As has been widely reported, Rupert Murdoch'sNews Corporation has acquired Intermix Media, Inc. for $580 million. Intermix Media is the company that controls MySpace, the popular social networking site. (Read the press release Fox buys MySpace reposted over at Boycott-RIAA.com.)
On one level, I offer my congratulations to Tom and the other guys who built up a huge site from scratch and stand to do very, very well as a result of the deal.
But on another level -- what the hell? Fox, and all of News Corp, is the canonical example of just about everything that is going wrong with this country. As a news outlet Fox went out of its way to simultaneously capitalize on the lowest common denoninator of tabloid entertainment masquerading as journalism while at the same time acting as the propganda arm of the worst administration in American history. This alone would be enough for me to cancel my own account on MySpace. And when you consider that Fox that thinks our demographic's online representation is worth half a billion dollars -- an investment that wouldn't be made without a strategy for the monetization of the network -- I can only come to the conclusion that other like-minded people will also delete their accounts.
I could go on for pages about the problems with Fox and the dangers inherent in the capitalization of personal data. But instead, I'm just going to go cancel my account. See you elsewhere...