DID RUPERT MURDOCH JUST KILL MYSPACE? FOR THE SAKE OF PSYCHOTIC HOMOPHOBIA?

In the summer of 2005, Rupert Murdoch, a far right propaganda magnate with a huge multinational communications network-- including GOP mouthpiece Fox "News"-- realized he made a big mistake. "He told a high-powered audience at the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Washington DC, that he had got something rather important rather wrong. News Corporation, the global media group he controls, had failed properly to engage with the online world-- and risked losing its hard-won position in news as a result." So he bought Myspace.com for $580 million. The 76 year old curmudgeon is betting he can transform a free social network into a colossal marketing machine.

In pursuit of his viciously bigoted social agenda, he well may have screwed it all up today. One thing social networks don't cotton to real well is The Man coming down with rules and regulations based on prejudices. Murdoch is The Man. Last year in an interview with The Independent, The World According to Rupert, the unrepentent homophobe let down his hair and let his nazi flag fly: "I believe it is wrong. I'm considered homophobic and crazy about these things and old fashioned. But I think that the family-- father, mother, children-- is fundamental to our civilisation."


MySpace, on the other hand, is an avatar of "not old fashioned." Progressive political types are complaining about Obama's "top-down campaign structure" and how it displaced a netroots Myspace attitude with a corporate one, Well, that may be true-- and it may even chip away at Obama's youth-friendly image-- but one thing for sure: Myspace hasn't been homophobic or crazy. Until Murdoch decided to push his own little agenda and make some changes. Myspace no longer lets you select “gay” as a sexual preference on the site when you sign up, nor does it allow you to change your sexual preference to “gay." Adam, the DWT Art Director, has been howling with indignation. He sent me a viral email that's burning up the tubes. It asks (rhetorically): "Don't believe us?" And then offers, "Try it out for yourself by clicking on 'Edit Profile' and then 'Background and Lifestyle' if you’re on Rupert’s site." The chatter and outrage and pain among gay Myspace users-- and now ex-users-- is deafening.


POSTSCRIPT FROM KEN: MURDOCH FAMILY VALUES

"I think that the family--father, mother, children--is fundamental to our civilisation."
--Rupert Murdoch

And the Murdochs are the very model of a warm and cuddly nuclear family.