Murdoch swings… and misses

Tracy Van Slyke

Last Tuesday, the New York Post (owned by right-wing fanatic and media mogul Rupert Murdoch) disgraced itself when it printed an "exclusive" front page story that Democratic Presidential Contender Sen. John Kerry was picking Rep. Dick Gephardt as his running mate. As we all know by now, Kerry picked Sen. John Edwards. So where did this mistake come from? The exclusive, which editors said came from a source it thought was reliable, did not even have a byline… Well according to rumors, it came from the big man himself - Murdoch. As rumor has it, Murdoch made the call himself late in the evening and changed the front page. Check out Alternet's review of "Outfoxed" a new documentary by Robert Greenwald exposing the secrets and behind the scenes machinations of Murdoch and his bastion of corrupt journalism, Fox News.

Tracy Van Slyke, a former publisher of In These Times, is the project director for The Media Consortium.
The text is from the poem “QUADRENNIAL” by Golden, reprinted with permission. It was first published in the Poetry Project. Inside front cover photo by Golden.
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