RUPERT MURDOCH SAYS NEWS SERVICES MUST SHAKE FREE OF REPORTERS AND EDITORS
November 18 2008
New York, N.Y. – Media titan Rupert Murdoch has a message of hope for news organizations and dire warning if those organizations do not take heed. Speaking at a lecture series sponsored by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Murdoch talked about the new age of news distribution and what companies will need to do to survive.
“My summary of the way some of the established media has responded to the internet is this: it's not newspapers that might become obsolete. It's some of the editors, reporters, and proprietors...,”said Murdoch. “A recent American study reported that many editors and reporters simply do not trust their readers to make good decisions”
Murdoch’s comments came as a part of a discussion about traditional media versus the blogosphere and the changing nature of news reporting.
“It used to be that a handful of editors could decide what was news and what was not. They acted as sort of demigods. If they ran a story, it became news. If they ignored an event, it never happened. Today editors are losing this power,” continued the News Corp boss. “Journalists like to think of themselves as watchdogs, but they haven't always responded well when the public calls them to account.”
Of course with the growing trend in citizen journalism editors and reporters already seem to be on the long road out of the business, many of whom are railing against the rise of web journalism.
“It’s a very fragile state right now. On one hand journalists and editors have a vested interest in retaining their readers in order to keep working. On the other hand, most bloggers have little or no journalistic training and no oversight so as long as they are read people believe what they have to say. In that respect the traditional media workers have a valid argument,” said Scrape TV Media analyst Sarah Piper. “While the web opens up opportunities for anyone with a dream, but sometimes having things completely open isn’t a good thing. Take the Steve Jobs story from a few months ago. That is likely to only become more common as we move forward and there is no sign that readers are becoming any critical of what they read.”
In August a false report posted on CNN’s ireport stated that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a massive heart attack, temporarily causing the company’s stocks to drop dramatically.
“Of course those kinds of issues are more fundamental and speak to a larger issue in the media rich world we are now in, and that may not be what Murdoch was getting at,” continued Piper. “Murdoch isn’t exactly an advocate of free speech and open media. Keep in mind this is a guy who fired the head of his movie studio because he was personally offended by one of the movies he had produced. He’s also the guy who employs Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, so take what he says with a grain of salt. I’m sure if he had the time Murdoch would personally approve everything published in his newspapers.”
Murdoch’s News Corp owns more than one hundred newspapers and magazines from around the world, including the New York Post and Wall Street Journal. The company also owns nearly one hundred television stations, Twentieth-Century Fox studios and its subsidiaries, and major web outlets such as IGN, Hulu, and Myspace, none of which have republished his comments.
Martin Philton, Technology Correspondent
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