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November 21, 2006
Better late….
Fox News Corp (with apologies) has cancelled the OJ book and television interview and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa vetoed the city councils effort to pay a firefighter $2.7 million dollars because he was offended by a prank.
Photos prove firefighter Tennie Pierce has been on both sides of the prank aisle and anyone who has spent time in a fire station knows this is part of the lifestyle.
Every time I write that the Mayor has done the right thing, I receive a number of emails that he is simply a socialist in moderates clothing, but at some point, readers are going to have to acknowledge that this guy does not always take the easy path. Standing up to a minority in LA is never easy, but the Mayor has done it.
Standing up to OJ, who most assume is a murderer, is a bit easier and even though it took Fox and Rupert Murdoch a bit of time – they did it.
Nice to see the right thing being done and leaders in the public and private sectors listening to what Americans want. Seems like this is the way it should work and I hope it happens more often.
Comments
Garibaldi-
I wonder what the point of you comment to this blog was? Clearly the author agreed with the vast majority of what you said that Fox was in the wrong in the first place or else they would have been doing something right by reversing their decision. However I don't see why this was as big of a deal as everyone else, no one complains we Charles Manson got interviewed from jail, and there wasn't public outcry that Michael Jackson was allowed back on stage last week. The bottom line is that the media gives us what we want, and many times we want trash.
Spear Fisher
Spear,
Thank you for underlining my point about the complete lack of any type of internal moral compass in decision making by elements of the media.
We should not "commend" Fox for finally doing the right thing only after responding to the potential financial losses they get from:
1.) an outraged viewing public;
2.) the lack of any fools reckless enough to underwrite Fox's greed by serving as sponsors for such a depraved event;
3.) a potential costly mutiny by their own affiliates; and
4.) public outrage by two of their more visible employees (Geraldo Rivera and Bill O'Reilly).
Corporate courage and media morality, it appears, to Fox News Corp is directly related to the bottom line.
Instead, we should expect Fox and the all the media to use thoughtful judgment in the first place in exercising their powerful privilege to serve the public interest. In fact, in the case of broadcast media licensing, wise public interest program decision making is supposed to be a legal requirement for their right to broadcast!
Maybe its time that the FCC took that requirement more seriously when handing out or renewing licensing.
So Fox and Rupert did the right thing? I guess you could say that even a stopped clock is right at least twice a day.
What would be really interesting would be to try to understand the brilliant thinking that the management team used when they decided initially to approve publishing the O.J. book and producing the TV interview:
Rewarding O.J. a big paycheck for his chutzpah in writing this book? Such an amoral decision in the first place seems only to support most of the righteous indignation at the way Fox has always operated its entire operation and its negative influence on media in general.
"Fair and balanced"? Does not appear so for the victims and those who loved them!
Sudden conscience due to fear of a huge financial hit from the publicity that would expose Fox for what it is? Apparently, morality only became an issue when management figured out that News Corp/Fox shareholders might be looking at negative financial results and not some kind of ratings revenue windfall.
Where was the notion of "the right thing being done" in the first place?
Posted by: Garibaldi at November 21, 2006 08:04 AM