The Washington Post can really pick them when selecting a guest lecturer to Rupert Murdoch on media ethics: pornographer Larry Flynt. In a Sunday Outlook section article is the headline “The people vs. Rupert Murdoch: Hustler magazine founder Larry Flynt says his fellow media mogul has gone too far.” Yes, somehow, Larry Flynt gets to pose as The People.
Flynt lectured at Murdoch: “One cannot live off the liberty and benefits of a free press while ignoring the privacy of the people. People such as Murdoch and I, as heads of publishing conglomerates, have a responsibility to maintain and respect this boundary.” The Post editors clearly enjoy the notion that Larry Flynt oozes on a higher plane than Murdoch in the media world.
This sentence sticks out in the piece: “Meanwhile, Roger Ailes, chief of Murdoch’s Fox News, runs a well-oiled propaganda machine.” After all, to the WashPost elite, pornography is just harmless fun, while Fox News is ruining democracy and civil discourse.
This would be Flynt’s summary paragraph:
I test limits by publishing controversial material and paying people who are willing to step forward and expose political hypocrisy. Murdoch’s minions, on the other hand, pushed limits by allegedly engaging in unethical or criminal activity: phone hacking, bribery, coercing criminal behavior and betraying the trust of their readership. If News Corp.’s reported wrongdoings are true, what Murdoch’s company has been up to does not just brush against boundaries – it blows right past them.
But some of the reported wrongdoings of the Murdoch papers have already been debunked. The leftist paper The Guardian has run a correction and apologized to The Sun, one of Murdoch’s British tabloids, for reporting that The Sun had obtained medical records for ex-prime minister Gordon Brown’s son. After the Guardian’s story this week, The Sun denied the report and obtained an affidavit from its source, a member of the public whose son also suffered from cystic fibrosis. The correction ran on page 36 – not exactly where the original story ran.
That story broke on Friday, but apparently the Post is too lazy (even online) to correct Flynt from charging: “News Corp. employees allegedly hired known criminals to obtain private information about former British prime minister Gordon Brown when his infant son was given a diagnosis of cystic fibrosis.”
Flynt is especially ridiculous while he proclaims great respect for the right to privacy, which usually means the right to page through his skeezy parade of female sexploitation. Flynt knows he has violated the privacy of conservative politicians, but he believes that if your public conservatism gets in the way of fun-loving Flynt-style politicians like Bill Clinton, then your privacy rights are terminated:
When flynt lived in Columbus, Ohio. His lavish house was across the street from CSG (Columbus School for Girls). Hunting underage, teen girls was just part of his party. Smile Columbus, Flynt was a frequent quest of all social functions in Columbus…including the mayor’s and governor’s homes.
It doesn’t bother you that Murdoch’s minions have been hacking the phones of of the families of dead coalition soldiers, and allegedly of 9-11 victims?
@Henry Cuttlefish:
Doesn’t it bother you that you aren’t smart enough to know you’ve just recited discredited leftist talking points?
Henry Cuttelfish,
hi, I suppose that if you put 2 corrupt entitys together ,
they are matching together, even if they are against each other,
they still LIVE for one negative in CORRUPTING THE GOOD PEOPLE OF THIS EARTH
BYE
Hard Right It’s pretty tough to stand up for Murdoch. He’s no Flynt but his rise to power has been fueled by some very sleazy dealings.
@rich wheeler:
I’m not defending him. Just pointing out that cuttlefish posted something innacurate.