'Anti mogul' campaign targets Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch is being lambasted as "the man who wants to control news in America" in a high-profile US campaign designed to stir up public opposition to controversial plans to relax the country's media ownership laws.

Adverts running on US TV stations, including Mr Murdoch's own Fox News, show the media mogul's scowling face appearing on every TV channel.

"This man wants to control the news in America," warns the tagline, adding, "The FCC [federal communications commission] wants to help him."

Ads are also being placed in the New York Times, the Washington Post and daily Variety, showing Mr Murdoch's face in four different TV screens bearing the logos of NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox.

Media groups in the US are worried about sweeping changes to media ownership laws being considered by the FCC, which would make it easier for large networks to acquire local TV stations and newspapers.

The FCC will decide on Monday whether to adopt the radical changes.

The organisation behind the campaign is MoveOn.org, an online activist group set up five years ago by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and funded by various foundations and private donors.

"Rupert Murdoch, the Australian media mogul, already owns the Fox TV network, eight cable networks and local TV stations in 34 US cities," the newspaper ad states.

"He owns American newspapers, movie studios, publishing houses and record companies. But Murdoch wants more. Much more."

It goes on to warn that, "for Murdoch and his fellow moguls, it means swallowing up independent broadcasters and affiliates and gaining further control over news content, advertising revenues and cable rates".

MoveOn is calling on people to write to the FCC or congress and use "public outrage" in protest at the proposed legislation.

The perception that Mr Murdoch has ambitions to seize greater control of US media has been heightened by the prominence and success of Fox News' gung-ho coverage of the Iraq war, as well as News Corporation's recent deal to buy DirecTV, the leading satellite TV company in the US.

Apart from Mr Murdoch's News Corp, the other major media companies in the US - AOL Time Warner, Viacom, Disney and General Electric - stand to gain from any relaxation in ownership laws.

Mr Murdoch has also become the public face of opposition to changes to media ownership laws in the UK, where the communications bill could allow News International to invest in Channel Five.

The relevant section of the planned legislation has been dubbed "the Murdoch clause" and is being fiercely opposed by Labour lords, including Lord Puttnam.