Rupert Murdoch has purchased a majority stake in National Geographic. Not just the magazine, but their television, books, maps, and other media assets. And the former non-profit (for 127 years!) will now be a regular for-profit company. One has to ask, why would the owner of Fox News (and a well-known climate change denier) throw $725 million at National Geographic?
Once upon a time we had laws and regulations that limited media consolidation. The idea was that a vibrant media required that we have a range of voices to listen to. But those days are over. The “Big Six” (Comcast, Disney, Murdoch’s News Corporation, Time Warner, Viacom, and CBS) now control 90% of the media in America.
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One might also wonder, as I do, why was NatGeo for sale in the first place?
Subscriptions have been declining for a long time. More sinister is the fact that grants for organizations like NatGeo have been declining over time, both from the government and from corporations. Our greed is catching up with us.
Perhaps Fox bought the magazine to run it out of business. “the truth shall set you free”, but ignorance is what Fox teaches.