MySpace Goes Political

I guess it was only a matter of time. I mean, how long could Rupert Murdoch last without using such a wide-reaching resource to promote his political agenda?

The social networking website MySpace.com has opened a new channel called Impact, which features promotion community awareness events (concerts, etc.), PSA videos, ads for current events magazines, a collection of candidate-created MySpace profiles and voter registration tools, among other content.

According to an article in ECommerceTimes.com, "[MySpace] expects it to play a major role in the 2008 U.S. presidential election." That's all well and good, but when you've got a partisan CEO that's been documented to use his media outlets to spin stories and give more air time to stories that benefit the conservative agenda, you need to be very wary about his intentions when it.

But so far, so good; at least on it's surface the portal actually seems to lean toward the left, featuring a lot of pieces focusing on global climate change. But it's been less than two weeks and the 2008 elections are more than a year and a half away, more than enough time to turn the tables on the message. At least I know that as long as my head doesn't get run over by an 18-wheeler I'll still be able to spot the bullshit.

I wish I could say I'll be keeping an eye on this, but I'm not about to start looking to Tom Anderson and News Corp. for political news.