>[Bob Grimes wrote:]
>After watching Fox News for quite some time I'm personally convinced
>that if they don't reflect the Australian owner's viewpoints the folks
>will be gone.  Everything on the station is right-wing and when they
>make an attempt to portray "both sides," the left is always portray by a
>less aggressive personality so that the right always wins.

From "Private Eye" (U.K. biweekly magazine... the scourge of hypocritical
politicians, public figures and journalists.)

25th August 2000.

Hacks working for Rupert Murdoch should be warned that exposing the
potentially lethal activities of big business could earn them the sack
rather than a Pulitzer Prize.

For the last five weeks respected investigative journalists Jane Akre and
Steve Wilson have been in court in Tampa, Florida, using whistle-blowing
legislation to sue one of the Dirty Digger's many Fox TV stations, part
of his News Corp empire.

The husband and wife team allege that they were fired for refusing to
broadcast statements about Monsanto's bovine growth hormone, BGH, which
they believed were not true. The huge pharmeceutical and agrochemical
company just happens to be a major source of advertising revenue for Fox.

The couple had discovered that Florida dairymen were injecting cows with
BGH. It boosts milk production but researchers suggest that it might be
linked to cancer.

BGH is banned in the U.K., New Zealand, Canada and most of Europe. It is
not banned in the U.S., but there are many there - in particular consumer
and health groups - who are concerned about its use. Florida
supermarkets, for example, had pledged not to buy milk from BGH herds.
However, Akre and Wilson found shops had quietly renaged on the promise
and that hormone-injected milk was on the shelves. They thought the
public ought to be alerted to potential health risks.

Fox initially thought so too, buying up radio advertising for to
publicise the documentary ahead of its scheduled broadcast in February
1997. Three years later it remains on the shelf and the couple out of a
job.

Akre and Wilson allege that Fox bowed to high-level pressure from
Monsanto (which of course denies any BGH-health risk) and pulled the
programme. They cite in particulare a letter from Monsanto to the head of
Fox news in New York, which claimed the programme was inaccurate and
said: "There is a lot at stake in what is going on in Florida, not only
for Monsanto, but also for Fox, and its owner."

The pair allege the station offered to buy out their employment contracts
in exchange for their resignation and promise not to publish details of
the story. When they refused, they were asked to rewrite their script
many, many times. They consistently declined to include information from
Monsanto that hormone-injected milk was as safe as pure milk and
eventually they were sacked.

Fox deny the allegations, saying the pair refused to abide by the
company's preferred style of presenting both sides of the argument,
without the critical analysis.

Despite the important implications for freedom of information and speech
when big business is involved, the Tampa hearing has received little
publicity either in the U.S. or here. No doubt this is an oversight by
the Murdoch media machine - but it's convenient for Monsanto nonetheless.