DEMOCRACY NOW
Alexander Cockburn, the longtime journalist, columnist and publisher of the progressive website of news and analysis Counterpunch, has died at the age of 71. Cockburn was a prolific writer who authored columns over the years for the Village Voice, the Wall Street Journal and The Nation magazine. Cockburn appeared on Democracy Now! several times including this 2003 appearance shortly after the publication of his book “The Politics of Anti-Semitism.”
TRANSCRIPT FROM 2003 INTERVIEW
AMY GOODMAN:We are joined in our studio by Counterpunch editor and columnist for the Nation magazine, Alexander Cockburn recently back from London. His latest piece begins “This city is now recovering from the November visit of a global tyrant, on whose rampages the sun never sets. His name is not George Bush but Rupert Murdoch.” Cockburn writes further on: “…as an international operator, Murdoch offers his target governments a privatized version of a state propaganda service, manipulated without scruple and with no regard for truth. His price takes the form of vast government favors such as tax breaks, regulatory relief, monopoly markets and so forth.” Welcome to Democracy Now! Alexander Cockburn.
ALEXANDER COCKBURN: Hi, Amy. How are you?
AMY GOODMAN: Good. So talk a little bit more about Murdoch and his trip.
ALEXANDER COCKBURN: He is the most powerful news mogul in the world. He has vast properties in the United States and Australia and Britain and the People’s Republic of China who, anytime anyone. . . Any time I look at O’Reilly thundering at people about democracy, just remember that Fox spends a lot of its time licking the boots of the butchers of Tianamen square. That’s what they do.
Murdoch was in London to briefly announce. . . He was there to squash a revolt by his stockholders in one of his companies who said their interests weren’t being attended to, and also to announce in the next election he might support the conservatives rather than the Blair government.
Then he made an amazing statement. He said, we — he uses the royal We quite a lot — “We don’t like the possible threat to our sovereignty by the provisions of the European Union.”
And The Guardian pointed out this is a rather odd use of we since Murdoch adopted American citizenship, quite awhile ago, in the interest of commercial gain, as The Guardian pointed out. He’s a world citizen, a world pirate, of course, and a complete monster.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk more about his relationship with China?
ALEXANDER COCKBURN: He has a satellite service there. He got the satellite service by licking the boots of the Chinese leadership.
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