Go Rupert! Fox News proprietor riding high

Murdoch is in his 70s but his mother is still alive so the genes suggest that he can still afford his customary long-term vision. I have always been a great fan of Murdoch. I admire success in others as much as Leftists hate it. But that is probably because I have always been happy with my own life. Murdoch is pictured below with his Chinese third wife, Wendi Deng. I think he is a happy man too. He has even played himself in some episodes of "The Simpsons" -- though he does own that show. It was he that first put it to air, in fact



News Corporation's market value has passed that of all its traditional media peers for the first time and the company's Fox News Channel alone will soon be worth $10 billion, News chairman Rupert Murdoch says. Addressing the company's annual meeting in New York yesterday, Mr Murdoch told shareholders that financial markets were now noticing the group's average 14 per cent increase in operating income in the past four years. "Since January 1, we have outperformed all other media stocks, and indeed over the past five years we have seen our stock grow faster than both the general market and our peers," he said. "And it is with some pride that I tell you that last week our market value exceeded all of our traditional peers for the first time ever."

Mr Murdoch said News, owner of The Australian, had invested $US900 million in the US pay-TV channel Fox News since its launch. "Within the next few years I expect the channel to earn at least that amount annually and its value to exceed $US10 billion," he said. Last week News launched another pay-TV channel, Fox Business Network (FBN), to more than 30 million subscribers and will soon conclude its acquisition of The Wall Street Journal's owner, Dow Jones.

"Make no mistake -- FBN faces many challenges against an entrenched competitor with a 17-year head start," Mr Murdoch said. "I view FBN's growth in terms of years, not months, and I am confident our new approach to business news will be successful as we again offer viewers more choice in their media consumption."

Mr Murdoch said the Dow Jones deal would provide News with "remarkable reach and flexibility in the growing business news sector". "There is a real hunger -- not just in the US but across the globe -- for financial news," he said. "The opportunities are immense and senior management has formulated a long-term plan to integrate the unique properties of Dow Jones within our complementary assets and overall corporate and digital strategy."

Mr Murdoch also said News's internet businesses were continuing to grow, and he expected the company's internet revenues to reach "around $US1 billion" in the coming year. "While other competitors have entered the arena, none of our peers compare in terms of sheer numbers of users or -- more importantly for stockholders -- revenues," he said. Mr Murdoch said Fox Interactive Media's internet portfolio now reached more than 160 million people around the world. "MySpace, our most popular site, turned profitable for the first time last year and now ranks first in the US in total page views and is among the top five sites worldwide in unique visitors," he said.

But Mr Murdoch said other businesses were also doing well, with News Corp's Italian pay-TV channel, Sky Italia, significantly increasing its operating profit. "Sky Italia is now a major growth driver for our company. It's easy to forget that only three years ago it lost $267 million," he said. "In fiscal 2007, Sky Italia made almost that much in profit and is now on track for continued strong growth."

Mr Murdoch said the Fox International Channels business now operated 270 channels, broadcasting in 31 languages across more than 75 countries. That business did not exist a few years ago but grew profit by 80 per cent last year as it expanded to a larger global audience, he said.

Source

****************************

ELSEWHERE

Carbuncle Soul has a heartfelt post about what converted him from Leftism. He starts out referring to this recent horror story from Australia: One that I frankly cannot think about. To me there is nothing more wonderful than a little child. Jesus had it right: "Suffer [allow] the little children to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of God" (Mark 10:14). The mother of the toddler has now been charged with his murder.

EU turning a blind eye to Turkish attack on the Kurds: "The EU seem to be missing in action when it comes to the possible all out war that an aspirant EU-state Turkey, who is desperate to join, is about to cause in Kurdish areas of Asia Minor. Where are the screams of protest and the desperate calls for negotiation coming from the EU ministers? Where is their new foreign minister in this whole thing? After all the EU is at great pains to claim that Turkey is a European state. There is much anger in Brussels over Germany and Frances continued opposition to Turkey joining the EU; from as far away as the UK. Many of us suspect that this will be another case where the EU proves to be a toothless and weak tiger as it did with the Balkans. They talk a lot but are not able to handle something that is on their own doorstep and will have a great impact on the EU. After all, where do you think Kurdish refugees will head? They are hated almost as much as Jews are in the Muslim world for a variety of reasons. Iran, Turkey, Syria and Iraq have been trying to wipe them off the face of the earth for as long as they have been trying to drive Jews out of the region. The EU needs to make it clear to Turkey that if they invade Kurdish areas of Iraq that they will never be let into the EU. Their membership application will be torn up and they will be permanently banned from the club they are so desperate to join."

"Immigrant youths" rioting in Amsterdam: "Because a Muslim youth entered a police station and began stabbing two police officers. One of them, after having been stabbed multiple times, shot him to death. Rioting has followed. If the police officers had simply consented to being stabbed, there would have been no problem, you see."

James Watson stirs the pot once again: "One in three people looking for a job in temporary employment bureaux in Los Angeles is a psychopath or a sociopath. Is this a consequence of their environment or their genetic components? DNA sequencing should give us the answer. The thought that some people are innately wicked disturbs me. But science is not here to make us feel good. It is to answer questions in the service of knowledge and greater understanding."

Some realism about Guevara: "A monument erected to immortalize the life and death of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Argentine revolutionary who fought with Fidel Castro in Cuba and in the Bolivian jungle, was demolished by gunfire in Venezuela, the country presided over by Hugo Chavez, Castro's heir apparent in Latin America. The attack was denounced by Chavez's government as "an abominable action" and "criminal," in that it was erected to honor "one of the men who crossed the continent promoting the liberation of towns and the freedom of modern man."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

****************************

"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

****************************