Do you hear the people sing? Rupert Murdoch did today, when nearly a quarter of investors spoke up for greater democracy within the oligarchical nonsense that is NewsCorp. At the corporation's annual meeting in New York, 23% of shareholders voted to change the current dual class voting structure to a 'one share, one vote' model. The Murdoch clan's control of 30% of the voting shares makes it unlikely the rebelling shareholders will get their way. The Guardian notes that "Defending the status quo, Mr. Murdoch said protection from takeover bids was beneficial to shareholders because it allowed the management to take more risks." Okaaay.

Imagine what would happen to this world if Rupert Murdoch didn't have the final say in everything? If (shudder) the people had some pull? Mass chaos! Rivers full of blood! Matter ceasing to exist!

Actually, the people don't seem to mind the messianic mogul's leadership; 99.5% of them voted to re-elect him as chairman. That .5% is so screwed. Murdoch also managed to get a dig in at NewsCorp-owned MySpace's rival, Facebook. "We're going in slightly different ways. They [Facebook] are more of a utility—I won't say a phone book—for friends to connect with each other." MySpace, he said, is more "cultural." Did Rupert Murdoch just call Facebook white trash?