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The first death known to me, that was
precipitated by a Rupert Murdoch headline, occurred in Sydney
in March,1964, when a schoolboy committed suicide. More of that
later. These days, the casualties resulting from military invasions
championed by Murdoch are numbered in the thousands, though he
is not the sole agent of destruction. One of his former TV producers
in the Middle East, Serene Sabbagh, resigned from Fox recently
because of its "bias and racism".
What tipped Sabbagh over the
edge was the bombing of Qana. "As a mother of three, watching
the images, the raw images of children being pulled out of the
rubble and then I switched to Fox News to hear some of their
anchors claiming that these little kids that were killed, these
innocent victims that were killed, were human shields used by
Hezbollah. And one of the anchors went as far as saying they
were planted there by Hezbollah to win support in this war. And
it was unbelievable. For me, that was the breaking point"
On August 6, Serene Sabbagh
and a colleague sent a joint letter of resignation to Fox News:
"Not only are you an instrument of the Bush White House,
and Israeli propaganda, you are war mongers with no sense of
decency, nor professionalism." A verdict which is widely
echoed. "Fox News has had reporters running around northern
Israel chronicling every rocket attack and every Israeli mobilization,
but has shown little or no interest in anything happening on
the other side of the border", noted Andrew Gumbel in the
UK's Independent.
News Corp had "walked
away from professional journalism and crossed over into dutiful
propaganda", wrote another analyst," a dangerous new
chapter even for Fox News". The whole organization had shifted
beyond warmongering into deep censorship, where it "purposely
cordoned off topics of discussion In fact, I could not find a
single, authentic, independent expert on Arab politics and history
who appeared on Fox News to discuss the roots of the escalating
violence. Not one."
In the editorial pages of Murdoch's
antipodean flagship, The Australian, the bombing of Beirut is
presented as "Israel doing Lebanon a favour" and restive
Arabs are described as "Nazis". None of this should
be surprising, as Murdoch revealed to the Hollywood Reporter
that his media ventures are "not as important to me as spreading
my personal political beliefs" (November 23, 2005). And
these beliefs are dangerous. Murdoch's influential Weekly Standard
advocates the pursuit of "regime change in Syria . and a
military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. Why wait?"
It does not seem to figure
in Murdoch's personal accounting that over half a million civilians
are now dead or disfigured as a result of the wars he has already
promoted. Instead of reconsidering his politics, like other lapsed
neocons, Murdoch is still blazing away with his tools of the
trade: hate, lies, fear and censorship.
So here's the nub. In a world
facing a series of crises, should an unelected billionaire with
a militant agenda and key politicians in the palm of his hand
be allowed to preside over a global empire of propaganda? An
empire continually expanding, one that gobbles up competitors
and is now even blocking free speech on the internet. (See MySpace
Is The Trojan Horse Of Internet Censorship)
On top of this, Murdoch's minions
reject the inconvenient facts of climate chaos and attack the
greens as "a threat to the prosperity and well-being"
of the world (The Australian September 2, 2004). Whereas a real
threat to the well-being of the world and its people is Rupert
Murdoch, as I first discovered long ago.
These days, Murdoch's war-mongering
is compulsive and his disregard for human wreckage is both calculated
and global; but in the beginning, what marked his output was
a casual (and sometimes fatal) disregard for the frailties of
humans.
Murdoch's rise to power took
off in Sydney in 1964, when he acquired an afternoon tabloid,
the Daily Mirror. On March 12, the Mirror front paged a report
on "promiscuity" among the pupils of a city high school,
which was based on the contents of a young girl's diary. The
resulting uproar led to the diarist and a fellow student being
expelled from school. A job well done.
That's where the story ended
as far the Mirror was concerned, though not for those involved.
The 13 year old schoolboy named in the diary, Digby Bamford,
was found hanging from his backyard clothesline, having committed
suicide. This news was "cordoned off" from public consumption.
Even rival papers kept the secret, until a disgruntled Murdoch
journalist tipped off an independent magazine. The author of
the "school sex" diary was examined by a doctor from
the Child Welfare Department and found to be a virgin. During
an interview years later, I reminded Murdoch of this event and
his reaction was sharp: "Don't you ever make mistakes?"
Of course I do. Many. After acquiring the News of the World in
London in 1971, Rupert discovered another diary, while he was
campaigning against a popular BBC TV show, Top of the Pops. His
paper accused its stars of "promiscuity" with young
dancers in the audience. One of these was Samantha MacAlpine,
aged 15, whose "leatherette bound book", according
Murdoch's news desk, "could well blow wide open the scandal
at the BBC". The day after this report, Samantha MacAlpine
committed suicide.
The News of the World tried
to cover itself with the headline, THIS GIRL WAS A VICTIM NOW
SHE IS DEAD, but the coroner stated that Samantha's diary was
"pure fantasy. unconnected with reality", (like much
Murdoch journalism). A Scotland Yard officer accused the paper
of being "ludicrous and irresponsible". As is the Murdoch
style, the evidence from the inquest was kept from the readers.
Also suppressed was the statement of the forensic pathologist,
that in his opinion, Samantha had died a virgin.
Two weeks ago, when young Australian
Jack Thomas appealed his conviction for receiving funds from
Al Qaeda and holding a false passport, he was acquitted by the
Victorian Court of Appeal.
FURY AFTER JIHAD JACK WALKS
FREE, headlined The
Australian, although the fury was largely confined to Murdoch's
newsroom. A jury had previously acquitted Jack Thomas of two
more substantial matters. The Victorian Court quashed his conviction
on the lesser charges, because police statements had been taken
from the defendant while he was incarcerated in Pakistan without
access to a lawyer and subjected to assaults. (A US interrogator
told Thomas he would crush his testicles, rape his wife and put
her breasts in a vice). When the Appeal judges freed Thomas,
as they were obliged to do under Australian law, the Murdoch
media called for public outrage and demanded "rapid amendments
to ensure that no judge can make the same mistake". One
of the first steps in the Third Reich's campaign to win over
the hearts and minds of the German people was to attack the judges.
Another step was to consolidate the media. A third step was to
fan the flames of fear.
In response to criticism of
its assault on the judiciary, The Australian hit back: 'what
will it take to get Mr Thomas's apologists to take the terror
threat seriously? Suicide bombers detonating aboard Melbourne's
trams? A USS Cole-style strike on the Manly ferry?" And
sure enough, as I write, another Murdoch missile hits the front
page. SYDNEY WILL BE ATTACKED.
After interviewing 572 citizens,
the Daily Telegraph has decided that "most Australians believe
we are locked in a losing war against Islamic terrorists and
an attack on our home soil is inevitable". The number who
cite Murdoch's compulsive belligerence as a factor in the escalation
of terror is not revealed. On the same day, Jack "Jihad"
Thomas is arrested on the beach, slapped with a newly introduced
"control order" and ordered home, where his movements
are to be restricted. Questioning voices are merely a "civil
libertarian lobby that believes John Howard is a greater threat
to our way of life than bin Laden", according to MurdochWorld.
No, the greatest threat is the control of information from the
top. "Fascism ought to more properly be called corporatism",
said Mussolini, "since it is the merger of state and corporate
power." Beware the global Goebbels.
Richard Neville has been around a while. He lives
in Australia, the land that formed him. In the Sixties he raised
hell in London and published Oz. He can be reached through his
very bracing website, http://www.richardneville.com.au/
Now
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