cosmos1

This Sunday saw the debut of the new incarnation of Carl Sagan’s remarkable and remembered series, “Cosmos”. This new version is hosted by the brilliant and congenial Neil deGrasse Tyson. If you missed it, here’s a taste:

Having a show about science on Primetime network tv is something to be very pleased about, considering the decline of education and graduates when it comes to science in the U.S. (and considering the programming alternative of a reality show about meth dealing snake handlers who need help with their failing restaurant and are all eligible bachelors with great singing voices). But…Cosmos was broadcast on 10 different Fox Broadcasting outlets in the U.S..

Yep, Fox. As in Fox News, your number one source for hatred of science and scientists.

One might ask how Rupert Murdoch could be running one network that includes in its mission, casting doubt, hostility and suspicion on all of science while running another network that presents a series that’s all about promoting scientific knowledge and a respect for science.

Perhaps the only science Murdoch truly believes in is the calculation of tv ratings and advertising rates. On one hand, Murdoch rakes in the ratings and revenues by having his propaganda network Fox News attack Climate Change science, economic science, social science, evolution and portrays scientists as evil, godless enemies bent on the destruction of religion. On the other hand, Murdoch’s Fox Broadcasting offers programs that are irreverent when it comes to religion and in the case of the first episode of Cosmos, unflinchingly explain how religious leaders had “heretics” killed just because they believed that the Earth went around The Sun (and were founding the study of science).

Where humanity finds itself now, with pollution gradually destroying the water, land, air and climate of the planet, with supplies of energy and life giving resources being greatly diminished, there was never a more important time for science to be valued and advanced. And yet, Murdoch, The Kochs and their fellow corporate greed-mongers happily invest their massive fortunes into brainwashing a section of the public so they will reject science and those who support it (and replace science with personal opinions and beliefs). By feeding the fire of division, their power and fortunes can flourish and the public’s ability to come together to avert a worsening future are disrupted. There could be no greater example of greed than those who would carelessly destroy the future simply to have even more money than they could ever use today.

Sometimes though, the fact that the greedy have no principles can work against them. When chasing money is all that matters, what happens when there is a trail of money that leads through broadcasting a tv series intended to celebrate and share the study of science?

If Cosmos is a hit, bringing in ratings and revenues for Murdoch and Fox, it will continue and Murdoch himself will have ended up becoming his own enemy, supporting the propagation of science while attacking the propagation of it through Fox News. Considering Murdoch’s goal of keeping the public in constant conflict with itself, turnabout would only seem to be fair play.

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Dimbulb2
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Dimbulb2

ST. MORITZ, SWITZERLAND—One hundred fifty of the world’s most powerful people in the fields of politics, banking, business, and media met this past weekend at an exclusive Swiss resort for the 54th annual invitation-only summit where they show each other their penises.

This year’s meeting was chaired by a committee that included Rupert Murdoch, former U.S. national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, oil heir David H. Koch, and Japanese finance minister Yoshihiko Noda, all of whom presided over the traditional penis-showing ceremony that has for decades been a banner event for the most influential international power brokers.
The resort where the conference was held.

“I always look forward to this crucial and productive gathering,” said industrialist and banker Jacob Wallenberg of the Swedish Wallenbergs, a prominent European family that has wielded significant clout in global financial and political affairs for more than two centuries. “To see the penises of so many like-minded, forward-thinking men and to show them my own penis—this is what keeps the global wheels of industry and ingenuity turning.”

“After all, these are inarguably the most important penises of our time,” Wallenberg added before unzipping his tuxedo pants and heading back into a scrum of other immensely powerful and wealthy men already gazing contemplatively at one another’s exposed genitalia.

As it does every year, the ceremony followed a strict a system of seniority wherein members first reveal their sex organs to the seated committee and assembled invitees before the floor is opened up for general penis exposition. The honor of the showing of the first penis this year was given to billionaire real estate mogul Leonard Litwin, 95, the oldest member in attendance.

The penis of Pope Benedict XVI.

The annual penis-showing summit has a rich history, having first been held in 1957 at a Lake Tahoe chateau owned by American banker David Rockefeller, Sr. of the hugely influential six-generation Rockefeller oil dynasty. According to Rockefeller, the gathering was born of the simple idea that “the people who hold the most sway over the direction of world affairs ought naturally to have some sense of what each other’s penises look like.”

Since that time, power brokers from every continent—including people from backgrounds as widely varied as Hollywood film producer Robert Evans and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein—have attended the summit to see other great men’s penises and to put their own penises on display.

“As the most junior invitee, when I had to stand in the middle of the ballroom and rotate slowly to show everyone my exposed penis after everyone else had showed theirs, there was a palpable sense of the history of all the great men’s penises that have been presented here over the years,” 26-year-old billionaire Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said. “And of course, to have my penis seen by luminaries such as [Russian prime minister] Vladimir Putin and [Saudi] King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud is just such an honor.”

“It really makes you feel like you’re having a major impact on the world,” added Zuckerberg, the tip of his penis just peeking out from beneath a crisply starched white dress shirt.

(From The Onion (of course)

Kalima
Admin

Nothing surprises me about the two-faced Rupert Murdoch. Remember that he courted both Tony Blair (Labour) and Cameron (Tory)in an exclusive “Members Only” restaurant in London, and if it hadn’t been for the phone hacking scandal, would have bought BSkyB in the takeover backed by 100% by Cameron and his emailing buddy Jeremy Hunt who is now unfortunately the Health secretary instead of being sacked. Murdoch swings both ways when it comes to having more money and power. Why shouldn’t he when he has no conscience or principles?

Everything this ugly, greedy old fogey does is aimed at profits, the people he sells to en masse are too dumb to notice the hypocrisy.

pinkpantheroz
Member

AdLib and Kes,

Isn’t it also the epitome of hypocricy that the National Geographic Channel is owned by 21st Century Fox? Justify those dichotomies, Rupe!

kesmarn
Admin

PPO, that seems to be their style lately. I hear that Glenn Beck is now suggesting that people watch “A Face in the Crowd,” which is a prescient film that exposes the type of flim-flam man that Beck has always been. It seems to be his way of saying: “Look, if I were really a con artist would I be embracing this film?”

As the old saying goes: “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”

kesmarn
Admin

AdLib, it is weird isn’t it, how sometimes things done with a sleazy motive turn out — almost inadvertently — to result in some sort of common good? Like McDonald’s use of pink slime types of products resulting in a (justified) drop in business and a (coincidental?) drop in childhood obesity?

I’ve often thought of this in terms of shows like The Simpsons, too. It has that irreverent lefty humor — just think of Mr. Burns and Ned Flanders when it comes to capitalist businessmen and religious fundamentalists.

Do folks who watch both faces of Fox ever feel schizophrenic? (How could they not?)

You can only hope that kids who grow up listening to Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Lisa Simpson will one day take a look at Bad Fox and ask the inevitable question: WTF??

Nirek
Member

Ad, science and the GOP/TP do not go together. Sorry. It must be a money maker or Fox would not show it.