Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times and other media are reporting that Rupert Murdoch has made a bid to buy Time Warner that would set in motion a massive merger of entertainment media conglomerates. As reported:

“21st Century Fox, owned by Murdoch, offered to purchase Time Warner for $80 billion, but was turned down.

21st Century Fox eventually confirmed that it had made an offer, but said it was not currently in discussions with Time Warner.

Time Warner (which includes CNN) issued a statement of its own, explaining why it had rejected the deal:

‘In making its determination, the Time Warner Board considered, among other things, that: The execution of Time Warner’s strategic plan will continue to drive significant and sustainable value for Time Warner stockholders; the unique value of Time Warner’s industry-leading businesses including its portfolio of networks and its film studio and television production business is only going to increase; there is significant risk and uncertainty as to the valuation of Twenty-First Century Fox’s non-voting stock and Twenty-First Century Fox’s ability to govern and manage a combination of the size and scale of Twenty-First Century Fox and Time Warner; and there are considerable strategic, operational, and regulatory risks to executing a combination with Twenty-First Century Fox.’

It would be a horror for anything owned by Murdoch to expand its control of news and media in this country. Murdoch is still trying to live down the hacking scandals dubbed “Hackgate”, “Rupertgate”, or “Murdochgate” that involved the now defunct News of the World and other British newspapers published by News International, a subsidiary of Murdoch’s News Corporation. If that isn’t bad enough, how about imagining a scenario where Fox  News’ Sean Hannity takes over Wolf Blitzer’s spot on CNN.

Tony