Who is giving the TV news?

NPR – National Public Radio began back in the 1920s when radio stations started in colleges and universities. These stations were educational with some entertainment to the community. Twenty years later in the 1940s, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chose stations on the new FM band wholly for non-commercial, educational stations.

With the rapid expansion of modern media, commercial radio’s popularity began to wane in the 1950s with the arrival of television. As a contrast, public radio and television increased. President Lyndon Johnson’s signing of the Public Broadcasting Act in 1967 was a gigantic advancement. The law gave birth to the creation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

The 1970s brought swift growth of NPR with the incorporation by 90 progressive charter stations providing national news programming. “In April 1971, NPR broadcasted live coverage of the Senate hearings of the Viet Nam War. Next there was the news magazine, All Things Considered , followed by foremost news magazine, Morning Edition in 1979. This made NPR an all day news service.

NPR initiated the original nationwide, satellite distributed radio delivery network in the 1980s. By now the stations grew to approximately 250 stations. In the 1990s the Gulf War produced NPR’s first talk program, Talk of the Nation . By 1994 NPR attempted to abolish federal funding for public broadcasting. This effort resulted in the unparalleled increase in contributions from listeners and supporters. The contributions lead to non-partisan political support from the public. Unfortunately, there are not enough Americans willing to contribute to public broadcasting to eliminate federal support entirely.

Of course in 2010, NPR is not just your public radio station. According to NPR, “Our network is the 2nd largest radio group in America, with 268 independent member organizations operating 764 stations nationwide. That's 910 stations carrying NPR programming across the nation and territories, heard by 27.2 million people every week.”

During the 2000’s NPR improved the quality of the news by better coverage of events like September 11^th, 2004 and 2008 elections, and the Iraq War. NPR.org has extended its focus with digital platforms- mobile sites and apps. NPR and its stations are actively embracing the power and potential of digital media to serve our mission.

Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media tycoon and humanitarian. Ted Turner launched Cable News Network (CNN) in 1980. Turner, an American, started CNN as the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States. CNN is owned by parent company Time Warner, and the U.S. news channel is a division of the Turner Broadcasting System. Time Warner Inc., a international leader in media and entertainment with dealings in television networks, filmed entertainment and publishing. Other divisions owned under one roof are Time Inc., Home Box Office, Turner Broadcasting System and Warner Bros. Entertainment. According to the annual report CNN is accessible in more than 100 million U.S. households. Broadcast coverage offered to greater than 890,000 American hotel rooms. The U.S broadcast is available in Canada. Internationally, CNN programming airs by means of CNN International, which is available to audiences in more than 212 countries and territories.

CNN an American media company still falls behind MSNBC and Fox News according to a New York Times March 2010 article. According to the article, CNN’s ratings were down the first quarter of the year. The news channel failed to cash in on the overwhelming news events, like the Haiti’s earthquake and the health care battle. CNN should and could out distance the other news network if you review their past history. CNN was the only news network to cover live coverage of the launch and explosion of Space Shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986. In 1995 The New York Times ran a retrospective article on CNN’s live video news with a reference to October 14, 1987, an 18-month-old toddler named Jessica McClure fell down a well in Midland, Texas. The first Persian Gulf War in 1991 was a defining moment event for CNN that shoot the channel past the "big three" networks for the first time in its history. CNN was the first channel to break the news of the September 11 attacks.

The American MSNBC, a combination of Microsoft and NBC form the name. NBC Universal (the old General Electric’s NBC) owns 82% and Microsoft owns 18 % was founded in 1996. msnbc.com is a separate company and news website for the NBC News family. The website is interactive and multimedia with original stories and is supplemented with the content from NBC News and its partners. The web site is developed in Redmond, Washington, on the Microsoft campus and news content is produced out of newsrooms in Redmond, New York, and London. It provides news for MSN, the portal site and online service operated by Microsoft, but it is editorially and financially separate.

The MSNBC Digital Network is a collection of innovative and powerful news brands that deliver the most persuasive, assorted and visually appealing stories on your platform of choice. The global brands featured in the digital network include msnbc.com, TODAY, NBC Nightly News, MSNBC TV, NBC Sports, Newsvine,  EveryBlock and BreakingNews.com.

At the beginning of 2001, MSNBC continued to shadow both Fox News and CNN. MSNBC attempted to imitate the Fox News Channel's highlighting opinion hosts. After the 9/11 attacks, MSNBC functioned as a channel for NBC News to provide up-to-the-minute coverage. This was a contrast to broadcast NBC's longer stories.  Microsoft gave up 32% share of the television channel to NBC Universal. This acquisition firmed up its control over television operations and allowed NBC to additionally combine MSNBC's backroom operations with NBC News and its other cable properties. msnbc.com continued to be 50% owned by both NBC and Microsoft with nothing much changing. NBC would have the option to buy the remaining 18% share from Microsoft after two years.

Between 2001 and 2009, MSNBC went through management and programming changes. From mid-2007 to mid-2008, MSNBC received a large increase in its ratings with primetime viewings increasing by 61% over that time.  The first quarter of 2010, MSNBC beat CNN in primetime and overall ratings, marking the first time doing so since 2001 according to an article by TV by the Numbers.

Keith Rupert Murdoch is an Australian-born American media magnate and the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of News Corporation, born in Melbourne, Australia. The British educated Murdock studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University in England, where he supported the Labor Party. The Labor Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. The main ideologies of the centre-left are progressivism, social liberalism and social democracy, although it can also include democratic socialism, and green politics.

Murdock began his media empire in his native Australia in 1953. In 1964 he purchased controlling interest in the New Zealand daily. Between 1964 and 1972, Murdock acquired more news media and gained more political power in Australia. He was a big influence with the Australian Labor Party. Murdock acquired The Sun thus moving into the British media market. Murdock been known to use his media holdings to influence a country’s politics such the David Cameron's Conservative Party in the UK. Conservative Party is a political party in the United Kingdom that holds fast to a centre-right philosophy of conservatism and British unionism.

News Corporation has subsidiaries in the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, the Channel Islands and the Virgin Islands. News Corporation is a publicly-traded company listed on the NASDAQ, with secondary listings on the Australian Securities Exchange. Formerly incorporated in South Australia, the company was re-incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law after a majority of shareholders approved the move on November 12, 2004.

By 1973 News Ltd moved into the American market by purchasing its first American newspaper. News Corporation is the holding company for News Ltd. On September 4, 1985, Murdoch became a naturalized citizen to satisfy the legal requirement that only United States citizens could own American television stations. Basically he became an American not for love of country, but for money/business. He wanted to buy the Metromedia TV station. In 1986, the Metromedia deal closed, and the Fox Broadcasting Company was instigated. He already owned 20^th Century Fox. In 1995, Murdoch's Fox Network became the object of inquiry from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It was alleged that News Ltd.'s Australian base made Murdoch's ownership of Fox illegal. However, the FCC ruled in Murdoch's favor. In 1996, Fox established the Fox News Channel, a 24-hour cable news station to compete against American Ted Turner's rival channel CNN.

In April-August 2010 the media reported  Fox News, through its parent corp is just blatantly giving money to Republicans now after using Fox News air to whip up sentiment for the GOP and attack Democrats. The report is believable since Rupert Murdoch has influenced politics and elections in America and other countries prior