{"id":1062,"date":"2008-09-20T17:13:44","date_gmt":"2008-09-21T00:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1062"},"modified":"2008-09-21T08:52:52","modified_gmt":"2008-09-21T15:52:52","slug":"rupert-murdoch-true-to-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1062","title":{"rendered":"Rupert Murdoch: True To Form"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last May News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch attended the <em>All Things Digital Conference<\/em> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=930\" target=\"_blank\">made a few headlines<\/a> with his commentary on the presidential election:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color:#0d00d0;\">&#8220;<em>[Murdoch]<\/em> on Wednesday predicted a Democratic landslide in the U.S. presidential election against a gloomy economic backdrop over the next 18 months.&#8221;<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That sort of talk had some folks wondering if the old fella was growing a soul. Could the uber-rightist media monarch be ever so slightly scooting over to the left? Asked directly whether he is supporting Barack Obama (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=857\" target=\"_blank\">like his daughter, Elisabeth<\/a>) he said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color:#0d00d0;\">&#8220;I&#8217;m not backing anyone, but I want to meet Obama. I want to know if he&#8217;s going to walk the walk.&#8221;<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Since then, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1039\" target=\"_blank\">Murdoch has met Obama<\/a>. It should be noted, however, that on that occasion the purpose was primarily to persuade him to appear on Fox News. It was therefore imperative that he pour on the charm while appearing to be neutral. Subsequent to achieving his goal, Murdoch is now publicly displaying his expected preference for leader of the free world (other than himself), and it&#8217;s the Republican, John McCain:<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"455\" height=\"344\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/lBNjqZcSYYY&#038;color1=0xb1b1b1&#038;color2=0xcfcfcf&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><\/object><\/p>\n<p>Breaking down Murdoch&#8217;s reasons for supporting McCain, it seems to be primarily an anti-Obama decision as he never overtly praises McCain. Still it is perplexing given the facts. He says that Obama will:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>&#8220;&#8230;give us a lot of inflation.&#8221;<\/strong> Never mind that <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/business\/7509729.stm\" target=\"_blank\">inflation right now<\/a> is at it&#8217;s highest level since 1991. At that time 17 years ago, Bush, Sr. was just wrapping up his term in office. Like father like son.<\/li>\n<li><strong>&#8220;&#8230;ruin our relationships with the rest of the world.&#8221;<\/strong> If that does not immediately invoke guffaws given the world&#8217;s perception of America under George W. Bush, then <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/americas\/7606100.stm\" target=\"_blank\">note this poll<\/a> that shows that <em>&#8220;Obama was favoured by a four-to-one margin across the 22,500 people polled in 22 countries.&#8221;<\/em> 46% said that relations would improve with an Obama win, only 20% held that view for McCain. Those numbers parallel American&#8217;s attitudes as well (46% Obama\/30% McCain).<\/li>\n<li><strong>&#8220;&#8230;find companies leaving this country.&#8221;<\/strong> As if they haven&#8217;t been leaving in droves throughout the Bush years. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessfacilities.com\/bf_07_12_cover1c.php\" target=\"_blank\">Forrester Research projects<\/a> a loss of 1.2 million jobs to foreign soil for 2008, increasing to 3.4 million by 2015.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To an objective observer the facts support precisely the opposite conclusion to which Murdoch has arrived. Nevertheless, the septuagenarian media mogul hangs unto his opinion that it is Obama, and not the Bush\/McCain cabal, that threatens the nation&#8217;s future. That&#8217;s evidence of just how confined he is by his partisan worldview. He goes even further to tar Obama with the crusty old conservative slander that&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color:#0d00d0;\">&#8220;<em>[Obama&#8217;s]<\/em> policy is really very, very naive, old fashioned, 1960&#8217;s socialist.&#8221;<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Coming from an old fashioned, 1940&#8217;s fascist, I suppose we&#8217;ll need to take that with a pound or so of salt.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone who might have thought that Murdoch&#8217;s remarks last May signaled a shift in his political ideology may now return to their senses. He is as much a right-wing propagandist as he ever was, and he isn&#8217;t shy about it either. This appearance on Neil Cavuto&#8217;s <em>&#8220;Your World&#8221;<\/em> is one of many that he has booked for himself. To underscore how peculiar that is, try to recall the last time that the CEOs of GE\/NBC, Viacom\/CBS, Disney\/ABC, or Time Warner\/CNN, appeared on their own news programs. They are rarely, if ever, guests, and certainly not even close to the frequency with which Murdoch pastes his face on his air.<\/p>\n<p>This most recent booking appears to have been scheduled exclusively to disparage Obama just as the electoral momentum is shifting in his direction. The looming financial crisis has focused the campaign dialog back onto issues as opposed to personalities, and Murdoch wasn&#8217;t going to sit still for that. The trivialities and tabloidism that is Murdoch&#8217;s stock in trade just happens to advantage McCain, whose campaign relies on shallow griping about celebrities and lipstick. So he goes on Cavuto&#8217;s show, calls Obama a naive socialist, enumerates reasons to vote against him that are actually reasons to vote against McCain, and concludes the interview by plugging his new and struggling Fox Business Network.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s Rupert Murdoch in a nutshell: An arch-conservative, self-serving, greedy, monopolistic, liar. And always true to form.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last May News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch attended the All Things Digital Conference and made a few headlines with his commentary on the presidential election: &#8220;[Murdoch] on Wednesday predicted a Democratic landslide in the U.S. presidential election against a gloomy economic backdrop over the next 18 months.&#8221; That sort of talk had some folks wondering [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[183,33,167,103,1139,135,30],"class_list":["post-1062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-barack-obama","tag-fox-news","tag-george-w-bush","tag-john-mccain","tag-labor","tag-neil-cavuto","tag-rupert-murdoch"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-h8","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":930,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=930","url_meta":{"origin":1062,"position":0},"title":"Rupert Murdoch Predicts Obama Landslide","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/29\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This week's All Things Digital Conference brought Rupert Murdoch to the stage for a surprising interview that included his views on the economy, Barack Obama, and the 2008 election. Reuters: \"News Corp Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch on Wednesday predicted a Democratic landslide in the U.S. presidential election against a gloomy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":857,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=857","url_meta":{"origin":1062,"position":1},"title":"Murdoch Holds Fundraiser For Obama &#8211; No, Not That Murdoch","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/3\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't know quite what to make of this, but I thought it should be noted: Television tycoon Elisabeth Murdoch, daughter of News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch, is holding a fundraiser for Barack Obama at her London home. Maybe it's just a typical rebellious child, establishing a separate identity from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6282,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6282","url_meta":{"origin":1062,"position":2},"title":"Wall Street Journal On The GOP: If They Don&#8217;t Want To Lose, They Shouldn&#8217;t Run With Losers","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/25\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Bret Stephens, the deputy editorial page editor for the Wall Street Journal, published an article this morning that begins... \"Let's just say right now what voters will be saying in November, once Barack Obama has been re-elected: Republicans deserve to lose.\" The column is an indictment of the whole Republican\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7416,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7416","url_meta":{"origin":1062,"position":3},"title":"Mitts And Hisses: Rupert Murdoch Has Lost All Touch With Reality","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/25\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The allegedly \"fair and balanced\" Fox News Channel's patriarch, Rupert Murdoch, has revealed his preference in the presidential contest, as if it was ever in doubt. Yesterday, however, he made it clear that he favors Mitt Romney, even though he's concerned that Romney isn't being sufficiently dickish. Murdoch Tweeted: \"Easy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1130,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1130","url_meta":{"origin":1062,"position":4},"title":"New York Times Goes Soft On New York Post","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/17\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In a New York Times column today by Richard Perez-Pena, the case is made that the New York Post's owner, Rupert Murdoch, has gone soft on Barack Obama and liberals in general. The evidence cited for this ideological tectonic shift is a shallow observation that the Post has not published\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1100,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1100","url_meta":{"origin":1062,"position":5},"title":"Rupert Murdoch Dead Last In Charitable Giving","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/20\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Conde Naste's Portfolio Magazine has compiled a list of billionaires ranked by their charitable donations. The Generosity Index itemizes fifty of the wealthiest individuals as donors, relative to their wealth. Coming in fiftieth is the miserly media mogul, Rupert Murdoch. It shouldn't surprise anyone that an uber-conservative, Republican monopolist, should\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}