Rupert Murdoch staying out of the e-reader business, Red Eye sadly still on the air

With the news biz in obvious (and some might say terminal) disarray, of course folks in the industry will be seeking out ways to stay afloat in the age of the e-reader -- and it's long been rumored that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is looking to launch a device of its own (if by "long" you mean "since early April or thereabouts"). When asked yesterday if this was the case, Murdoch answered: "I don't think that's likely. We're looking and talking to a lot of laboratories and big companies around the world like Sony, Fujitsu, Samsung. We're all working on wireless readers for books or for newspapers or for magazines. I think they're a year or two away, being marketed in a mass way, high quality ones. And we will be absolutely neutral. We're very happy to have our products distributed over any device provided it's only going to subscribers who are paying for it." Of course, the man may have some sort of diabolical scheme up his sleeve (when doesn't he, really?), but for the time being, he says, the Wall Street Journal is doing "very well... you've got the wallstreetjournal.com and you pay for it. And there is 1.25 million people nearly who are doing that. And we get a lot of advertising with it. It's a big business for us." So it's more likely that we'll see more News Corp papers adopting an online subscription model before the advent of any Fox News e-ink device. But if it does get in the hardware business, we'll gladly shell out for a Glenn Beck signature model. But only if it's ironic.

[Via GigaOM]

[Smart People Play Tuba @ Jul 10th 2009 10:57AM]

Awesome pic. Get a grip, Glenn Beck.

[TGGGD86 @ Jul 10th 2009 11:55AM]

OMG, Glenn is the only political commentator who actually isn't just putting on an act to get ratings. He truly cares about this country and gives an amazing perspective on the news and politics. Maybe if you actually watched his show you could see how he makes every other political commentator out there look like an actor. But you wouldn't learn that by reading People and skimming through the 10 minute recap of the daily news now would you?

Oh and Engadget you are just as bad by putting that pic of glenn up. You obviously know nothing about news or politics, instead you just want to smear the intelligent people actually alerting the world that our country is up in flames.

[Doug @ Jul 10th 2009 12:23PM]

Glenn Beck is the shiz

[bolezhinkov @ Jul 10th 2009 12:23PM]

no matter how many times I click I still only low rank once . . . damn.

[Doug @ Jul 10th 2009 12:29PM]

Haha, that's what I'm doing. ^_^

[Zut @ Jul 10th 2009 12:57PM]

@TGGGD86 - You're kidding... right? Either Glenn Beck is the biggest actor there is, or he is deeply, DEEPLY disturbed.

[eric @ Jul 10th 2009 2:36PM]

@TGGGD86

This guy is clearly being facetious or is one of the most misinformed media-unsavvy dolts that I've ever seen.

[TGGGD86 @ Jul 10th 2009 2:38PM]

Holy crap did I just read that you wrote this?

"Libertarians should rule Washington, not the Demo-fascists or the Republi-fascists

Libertarians = You do what you want, I'll do what I want, leave me the $@#% alone"

Did you know Beck is a Libertarian? Wow, you really are as stupid as you look. I mean have you ever seen his show or just watched clips of Beck on Colbert Report?

[loosely_coupled @ Jul 10th 2009 3:38PM]

@TGG

Glen Beck is a disturbed, right-wing evangelical nutjob. He spreads lies and disinformation on everything from climate change, to birth control, to evolution, etc. A perfect fit for the ridiculous parody that is Fox news..

[loosely_coupled @ Jul 10th 2009 4:11PM]

@TGG

Not to mention this is the unbelievably myopic idiot hollering about America becoming "fascist" because Obama bailed out GM, and passed a stimulus bill.

However, apparently the Bush administration's full frontal assault on the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights, justice department, the courts, congressional oversight, and the American people themselves didn't warrant such concern:

# Clear manipulation of intelligence agencies, congress, and the media regarding WMDs and the Iraq regime's connection to Al-Qaeda to create a false pretext for the invasion of Iraq. (See downing street memo, yellowcake forgery, CIA vs Cheney battle over Saddam)

# Painting dissidents and those who urged prudent consideration as "unpatriotic" and "anti-American"

# Illegal extraordinary rendition of individuals to countries who practice torture

# Unconstitutional, limit-less detention of "unlawful combatants" and anyone "suspected of links to terrorism", including American citizens, off of American soil. Breaking of multiple international treaties by the revokation of habeus corpus.

# Torture and unethical treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib, Gitmo, and other bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. Including many non-combatants and innocents, not just "hard-core terrorists".


# Illegal and unconstitutional wiretapping and dragnetting of American citizen's communications outside of existing FISA court framework.

# Unconstitutional executive power to disregard laws protecting freedom of speech, freedom of the press, unreasonable search and seizure, and other foundational rights during "emergency".

# Illegal routine wiretapping of journalists, liberal activist groups, and democratic politicians by NSA.

# Unconstitutional use of presidental signing statements to circumvent implementation of congressional legislation and oversight. Similarly, implementation of hard-line "Unitary executive theory" to greatly expand the executive branch and defeat the system of checks and balances

# Abuse of State Secrets Privilege to undermine executive oversight and hide illegal acts of the administration.

# retaliatory leaking of classified information against dissidents

# Dismantling of the practice of a non-partisan justice department, now filled with careerist political operatives.

[Smart People Play Tuba @ Jul 10th 2009 4:32PM]

@ all the party people out there

Hey, if you look at what I actually SAID about Glenn Beck, I never said I disagreed with Beck, only that his weeping on camera was distracting. It turned a lot of people off (including me).

On further reflection, let's all just talk about gadgets.

[John @ Jul 10th 2009 11:02AM]

I like 'Red Eye' - it's the only show on the channel that doesn't fit into "the mold". Actually, it's the only show on any news channel that doesn't fit into any mold. It's a mold-breaker.

[jay jay @ Jul 10th 2009 11:22AM]

if the mold is a professional cast providing useful information while not putting in there 2 cents then yeah it's a mold breaker.

[T-Will @ Jul 10th 2009 12:28PM]

Agreed, plus it's just plain funny! I LOL'd hard at the episode where they had that priest as a commentator.

[Brent @ Jul 10th 2009 12:42PM]

Red Eye is pure gold. I love that show.

[AUTiger89 @ Jul 11th 2009 2:17PM]

I watch it in my shorty-robe. Made of blood.

[Adam @ Jul 10th 2009 1:47PM]

Red Eye FTW!!!! I don't have cable tv right now and it's the only show I truly miss.

[jordan @ Jul 10th 2009 2:26PM]

Yeah - why dissing on RedEye? It's my favorite show on TV. Truly funny and far hipper than the other fare in its category.

[Kali4 @ Jul 10th 2009 2:40PM]

@jay jay

"if the mold is a professional cast providing useful information while not putting in there 2 cents then yeah it's a mold breaker."

This "professional cast" that you refer to. Would it be MSNBC, CNN, the rest of FOX? If so:

Keith Olbermann: “[Referring to President Bush as] the 21st-century Marie Antoinette, ... This is the law-and-order and terror government. But it can't save our citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.” OPINION

Anderson Cooper: "The question tonight, is President Obama simply making the best of a bad hand, taking small victories where he can, being diplomatic, or is he being too cautious? OPINION language shows bias towards
being diplomatic

Joining us now, senior -- CNN senior political analyst David Gergen. David, what -- what do you think? I mean, how big of a trip is this for the president? And -- and are people expecting too much to get done?" Fishing for OPINION
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0907/08/acd.01.html That's where I got the cooper qoutes. Just so you know, I scrolled down to the political portion of the show, ignoring the whole Jackson report. That whole thing is speculative and opinion no matter what your news source is. All the facts are is 1. he's dead 2. he was famous 3. he had drugs in his system 4. there was a big ass funeral with more famous people. If you hear anything elses it is speculation and opinion.

What other anchor would you like quotes from? The big difference is that Glenn Beck does NOT claim, nor has he EVER claimed that he was a reporter. For that matter, he is the only one who should be able to pepper his opinion throughout. Reporters are supposed to be unbiased and un opionated, reporting just the facts so that we can draw our own conclusions. Since reporters no longer do this, we have to get our news from multiple soource, compare and contrast the stories, all to filter out the opinion so we can formulate our own opinions. Anyone who gets their news and information from only one source is garuanteed to be misinformed. CNN was at the forefront of opinionating our news. I'm sure at first it was an unintentional side effect of trying to fill 24 hours of news programming. Previous to CNN, our news was squeezed into a half hour to hour long show. There was the morning edition, noon edition, evening, and nightime broadcasts. Much of the broadcasts were the same stories run anew for each show. There was only about ten to twelve minutes of new information by the late night broadcast. How then was CNN to constantly fill 24 hours of news? Report on anything, everything, beat it into the ground, and share your opinion of it. Don't think I'm sticking up for Fox here, cause I'm not. They do the exact same thing. Nor are they truly conservative. They are pseudo conservative. They are held up as a paragon of conservatism by the other networks and by the left leaning movement groups (move-on, code pink, etc.) The truth is that they are as maligned from the right leaning ultra conservatives in much the same way. Try listening to Michael Savage, or Mark Levine's opinions of Fox News sometime.

[ilovethewaggle @ Jul 10th 2009 11:03AM]

So Glenn Beck does have other emotions besides "extrememly pissed off".

[Smart People Play Tuba @ Jul 10th 2009 11:08AM]

Oh yeah, you should've seen his boo-hoo-ing during his presentation of his 9-12 Project. Comedians like Colbert had a hay day with that. It was completely distracting from the point of the 9-12 Project; it's the only thing I really remember about it (that he wept like a pansy).

It's probably on YouTube somewhere.

[Blacksheep @ Jul 10th 2009 11:14AM]

Yeah, he has fake crying (seriously, have you ever seen him do it, it's unbelievable), psychotic conspiracy mode (FEMA death camps in Georgia! and a man on his show, in a clip that never aired, who claimed Chinese restaurants were sleeper cells for the Chinese governments planned overthrow of the US) and just plan incoherent rambling.

I doubt anyone watching his show would want an e-reader anyway, because it's probably just a secret, communist designed tracking device, developed by Obama in partnership with the Soviet Government in exile (it's in exile and waiting, did you know that?) which will track all of your reading habits, and trace your whereabouts from space. Slowly the device will change your Fox News stories into stories about how great the Bolsheviks were, molding your mind into their favor as part of Obama's giant. lifelong conspiracy! Then, if you refuse to believe it, sputnik, which has been upgraded with lasers, will shoot you with a death ray from space, eliminating all opposition.

Then, Lenin, who's been sandbagging it the whole time, will wake from his tomb and conquer earth with Obama serving as vice president of the Politburo! You will also all be forcefully converted to Islam, for some reason, Muhaha.

Do I even need to type /end sarcasm here? I'm sure I do for Glen Beck followers ;)

[BigD145 @ Jul 10th 2009 11:15AM]

I always thought he was just stupid. Is that an emotion or a condition?

[Look_Around_You @ Jul 10th 2009 11:35AM]

Yeah, he has fake crying (seriously, have you ever seen him do it, it's unbelievable), psychotic conspiracy mode (FEMA death camps in Georgia! and a man on his show, in a clip that never aired, who claimed Chinese restaurants were sleeper cells for the Chinese governments planned overthrow of the US) and just plan incoherent rambling.

I dont believe I actually have to respond to this bullshit, but obviously you posted this nonsense in hopes that no one that actually watches his show would be on engadget to debunk this garbage.


#1, Idiot, Beck never believed those supposed camps were real, He even got sick of people calling and writing him about it. He did send out some investagators to either prove or disprove them.

Well the investigators came back and said they couldn't do either, so he sent them back to dig deeper.

Now they then came back and announced on his show that the supposed camps were a Amtrak repair yard, and the video that was on the net was a N. Korean camp.


Gee, you would think that some crazy nut like Beck would have skipped over doing real legwork to get to the bottom of something like this, and instead just piss it on the air and say it was 100% truth like Keith Olberman or Chris (tingle up my ass) Mathews.


"I doubt anyone watching his show would want an e-reader anyway, because it's probably just a secret, communist designed tracking device, developed by Obama in partnership with the Soviet Government in exile (it's in exile and waiting, did you know that?) which will track all of your reading habits, and trace your whereabouts from space. Slowly the device will change your Fox News stories into stories about how great the Bolsheviks were, molding your mind into their favor as part of Obama's giant. lifelong conspiracy! Then, if you refuse to believe it, sputnik, which has been upgraded with lasers, will shoot you with a death ray from space, eliminating all opposition."

Now if you just want to be a fucking retard, then just post "Hey, I'm a retard" and save the shitty attempts at comedy to people with talent.


"Do I even need to type /end sarcasm here? I'm sure I do for Glen Beck followers ;)"

We already got that you were full of shit from the first sentence.

And golly, he actually cried on-air. That just discredits him right off the bat. Gotcha. Let's not pay attention to what he says and actually rebut it, let's look for something retarded to harp on so you dont have to make a real effort.

The guy pulls in more viewers at 2:00pm in California then those Obama butt-boys on MSNBC combined. If anything they should be crying.

[Look_Around_You @ Jul 10th 2009 11:37AM]

Yeah, he has fake crying (seriously, have you ever seen him do it, it's unbelievable), psychotic conspiracy mode (FEMA death camps in Georgia! and a man on his show, in a clip that never aired, who claimed Chinese restaurants were sleeper cells for the Chinese governments planned overthrow of the US) and just plan incoherent rambling.

I dont believe I actually have to respond to this bullshit, but obviously you posted this nonsense in hopes that no one that actually watches his show would be on engadget to debunk this garbage.


#1, Idiot, Beck never believed those supposed camps were real, He even got sick of people calling and writing him about it. He did send out some investagators to either prove or disprove them.

Well the investigators came back and said they couldn't do either, so he sent them back to dig deeper.

Now they then came back and announced on his show that the supposed camps were a Amtrak repair yard, and the video that was on the net was a N. Korean camp.


Gee, you would think that some crazy nut like Beck would have skipped over doing real legwork to get to the bottom of something like this, and instead just piss it on the air and say it was 100% truth like Keith Olberman or Chris (tingle up my ass) Mathews.


"I doubt anyone watching his show would want an e-reader anyway, because it's probably just a secret, communist designed tracking device, developed by Obama in partnership with the Soviet Government in exile (it's in exile and waiting, did you know that?) which will track all of your reading habits, and trace your whereabouts from space. Slowly the device will change your Fox News stories into stories about how great the Bolsheviks were, molding your mind into their favor as part of Obama's giant. lifelong conspiracy! Then, if you refuse to believe it, sputnik, which has been upgraded with lasers, will shoot you with a death ray from space, eliminating all opposition."

Now if you just want to be a fucking retard, then just post "Hey, I'm a retard" and save the shitty attempts at comedy to people with talent.


"Do I even need to type /end sarcasm here? I'm sure I do for Glen Beck followers ;)"

We already got that you were full of shit from the first sentence.

And golly, he actually cried on-air. That just discredits him right off the bat. Gotcha. Let's not pay attention to what he says and actually rebut it, let's look for something retarded to harp on so you dont have to make a real effort.

The guy pulls in more viewers at 2:00pm in California then those Obama butt-boys on MSNBC combined. If anything they should be crying.

[Look_Around_You @ Jul 10th 2009 11:39AM]

"I always thought he was just stupid. Is that an emotion or a condition?"

Well we are intrigued. What exactly makes him stupid?

[Duke @ Jul 10th 2009 1:20PM]

I'm just curious here, but do those of you slamming Beck slam Keith Olberman as well? That guy is at least as full of crap as you say Beck is. Oh, and he does the fake emotion bs too - see Republican Convention coverage.

Now, I don't like Beck because I'm not into fervent opinions in my news, but you can't talk smack about one end of the spectrum without taking note of your own end.

Also, this news about Chinese restaurants being sleeper cells for the Chinese government's planned overthrow of the US is quite disturbing. How shall I ever enjoy my Hot & Sour soup now!?

[BigD145 @ Jul 10th 2009 6:04PM]

Beck: Climate Bill = watermelon

Me: Beck = dumbass

[Stephen @ Jul 10th 2009 11:08AM]

WTF does Red Eye have to do w/ anything (other than being on FNC)? It's an awesome show.

[Jeff Coe @ Jul 10th 2009 11:09AM]

I wonder if Glenn Beck is tractor proof. I doubt it.

[Smart People Play Tuba @ Jul 10th 2009 11:11AM]

+1

[oliver hart @ Jul 10th 2009 11:09AM]

Glenn Beck-no, Red Eye, yes. Andy Levy FTW

[BKell @ Jul 10th 2009 1:17PM]

TV's very own Andy Levy...


on a side note, Pinch sucks but Fluffy McNutter is awesome.

[Andy @ Jul 10th 2009 11:23AM]

What!? Red Eye is the most hilarious (and sometimes truthful) show on any new network. It comes on around 2am CST, so check it out...check it outters. And if you disagree with me, than you sir, are WORSE THAN HITLER. HAHA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpW6hRtoUds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKdNz_lrX8o&feature=related

[BigD145 @ Jul 10th 2009 11:16AM]

Does Rupert Murdoch have access to these e-Readers so he can change the content of all text on a whim?

[Jason @ Jul 10th 2009 11:16AM]

Flame-bait. Yeah, yeah, no big surprise, poke fun at Fox News, bunch of apple-using, blocky-minivan-driving-with-your-apple-sticker-in-the-window, yes-we-can liberal hipsters. ON the other hand, you would have to be crazy to buy an e-reader just to get your news from one media outlet.

[Matt @ Jul 10th 2009 4:52PM]

Fuck you. Not all people who vote Democratic are liberals. Not all liberals are the same. You make yourself a huge target when you say things like that. Luckily you are too stupid to realise it!

[unzarjones @ Jul 11th 2009 12:31AM]

@Matt, I agree all liberals are not the same. Some are more emotion driven. Latest crisis at eleven...

[something clever @ Jul 10th 2009 11:18AM]

But Engadget has decided that it is not hip and deserves to be mocked. Because as you all know, writers for a tech blog are the arbiters of cool.

Now where's an Iphone news item they can post and fawn over??? Anybody? Hey, engadget needs some new Iphone news, stat!

[unzarjones @ Jul 10th 2009 12:31PM]

The Arbiters of Cool sound like a band, a band of self important twits. Engadget Twits and Apple Fawn. Now there's a two-headed phony act if ever I made one up!

[zach @ Jul 10th 2009 11:19AM]

I enjoy Engadget but keeping politics off of my favorite gadget blog would make me a happier reader.

[something clever @ Jul 10th 2009 4:48PM]

Agreed. Especially since the hipster "writers" (I can't really consider some who writes a paragraph or two based on a press release / recycled story to be a real writer, so they get quotation marks) only ever chose to go after the non-liberal side. You know, to show how original and daring they are to go after the same people all the other hacks go after.

Note to engadget "writers". Be glad you have a job in this economy. Ticking off half your reader base isn't a good idea to maintain long term success or employment.

[BigD145 @ Jul 10th 2009 6:02PM]

Considering the swing of voters away from the GOP, I'd say Engadget is only pissing off about 20% of its readers.

[something clever @ Jul 10th 2009 7:26PM]

Even with a horrible candidate for the republicans, obama only got what, 53%?

And you might want to check that again based on the latest rasmussen poll. The public is swinging back to the republicans even though they can barely shoot straight. Something about all that debt obama and company are piling up and the coming double digit unemployment rates.

Finally, fox is kicking cnn / msnbc in every important category. So there is a big market.

I'd wager Glenn Beck's audience totals is a bit bigger than engadget's. And with that big of a lead, ticking off watchers or even those sympathetic to GB / redeye is a stupid idea. Advertising is down all over (well, except for fox, glenn beck, rush limbaugh, etc) so if the editors had a brain they'd figure out to stop the juvenile political crap, otherwise they'll be joining the unemployed when their bosses see that their little jokes are offending a big part of their audience.

I want tech news on a tech site, not political BS.

[MacVicta @ Jul 10th 2009 11:20AM]

"We're very happy to have our products distributed over any device provided it's only going to subscribers who are paying for it."

Rupie must have forgotten about the Wall Street Journal app for the iPhone and iPod touch. It's free and one of my favorite apps. I suspect they want to start charging for it soon, though.

[Smart People Play Tuba @ Jul 10th 2009 11:37AM]

BEST

AVATAR

EVER

[Blacknimbus @ Jul 10th 2009 11:25AM]

More reporting on Chinese gadgets and smooching Steve Job's hinder and less faulty political opinion, please. You just encourage the 12 year old crazies to post their Che poetry and repeat stupid conspiracy crap they read on prison planet and the Daily KoS.

Let Gizmodo keep the hippie comments, please.

[D @ Jul 10th 2009 11:41AM]

+1

[Dave @ Jul 10th 2009 11:43AM]

+5

[Look_Around_You @ Jul 10th 2009 11:44AM]

Seriously.

"Oooooh we dont like Fox News or Glenn Beck. Aint we uber sophisticated?"

No.