CNN’s John King shows off the GOP/Newscorp Rogue’s Gallery
A great many of the top potential Republican contenders for the 2012 presidential nomination work for Fox News, news anchor John King confirmed on national television yesterday.
On his “John King USA” show, King used a dazzling display of graphs, bar-charts, salary totals and familiar political faces to show the creepy extent of Newscorp’s Congressional power in the United States. In particular, he highlighted images of Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, and noted that all four have one thing in common: their affiliation with Fox News.
Speaking about Huckabee, King said, “he’s been working for Fox since June 2008”. Sarah Palin, he added, would have to give “somewhere of the ballpark of $1 million” up if she cut her ties with Fox News to run.
Gingrich, he said, has been “on the Fox payroll since 1999…his aides can’t answer the question: if he’s just exploring, does that mean he has to give it up?”
Very few people in the UK appreciate the degree of loathing felt for Rupert Murdoch’s style across most of the media rainbow in the States. While Newscorp titles here work hard to present anti-Roop feeling as a WSJ v New York Times event, in reality it is much, much wider. Beyond the tabloid writers, on a good day Newscorp is seen as the world’s greatest devil-spawn factory. Writing its money/media section, the NY Daily News opined in 2007,
‘What will Murdoch do with the paper and how will it affect all of us?
His pledge of editorial independence is foolish. The editorial page of The Journal is already on the same page as the political commentary on Fox News Channel. Both are staunchly Republican and heavy-handedly pro-business. Murdoch will use The Journal’s Web site in conjunction with his satellite and publishing assets to establish a dominant, worldwide business brand. And he’s eager to use Dow Jones to build up his Fox Business Network, set to launch in just 10 weeks. With the nameplate of The Journal and access to its reporters, Fox Business Network could overtake CNBC and put a fresh dent in CNN…..Murdoch has built a formidable empire. Anyone who competes with him should be worried about the competitive threat, and everyone else should be worried about his political clout.”
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It’s getting every bit as bad here. Ed Miliband has been forced to grovel at Wapping, and then to hire Murdoch-admiring former coke-head Tom Baldwin as his Comms Head. (Tom’s first act was to send an email to all Labour MPs saying ‘lay off Murdoch’).
The entire Westminster mob live in fear of Newscorp. Last September, Deputy PM Nick Clegg said this in relation to the growing realisation that Coulson probably knew about Hackgate:
“Of course this is not easy, but instead of simply trying to act as a judge over someone based on a series of claims and counter-claims, let’s get the police to look at these allegations and see if there is new evidence that needs to be looked into, yes or no.”
Well, now the answer is very clearly ‘yes’, Nick has fallen strangely silent on the matter. Dave, I’m told, has requested that he belt up on the subject.
But even the normally well-mannered FT was moved to write two weeks ago that
‘Mr Murdoch’s role as a power broker in British politics is again coming under intense scrutiny. Officials say Mr Cameron’s door is always open to Mr Murdoch.’
For those of us who see Rupert Murdoch as an entirely malign cultural influence, hopes are rising that one day soon, that door will be slammed in his face forever.
The Slog 