy Australia, Britain and America. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.
Murdoch as Darth Vader, invoking the dark force to come out everywhere.
What was it Pogo said during the Vietnam war?. I've seen the enemy and it is us?
OK not all of us, but if the polls approximate reality, well then 48 - 50% of us.
Great article Thom. You finally got me to pull out my card and subscribe. Big fan, many, many years.
Hello Thom: the cogency with which you present the Truth to my eyes with this piece warms my heart and sends happy chills down my spine. To have your work available for our edification is a great Blessing and contributes great energy to the tide which might save humanity and the rest of creation. I am grateful.
Bottom line, people are basically lazy and will listen to and believe whatever suits their fancy. This is a gross generalization of course but the habit of absorbing information that leans in one direction quickly leads to it becoming truth that cannot be easily dislodged. What to do?
Chris, what you say is true, people are lazy and believe whatever suits their fancy, the question is what suits their fancy. And based on the evidence before us, it is reinforcement of their fears and needs, in other words he who appeals to the lizard brain, has captured them by their short and curlies.