Questions about media practices, bias and influence, both in Britain and the United States, arise from the Murdoch affair. Readers offer divergent views in response to a letter on Thursday.
The Letter
To the Editor:
Re “Murdochs Deny That They Knew of Illegal Acts” (front page, July 20):
Do British parliamentary inquiries into Rupert Murdoch’s media empire offer any lessons for the United States? Perhaps, if they alert us to the power of a “political-journalistic complex” no less dangerous than the “military-industrial complex” that President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned about half a century ago.
Have similar abuses been committed here, or do Fox News and others scrupulously observe the rule of law on this side of the pond?
Are elected officials too cozy with representatives of a news industry that is supposed to “cover” them?
Which Congressional committees, headed by which party, are prepared to launch the appropriate investigations?
RICHARD STEIN
Eugene, Ore., July 20, 2011
The writer is a retired professor of English at the University of Oregon.
Readers React
Mr. Stein’s letter tries to connect Fox News in the United States with the News Corporation scandal in Britain. This has been the hope of the left all along—that the phone-hacking scandal will somehow snare Fox News and cause the demise of Rupert Murdoch’s whole right-wing media empire.
The real problem for Mr. Stein and the left is not “political-journalistic complexes”—it’s when those complexes are right-wing.
Everything was fine when the left controlled the vast majority of the media. To be sure, it wasn’t all under one owner, but it might as well have been since the political-journalistic bias was all the same. Now that the popularity of Fox News and talk radio has cut that percentage, there’s a perceived problem.
But don’t worry, Mr. Stein. You’ve still got the television networks, NPR, PBS, MSNBC, CNN, The New York Times and most major newspapers, Hollywood, academia—but I run out of space.
MARK R. GODBURN
North Canaan, Conn., July 21, 2011
