Posted on 08/07/2006 7:31:15 AM PDT by Kitten Festival
Though I am five thousand miles away, I think that I can detect the vibrations emanating from West Norwood Cemetery in London. For surely Paul Julius Reuter, the German rabbi’s son who founded the Reuters News Agency a century and a half ago, is spinning in his grave.
No other news agency can match the history or romance of Reuters, dating as it does to the pre-telegraphy era, when Reuter employed carrier pigeons to ferry stock price information between Aachen, Germany and Brussels. Hollywood even made a highly-regarded biopic in 1940, Message from Reuters, starring Edward G. Robinson as the founder.
Julius Reuter adapted to changing times very well, unlike his successors at the agency. Moving to London in 1845, he quickly was baptized into the Christian faith, and dropped his birth name Israel Beer Josaphat in favor of the name by which history remembers him, according to the sometimes-reliable (like Reuters) Wikipedia site. An early internationalist, Reuter became a naturalized British subject in 1857, but did not let this stand in the way of accepting a barony from the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. He chose to end his days living in France.
A century after his death, his corporate heirs, running the four billion dollar a year Reuters empire have made his name a laughingstock.
Reuters has been caught red-handed peddling to the world’s media a fake Photoshopped pitcture exaggerating the damage done to Beirut by an Israeli air strike. And according to experts and casual observers alike, it is a crude job, not in the least bit artful in its attempted deception.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Wikipedia: Journalism scandals
There are 40 entries there and Reuters has not yet been added. MSM is destroying itself. They have no credibility.
Soldiers in the forces of the big lie.
Yes, but who owns Reuters? And what percentage is held by Gulf princes?
My prediction is that the notion of "unbalanced media" will be discarded and media outlets will go back to the traditional practice of having on open affiliation with a political interest group and will make no effort to hide their bias. I think that's coming within 5 years.
I could be waaaay off base with this, but I thought I read something a few years ago that the Moonies had bought Reuters. If this is not so, any correction would be welcome.
That would be United Press International (UPI), not Reuters.
The Moonies still own the Washington Times.
Thanks, the ol' mellon ain't what it used to be.
"Who owns Reuters?"I read not long ago Saudi's have controlling interest.No idea if they're private citizens or the Saudi government itself.
Reuters was floated as a public company in 1984 on the London Stock Exchange and on NASDAQ in the US. However, there were concerns that the company's tradition for objective reporting might be jeopardised if control of the company later fell into the hands of a single shareholder. To counter this possibility, the constitution of the company at the time of flotation included a rule that no individual was allowed to hold more than 15% of the company.
Thanks. But if you can buy Reuters stock in the USA why isn't its ownership listed on any database I can find?
Rush picked this up(fm FR?)
I usually leave my investments in street name, so a database of shareholders in companies I invest in wouldn't show me at all. I'm not sure a company with thousands of shareholders has to maintain a list of them for public perusal, but I don't know.
I have read that Rupert Murdoch owns 15% of Reuters, so if George Soros does likewise, they cancel out.
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