That NY Post Headline ("Kerry-Gephardt") Last Week

Unless you've been living under a rock - or in Iraq - you have likely heard of the NY Post gaffe last Tuesday that resulted in the Post erroneously naming Dick Gephardt as the Dem's VP choice. Since then, we've heard a lot more about it, including rumors that the tip came straight from Post owner Rupert Murdoch and that he insisted they use it (as he has other material in the past) without any independent verification.

Now, I've said before that William Randolph Heart, the father of the bastard called yellow journalism, would die of envy if he could only see what has happened to the media in the last several years.

But as it happens, this is also the week when a project is released (sorry, I can't remember if it's a book or movie and my net connection sucks too severely to check it in this lifetime) that talks about how this situation with Murdoch and the controlling of the headlines by the corporate owners is leading to situations where corps control even more of what you think, but this time wrapped under the cover of "fair and balanced" reporting.

When MSNBC was still just a glimmer in somebody's less than visionary eye, there was intense debate about Microsoft becoming a co-owner of the company, since how would Microsoft report on itself. But General Electric, a company that profits mightily on both war and power (the kilowatt kind as well as the unbridled type), also co-owns MSNBC and I don't recall the debate.

Think about that, kiddies. NBC is owned by a frat sister of Halliburton's. Would you pick up a Halliburton-written newspaper to learn how the war in Iraq is going?