Fox: Propaganda tool for Bush Administration

[Moses]

Turner Compares Fox's Popularity to Hitler

By Jim Finkle -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/25/2005 2:14:00 PM

Ted Turner called Fox a propaganda tool of the Bush administration and indirectly compared Fox News Channel's popularity to Adolf Hitler's popular election to run Germany before World War II.

Turner made those fiery comments in his first address at the National Association for Television Programming Executives' conference since he was ousted from Time Warner Inc. five years ago.

The 66-year-old billionaire, who leveraged a television station in Atlanta into a media empire, made the comment before a standing-room-only crowd at NATPE's opening session Tuesday.

His no-nonsense, sometimes humorous, approach during the one-hour Q&A generated frequent loud applause and laughter.

Fox wasn't laughing, however. "Ted is understandably bitter having lost his ratings, his network, and now his mind," said a Fox News spokesperson. "We wish him well."


....Among the other Turner  highlights from Tuesday:


* On Fox News: While Fox may be the largest news network [and has overtaken Turner's CNN], it's not the best, Turner said. He followed up by pointing out that Adolph Hitler got the most votes when he was elected to run Germany prior to WWII. He said the network is the propaganda tool for the Bush Administration. "There's nothing wrong with that. It's certainly legal. But it does pose problems for our democracy. Particularly when the news is dumbed down," leaving voters without critical information on politics and world events and overloaded with fluff," he said.

* On TV news in general: "We need to be very well informed. We need to know what's going on in the world. "a little less Hollywood news and a little more hard news would probably be good for our society."

* On media consolidation:"The consolidation has made it almost impossible for an independent. It's virtually impossible to start a cable network." Broadcasters and programmers "don't want more independent voices out there. They own everything. That's why I went into the restaurant business. Either that or I'd work for a salary for one of the big jerks.

* The war in Iraq: "We've spent 200 billion destroying Iraq. Now we've got to spend 200 billion to rebuild it, if they'll let us -- and all to find a nut in a fox hole -- one guy," Turner said. "He posed no threat to any of his neighbors, particularly with us there with overwhelming military superiority." --"it is obscene and stupid"

* Why selling his company to Time Warner turned out to be a huge mistake: At the time he agreed to sell his company, "it was from a business standpoint the right thing to do." He owned 9 percent of the merged company, which "which got me some real serious respect." But after the company acquired AOL, Turner's stake in the new company was diluted to 3 percent. "Then I got the pink slip"

* Why it wasn't that huge a mistake: "I have a responsibility not to be too critical of my old company. It is a good company and I had a lot of experiences there. A lot of time things that are painful at the time they occurred turn out to be for the best."

* Ted Turner for President? "I'm too old and too burned out to take on that responsibility. I thought about it when I was younger. I don't know if I could have gotten elected or not. It would have been a lot of fun to do when I had higher energy levels."

* What he'll put on his tombstone: "I have nothing more to say."

[Moses]

TED TURNER SCOLDS NEWS INDUSTRY AT NATPE CONFERENCE
CNN Founder Cites Media Consolidation, Nuclear Threat and Climate Change

January 25, 2005
QwikFIND ID: AAQ27J[/size]

By Claire Atkinson

LAS VEGAS (AdAge.com) -- Delivering the opening address at this year's TV programmers convention here, Ted Turner introduced himself as the "guy who was phased out of Time Warner," and then proceeded to cite media consolidation, the nuclear threat and climate change as the biggest issues facing society today.

Ted Turner called for a 'little less Hollywood news and a little more hard news.'

---

Mr. Turner was the keynote speaker of the opening session of the National Association of Television Program Executives annual conference. The erstwhile media mogul, who now runs a chain of restaurants specializing in bison meat and a number of philanthropic efforts including the United Nations Foundation, accused big media corporations of maintaining cozy relations with government.

Less Hollywood, more news

"It's very disturbing when we're at war," he said. "Particularly when we have nuclear weapons which are not adequately safeguarded and could fall into the hands of terrorists and when we have global warming and climate change we need to be very well informed."

The founder of CNN said, "I think there should be a little less Hollywood news and a little more hard news. That would be good for our democracy."

He lamented that there was little opportunity for independent voices when "90% of the cable companies are owned by the broadcast networks."

When asked about his thoughts on the outgoing chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Michael Powell, Mr. Turner said: "He's a nice guy. I think he was too deregulatory but that's about all I have to say. I like his dad."

Ted's Montana Grill

During a short opening speech, Mr. Turner said he would answer questions but wouldn't be critical of his company, Time Warner, since he was still on the board. That elicited much laughter from the audience. He said that his ouster from Time Warner five years ago turned out for the best because he could devote more time to persuading rich people to fund his causes and establishing Ted's Montana Grill. "It's not as exciting as the bombing of Baghdad, but people gotta eat," he said.

Former CNN anchor Bernard Kalb, who conducted an onstage interview with Mr. Turner, asked him what he would say to Gerald Levin, the architect of the Time Warner merger with America Online, if they were to share a 15 minute sauna.

"I've never been one to hold grudges. If I could forgive the Russians for 50 years of the Cold War, I can forgive Gerry. I wish him well." He then said that voting for the merger was the single biggest mistake of his life.

Adolf Hitler

Commenting on his feelings about Fox News topping CNN in the ratings, Mr. Turner said being the most popular wasn't always important. "That's not necessarily a bad thing, though I'm not happy about it. Adolf Hitler was more popular in Germany than people who ran against him. Just because you are bigger doesn't mean to say you are right."

During the question-and-answer session with the audience, Mr. Turner was asked about his visions of the future of the media business. On the subject of TV broadcasts on mobile phones, he quipped, "You gotta have good glasses to see it. I like my TV screens a little bigger, personally." And on the subject of advertiser involvement in programming, he said he had no definitive position, that he sometimes it was appropriate and other times it wasn't.

No comment on GE merger

When asked to comment on reports last week that General Electric Co. and Time Warner might be discussing a merger, the Time Warner board member told Adage.com, "I don't know. I shouldn't say anything about that."

As for his legacy, Mr. Turner said the only thing he knew was what he wanted on his headstone: "I have nothing more to say."

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[Moses]

Horizontal integration of US media & Military (And the benefits of cross-promotion) : www.observer.com/pages/nytv.asp

Considering the political stakes in getting Iraqi democracy off the ground, the U.S. authorities seemed much less antagonistic toward the press than they’d been a year ago. Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, the director of the Combined Press Information Center, judged that American TV coverage had been mostly fair.

"The stories that they cover, I feel they’re covering accurately and are pretty balanced," he said, although he added that "there were times that we questioned the accuracy on specific stories, because we felt there were times the media were being used to further the terrorist propaganda means."

Mr. Boylan complained that the use of Iraqi stringers sometimes resulted in slanted images that gave outsized credence to anti-American views. "They would use the words out there that the insurgents were using, especially when it came to killing women and children," he explained. "At least from the video that came back—that that was the only thing we were killing. I attribute that to a Western journalist having eyes on the situation. That was the exception rather than the rule."

Asked to grade the output of American news networks, Mr. Boylan gave them a B-plus for accuracy and a C-minus for getting the complete story—he still wanted some of those "good news" reconstruction segments to air. (He also insisted that 14 out of 18 provinces in Iraq were perfectly secure.)

"There is one network that does quite a bit more than the others, of course," added Mr. Boylan: "Fox."