#wallstreetjournal

dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com

In the Murdoch family succession battle, Fox News and democracy hang in the balance

A 91-year-old billionaire sits atop a global media empire, while his adult children vie to control the family company in the next generation.

It sounds like the plot of the HBO series Succession, but New York Times journalist Jim Rutenberg says the real-life drama involving Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch and his children, Lachlan, James, Elisabeth and Prudence, rivals anything a screenwriter could dream up.

"I ... have always suspected that the Succession writers have some mole in the family, because it's just too many things they seem to know," Rutenberg says. "It's just got all the drama you want in television, but democracy hinges on its future." ...

This piece is based on a Fresh Air interview of the documentary The Murdochs, playing on CNN+, itself based on an earlier New York Times investigative piece, "Planet Fox" (2019).

Audio: https://ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/fa/2022/04/20220421_fa_01.mp3 (42 minutes).

https://www.npr.org/2022/04/21/1093753927/the-murdochs-documentary-family-succession-fox-news

#Murdochs #RupertMurdoch #LachlanMurdoch #Disinformation #Misinformation #Fascism #Fascists #FoxNews #NewCorp #WallStreetJournal #Media #FreshAir #TerryGross

mudflap@sysad.org

Mark #Zuckerberg has publicly said #Facebook Inc. allows its more than three billion users to speak on equal footing with the #elites of #politics, #culture and #journalism, and that its standards of behavior apply to everyone, no matter their status or #fame.
...
In private, the company has built a system that has exempted #high-profile users from some or all of its rules, according to company documents reviewed by The #WallStreetJournal.
...
The program, known as “ #crossCheck” or “ #XCheck,” was initially intended as a quality-control measure for actions taken against high-profile accounts, including #celebrities, #politicians and #journalists. Today, it shields millions of VIP users from the company’s normal enforcement process, the documents show. Some users are “ #whitelisted”—rendered immune from #enforcement actions—while others are allowed to post #rule-violating material pending Facebook employee reviews that often never come.
...
In 2019, it allowed international soccer star #Neymar to show nude photos of a woman, who had accused him of #rape, to tens of millions of his fans before the content was removed by Facebook.

#FB #PedoBook #2021-09 #SocialMedia

nytimes@pod.ple-architecture.eu