News International

(Continued from Part 2).

Rupert Murdoch makes a false distinction between his “expensive and distinguished” reporters, whom he claims create original journalistic content and the evil online “aggregators” who merely “rewrite – at times without attribution” information from other sources.

It’s simply not true. Journalists report news or comment on it, they don’t create news. Today journalists, including Murdoch’s, spend more and more time online “aggregating” their stories.

(Continued from Part 1).

Rupert Murdoch is no fool and surely realises that the internet is rapidly destroying the traditional journalistic function of newspapers, radio and TV (i.e. to break news stories and tell us what’s going on).

But his speech to the Federal Trade Commission’s Workshop seemed reluctant to admit it.
This is what psychiatrists call “cognitive dissonance”. Cognitive dissonance is when you refuse to accept the impact of new information because it’s too overwhelming.

PART 1.
“Feisty”, “combative”, “shrewd”, “pugnacious”, “clever”.. All words I’d use to describe Rupert Murdoch the owner of News International, Sky TV, The Times, the Sun and more. But I’d never have described him as “desperate”.. until this week.

This week Murdoch launched an attack on online journalistic thieves who steal the stories of his “expensive and distinguished journalists” who he says invest “days, weeks or even months in their stories”.

Murdoch brands these parasitic vultures “aggregators”

By Danny Lee Contributor: Michael Morgan Bain - with many thanks James Murdoch opened the floodgates to hell on Friday night and reopened old wounds as he delivered 34th James MacTaggart Lecture from the Edinburgh International Television Festival. The commercial media sector is in some form of agreement with Murdoch Jnr as he describes the BBC ambition and activities as “chilling.” In reality, Murdoch would love a society without the BBC as he calls for the corporation to be dismantled.