39 comments

1. JaquixFebruary 25, 2017 at 12:28 pm

   I grew up in a country untainted by Murdoch propaganda, and I can tell the difference in the mindset of the people.. New Zealand runs its own race, doesnt slavishly follow the US into war or other actions. Its not beholden to the likes of Rinehart, the Minerals Council filthy coal lobby) or the Murdoch line. You used to be able to read a decent newspaper; that nay have changed. Three generations of Australians have been brainwashed by this monster. Now he’s getting into TV and everything else, with the help of the Coalition. His mother lived to 102 years of age, so he could be here a long time. Rupert has several children trained in the business, their tentacles spread far and wide. So there is no hope of the empire disbanding; it needs to be countered, hobbled, hekd to account at every turn.

2. Graeme HenchelFebruary 25, 2017 at 1:24 pm

   Personally I boycott anything to do with Murdoch. I won’t get Foxtel nor buy any of his papers. I have also taken to not supporting coffee shops that only provide his papers. The other thing I do is try and convince others to see what a bastard this bloke is and how insidious has been his effect on Australian and global politics. His influence is waiting but he has a long legacy and still great power. He must be bad mouthed at every opportunity.

3. HarquebusFebruary 25, 2017 at 2:15 pm

   No argument from me on this one.

   “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.” – Abbott Joseph Liebling

   Cheers.

4. jimhazFebruary 25, 2017 at 2:16 pm

   I just watched PBS Newshour and it had this extremely positive story about a male Muslim foster parent who cares solely for terminally ill children.

   http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/foster-father-cares-terminally-ill-kids-no-one/

   Can anyone imagine New Ltd presenting this sort of story?

   Although I am anti-muslim immigration (if done as gently as possible) people do need to see positive stories like this to depolarise their viewpoints and to avoid over-inflating the negatives.

   Murdoch’s mental imbalance is reflected in what he has created – unbalanced people presenting unbalanced propaganda.

   There were some informative political discussions as well.

   http://www.pbs.org/newshour/

5. Möbius EckoFebruary 25, 2017 at 2:25 pm

   Murdoch has controlled the narrative of the political and social landscape since the early 1970’s.

   And his father before him. Purely to increase newspaper circulation Keith Murdoch ran a media campaign that saw an innocent man hung, and Murdoch knew the man was probably innocent.

6. Möbius EckoFebruary 25, 2017 at 2:38 pm

   jimhaz Channel 10’s The Project also showed a piece on this wonderful human being. In the interview they asked him why he did it. He replied along the lines of how could he not.

7. Robert NathanFebruary 25, 2017 at 2:54 pm

   This article by Christian Marx is ‘spot-on’! …It should be read by every person who is Labor orientated, and also the swinging voters. Even some concerned Liberal followers will have their eyes opened by these facts.Murdoch has boasted to his present lady, Jerry Hall, that he likes to determine the politics in mainly The United States, Australia, and Great Britain. He was instrumental in Whitlam’s astounding dismissal, meeting with Malcolm Fraser and Sir John Kerr at Murdoch’s Yass property to organize it. Kerry Packer chose Bob Hawke, and Murdoch had to play along, there. But once Paul Keating challenged and deposed Hawke, the knives and mud-slinging began immediately, and continued until Murdoch (and Packer) prevailed, using Howard as their next ‘puppet’. Was Bob Hawke a puppet?… Yes!.. But Hawke was smart enough, and wily enough to make it all seem above board. Murdoch ordained K. Rudd as his next ‘pidgeon’, but was thwarted when the Labor cabinet diced him, and replaced him with Julia Gillard. Make no mistake, folks, Julia Gillard was a very, very smart lady, and politician, she simply wasn’t chosen or controlled by Murdoch, and so began the mud-slinging, once again. In my estimation, Julia was second to the inimitable Paul Keating as our finest Prime Ministers since Menzies…. As for the Liberals, it was Menzies 1st,…. daylight second! 4 bob for the rest of them!
   The day Murdoch dies will be the day Australia can once again move forward! We worship the ground he’s got coming to him!

8. KronomexFebruary 25, 2017 at 3:24 pm

   The gang that run Genie Energy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_Energy (Wikipedia does have its uses sometimes)) make Dr. Evil look like a kindergarten child. Power craving greedy old white men.

   Robert,
   “We worship the ground he’s got coming to him!” All I could think of was a line from from Bottom Live 4 – An Arse Oddity where Richie uncovers the grave Eddie made for him and the headstone reads: Hooray, the fat twat is dead. Piss here.” Would look good on Rupert’s headstone.

9. helvityniFebruary 25, 2017 at 3:38 pm

   Robert, Whitlam, Keating and Gillard were my kind of leaders. It was disgusting how Julia was treated…

10. havanaliedownFebruary 25, 2017 at 3:46 pm

    …by her own party

11. Jack StrawFebruary 25, 2017 at 4:09 pm

    I agree helvityni. Gillards only faults apart from being quite conservative herself was that she was too contentious and not prepared for all the abuse and the skulduggery from the Liberal party.The country is worse off for it.

12. stephentardrewFebruary 25, 2017 at 4:16 pm

    As it is.

13. Mischelle MagrinFebruary 25, 2017 at 4:17 pm

    I’ve never seen a photo of Julia Gillard with Murdoch and your assumption that she was sucking up to Twiggy for power is total BS. Your March in March movement did nothing to keep this mob out..even myself and my elderly aunt were abused by fringe/Green protesters at one of your anti Abbott rallies..told to piss off because we were Labor..stuck a protest sign in my aunts face! You guys always find a little tit bit to compare Labor to the Liberals..just like Murdoch does.

14. Jack StrawFebruary 25, 2017 at 4:29 pm

    2GB is quite a helpful ally to Murdoch also .

15. spindoctorFebruary 25, 2017 at 4:47 pm

    I worked in media before cartels and networking scrapped local radio and tv news and had firsthand experience of his rags practices to dominate local business, economies and distort political messages. His takeover of APN papers means over 70% Oz media is his plaything and the constant right wing Oz, Bully, Courier paper rightist bile means fast dwindling balanced reporting and opinion. His greatest opponent is the ABC.. The liberal cronies rammed into Aunty management have the mission to destroy it for his expansion into Asia and Chinese markets. How the public and politicians get the will to break up this empire I dont know but our democracy is at stake unless it happens. Supporting and demanding resources for the ABC is one way to reject his moves. His opinion writers are straight out extremists and racists pushing business and vested interests. How do we wrest control from this mogul apart from not buying his media .. one answer is a labor government backed by a huge voter mandate to push through an asset sell off in the national interest. Media tycoons throughout history have tried to control the message but only now has such media concentration posed a clear and constant threat to democracy and the world.

16. LindaFebruary 25, 2017 at 4:53 pm

    Murdoch is one of many Israeli Zionists operating in Australia. It is staggering the power they have. You have Lowy who was a Zionist terrorist fighting the British he come here and miraculously founded the Westfield shopping complex’s with no money, he was then made Chairman of the Reserve Bank of Australia. His best pal owned the twin towers and he bought footage only to be paid out billions after they blew them up. Then you have Solomon Lew Zionist dual National Israeli who owns just about every retail shop. Then comes Westfarmers a typical West Australian company, owning target, Kmart, Coles, insurance companies, mines, property At its head Zionist and dual national Israeli Richard Goyder who has close ties as they all do to the Austraial Israel Chamer of Commerce. This country is run by Israeli Zionists for Israel’s benefit not for Australia’s. The top Five billionaires in this country are dual Israeli/ Australian citizens. 80%of the richest people in Australia are Jewish Zionists and Jews account for only 4% as a whole of the Australian population. Something stinks!

17. nurses1968February 25, 2017 at 5:00 pm

    Mischelle Magrin
    A similar thing happened with the first March in March in the Illawarra with the Greens trying a takeover and abuse of Labor MPs and Labor supporters
    March in March number 2 was an absolute fizzer

18. guestFebruary 25, 2017 at 5:05 pm

    havanaliedown,

    thank you for demonstrating the simplistic methodology of the Right – and Murdoch. It was Murdoch and the shock-jocks who destroyed Gillard with its vitriolic attacks. So we see Abbott in a contrived protest against the Carbon “Tax” which Credlin now admits was not a tax and the whole campaign against it was entirely political. And of course Rudd helped the sabotage.

    So when we look at Murdoch, we see Robert Manne describe his flagship paper here in Oz as “ruthless in pursuit of those who oppose its world view – market fundamentalism, minimal action on climate change,the federal Intervention in indigenous affairs, uncritical support for the American alliance and for Israel, opposition to what it calls political correctness and moral relativism …”the Left”, and in particular for the Greens.” (Bad News” in Quarterly Essay 43, 2011, p.3) .

    In 2007, Murdoch announced: “I am no scientist but I do know how to assess a risk – and this one is clear: climate change poses clear catastrophic risks…the climate problem will not be solved without mass participation by the general public…” (David McKnight, “Rupert Murdoch: An Investigation of Political Power”, 2012, p. 211).

    He also said that News Corp would go carbon neutral by 2010. He employed solar-powered vehicles, replaced incandescent lighting, bought bulk electricity from renewable sources. (McKnight, p. 213).

    But editors within the Murdoch empire were sceptical and employed “doubt” as a weapon. Then emails were released in the British “Climategate” event. “Although the researchers were subsequently cleared of any scientific malpractice, their loosely worded private emails elated sceptics around the world…” (McKnight, p.222).

    McKnight goes on: “Opposition to orthodoxy – fighting establishments – is the story of Rupert Murdoch’s life. It fits with his self-image and his world view. All his life, he has seen himself as an outsider, a contrarian, an opponent of orthodoxies and elites.” (ibid. p.226).

    His mission is all about money and power.

19. havanaliedownFebruary 25, 2017 at 5:26 pm

    Interesting take Guest.

    Did her own party not sack her?

    Julia Gillard (along with Wayne Swan) convinced (threatened?) Rudd to drop his proposed ETS, because it was going to be electorally suicidal to pointlessly increase energy cost pressures (this is why Labor will lose the next election, too – now Mojo Malcolm is getting into stride on this issue).

    The only reason Julia Gillard went back on her word regarding a “Carbon Tax” is that Bob Brown easily outfoxed her after the 2010 election, demanding that she break this promise once the dust had settled by early 2011. Of course she needn’t have capitulated to the alien-channeling Dr Brown (remember the lovely signing ceremony they held to support her hung parliament?) but some people will agree to anything if it delivers the power they crave…

20. jimFebruary 25, 2017 at 5:52 pm

    After WW2 he ABC established reporting and recording facilities in a number of overseas locations, including the Middle East, Greece and around the Asia-Pacific region. An early challenge to its independence came in June, 1940 when wartime censorship was imposed, meaning that the Department of Information (headed by Sir Keith Murdoch) took control of the ABC’s 7 p.m. nightly national news bulletin. This lasted until September, when control of the news was returned to the ABC after listeners expressed a preference for independent news presented by the Commission and not Murdochs right wing crap.

    One wonders how much time and money RWNJ’s have squandered over the years trying to destroy our ABC.

21. Möbius EckoFebruary 25, 2017 at 6:00 pm

    One wonders how much time and money RWNJ’s have squandered over the years trying to destroy our ABC.

    Not just the ABC jim. Look at the resources, public and private, they have used in an attempt to destroy Labor. The TURC is an example. It was all about using public money to destroy Labor’s funding base.

22. crypt0February 25, 2017 at 7:03 pm

    The murdoch “phenomena” first came to my attention during the Whitlam era, via, as I remember it, the Nation Review.
    People I knew then, and know now, still haven’t figured it out, and religiously get their copy and suck it all up !
    Incredible !
    No wonder Oz is stuck with murdoch for eternity.

23. havanaliedownFebruary 25, 2017 at 7:17 pm

    “This country is run by Israeli Zionists for Israel’s benefit not for Australia’s”

    Hilarious, Linda. Can you expand a little on Rupert Murdoch’s Judaism? Where he was Barmitzvah’d, who was/were the Rabbi(s) that officiated at his weddings? Which synagogues his children were Bat/Barmitzvah’d at? I’d be fascinated to learn more about this

24. Oliver olsenFebruary 25, 2017 at 9:38 pm

    Just curious…he obviously doesn’t need the money…so his motivations must purely be ideological… but what the hell is he trying to achieve…does he see himself as a benevolent dictator?

25. jimFebruary 25, 2017 at 10:07 pm

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2014/jul/14/rupert-murdoch-doesnt-understand-climate-basics

    Murdoch’s misunderstanding of basic climate science didn’t stop there. He also said,

    “Climate change has been going on as long as the planet is here, and there will always be a little bit of it. At the moment the north pole is melting, but the south pole is getting bigger”.

    Heston we have a problem.

26. Michael FaulknerFebruary 25, 2017 at 10:16 pm

    One would think that in a First World nation with the most concentrated media ownership among comparable nations, that a book on this phenomenon would be widely discussed, even debated among its citizens.

    But it is not, and that is the paradox of this nation as ‘ Murdoch-think’ has become and still is the conceptual underlay of Australia’s public discourse and many commonly accepted narratives. And this has been the state of affairs for most of the nation’s history.

    A couple of years ago, a young British historian with the archetypal name of Tom Roberts published a biography of Keith Murdoch. Keith, Rupert Murdoch’s father, was a self-nominated confidente of Australia’s earliest Prime Ministers who used his associations to further his business ambitions and political influence in a young nation.

    The book, ‘Before Rupert: the birth of a dynasty’ , is the first book about Keith Murdoch not written by a family member or an employee, and it details the ways how Murdoch senior ingratiated his way into power circles in both Australia and Britain from the time of the First World War, and how through the 20s, 30s and 40s, via the agency of his newspapers, cynically came to shape public opinion on so many social and political issues particularly in this country. For example, Keith Murdoch strenuously sought to restrict the charter and the function of the ABC from the time of its establishment in 1930. His son takes a similar approach by colonising the ABC with generals from his NewsCorp army and from the cadres of the IPA

    Keith Murdoch bequeathed his influential role in Australian society for about 40 years or so to his son Rupert who took up the mantle from the early 60s with the birth of the first national newspaper ‘ The Australian’ .
    The rest is history, as it were, such that though Rupert has now been an American citizen for 30 years, his ascension to become a global multi – media tycoon has run parallel to the increasing grip he has had on the direction this country has taken and continues to take. After all, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth are now almost bereft of news media other than Murdoch-owned publications. And while some may say, the youth are increasingly avoiding mainstream media, Murdoch is well ahead of the pack and his fingers of influence are all over many newer media forms.

    Christian Marx, thanks for a fine article.

    Fellow Australians, I invite you to read Tom Roberts’ book. It will help you understand how this nation has become a murdochracy. And hopefully, generate questions as to what we as Australian citizens can do to counter this influence.

27. KyranFebruary 25, 2017 at 10:42 pm

    Mr Faulkner, one can’t ignore ‘Hack Attack’ by Nick Davies. Notwithstanding this egomaniac was described by the British Parliament as ‘unfit’, he still controls the British Parliament. The triumph of all of that saga is best explained in the last sentence of the Epilogue.

    “For a while, we snatched a handful of power away from one man. We did nothing to change the power of the elite.”

    From memory, our ‘new’ media laws come up for parliamentary contemplation in March. It may prove to be the one time when Newscorpse reports the March in March protest. A handy distraction.
    Thank you Mr Marx, and commenters. Take care

28. Henry RodriguesFebruary 26, 2017 at 7:26 am

    By now it is clear to most intelligent and discerning people that Murdoch is an evil bastard who cares only about himself and his business empire. But what is truly alarming is that these bloody politicians, mostly from the conservative side, have almost delivered the only independent news organization, the ABC, to the bastard on a silver platter. Where is an alternative point of view ??? I have to sadly admit that the ‘ordinary’ Australian is pretty dumb and and easy prey to the propaganda that he spews out everyday, in print and TV. Many people I know have no idea at all who owns the Tele, the Australian and his other rags. They visit Mcdonald’s and suck up the ‘free’ bullshit along with unhealthy Big Macs and coke. They still haven’t realised that nothing is for free and when Murdoch ‘gives’ away something, he expects much more in return. Is this the hallmark of an educated country ???

29. helvityniFebruary 26, 2017 at 8:52 am

    Thanks for the laughs, Henry R… 🙂

30. guestFebruary 26, 2017 at 11:53 am

    havanaliedown,

    your depiction of the fall of Gillard mirrors the fall of Abbott: their parties “sacked” them because the polls were down (and the same thing happened to Rudd first time round).

    So, now that the polls are down for “Mojo” Malcolm, who will “stab him in the back”? And when? (A “mojo” in the Caribbean is a bag of voodoo magic used to influence people, or it can be slang for libido.) Take your pick for Malcolm.

    As for Gillard’s lie, remember Abbott’s borrowed dictum: when circumstances change, I change my view – and no one has done that more than Abbott.

    And then we have the “alien-channeling Dr Brown”, the man whose party is trying to destroy Oz industry with his green mantras. Well, other people are doing the destroying with their closing down of industry and their reliance on cheap foreign labor (for as long as that lasts). So we see Mojo Malcolm coming up with his “clean coal” fantasy and a desire to fire up the clean coal generators using Adani coal which no bank will finance. Stranded assets.

    Good luck with that, Malcy. Save the reef!

31. BilalFebruary 26, 2017 at 12:09 pm

    “Murdoch is the master at pushing misinformation and extreme bias, solely to suit his own warped ideology and to further his own business interests.?” This sums up the situation in one sentence. Excellent writing on a topic so many fear to deal with.

32. Alan BairdFebruary 26, 2017 at 3:13 pm

    The really, truly SAD thing about the Murdoch/Macquarie Radio hard-right media is that Labor will not say a thing about them and there are STILL morons from Labor who will turn up WILLINGLY to interviews with these truly dreadful people. As the ABC is slowly striving towards irrelevance, driven by its owners, the Federal Govt, the Murdoch Press continues its attacks STILL citing bias against the RIGHT. Even when the ABC reaches the standards of “Putin’s Media in Putin’s Russia”, they would still be unsatisfied. Just today that old stinker Piers Akerman (an appropriate name that) of the Terror was screeching to close the ABC down. It was the ABC that had invited him to QA! Why do they even bother to continue to suck up to the Right? They do deserve the kick in the teeth that inevitably follows. The ABC and the Right have a similar story-line to that of the gorgeous young maiden who’s told not to go to the ghoul infested mansion at midnight and is (predictably) horribly murdered when she (inevitably) does. It’s hard to feel any sympathy. Stupid cow. Arksing for it.

33. AndrewFebruary 26, 2017 at 8:22 pm

    Considering your first paragraph contain the line about Murdoch owning and controlling 70% of the media in Australia, the rest of the article means SFA, if you cant get that simple fact right then why would I GAF about anything else you have to say. To begin with the 70% refers to newspapers not the media in general, on top of that he doesn’t own 70% of the papers in Australia, he owns around 30% but he gets close to 70% of the readership. So we are suppose to hang him because 70% of the people readings papers prefer his papers over the others. Maybe the other papers should lift there f** game. You clearly have no idea of what your talking about, and you have the hid eto pretend you’re independent Idiots.

34. The AIM NetworkFebruary 26, 2017 at 8:33 pm

    Currently News Corp controls around 70 per cent of newspapers in the country, ahead of rival newspaper group Fairfax Media Ltd.

    Infographic: Who Owns What Media In Australia?

35. bensab3February 27, 2017 at 8:06 am

    Thank you Christian, much more expose of Murdoch and his power over politicians, especially the Coalition, needs to be published. So many are captured only by his warped ideology with little opposing, factial information reaching them. Certainly the rest of our media are compliant too, with the ABC now under the strong influence of Murdoch/IPA. Just look at appointments since Abbot, beginning with Albrechtsen & Neil to the Panel which selects the Board. Both confessed ‘ABC haters’. (With the Chairman position becoming vacant some time soon, there is much trepidation as to who will be appointed, IPA again?) The commentary and interviewing during the last election was so obviously pro-Turnbull, it was blatant – Chris Uhlmann and Leigh Sales were stands-outs. By the way, the 75 key policiy ‘instructions’ were ramped up to 100, with an extra 25 having been added, see: https://ipa.org.au/publications/2110/25-more-ideas-for-tony-abbott

36. Wayne TurnerFebruary 27, 2017 at 10:27 am

    Of course even worse now that their ABC has been taken over by the LNP,IPA & Murdoch.

    The Australian Mediaocracy continues….

37. Ron Chandler (@RonChandler6)February 28, 2017 at 1:29 pm

    ‘Andrew’ is clearly on the NewsCorpse payroll. He is wrong. AIMN is right.
    Note that Murdoch’s own chief of staff warned us, in the Keating era, that Rupert knew about the 1975 CIA coup that removed Whitlam, months before it happened. Murdoch casually offered this gent a job as he said he would soon be unemployed, as he was at the time working for the ALP government.
    Note also that this gent spoke up when Murdoch had returned from Amerika to stir up trouble for Keating’s Labor government. Keating told him to buzz off. Murdoch buzzed off. That’s probably the last time an Aussie PM had any balls.
    I’ve hated the Murdoch org since early 1970s. It’s gotten infinitely worse. Good news is, Murdoch has no credible heir. He must die.

38. Andrew ChambersJuly 2, 2018 at 4:38 pm

    We get the government he wants, just one chapter in the worldwide network of billionaires making ever more money out of manipulating party politics to deliver golden eggs.
    In a Direct Democracy this man has 1 vote like all the rest of us – you may choose to believe what his News Corpse says or you may come to understand that it’s not always actually promoting your long term best interest.
    Direct Democracy – your choice. http://democracy.earth/

39. Mrs WobblyApril 30, 2020 at 12:45 pm

    Great article, when are Australians going to revolt, yes democracy is dead in Australia, thanks to greed.