Qed

Gerard Henderson on Pilger

Must have really got up the old fart, there’s Pilger basking in the glory at the Sydney Opera House while receiving his Sydney Peace Prize (now’s there’s an idea, just as well they asked a few aborigines along to make it look good) and poor old Gerard fuming quietly on the dunny at home. Even Rupert generously let us know about it on his Public Service TV channel (which is free, but only if you pay for Fox so go figure how that’s a public service) and the NEWSPAPERS (the source of all news according to Rupes) all gave John Pilger’s address a bit of space so I guess it’s news except unfortunately its not. So while I remain a fan of John’s writings and opinions I am saddened by his move to London all those years ago which unfortunately tends to provide sad little creatures like Gerard with ammunition to attack John rather than respond to his legitimate criticism of Australia and our aboriginal heritage.

However if Pilger’s point of view is now more that of an honoured expatriate then Gerard Henderson’s snide little rant demonstrates just how huge the gulf is between a man who speaks truly and a sad little caricature whose only talent is his slimy ability to propagate the views of the rich and powerful. Gerard Henderson should crawl back under the turd he sleeps under and await his next culture cleaning assignment. Better still, given Gerard’s fanatical support for the war in Afghanistan, I guess a man as interested as he is in the situation should probably catch the first available plane to Kabul and STAY THERE!

Hail John Pilger.

John Pilger at Brisbane's Customs House, photo by Rachel Cobcroft

John Pilger, mobbed as if a pop star at an anti-war demo, Hyde Park, London October 2005 Photo - Gareth Harper, used with permission.

Gerard Henderson’s pathetic response.

Rupert speaks…slowly

David Speers (Sky News, one third owned by News.corp) interviews Rupert(100% owned by news.corp) on the past, the present and the future of newspapers (which will be even cheaper when you get them electronically). For good measure Rupes gives us some insight into the US political scene as well as some ideas about the GFC and global warming.

A small part of me feels that 37 minutes of Ruperspeak is overdoing my quota for self-flagellation but since its free content from Rupert I feel beholden to make good use of it.

Some of the pearls of wisdom from Rupert (I’m allowed the odd cliche)

• it costs us a lot of money to put together good newspapers, good content…they’re very happy to pay when they buy a newspaper and when they read it elsewhere, I think they’re going to have to pay
• but we are not losing money online…
• but no websites anywhere are making serious money
• and there’s not enough advertising in the world to make all the websites profitable
• they are just search people (the ones who click on a Google link)…they don’t suddenly become loyal readers
• there’s a doctrine called fair use which we believe can be challenged in the courts and BARRED all together
• we will put the whole lot together…in a newspaper today there’s (apparently) a thing called editorial judgement and (apparently) there’s a thing called quality of writing
• everyone can afford a newspaper, they’re the cheapest things in the world…they’re fabulous!
• newspapers will be around for another twenty years…it’s a generational thing!

There’s more, frankly it’s just tedious. Rupert hasn’t heard what Mark Scott said about News.corp but he does think that Scott’s plan to take the ABC to the world for $800 million is a “huge overreach”. Then there’s the line about how the ABC and the BBC steal from newspapers and once Rupert gives them all a good talking to they will suddenly have to put journalists everywhere to get their stories.

The BBC is of course a scandal, all that money forcibly extracted from the British public in turn used to make programs that commercial interests should be making. Then there’s the scourge of piracy which thanks to “constant vigilance” is reasonably “under control” and there’s the French whose three strikes policy vis-a-vis copyright breach should be adopted as a World Standard, according to Rupes.

However what I did find interesting was his discussion of the current fracas between the US White House and Fox News. Robert Gibbs got dismissed as ‘very young and inexperienced” Fox News is apparently nothing but “absolutely fair” and Glenn Beck is just hugely popular (like the Simpsons I suppose). Which of course brings us to Barack who is doing “very badly”. Apparently there’s a worry that the current congress and administration is anti-business. According to Rupes, the housing crisis that sparked the GFC was the fault of Congress who forced the financial sector into lending money to people who should just be renting not buying. Then the Federal Reserve starting printing money and lowering interest rates and the whole thing just got out of hand.

It gets better from Rupert, Bush apparently was much better, he handled things in a bipartisan way, and propping up the banking sector with huge government funds that was probably “in principle …wrong but practically was right, it had to be done.” Despite this, when it comes to discussion about the Australian government’s response, we should have left things alone because Howard and Costello “left things in fantastic shape”.

Does David Speers challenge any of this blatant self serving claptrap? Congress caused the GFC? Howard and Costello should be knighted? Does David join the dots between a media player like Rupert championing his fair and balanced Fox News, which attacks the Democrats at every opportunity and a US public perception that Barack Obama is the devil incarnate? No. Because Rupert just loves the News business and we should all be so bloody grateful for all he’s done for us.

If you’ve read this far you might also consider going to the horse’s mouth for his considered views on global warming (where’s there is a danger we might do too much) and assimilation immigration. But don’t say I didn’t warn you…

YouTube – Sky News – Interview with Rupert Murdoch.

Update

Gary Sauer-Thompson has a good rebuttal on Rupert’s Fair Use claim