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Murdoch/Disney

Tony L

Tony L

Administrator
I’m surprised there hasn’t been a thread on The Hypnotoad’s decision to dump Fox, Sky etc to Disney and focus on his right-wing propaganda empire. Don’t know what to make of it really, though with the toxicity of Murdoch removed I guess I can consider Sky TV again in the future! I doubt I will to be honest as I’m content enough with Freeview and Amazon Prime, but I guess there is now no longer any need to actively boycott it!

PS IIRC Disney was a bit of a fascist too, but he’s long gone now!
 
I thought he'd sold a lot of parts of the biz to Disney, but kept the 'News' parts so he could go on telling people what politician to vote for.
 
Yes, IIUC Murdoch Senior is holding on to the press part, which includes Fox News, the newspapers, as well as a studio production facility. Disney gets the entertainment business, including 20th Century Fox, Fox's 39% stake in Sky, stakes in Hulu and FX, etc.
 
Ahhh, I was thinking I could go back to Sky if necessary, now Murcock is out of the way. From what you are saying though he as still got his paws on the Sky News, which oddly enough is a bit less openly Tory than the BBC at the moment. One thing is for sure, BT is now too expensive.

Jack
 
Dunno about Sky News. Part of Sky, surely?
The whole deal is large, complicated and subject to a lot of approvals, so it will take ages anyway.
 
I’m assuming he thinks his kids are numpties and not up to running the organisation.

While streaming may (has?) reduced the importance of the satellite broadcasting arm of the organisation, there’s still likely to be a need for content from Fox studios.
 
i predict a future for sky tv through a netflix/amazonPrime type interface....DisFlix? No need for a Sky box under the TV.
 
I predict a future for Sky showing the freeze dried pelletisation of Rupert prior to his launch into deep, cold space, for eternity. I'm keeping a bottle of champagne especially for the occasion.
 
TheDecameron said:
I predict a future for Sky showing the freeze dried pelletisation of Rupert prior to his launch into deep, cold space, for eternity. I'm keeping a bottle of champagne especially for the occasion.
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It would be interesting to see the universe vomit...
Does it have a gag reflex?
 
mickey_no_more_by_bopchara-d32m4jr.jpg

>2009: Disney buys Marvel

>2012: Disney buys Lucasfilms

>2017: Disney buys 21st Century Fox

>2019: Disney buys Paramount Pictures

>2022: Disney buys Universal Studios

>2027: Disney attempts to buy Warner Bros, Warner Bros tells them to f*** off

>2028: Disney, being highly p***ed off, acquires their own private military

>2029: Disney storms headquarters of Warner Bros, killing many, and taking the company by force

>2032: Disney buys nukes from black market terrorists

>2034: Disney buys Microsoft

>2036: Disney declares war against the entertainment industry

>2037: Skirmishes between private militaries occur in Hollywood and other places around the country

>2038: Disney nukes Hollywood

>2044: Disney buys the United States of America

>2045: Disney reorganizes the American government into a totalitarian dictatorship, deemed "The People's Republic of Disney"

>2047: People's Republic of Disney moves to annex Mexico and Canada with the military might of Mickey Mouse

>2051: PRD buys celestial bodies such as the moon and Mars

>2056: PRD colonizes Mars

>2059: PRD colonizes rest of the solar system

>2064: PRD starts construction of Dyson Sphere in the Sol System

>2075: PRD scientists discover a form of FTL space travel

>2078: First PRD voyage to Alpha Centauri system is successfully completed

>2079: PRD successfully establishes a one world government

>2080: PRD sends millions of military warships out throughout the galaxy, conquering extraterrestrial life on every planet and solar system

>2092: Dyson Sphere in Sol System is complete

>2100: PRD reaches type 3 civilization status, creating a Galactic Dictatorship under the people of Disney

>2104: Marvel and X-Men fans are still excited about new movies

(Stolen from Glen on FB)
 
jackbarron said:
Ahhh, I was thinking I could go back to Sky if necessary, now Murcock is out of the way. From what you are saying though he as still got his paws on the Sky News, which oddly enough is a bit less openly Tory than the BBC at the moment. One thing is for sure, BT is now too expensive.

Jack
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AIUI Murdock senior is shedding the 'entertainment' side and probably his less-favoured son, James.

The focus seems to be to on using 'news'. Murdock's interest is presumably still to be able to feed people what they should think, and ensure that suits him nicely.

I'd think he is well aware that the way he handles his newspapers has to avoid it being on the old "It was the Sun wot won it!" open basis because that gives the game away.

So papers like the Scum will trash the left *while the owners feel it will work* and ensure the left fails to gain power. But if the signs are that the right is falling to bits and the left may win, then the news outlets have to avoid being seen to 'back the losers' as it shows how out of touch they are with the people they want to 'guide'.

And SOP for the tabloids is to occasionally want to kick out their most-favoured party, as a reminder to them about just who that party has, itself, to kow-tow to. Wouldn't do to let them think they don't need to jump when told to by newspaper owners.

I'm sure his decision is made for reasons that aren't limited to the UK. But that said, he'll probably be happy to get Brexit as it will help him avoid, here, some of the consequences of changes in the EU. So if the Tories shatter delivering that, he may regard it as a (temporary) price worth paying. Fresh minions are always buyable.

One of my regrets is that I was looking forwards to the EU competition rules being extended so that the BBC could sell access across the EU. Good for the BBC and TV license payers, but bad news for Sky. The UK Government had been resisting this stubbornly... go figger. :)
 
Good article here, arguing that Murdoch reckons his empire is now simply to small to compete with the new platform monopolies, which is terrifying.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/de...-in-2017-from-disneymurdoch-to-net-neutrality

And who’s worse, Murdoch or Disney? This quote sums up my feelings:

It is a measure of Murdoch’s malign political influence that the thought of a Disney-owned Sky – in other words, the fact that Britain’s largest broadcaster is to be fully controlled by a company even bigger than 21st Century Fox – is somehow less disturbing even if it simply intensifies the consolidation and commercialisation of the British media.
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The scale is worrying, but surely Disney is more benign that the divisive, bigoted hard-right/alt-right hate-speech of Murdoch. One only needs to cite the festering pile of shit that is the Sun/NOTW to make that argument. Publications found lying time after time and lying to make the most repugnant of points. Rightfully banned in Liverpool and some other cities. Then we have the hateful festering pot of far-right bile that is Fox News... does Disney really have anything in this ballpark? Same goes for Google, Apple, Amazon and any of the other major players; none are fundamentally evil the way Murdoch is.
 
Tony L said:
The scale is worrying, but surely Disney is more benign that the divisive, bigoted hard-right/alt-right hate-speech of Murdoch. One only needs to cite the festering pile of shit that is the Sun/NOTW to make that argument. Publications found lying time after time and lying to make the most repugnant of points. Rightfully banned in Liverpool and some other cities. Then we have the hateful festering pot of far-right bile that is Fox News... does Disney really have anything in this ballpark? Same goes for Google, Apple, Amazon and any of the other major players; none are fundamentally evil the way Murdoch is.
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I am less relaxed about the behaviour and power of the other large corporations you cite. They tend to act by stealth under a PR campaign telling us how wonderful they are. Should that slip, then the drift towards helping politicians who favour them is something I'd expect to arrive. Who do you think the biggest tax dodgers, 'selectors' of what people see, etc, are? Using processes, and based on decisions, we don't see.
 
I do accept your concerns, though I guess as someone who chooses to use Apple products and earns most of my income from Google and Amazon monetisation (this site would simply not be viable without it!) I guess I am a little biased. I’m very curious to see how they react to Trump’s overturning of net neutrality in the USA as that will be a good ‘evilometer’ IMO.

There is simply no denying that these companies are building our technological future, what they are doing is coming and it is coming fast. It is a juggernaut of automation that can not be deflected any more than the Luddites could fight the Jaquard loom. It is the next ‘age’ in the way of the ‘stone age’, ‘industrial revolution’ etc. The most interesting thing is how we react and adapt to it as it is, as far as I can see, the end of conventional mass employment and therefore capitalism as a workable concept. Huge rethink ahead...
 
There is no more malign a force in any field than the toad. But the monopolisation of media power enjoyed by the new platforms is absolutely unprecedented and way more damaging long term and probably now. They've destroyed the journalism ecosystem and what they've replaced it with is basically Murdoch and the Mail, automated. Just try typing "feminism" into Youtube and you'll see what's driving Oakeshott and her ilk to new depths.
 
Again that is just technology, not content-driving. I’d argue all the web, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter etc have done is to democratise media which has had a rather unfortunate side effect of exposing vast swathes of people as being more than a bit thick and horrible! YouTube is not the view of Google anymore than Facebook is the view of Zuckerberg, it is just a soapbox that anyone, arsehole or not, can use.
 
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