I can't say I'm disappointed or deceived at reading in today's CNN e-news that Rupert Murdoch is seeking to put a pricetag on e-news and charge for it. As a matter of fact, the thing that will be charged is "content", which is a far broader concept than just news. It's not only that you'll have to pay to get the news, but you'll also have to pay for anything you'd like to get from the Internet, from anything that belongs to the companies of Mr. Murdoch and any other person who decides to go charging for content. To put it in plain, content is music, images, videos, text, make it a novel, an article, a clipping, a comment, you name it. Everything that happens on the Internet, everything you use the Internet for are basically, or can be labeled as content.
The article says that Mr. Murdoch argues that the Wall Street paper does so well because it charges, so other papers (such as CNN) should as well. The same article argues that truth is that the people who pay for the Wall Street News belong to a different group than the rest. They are rich and their relationship with news are different. The thing is, however, that this is just an example of what capitalism is about: they take something like the Internet, that was built on the idealistic concept of "free information for all", the so called "information highway", but then as people get more and more hooked on it there come the big, fat, capitalist pigs and want to take their share from it. So they can't squeeze that much money from advertizing due to the financial crisis (which was forged by these same greedy pigs), and so they want to reach into the pockets of the people (because tapping their taxmoney to pay astronomical bonuses to their top execitives and to their "foreign partners" (because, really, no one believes that) is not nearly enough now).
So yes, your "right to know" is no longer a right, but the priviledge of a few. Sure, they have a payroll to pay and laying off their staff is not a feasable solution, but I'm wondering, wouldn't be a solution to lay off part of that fat higher level, where no real job is done, only alleged "decision making", and, of course, heavy duty lobbying.
As things go, I wouldn't be surprised if America became the first place where air started to be charged for. The land of dreams and opportunities has become the land of desperation and abuse.
The article says that Mr. Murdoch argues that the Wall Street paper does so well because it charges, so other papers (such as CNN) should as well. The same article argues that truth is that the people who pay for the Wall Street News belong to a different group than the rest. They are rich and their relationship with news are different. The thing is, however, that this is just an example of what capitalism is about: they take something like the Internet, that was built on the idealistic concept of "free information for all", the so called "information highway", but then as people get more and more hooked on it there come the big, fat, capitalist pigs and want to take their share from it. So they can't squeeze that much money from advertizing due to the financial crisis (which was forged by these same greedy pigs), and so they want to reach into the pockets of the people (because tapping their taxmoney to pay astronomical bonuses to their top execitives and to their "foreign partners" (because, really, no one believes that) is not nearly enough now).
So yes, your "right to know" is no longer a right, but the priviledge of a few. Sure, they have a payroll to pay and laying off their staff is not a feasable solution, but I'm wondering, wouldn't be a solution to lay off part of that fat higher level, where no real job is done, only alleged "decision making", and, of course, heavy duty lobbying.
As things go, I wouldn't be surprised if America became the first place where air started to be charged for. The land of dreams and opportunities has become the land of desperation and abuse.
2 comments:
Yes, well, sorry. Comments are appreciated, but if you want to post, get your own blog, Dude.
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