Advocating Progress

diegueno:

(via Fox News Covers SOPA Protests The Way You’d Expect | Media Matters for America)

First, let’s note what they left out of the report. Fox News’ parent company, News Corp., is one of the many media conglomerates supporting SOPA. A disclosure to that effect should have been included, but wasn’t.

And that leads us to what they did include. At one point in the report, Cowan says of Google’s participation in the anti-SOPA protests: “Some call this ironic, since Google’s business is to link users to various sites, essentially, critics contend, stealing other people’s content every day.”

The “some say” construction is a favorite of Fox News’, and in this case we actually know who the “some” are that are saying these things about Google: News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch.

Murdoch is a strong proponent of SOPA and very much dislikes Google, which he argues is the internet’s “piracy leader” because links to websites that offer pirated content show up in Google search results.

This argument, it should be noted, makes absolutely no sense and demonstrates the profound technical ignorance of a man with huge influence over tech policy.

But it makes enough sense for Fox News, which reported the absurd spin from its parent company on SOPA without noting their parent company’s support for the bill.

So sorry to all geeks, but now those who would like to remain apolitical or pretend that libertarianism is a gateway to freedom for are today find them in the space where push has come to shove.