Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch is gonna run the country is he?
We better vote for Kevin to stop that bastard Murdoch taking control of the nation eh
Makes sense to the stupid
Ah the "Dirty Digger" ! He'll probably be too busy bailing his journos out and dodging uk police to have much impact. But you have to admire the front of a man who was willing to defend the hacking of a murdered teenager's mobile phone. Remember Milly Dowler!
Maybe he feels guilty for backing Kevin in the 2007 election,and feels obligated to try and make up for it after seeing the train wreck of the last 6 years
"Hi Mr Murdoch it's Tony"
"Who?"
"You know Abbott"
"Oh ok"
"Look I just wanted to say thankyou for the favourable coverage you have been giving me in your newspapers."
"Your welcome Mr Abbott."
"When I'm elected how can I help your organisation maintain its monopoly in Australia's media landscape?"
"Well Tony I wasn't happy when the government awarded the Australia Network contract to the ABC. I really wanted my BSkyB network to run it."
"No worries Rupert help me win the election and I will privatise the ABC and you can buy the whole thing."
"That's a start Tony, what else?
"Well we are making sure that Australians will have an inferior broadband network. That will keep your pay TV network making huge profits while the rest of the developed world switches to Video on Demand!"
"Ok Tony what else?"
"We will ensure that your media empire avoids the scrutiny that you are experiencing in the UK and America. You can write what you want and do what you want."
"That would be good, what else?"
"Um what else do you want Mr Murdoch?"
"I'll tell you what Tony just run any policies you want to put to the Australian people past me first and I will get my people to take a look, make any adjustments needed and then you can present it to the people."
"Sure thing Rupert. Anything you want. I just need to fulfil my destiny as PM. Once my picture is hanging on the wall in Parliament House I will just get your people to work out what best for the country."
So yorkessurfer did Rupert have the same conversation with Kevin back in 2007 when his papers backed the Labour Party ?And has Rupert been running the country for the last six years?
Murdoch owns 32% of papers in Australia, hardly a monopoly .In saying that ,Murdoch papers sell 60%of all paper sales .but that's because more people prefer to read them.
Murdoch is obviously not stupid , he knows a bad government when he sees one ,as opposed to you Yorkessurfer
Even the left leaning Financial Review has written off the Labour Party
You waffle off your shit on this forum as if its a fact when in reality it's just rubbish .
Well I can tell you the Murdoch owned Advertiser in South Australia where I live didn't back Rudd in 2007. The day before the '07 election they pleaded that "now was not the time to change government".
It really comes down to how you see Australia in 2013?
If you read Murdoch's papers or listen to the shock jocks it's all doom and gloom, scandal, and smear.
I happen to think Australia is a great country and after 6 years of Labor we are travelling ok.
We were spared the worst of the GFC and have the highest standard of living and infrustructure projects setting us up for the next century.
I have relatives in the U.S who say Australia gets mentioned a lot in the financial pages of the papers there praising us for our low unemployment and debt levels, and how we handled the GFC. It's strange we don't see ourselves in the same positive light?
Here's an example of the toxic media environment we have in this country. It's an embarrassment!
http://m.
There shouldn't be any argument about the unhealthy concentration of media in this "lucky" country ....
http://theconversation.com/australias-lamentable-media-diversity-needs-a...
Murdoch has switched sides (here with Hawke/Keating & in the UK with Blair) but only when it suits his commercial interest. Fox News in the US is a total disgrace in is unflinching support of the ultra conservatives that now make up what was once known as the Republicans.
There is no current greater parasite to democracy across the world than Murdoch, and the son of such a beautiful and generous woman, Dame Elizabeth Murdoch.
You are welcome to support Abbott or Rudd or Greens, that is your democratic right but don't blindly think what you read or see in the media is unbiased particularly when its Murdoch owed.
Right, I feel better now .....
Is it just me or do all hardcore Liberal voters share similar tendencies on internet forums?
@Floyd you are dillussional..'no greater parasite to democracy" WTF are yo on about? Mugabe in Africa, South Korea.gov in Burma? This old geezer is just a media mogul..I think you just had a blowout!!
Poor old Julia, even school kids despised her.Obviously you thought she was doing a good job there Yorkessurfer .
Anyway each to there own .
It's interesting isn't it .The Murdoch owned advertiser backs the coalition in South Australia while the Murdoch owned Daily Telegrath backs a change of government in NSW.
How could the all controlling Rupert Murdoch allow this to happen?
Jeez stunet is that the best you've got? Are you a moderator on this forum?such an insightful contribution.
Hey barley, not on anything mate apart from green tea and more surfs that my body can sometimes cope with. Ha, life is good.
My point about Murdoch is a reflection on how 1st world governments have feared the editorial power he wields to progress his own commercial interests and the conservative agenda (small government, low taxes, decentralising executive power etc). A good example of what I am talking about is what came to light in the UK over the last couple of years. Another is Fox News in the US; the hate editorials that spew from that channel is staggering.
I don't think any reasonable person would or could argue against the premise.
Again I say you are welcome to your political "moderate" views but just don't believe the shit you get from the media.
Yes. You've got a good point there floyd.why would anyone in their right mind want small government , low taxes and a decentralised government.
Big bloated government sucking up all the tax payers money , high taxes , to pay for all the big government departments and a centralised government that takes all decision away from local community sounds a lot better
You wouldn't be a communist by any chance would you floyd
Hey grocer, no I'm no commie. Haven't heard that question used for some years now so its very funny. Commies, aren't they under the bed?
Its forget politics for a minute. Do you know which 1st world countries / economies have the happiest citizens? And do you know one of the most important things that determines a high degree of happiness among citizens?
Well, it turns out the countries that have high rates of tax like the Scandinavia also have the happiest citizens. Why? because the things that make people happy are really good schools and universities and good health care when its needed and modern infrastructure and all of these things cost money i.e. tax. Australia is a low tax country, look at the OECD statistics. Howard has much to answer for in giving his aspirational Australians an annual tax cut, again another fact beyond debating.
Happiness index .... further, its the difference between the lowest and highest paid workers in an economy that has an important influence on people's happiness and their sense of justice in the world. Its interesting reading how low paid workers in the US have had basically no increase in wages for the last 10 or more years while executive salaries have increased at a staggering rate over the same period. Reliable data exists demonstrating this beyond despite.
So I'm no commie but do believe in a fairer country than what we have now, sad both major parties sing from the same song sheet.
@Floyd..if you don't like him simply don't listen to the cunt..or read his shit. I don't..esp now on the internet we have to pay to read the news..what a joke.I don't have fox either..Don't bother arguing the high tax crap as well..we also have the highest wages..I said..you said...we can nit pick data and statistics to suit our own personal arguments forever..You believe in a 'fairer'country..what does that mean mate?
Anyone delusional enough to think that Rudd is no longer the psychotic narcissist that those who know him best know him still to be, get your hands on a copy of tonight's 7.30 Report interview with Leigh Sales. Then let's talk.
Yeah I don't think he came out on top of that one, did he. Jeez, Kevin's got some dialogue traits that are really annoying too,: "The point want to make is this..", "the bottom line is this..", etc.
The way all politicians avoid the question topic is very annoying too. They're asked a simple yes/no question, and then get shitty when the interviewer interjects 30 seconds into their response because they've completely skirted around the issue. How about an upfront 'yes' or 'no', followed by a quick rationale?
Imagine being in the USA and having to go through this for 6 months...
The horror, the horror. You'd plead for a mercy killing. Just four weeks of this will have me retching. Abbott is so scared of putting a foot wrong he reads, s l o w l y, from a script. But I never get the real sense of him. Rudd on the other hand is (still) so convinced he's the smartest person in the room that the slightest presumption otherwise - such as a question requiring a factual response different to his narrative - sees his death stare turned on full force, and his charm (smarm?) switch to acidic sarcasm. Which is where I get the real sense of the man - a nasty piece of work.
All pollies do it but rudd looks like a right wanker the way he tries to bamboozle people with his sophisticated 'narrative'. He looked stupid on Andrew bolt when he could not / would not answer questions about climate change. The choice is rudd, someone who hardly represents ozzies, or Abbott who appears ozzy with his action man persona, until he opens his mouth with his 1950s 'narrative'. At least rudd appears he could b the smartest man in the room, more than u can say for abbott. It's just his slick lying to manipulate people and situations that puts me off, I think the label is sociopath, and thats what politicians are.
Thats hilarious whaaaat!
Here's another link that brings to mind my mock phone call between Abbott and Murdoch that I posted earlier in this thread.
http://m.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/rudd-calls-fo...
It's just been announced that Newscorp's Australian CEO the googly eyed Kim Williams has resigned this morning. Not happy with Ruperts decision to bring in American mercenary Journalist Col Pot to manage Newscorp's anti Labor strategy? All is not well in the Murdoch camp as this article by former News Limited lieutenant Rodney.E.Lever writes....
http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/business/media-2/the-coalition-...
Yorkes that so called 'Independant Australia' website you keep linking to seems at first glance to be total left wing, biased garbage, probably funded by the union movement. In previous threads you have warned us (me in particular) to not just listen to the 'main stream media', so are you saying we should get our information from, a biased news service such as 'Independant Australia, you have to be kidding me. Where's the balance in that? Are you or someone close running against Ramsey for the seat of Grey or something?
Well that article above was written by a former News Ltd executive so he may have some insight into the inner workings of the corporation don't you think? Or he's just a pissed off former employee? Either way it's an interesting alternative view. Independent Australia is a left wing news website to counter an almost exclusive right wing monopoly in our main stream media.
And I wouldn't know who the Labor candidate is in the seat of Grey where I live. As it covers 95% of South Australia geographically, he/she would be wasting their time anyway as outback S.A is full of redneck rightwing voters. I'm sure Abbott is just what they are looking for:)
From Crickey.com...doesn't matter which way the door swings, Murdoch will have his way:
"I still remember the day Rupert Murdoch invited the then Opposition Leader, John Howard, to his office for "a chat".
It was the week before the federal election. I was there, as a News Limited editor, together with Murdoch and two other News executives. We all knew why Howard had been summoned by Murdoch -- it was a kind of "courtesy" by the media baron to inform the Liberal leader, in person, that all the editorials in News Limited newspapers across Australia over coming days would be campaigning against Howard and supporting his rival, Bob Hawke, as Prime Minister.
Murdoch took Howard into another room to break the news. When the two men returned and I saw the desolate look on Howard's face, I realised I was witnessing the harsh reality of Australian "democracy" in action.
Today, of course, Murdoch's newspapers -- along with the rapidly-deteriorating Fairfax mastheads -- still dominate Australian political coverage.
Eric Beecher, Crikey's chairman"
Victoria Rollinson wrote this open letter to News Ltd journalists;
I’m writing you this letter on behalf of all Australians. That includes everyone who can vote in the upcoming election, as well as those too young to have a say in their own future. I wanted to let you know that your behaviour throughout the election campaign has been appalling. I know you know as well as I do that it’s not the role of a journalist to campaign for a political party. Journalists often justify their bias by saying that opinion pieces can be whatever they want them to be – whether or not they’re biased, unbalanced, untrue, or part of a conspiracy on behalf of your boss to get rid of the NBN, which threatens his business interests. But you’re not just contributing opinion pieces and amateur PhotoShopped front page images, denigrating the target of your smear campaign. You’re also contributing news articles, designed to bring about a certain result, a result you’ve allegedly been instructed to manufacture to help your boss make money. Doesn’t this make you feel dirty? Doesn’t the 17 year old aspiring journalist in you feel even a little bit sad about finding their middle-aged-self behaving in this unethical way? Don’t you care about the impact your work has on the country you live in?
I’m sure many of you justify your blind obedience in the ‘get Rudd’ campaign to the fact that you need a job. You have to do what you’re told so you can keep working as a journalist. I know there’s not many jobs out there for journalists, but this doesn’t justify you doing the wrong thing. There are hundreds of examples throughout history of ‘employees’ doing the wrong thing on behalf of their bosses, and justifying this wrongness by saying they were instructed to do it. That doesn’t make it ok. If Murdoch told you to hit your wife, would you do that too? Where exactly is the line that you wouldn’t cross, no matter what your boss wanted? Is there a line? When you write puff pieces about Tony Abbott, when you do glamorous photo shoots of Tony Abbott’s daughters but don’t actually ask them a question, when you choose not to scrutinise Abbott, and omit news that is damaging to him, when you support Mal Brough’s campaign to destroy Slipper and then ignore the news that you were part of the Ashbygate conspiracy which a Federal Court Judge has revealed, when you cover your front page with blatant propaganda to help Abbott win government, but don’t tell your readers what his real plans are, when you give a candidate a free run and create the misleading impression that the Labor government is unsuccessful, you are failing Australia. Your job is not more important than your responsibility as a journalist. How are you ever going to get another job with this sort of behaviour in your background?
I actually think it’s an absolute outrage that not one of you has resigned in protest during this election campaign. Not one of you has stood up for journalistic integrity and said ‘enough’. Not one of you has said your pay cheque isn’t more important to you than your ethics. And what about all the jobs your readers will lose because of your campaign? You know Tony Abbott has proudly announced that he’ll sack 12,000 public servants. These are people doing important work in our communities. They help people. They support the disadvantaged in society. How is your job more important than their jobs?
No doubt many of you are Liberals yourself, having been hand-picked by your boss to make sure you’re on his side. But even if you think Tony Abbott deserves to win the election, and even if you like his policies and are completely in favour of his plans for this country (assuming you know what these are), don’t you think the Australian people have a right to hear both sides of the story before making up their own minds? Don’t you think it sounds a little bit like Fascism for your boss to decide that he wants an Abbott win, and then for you, his minions, to do his dirty work in the most blatantly dishonourable and immoral media campaign this country has ever seen?
Perhaps you read letters like this, and you are so hardened to the world that you let it roll over you, like water off a duck’s back. But I just hope that somewhere, deep down inside you, there’s a little voice reminding you that you’re doing the wrong thing. If you even have the ability to feel guilty, to feel ashamed, even if it’s just at 3:00am in the morning when you can’t sleep, I hope you feel awful.
It’s also important for you to know that we won’t forget what you’ve done. If your boss gets his way, and you do manage to deliver Australia the most conservative, austerity obsessed, downright mean and selfish government we’ve ever had, it’s very likely most of your readers, especially those in areas like western Sydney who’ve you’ve conned most successfully, will not be very impressed with you. They might ask why on earth Abbott is cutting spending on services they need, like health and education, when they didn’t hear about it before the election. They might be disappointed to hear their work rights are being undermined by the same front bench who came up with Work Choices. And they might be really pissed off when the surplus they’ve been promised is actually a gigantic $30 billion dollar black hole. No doubt you’ll do your best to blame all these woes on Labor, as this is your unthinking knee-jerk reaction to everything. But how long can this work? I know you like your readers dumb, but don’t underestimate how quickly people work out that they’ve been screwed over. I hope your precious job is worth it then. I would have thought your entire industry was in enough trouble without you putting another dozen nails in its coffin through your own arrogance and incompetence.
She sounds like a) a sore loser b) has just split up with her journalist boyfriend or c) was not given a job in the journalism industry..but hey she is entitled to her opinion.
Where I'm working at the moment the smoko room has a big screen TV with Fox news on 24/7. One of the constants I've noticed is the comment of how the media has unfairly backed Labor throughout their last 6 years in power, and particularly during this election campaign. Talk about code word smoke and mirror tactics from the dominant Fairfax news group.
I think Rupert has memorised the book The Textbook on Psychopolitics, aka The Brainwashing Manual by L. Ron Hubbard. He was one dude who sure knew how to brainwash a chosen group of the population.
If you think the Murdoch press has stepped over the line in this campaign consider a donation here.
https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/media/murdochs-election-campaign/get-...
Any of you guys live where you may be unfortunate enough to have The Telegraph as a local rag.
Now who is responsible for owning that sham..... How unfortunate Australia media has come to that.
Shameful shit Mouse. It is not just politics it's profit he wants the coalition to prevent the NBN running fibre to the door as it will threaten the Foxtel monopoly.
I dig GetUp! although they kinda worry me at times too. There seems an element of "you're on the left so you must also think this...," that doesn't account for individual thinking. A bit bandwagonesque. The mindless sheep herding of the right (radio shock jocks, Fox news, et al) is the most serious flaw in that side of politics. It worries me when I see the same mentality developing elsewhere.
That said, good on 'em for getting stuck in with this campaign.
well said stu, i get a little annoyed at all the getup emails i get about every other cause when there are certain issues i want to hear about and others i'm not really interested in. i would like to see a filter on getup so that people could choose what they hear about.
At least with Getup the level of exposure of their ads/actions is directly related to demand. If enought people want an ad to be aired, then it is. The standard right wing defence of "free" (read monopolised, opinion based) media actually works in this instance. If you don't want to see it, then don't pay for it to be aired.
Contrast this to the Murdochracy, where you have one bitter old man using his daddy's wealth to tell you how you should vote, under the untested guise of it being "what the public demand". You have no choice as to whether you see it. It's everywhere.
Yeh I really pick my issues with GetUp! I rarely donate but I loathe Murdoch so much I chipped in this time.
so from reading this thread murdoch backed hawke over howard, and rudd over howard the first time, but after 6 years of the worst government ever, backing abbott over rudd is a threat to democracy... that particular threat including restriction of press freedom always comes from the left , dont like abbott but looking forward to the screams from getup etc..
So, you don't like Abbott, but you'll vote him in just to annoy Getup eh?
I guess you'll also enjoy austerity then.
Murdoch backs whoever he believes will support his business interests at that particular point in time, and then sets out to skew the debate in favour of his preferred candidate via lies and control of information. Given his monopoly on print media I'd call that a threat to democracy.
loungelizard there is difference between support for one side or the other and an obnoxiou attempt to sway public opinion for financial gain. There is no risk to freedom of speech in running ads to counter News Ltd's shameful behaviour nor in anything else that draws attention to attempts to drag what is already a debased campaign from both sides, further into the gutter.
Since you raised party political issues, I often hear this statement that the current government is the worst ever but I've never heard anyone explain why. Can you?
voting for pyne lower house because hes smart/funny, xenophon upper . am smart enough to recognise bias from murdoch and from guardian/fairfax/abc and suspect most others are too despite what leftleaners tend to think, not clear why its financial gain this time but kosher previously (pro hawke and rudd) that foxtel/nbn stuff is a crock being peddled by the guardian, but if you want to believe it...
Bias is not the same as irrational insult and abuse. Media outlets can choose sides but there is an expectation of reasonable behaviour that News Ltd, repeatedly and internationally fails to meet. I think all they got from Hawke was the status quo, bad enough when we needed reform, but hardly the same. As for the NBN stuff, why is it a crock? Murdoch has a monopoly on pay TV tell me howncable to the door doesn't threaten that and I might think about your view.
Christopher Pyne funny? You are a warped individual loungelizard, he reminds me of one of those yappy lap dogs, lots of noise until a real issue comes up then straight back into Tony's handbag!
Hitler discovers Murdoch has appointed Tony Abbott as dictator of Australia....
http://m.
&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D8ZgeE7qwuaM BB, pyne comes across like a smarmy prick, and I can see why allot of people dislike him but, I get to hear him a fair bit down here, radio etc and I must admit he can be really funny, he has got a quick wit. He is dedicated to his cause that is for sure.
Makes you wonder who is really gonna be running this country in a months time with a likely Coalition victory
http://m.canberratimes.com.au/comment/murdoch-sends-trusted-general-col-...