Fox News is best known for being the “far-right”-hand-man for the political machine that gets the US into needless war in Iraq and soon-to-be needless war in Iran; endless rhetoric explaining why these countries are the scourge of humanity, why we must murder them now…
Well, Fox’s parent company owns quite a bit more of the media landscape than you’d expect. For example, did you know that 21st Century Fox paid 70 million dollars for a 5% stake n VICE? That’s a 1.4 BILLION dollar valuation for an established YouTube Channel with 3 million subs and a free magazine distributed in 28 countries…
Rupert Murdoch himself, knowing that Fox News’s primary demographic was getting older (HALF of em are above 68 years old… ), took to Twitter to ask who had heard of the “wild, interesting effort to interest millenials who don’t read or watch established media“, referring to Vice. Clearly having even a small say in brainwashing the disenfranchised youth was worth A LOT of moolah.
“Can a fox be man’s best friend?” reads the fateful magazine cover. Well, a Fox has just become pretty chummy with National Geographic…. Foxes, it seems, are pretty good at designing their own pets.
Now Fox has gone and taken a stake in another previously-untainted, “not-for-profit” even , media company… a 73% stake in National Geographic, for a cool 725 million dollars… which is still far less than VICE’s valuation for some reason.
Yup, remember Sir David Attenborough, that serene yet authoritative voice explaining the redeeming qualities of some cute/disgusting animal? Remember the unbiased coverage of nature that made many of us fall in love with it? Now all of it will have a big red Fox symbol stamped onto it… And suddenly, global warming and other such nuisances to Rupert Murdoch will become a problem of the past:
“It has become apparent that ensuring the future of the society would require something bold.”the society’s chief executive, Gary Knell, said at an all-staff meeting Wednesday. Continuing as a media organization and potentially absorbing future losses, he said, “presented enormous and real existential risks. We . . .truly believe the path we’ve chosen presents the greatest potential upside.”
The National Geographic TV channel has been partnered with Fox since 1997, yet some journalists have voiced weariness about the direction the programs have been taking, which do not reflect the sophistication of the magazine. Susan Goldbert, National Geographic’s editor in chief, said “Fox has acknowledged that they have not always represented the National Geographic brand in some of those programs in a way we loved or even they loved.”
Unfortunately, National Geographic has had a long history with Fox; its cable channel and TV channels had been a partnership between the two. However, its magazine and publishing arm had been fully controlled by the National Geographic Society, and it’s been able to steeer the direction of its channels’ content… mostly.
The National Geographic channel has had to feature shows like “Doomsday Preppers” and “Banged Up Abroad”, shows that were clearly spearheaded by Fox… What more can we expect from the company, now that it’s completely under the thumb of Fox?
How is it that 21st Century Fox has been able to make so much cash too acquire ever larger money-making machines? After all, isn’t Fox News failing? Well, though its appeal to the young is rather shoddy, it is in fact rolling in the dough; 1.2 BILLION dollars of the green stuff as of 2010, actually. Further, the fact is that Rupert Murdoch’s media empire is quite large, and already controls (among many others) News Corp. Australia, STAR TV and of course Fox Entertainment Group. Fox Entertainment Group is responsible for such film blockbusters as the entire Star Wars series, Alien, X-Men, Planet of The Apes… etc. Check out the full list of what 21st century Fox owns: here.
It rakes in a cool 29 billion dollars every year. Even IF Fox News started losing him money, he’d be able to keep it running just to spite us….
DAMN IT
This Article (Fox Media Empire Takes A Gigantic Bite Out Of National Geographic) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author(CoNN) and AnonHQ.com.
