Moyers on Murdoch

In the 24/7 news cycle this commentary from Bill Moyers on Rupert Murdoch’s seduction of the current owners of the Wall St. Journal is now ancient history … but still relevant.

After so many weeks of following All Things Par I have to be careful not to imagine parallels and connections where few exist. But … Moyers’ underlying argument that Murdoch reduces a critically important facet of functioning democracy — a vigorous, independent media — to a black-or-red ledger entry really isn’t so different than what both the Star Tribune’s owners, Avista Capital Partners and MediaNews are doing to the Pioneer Press. Like Murdoch, neither Avista or Dean Singleton are prepared to sacrifice or risk anything to sustain genuine journalistic vitality.

Obviously the Wall St. Journal rests on a much higher plateau of breadth and quality than either of our local dailies, which is why its diminishment — through “right-sizing” and de-contenting, or Murdoch-style political gaming — is such a troubling prospect. Murdoch plays a much bigger and rougher game of information manipulation and out-right distortion. But the attitude of a totally commoditized media subsidiary isn’t really all that different.