Are we EVER going t wake up and enforce anti trust? Mursdoch buys National Geograhic?

[Armstead]

Doesn't that bastard own enough? NY Post, Fox News/Networks/ Dow Jones/Wall St. Jourrnal/Direct TV, and so much more -- plus most of the media in England and Australia and holdings around the world.

And now he's buying that iconic magazine National Geographic? Jesus Christ, and we're going to let him get away with it?

Rupert Murdoch just bought National Geographic. Here’s the problem everybody should be talking about.

http://www.salon.com/2015/09/10/rupert_murdoch_just_bought_national_geographic_heres_the_problem_everybody_should_be_talking_about/

The news that National Geographic has now been placed in the hands of Rupert Murdoch prompted a predictable outcry, roughly akin to what happens in the movies when the clearly evil tycoon takes the orphans away. A bastion of popular science is now controlled by a very prominent climate change denier who, despite his company’s assurances of editorial integrity, has spent decades interfering with the independence of his properties. A tabloid king could now apply the values of the New York Post to one of the world’s oldest magazines.

I’d be the last to tell anybody not to worry when Murdoch comes to town, but some of the agita missed the fact that National Geographic has had a long partnership with Murdoch’s media empire, most notably through the Nat Geo TV channel. (You didn’t think Nat Geo was airing all of those Bill O’Reilly documentaries because of their educational value, did you?) National Geographic may be sacrificing its non-profit status, but Wednesday’s deal partially cemented what had already been put in place.

Still, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take anything away from how unsettling it feels to see a stalwart brand like National Geographic go down such a blatantly commercial path...
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[1939]

1. "Anti-trust" mean "restraint of trade"

Not sure how you would apply it to a very disparate set of businesses.

Now Staples and Office Depot combining should set up the anti-trust flags.

[Armstead]

3. Call it what you ill

One man (company) should not own so much.

[yeoman6987]

6. National geographic obviously is having money problems

So what progressive offered to buy the magazine? No one? Oh we have a buyer....Murdock! Ok let's sell. Desperation does not know politics.

[demosincebirth]

4. Anti-trust laws don't mean much. Remember Ma Bell?

[demosincebirth]

2. I was thinking of renewing my subscription to NG...this changed my mind. I think I'll subscribe

to the Smithsonian, instead. And please don't, anyone, tell me that it's owned by some right wing group.

[Armstead]

7. Not yet

[mmonk]

5. Simple answer, no.

Too many people are asleep. Too many people believe the rest of us are "too liberal", unrealistic, etc..

[Armstead]

8. What Cklinate Change?

http://boingboing.net/2015/09/09/rupert-murdoch-just-bought-nat.html

The National Geographic magazine has been a nonprofit publication since inception in 1888, but that ends today. The long-running American publication becomes very much for-profit under a $725 million dollar deal announced today with 21st Century Fox, the entertainment company controlled by the family of Rupert Murdoch.

Murdoch is a notorious climate change denier, and his family's Fox media empire is the world's primary source of global warming misinformation. Which would be no big deal here, I guess, were it not for the fact that the National Geographic Society's mission includes giving grants to scientists.

Or had you forgotten? Here's a refresh for you, a fun little interview with Murdoch on his climate change views.

From today's deal coverage in WaPo:

The partnership, which will also include the National Geographic cable channel and the National Geographic Society’s other media assets, will be called National Geographic Partners. Fox will own 73 percent of the partnership, and Washington-based National Geographic Society will own the balance. Fox will pay $725 million to the Society for its stake in the partnership. This will push the Society’s endowment to more than $1 billion.