Rupert Murdoch's growing porn empire.

Australian-born media mogul Rupert Murdoch (Council on Foreign Relations), whose international holdings include the supposedly conservative FOX News channel, "has been secretly building a stable of wholly-owned pornographic channels for his [British] Sky subsidiary," reported Rupert Steiner of London's The Business on February 12. "The Business has learned that Sky now owns and operates its own pornographic channels--the 18+ Movies section --after years of hosting third-party content only."

Previously, under British licensing roles, Rupert's Sky network was required to provide pore content produced by other networks. Having learned of porn's profit potential, however, Murdoch is developing his own original smut content, as well as "entering into partnerships with companies that broadcast pornographic television channels on Sky, such as Sport XXX Babes, XXX Housewives, and Playboy. Sky has agreed [to] retail distribution agreements with these companies. With Playboy, for instance, Sky now not only hosts the channel but sells its service, and collects and shares in the revenues from Playboy customers."

"For years the Murdoch press has labelled rival newspaper baron Richard Desmond a pornographer in articles charting his business which has included pornographic magazines and TV channels," relates Steiner. "Desmond, who owns the Daily Express and OK magazine, will view Murdoch's expansion in this field as hypocrisy." American conservatives who have viewed Murdoch as an ally interjecting a conservative voice into the "mainstream media" should take an even dimmer view of these developments.