There’s an interesting entry at MetaFilter about how Fox News might be banned from broadcasting in the U.K. because of its inexcusable bias.

Personally, I don’t think a company that defends its right to lie should be allowed to own any broadcast media anywhere in the free world.

(Actually, my beliefs are a bit stronger than that even. I don’t believe companies should be allowed to lie. Period. The whole notion of “corporate personhood” is misguided and should be abolished.)

Ted Turner calls Rupert Murdoch “a warmonger,” but that’s only part of the problem. Murdoch’s willingness to subordinate freedom for political favor is well known. Look no further than his willingness to drop the BBC from his Asian Star satellite service after it was critical of Chinese leaders and of the Tiananmen Square killings. Murdoch is a political whore, plain and simple.

Update: Billmon over at the Whiskey Bar (a truly exquisite political humor blog) tells us of an article in The Wall Street Journal about a U.S. Army officer in Mosul, Iraq, who was relieved of duty for raising questions about the Army’s commitment to free speech in the country it now occupies as it issued orders to seize the city’s only television station (presumably with the aim of forcing it to stop broadcasting al-Jazeera footage).

Something tells me that Billmon’s equation for what constitutes “fair and balanced” coverage these days is one that Murdoch (not to mention White House spinmeister Karl Rove) would enthusiastically approve. Want to bet that Free Iraq starts getting Fox News broadcasts before order and stability are restored?