News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch said on Friday that White House criticism of commentators on his Fox News television channel had served to "tremendously" increase their ratings.Perhaps the WH ought to shut up and read between the lines here.
"There were some strong remarks coming out of the White House about one or two of the commentators on Fox News," Murdoch told the annual meeting of News Corp. shareholders here.
"And all I can tell you is that it's tremendously increased their ratings," he said.
Murdoch's remarks came after White House Communications Director Anita Dunn told The New York Times earlier this week that Fox News was "undertaking a war against Barack Obama and the White House."
Murdoch also restated his plans to begin charging readers of News Corp. newspapers on the Web. Currently, only the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal charges subscribers online.
"We intend to charge for our content on the Web," Murdoch said. "As I've said many times in the past good journalism comes at a price.
Due to the lack of "good" journalism, people would rather not pay and stick with the bad journalism.
"In the future successful newspapers will charge for their content and aggregators will largely be excluded," he said.
Looks like 18-year olds with hidden cameras will be in demand soon.
The News Corp. chairman was also asked about the attitude of the Obama administration towards business.
"We're worried about the business climate and whether it will discourage the formation of new companies," he said.
"There is a public perception, certainly, that this government is anti-business," he said. "I'm not saying it's a correct perception but there is a perception and I think this perception is hurting the economy.
Your non-denial speaks volumes.
"We think the outlook for the economy is probably pretty steady," he added. "My own view... is that we're not going to get another vast steep decline but nor are we going to get any steep increase."
Why no steep increase? Isn't it about time? Try lynching those who set off this recession and see what happens. [Sorry for the unsanctioned use of your reserved word, Al.]