There's a witch hunt brewing, and the target is Rupert Murdoch. At least that's the opinion of media analyst Laura Martin, who wrote Aug. 22 that Wall Street is underestimating the "long list of powerful personal Murdoch enemies."
Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty ImagesNews Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch took to Twitter Saturday to blast President Barack Obama for “throwing his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters” who oppose two Congressional efforts to curb online piracy.
The media mogul also had a few choice words for Google, which is spending millions of dollars to fight the legislation that has pitted the tech industry against Hollywood.
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“Piracy leader is Google who streams movies free, sells advts around them,” Murdoch wrote. “No wonder pouring millions into lobbying.”
A short time later, he tweeted: “Film making risky as hell. This has to lead to less, hurting writers, actors, all concerned.”
Considering Murdoch was airing his complaints on the Internet, he didn’t exactly find a sympathetic audience.
One Twitter user told him: “Three words: Make better films. The industry has itself to blame.”
Another wrote: “You really are a thing of the past, aren’t you? Risk has absolutely no factor in whether or not this bill should be legal.”
Murdoch was undeterred.
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“Just been to google search for mission impossible,” he tweeted later in the evening. “Wow, several sites offering free links. I rest my case.”
The Obama’s chief technology officials issued a statement earlier Saturday indicating that the administration strongly opposed central elements the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act, both pending in Congress.
“Let us be clear, online piracy is a real problem that harms the American economy, threatens jobs for significant numbers of middle class workers and hurts some of our nation’s most creative and innovative companies and entrepreneurs,” according to the White House statement.
However, the administration “will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.”
