Expectations of Reasonableness and Sanity

by Norman Horowitz[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbPi00k_ME[/youtube]A very wise and very old man once told me: "Norman, if you continue to have expectations of reasonableness and sanity in the world, you are doomed."I do, and I am.  News Corp. and Rupert Murdoch -- who is smarter than anyone -- has managed to aggregate an enormous amount of media properties throughout the world. If the events presently going on in the UK don't harm him significantly, he'll continue to have enough "media muscle" to scare the Congress and regulators in our country into inactivity.As we used to say in the Bronx, the people in the UK who are interrogating him "aren't qualified to hold his jock strap." I abhor Murdoch's politics, but to the best of my knowledge, he has broken no laws in aggregating his media empire -- and in so doing, he has demonstrated how much smarter he is than the other media moguls who "inherited" their legacies.Murdoch has played by the rules of the game, but from time to time, people in his gigantic media empire violated those rules. They should be punished, not the man who created the enterprise.Those in the UK or the US who are anxious to have some television "face time" appear to be "outraged" by the "scandal" in the UK. These, of course, are the same people who allowed Murdoch's media consolidation to take place, and now they're shocked -- shocked! -- that Murdoch couldn't maintain operational control over all the companies he runs.As much as I admire Murdoch, the laws and rules of our once-great nation should not have allowed him to aggregate the enormous amount of "media muscle" that he has.

Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?Captain Renault: I'm shocked -- shocked! -- to find that gambling is going on in here![A croupier hands Renault a pile of money.]Croupier: Your winnings, sir.Captain Renault: Oh, thank you very much.-- Casablanca