How stupid is Rupert Murdoch?
Now, that’s a question which may get more than a little debate, but as I like to say, “Compared to what?”
Which brings me to the reasons that I’m starting to think that Murdoch is about to suddenly start supporting a Labor victory come May… or sooner, if Rupert thinks that May is too late. (That’s May the month, not May the PM who may no longer be Britain’s PM by the time you read this)!
I want you to imagine just for one second that you’re rich enough to have servants. I want you to imagine that you ring your little bell and one of them dashes into your bedroom. You tell them that you’d like your breakfast. “Gladly, sir,” says someone who makes Dobby from the Harry Potter series seem like a militant union organiser. He exits and you go to the shower.
A few minutes later, you ring your bell again. Nothing happens. You ring it again because you want to ask if you can have your juice straight away and you’ll go downstairs for the breakfast now you’ve had time to shower and dress. You ring your bell. Nothing happens. You start to go downstairs. Your servant rushes to the door, apologising that he hasn’t brought up the breakfast because a) he took ten minutes to find the kitchen and b) there was a five minute argument about who was chef and c) Bill Shorten walked into the kitchen and they all drop everything whenever Bill appears so that they can remind him that you’re in charge and he’ll never get to work for you…
Ok, I could continue this allegory forever, but you probably get the point. Rupert is probably aware that his current mob of servants may never be capable of getting his breakfast. At least if he hires Bill, they may actually get their act together and he may get his breakfast sometime in the next three or four years…
Yeah, you’re right. There’s probably never been a more incompetent government than the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison/Dutton/Bishop government… All right, the last two hadn’t actually made it to the Prime Ministership at the time of writing, but I figure I better be on the safe side…
Let’s not forget that I did tell you about Turnbull and Morrison… Pah, people still thinking I’m writing satire and not the most accurate political commentary in Australia…
Mm, perhaps satire is the most accurate political commentary in Australia. It certainly seems like it some days… We’ve definitely reached a point where the current government is so incompetent that not only can’t they govern for all – or any Australians – they can’t even deliver for their backers… There comes a point where Rupert will decide that he might as well split the Liberal Party, form a temporary truce with Labor and wait three years or else he’ll never get his breakfast.
Of course, the non-progressives in the Liberal Party and the media will continue to bag everyone who supported Turnbull…
Non-progressives? Would it be simpler to call them the “regressives”?
They’ll continue to call Malcolm – a multimillionaire who never actually supported a single economic policy that was even vaguely socialist, who had trouble with the most basic progressive idea while in office – a leftist. However, this will just help the split and enable the Liberals to purge the regressives and present themselves as a more reasonable alternative come 2022.
Whatever you think about the above prognostications, there’s just one final point to make, and it’s not about the protection racket that Chrissy-fit Pyne is running for Labor. According to some reports, he’s suggested that if Dutton is referred to the HIgh Court, his government will refer several Labor and Cross-benchers. This suggests corruption to me, because if there’s a doubt over anyone’s status, shouldn’t they be referred and not protected in return for favours, such as not referring Peter Dutton. Of course, the reports can’t be true because if they were it would be further evidence for the need for a federal ICAC…
No, it’s about the sheer stupidity of the Liberals short term thinking on Duitton. He’s in a very marginal seat. There is a cloud hanging over him that won’t be resolved until a HIgh Court appearance. There’s a pretty obvious campaign slogan for any opponent: “Vote for me, at least you know you won’t have to vote again when the new Labor government refers Pete to the High Court!”
Ok, it may not have the same appeal as Abbott’s “Stop The Boats”, Trump’s “Make America Great Again”, Whitlam’s “It’s Time” or Scott Morrison’s “Where The Bloody Hell Am I?” (Here’s a clue: Not on the bus)
Nonetheless, it only has to change the votes of a handful of people in his electorate before it’s a great slogan, and Labor is saying thank you to Scott Morrison for not clearly it up before the election.
I think Rupert has already considered the LNP’S chances of winning the next election as negligible at best. Looking at the Australian on line the other day all the usual suspects ( Albrechsten) et al had all but given up on the government positing a Labor win was inevitable. I assume such heresey has been promulgated with the prior knowledge of the boss, so onwards and upwards for Shorten and his worthy team.
Murdoch can still get stuffed. He’s no better than a windvane.
I think Bill needs to make it clear to the wrinkled retainer that there will be no quids, no pros and no quos from any support the rags might suddenly throw behind him come election time. In fact I would like to think Bill and Labor are doing some work on the best way to vasectomise the retainer, come the revolution. Banning a foreigner from having a majority position in any Australian media organisation might be a good start, though I wonder what nationality the kids are using these days.
The Murdoch Media Is Giving Bill Shorten Their Support…and Bill Shorten has obliged!
By joining with the Liberal/Nationals- while gaining praise from Pauline Hanson… right at Chrostmas time… for taking a potshots at migrants.
The ALP -showing its true colors.., in portraits of cowardice… and.. corruption.
Yes Jexpat, ALP leaders always eventually oblige (Gough included) – at least in the short term. The goal of being the PM is just too much to resist. As is the desire to remain in that position.
It’s why the study of history is so important. How quickly desperate people forgive and forget. Particularly the forget part.
Rupert Murdock, decades Ago discovered the real value of his Media possessions was not the delivery of information, Of much more value was the, ability to form symbiotic relationships with Political Parties in exchange for support. Murdock may now realise, with the very real possibility of a National Integrity commision, LNP Gov’s latitude to the Murdock organisation, could possibly be referred by an incoming ALP Gov to this commision, There have been signs for a few weeks now that Murdock may be tentatively testing the water for an arrangement..?
Are we reading too much into Murdoch’s rags influence these days? I note also the Shorten bashers are loud today! Ho hum.
Will the first act of a newly elected Bill Shorten PM be a mad dash to grovel at the feet of Rupert?
Unlike most of our recent PM’s this seems a most unlikely. The power to make or unmake Australian Prime Ministers through his news media is rapidly diminishing, irrespective of what happened to Malcolm. Rupert is on record as saying he can still make money with a federal Labor government, just not as much as with a compliant coalition government.
Ross, I agree. I think that Shorten has learnt the Rudd/Gillard lesson, that no matter how you try to suck up to Murdoch’s Minions that you are NEVER going to get a fair hearing, your reasonable statements/policies are ALWAYS going to be twisted into scare campaigns. The MSM and the Murdoch media in particular are now so right wing that they preach only to the nodders, with recent stats showing that the alternative media grows every year in strength. The recent election in Victoria proves how in spite of an extradinarily negative campaign by Murdoch, that more and more voters are now choosing to ignore them, realising their extreme bias.
Uncle Rupe is already resigned to the fact that his beloved Lying Nasty Party will be booted from office come an election, whenever it is held. He has already stated that 3 years of Labor government will be relatively easy to live with and then get them booted out and his minions will be returned to power.
He’s an utterly disgraceful human being, a fascist and a proven liar. He has fashioned his LNP as he wants them, but has now the task of getting his hardline rwnj’s to also have at least some brains.
Fascism lives and breathes within Uncle Rupe’s LNP, Australian voters must say NO to this rabble of minions next election and for every election thereafter. At some stage Uncle Rupe must get the message that we as a country will never again be ruled (not governed) by FASCISTS! F*ck ’em!!!
As far as Hissyfit Pyne goes, he’s a bloody windbag. Remember his threat to release the whole list of people being prosecuted from the TURC? It was an empty threat, a lie. So much for his threats, they are lies and should be seen as such. Just another LNP blowhard.
Remember Murdoch supposed to have said (to Kerry Stokes) “I can live with 3 years of Labor, I made money with them before and I can make money again”.
I really do feel there is a change in the electorate. Rupert and his minions have taken it too far. Look at even the conservative politicians who are lambasting Sky After Dark. Their listeners are a very small. usually old, minority. An article from last year said “23,000 of Bolt’s aforementioned 27,000 viewers were in the 55+ age demographic, while 27,000 of Jones’ 34,000 were in the same senior bracket.” Our kids have been brought up differently. School has changed. They question and analyse stuff now rather than just rote learning regurgitation. They have the internet which means they hear different points of view. They are connected to each other in ways we never were. They are less indoctrinated by churches and their parents’ political affiliations. They have opinions even if ProMo would prefer they didn’t.
I am banking on our kids to reject the rot.
Rupert only backs winners. He’s very pragmatic.
Kaye Lee
Most of the readers here are old farts, 😂😂 (63 here)!! The village morons and drunks of whom you have spoken (Bolt, Jones etc) are viewed by an absolute minority of Australians. They’re boofheads at the extreme end, and so full of themselves it ain’t funny. And anyone who actually watches these village idiots on the sky pay TV are closet liberal supporters, they are supporting Uncle Rupe by their subscriptions.
I’ve tried so hard to watch their antics on their FTA ch 10 , and so help me, they are so far up themselves it ain’t funny…… Each ol’ Richo, what an absolute wank! They are hilarious and so detached from reality I find it hard to believe that anyone with even a minute particle of grey matter can believe them. Whatever they’re paid for their antics is way too much. Hopefully they’ll send Uncle Rupe broke.
Any Labor supporter who subscribes to Fox or Sky should hang their head in shame, as they are part of the Murdoch problem, as are the readers of the DT, Oz and any other Murdoch rag. Labor supporters should support those who are actually having a go, not the financial shearers. FTA all the way……
Kicks the soapbox away
Remember Murdoch backed the ALP for the 1972 election won by the Gough Whitlam government that dragged Australia screaming in protest into the late 20th century, allbeit a couple of decades late.
The gloss came off the relationship when Gough failed to provide Rupert with the political influence Rupert believed he deserved for his pre-election support, and vanished after Rupert was called to the Bar of the Senate to answer questions about bias in reporting by his mastheads. So 40+ years on, and we see a repeat of history …..
The profit motive is the main Murdoch concern ….. how can we get free money from the Australian government?
After much reflection I think we need to give Murdoch a big Thankyou.
Murdoch appointed Abbott and Turnbull and Dutton and Morrison. They have collectively destroyed the coalition, maybe forever, certainly for a generation. Murdoch himself will not live to see another liberal government after this farce is dispatched.
Murdoch via Fox News cultivated and is responsible for Trump. Trump is now in the process of destroying the Republican Party.
Murdoch pushed for Brexit. Brexit is now destroying the Tories.
Murdoch has over reached and will soon be hoist on his own petard. I hope he lives long enough to see the full extent of his work unfold.
Phillip,
“…ability to form symbiotic relationships with Political Parties in exchange for support.” I think you meant “parasitic” because that is what Murdoch is, a parasite. He gives leeches a bad name.
Hanson has never been a ‘battler’ she stood as a Liberal Party candidate until her redneck ways were exposed. We actual ‘battlers’ are in short supply of food and accommodation. We have in excess of 3 million people surviving “below” the poverty line currently in Australia. That this conservative ‘she dog’ users the term ‘battler’ is an insult to ‘real’ battlers.
I’d like to think Labor has recognised the evil propaganda empire must be finally and irrevocably brought down if only to restore democracy, reinvigorate and invest in real journalism, and an unbiased fair press, by refunding Aunty but also aggressively probing Newscorpse, Sky etc for their naked fascist propaganda. Whether that means a federally funded quango to fine, regulate and effectively rebuke the deliberate biased reporting and opinion from the IPA, Mining Resources et al power brokers or Rupert. That Rupe and the IPA LNP dominate our media and represent a lawless unregulated but powerful vocal minority no matter who is in parliament must be addressed and Labor I would imagine see the next guvmint as their best opportunity ever to neuter Rupe, Gina, IPA and the power brokers and level the media field.
Well said Shaun. Hanson is a disgusting brainless coot. She has never ever been anything but a user and grabber, surrounded by evil and attracts other similar stupid individuals. Probably the only tick I give her, she has shown what an a/ole Latham is by attracting him to her pathetic moronic
cult.
I apologise to the blog for my uncharacteristic display of hate.
One question, will Murdoch live another 3 years? He’s looking like a discarded vegetable ready for the compost heap.
Has the ALP accepted the fact that our federal government has the fiscal capacity to ensure we have full employment and high quality government services across the whole spectrum? Has the ALP accepted the fact that free trade agreements with low wage and technologically capable nations like China are not in our national interest? Will the failed privatisations, deterioration of job security and conditions, concentration of wealth towards the 1%, the two tier health/education/employment/justice/housing structure, unnecessary government austerity and the rest of the 40 year neoliberal disaster be systematically unwound by Labor federal governments? Will a Labor federal government put a price on carbon emissions and ensure Australia transitions rapidly to an environmentally sustainable economy? Will environmental concerns continue to be given such a low priority over any economic development? Will our decline in civil liberties and privacy be turned around by a Labor federal government? Will our immoral abuse of asylum seekers arriving by boat be brought to an end? Will our manufacturing sector be given a fair chance by a Labor federal government?
Unfortunately the answer to most of these questions is probably no.
Even though the Conservatives are a disaster in every respect, the ALP still remains neoliberal team B. Why is that? Possibly because they fear that most of the electorate will again vote for the Conservatives if Labor delivers a truly progressive agenda whilst in government, especially given the appalling state of our mass media and the financial resources available to those that oppose them.
Do the Australian people want more neoliberalism or a more progressive future? Are we doomed to more political cycles of big shifts to the right after slight shifts to the left from the neoliberal duopoly?
The recent Victorian election results were a poor result for the Liberals but were also disappointing for the Greens even though the Greens are clearly the most progressive mainstream political party.
Apparently the electorate has decided that neoliberal team B is good enough and that the Greens are not?
The ALP will not restore Tony Abbott’s massive funding cuts to healthcare, education and many other areas.
The electorate by voting for the current ALP is really voting for more of the same – a small shift to the left that leaves the rudder still turning the ship of state to the neoliberal right after the previous governments major turns to the right.
Rupert may smarter than many think.
Set up labour for a win, manufacture an economic downturn, (looks like its coming anyway) and make labour look incompetent.
If the Labour Party were tactical players they might sit the next term out.
One of THE most useful columnists in OZ:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/nov/30/scott-morrison-misses-family-violence-event-for-a-sky-news-housewarming
Andreas Bimba , i wholeheartedly but sadly agree with you. The incoming Labor government is going to bring us little joy and much disappointment and anger. There is no heart or soul in Shorten’s gang of factionally divisive selfish power grabbers. There will be the odd bone chucked to the peasants by the new ruling elite but nothing important or nation building or of any lasting consequence will result. LIBERAL LITE.
By the end of Labor’s term there will be no significant change to corporate tax ripoffs, finance and banking industry swindling, consumer protection, public education, land degradation, flora and fauna extinction, water allocation, phony worker visa scams, public housing, domestic violence, homelessness and poverty levels.
The only chance you AIMN heavy hitters with political influence have of changing Labor’s gutless spineless future is to take baseball bats to most of their spivs and rent seekers; you know who they are, they are all males by the way … you could start in port melbourne, perhaps. Only kidding re baseball bats… but so many of them have proved to be and will continue to be unworthy of being in parliament.
“There’s probably never been a more incompetent government than the Abbott Turnbull Morrison Dutton Bishop government…”
Alas, Mr Brisbane, you give them waaaaay too much credence. Incompetent? That was the bar set by Abbott. Turnbull allowed the bar to be dropped to the ground. Morrison has buried the bar, given any standard even vaguely approaching ‘acceptable behaviour’ is simply unattainable. As for Murdoch and the various morons parading as ‘shock jocks’, the tenor of the ‘requotes’ has now dropped to ridicule, rather than citation. For the past decade, we have had these idiots, whose direct audiences are shrivelling up, being given prominence through requotes in more widely circulated forums. Those requotes are now citations for ridicule and belittlement, the very tactics utilised by these morons for their ‘cred’. I happened across a recent issue of ‘Mad Magazine’ which had numerous articles on the Orange idiot. They seem to have departed from the ‘satire’ approach, trying to amplify someones stupidity to highlight their stupidity. Their starting point is ‘this bloke is an unstable idiot’, and everything from there is simply ridicule and belittlement. It was so refreshing to have such insight, when most of the media seems to try to analyse his idiocy for some ‘higher meaning’.
It seems fair to point out The Guardian Australia is now increasing its circulation and readership. Its use of the ‘below the line’ facility has engaged readers rather than offer up an article that is ‘beyond comment’. Many of the comments across a broad range of articles subject the next contenders, Dutton and Bishop (not to mention Friedenberg) to lambasting. Dutton’s ‘pulled muscle’ and Bishop’s ‘dorothy shoes’ got hilarious treatment. The ABC website has used ‘comments’ sections with considerable success, only to discontinue them as so many of the comments were critical of a government that is demonstrably a ‘Claytons’ government. Nearly all of Murdoch’s businesses are in decline. His ‘pay tv’ venture, Foxtel, never made it to the 30% of audience required for financial viability, having sunk from its ‘high mark’ of 25%. No matter how much his idiots rant and rave, their circulation and viewership figures have been in steady decline for over a decade. Obviously, the decline would have been far more rapid if the government didn’t keep giving him millions, as required and without oversight. His only successful venture, as far as I am aware, is his ‘realestate’ answer to Domain.
As an aside, ‘The Weekly Beast’ has reported for at least twelve months now on the steady decline of Murdoch’s influence and support and his tenuous financial structure. The loss of his Saudi backer (over $1bill), his merger with Disney to keep his BSkyB hopes alive in the wake of the hacking scandal (to no avail), his attempts to get any viewers beyond Trump’s rumps in America. The list goes on. He has lost his last commercial advantage – influence – and the increasingly hysterical behaviour of his minions and political apparatchik’s is evidence of this.
Mr Walter’s reference to Amanda Meade’s column is informative. The article references Morrison being unable to attend a DV function at parliament house, but was able to swan around the new ‘Sky’ studios. It is not too hard to draw a line between that prioritisation and his attitude to women. Although I suspect he doesn’t merely seek to intimidate women only. He has all the characteristics of the primary school yard bully, including the immaturity (emotional and developmental), the lack of intelligence and the deep seated cowardice when called out. Laura Tingle at the ABC did a similar piece which drew attention to far more instances of his bullying behaviour, particularly when it came to women.
“For people outside of Canberra, it is so often the images that are the powerful things in a week like this: the Prime Minister having a press conference in one part of the building, trying to get the agenda back on track, while one of his backbenchers a few hundred metres away in the House of Representatives is announcing she is going to the crossbench.
There are the images of all the Coalition blokes, except one, walking out on the MP, Julia Banks, while she speaks about a decision partly prompted by her observations of the male bully culture in the Liberal Party.
And there’s the image of the Prime Minister walking out — breaking one of the few remaining protocols in the Parliament — as a new independent MP, Kerryn Phelps, gets to her feet to give her maiden speech.”
His behaviour condoned those spineless bastards behaviour in the senate when they walked out, rather than hear any critique of their deplorable behaviour. To think that the senate had to reframe its guidance for bad behaviour in 2018 is a disgrace. An absolute bloody disgrace. In the same article, Mr Shorten was quoted drawing attention to the blatant, unashamed hypocrisy of Morrison’s cowardice in cancelling parliament.
“I have wondered what would happen to members of the CFMEU if they ran an industrial action campaign and proposed this in the lunch shed one morning: ‘I have a great idea. Let’s only go to work for 10 days in the next eight months.’ They would probably be sacked. Indeed, this government would like to put them in jail. But it’s one standard for the Morrison ministry and another standard for the workers of Australia.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-01/morrison-government-facing-a-threat-from-a-new-direction/10572068?section=analysis
In another article, Michelle Grattan pointed out a peculiarity where the increasingly powerful cross bench coterie played political games, to protest against political games.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-30/crossbench-women-give-morrison-a-break-after-week-from-hell/10569938
They should have hammered the bastard. Jamila Rizvi wrote a book, ‘Not Just Lucky’, in 2017. In it, she references the ‘cat calls’ that greeted Kate Ellis every time she approached the despatch box. The hilarious boys of the coalition, in full puerile adolescent immature voice, would chorus “Here comes the weather girl”. There is no dispute that the mutterings of these idiots does influence and embolden those of little or weak character out here in the real world. These dinosaurs are holding us back. Another interesting analysis of the phenomenon was in another article.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-25/incel-alt-right-mens-movement-masculanism-proudboys-milo/10482032?section=analysis
The influence of the behaviour of these fools when it comes to migrant groups is another area where people are victimised as a result. In an extreme example, a successful sports program was cancelled because of their shallow opportunistic idiocy.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/28/south-sudanese-australians-and-andrew-gaze-condemn-prejudicial-axing-of-basketball-event
Having spent a lifetime advocating the wondrous ‘fixing’ ability of gaffer tape, it seems fair to note that one thing gaffer tape cannot fix is stupidity. It does, however, muffle the sound. ‘Sleeping Giants Oz’ has taken to targeting Murdoch’s advertisers with some success. You can tell, because his minions run around screaming ‘their picking on us’, an irony they seem incapable of understanding.
If ever you feel like a change of occupation (writing satire which becomes policy formulation), you might consider joining NewsCorpse. Given your flair for encapsulating so much within punchy short sentences, have you considered writing their headlines?
Thank you Mr Brisbane and commenters. Take care
Well done , again, Rossleigh.
Your piece has inspired some great comments.
I am in sad agreement with Andreas Bimba. When will the voters realise we need a third or fourth party to counteract the cronyism, and donor corruption that comes with a two party system?
Great, well researched response Kyran encapsulating the last week’s sorry state of obvious non-government. If the LNP can’t control the agenda, they won’t even pretend to work anymore.
Gawd, Adrianne, don’t encourage him. 😜
“Scott Morrison’s “Where The Bloody Hell Am I?” (Here’s a clue: Not on the bus)”
…and once again, the Bus of Progressives moves on without travellers; in the future they don’t bother stopping in Oz…
We are happy with our Scottie, Big Brother Trump has given him his blessings ,’ You have achieved SO much in a very short time’….