Rupert Murderer of Civilisations
We got lucky on Hackgate, in that Murdoch’s Men were careless enough to behave like spook-surveillance paedophiles. We won’t get a mass response this time. This time it will have to be targeted: it must threaten bonuses and careers and power-bases. It’s time for good Brits to behave like pickets.
UK televisual media have been notably silent on the likely takeover of Sky by its founder and formerly disgraced but now jolly nice again formerly Australian but now American formerly for Hillary then later for Trump, Rupert Murdoch.
One or two frightened rivals (excepting the perpetually gagged BBC of course) are starting to point out the sheer size of personal boulah available to the senior Skywalkers as and when the deal proceeds. Even one of the independent panel members allegedly there to vet this sort of rape is going to get 25 million quid….and then leave. This is Jeremy Darroch. That’s the same lump of lolly going to Sky’s CEO – which would be an odd coincidence were it not for the fact that he is….Jeremy Darroch.
But for myself, I doubt very much that the lurid greed, inherent monopolism and threat to what’s left of UK democracy will have the slightest effect on 97+% of Brits, because (a) they loike their footie dun’t they? and/or (b) they’ve been brainwashed by the Murdoch press into seeing the Beeb as a den of sexual filth and/or (c) they don’t have an opinion and don’t vote, so why should they care?
This is the result of Murdoch’s 50-year assault on British civilisation: it has served him well, and on the whole has been a comprehensive success. He’s made the average UK reader a 10 year old struggling with comic-strip visuals, so honestly people….if you think they’ll get off the sofa for this one, I shall merely smile and gently shake my head. Only advanced Buddhist-inspired CBT meditation enables me to respond in such a placid manner to the flaccid nature of John Bull’s reaction to everything from starving pensioners to badly educated robotic children.
Nor will the sheer universality of this man’s sticky fingers up the backside of every major politico-governmental system on the planet cut any ice with Duane in Westchester County or Biancoh in Reading. Very few of them travel long-haul (very few of them travel well at all) and none of them, in a UK study conducted last year, even have media power on their radar. In the States last September, just 9% of College Students knew for certain whether the New York Post or Washington Post might offer a more informed product for the news follower.
Roop has the ear of Trump now. He is involved with Deutsche Bank in its negotiations with the US Justice Department, because he needs a bankroller in Qatar to maximise his enormous business and media interests there. In the UK after this deal he will own Sky, the Sun and The Times along with most legislators, and has a virtual monopoly of the Premier League’s coverage. He was one of the first people allowed access to Theresa following her coronation as Queen of the May. He is huge in Italy and Germany. He owns film studios, production facilities, TV stations and newspapers. After the mining companies, he owns Australia.
His footprint and potential for one-sided journalism in print, on TV and online now stretches across all the key First World and developing nations: the US, the UK, the EU, the Middle East, Asia, New Zealand and Australia. He is a keen lobbyist in favour of net neutrality – which, if it happens, will effectively give him and a few other badly chosen megalomaniacs a First Class Ticket to the news everywhere. The rest of us will be in the box car at the back, listening to local radio.
But heh, this isn’t of any relevance at all to the X-Factor, Strictly, Corrie, Eastenders, Game of Thrones-cum-gaming fantasy that most humans with any money inhabit today. Turn it all off and say “Either get Murdoch out or this shit stays off-air” and you’d have a result within hours. Which really is ironic, in that one would end up killing a shit by cutting off the shit supply.
Nevertheless, only that form of blackmail stands any chance at all of delivering us from evil. And we are talking evil here: this man shaped the modern Conservative Party and Tony Blair. He ordered Blair to make war. He hacked children’s phones. He conspired with his son to cover up evidence. He corrupted the Mayor of London. He corrupted the Met Police. He corrupted Dorian Hunt further. He got innocent celebs jailed for sex offences they never committed. He got Vince Cable sacked. He created the insane business model that is today’s Premier League and the England team’s serial failure. And he remains connected to a long-running murder inquiry….which, as long as his power grows, will never be solved.
Rupert Murdoch is to Planet Earth what anti-matter is to a tidy house. Brexit is a miniscular fart in the coal cellar by comparison….because this is not a struggle about money or outdated ideological bunk: it is a fight to the death for what’s left of our liberty to speak out and be heard by the self-appointed élites. It is the last chance we’ll have to wage fear upon power.
But as ever – *sighs*, adopts recurring theme – it is only pressure on Murdoch’s business (and the legislators he still needs) that will defeat him.
It needs a campaign by determined people across the spectrum who are news and media-savvy enough to frighten, to force, to badger and to boycott wherever it is necessary.
Is it likely to happen? I can’t tell yet – it’s far too early. Unfortunately, the way this smash-and-grab raid has been both clinically and cynically put together means very early is also, perhaps, too late.
Fine, Sir Michael Lyons, who became chairman of the BBC Trust in 2007, says now that Murdoch’s proposed takeover should face a ‘fit and proper person’ test. Yes. Right. He would say that. Fine, there will be shareholder opposition on the price. But every shareholder has his price. Fine, there will be official takeover hurdles. I think I saw that movie four years ago.
Running through the legalities, I’d say those of us who would like to eradicate the influence of the Murdoch family from civilisation have at best four months to put a campaign against them together. Only this time, there must be no politesse, no petitions, no pointless waving of placards, and no wearing of sashes without the muscle to back it up. This time we will have to behave – from force majeur – as if we were the reincarnation of flying pickets.
The first step is to raise awareness and build a cohesive Resistance. I only do this 3 or 4 times a year, but I am asking all of you reading this please to email it, tweet it, share it and if necessary vapour-trail it to others of like mind – and especially those with money, power, influence and a sense of decency.
Thank you.
The Slog 