As well, the merde-och press tells us of the "Premier's epic Budget road show" which code for approval of "more roads" for cars in Sydney. The Sydney Morning Herald had the decency to let us know that "PLANNERS were ORDERED TO IGNORE RAIL, BUILD ROADS" as well as mention "The White Death",  two third of the Great Barrier Reef being dead or near death due to warming seas due to GLOBAL WARMING.

Though the Sydney Morning Herald is still pushing an "uncertain" independence, the new mantra is to be "pro-business and pro-market' while another 30 journalists are going to go to the dogs... 

Five major US newspapers—the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and New York Daily News—offered no opinion space to anyone opposed to Donald Trump’s Thursday night airstrikes. By contrast, the five papers ran a total of 18 op-eds, columns or “news analysis” articles (dressed-up opinion pieces) that either praised the strikes or criticized them for not being harsh enough:

New York Times

• After the Missiles, We Need Smart Diplomacy on Syria (4/7/17)
• Acting on Instinct, Trump Upends His Own Foreign Policy (4/7/17) (originally headlined “On Syria Attack, Trump’s Heart Came First”—presumably changed due to social media mockery)
• Trump Raises the Stakes for Russia and Iran (4/7/17)
• Syria’s ‘Conundrum’: Limited Strikes Risk Entrenching Assad’s Strategy (4/7/17)

Washington Post

• Editorial: Trump’s Chance to Step Into the Global Leadership Vacuum (4/7/17)
• Trump Enforces the ‘Red Line’ on Chemical Weapons (4/6/17)
• Trump Has an Opportunity to Right Obama’s Wrongs in Syria (4/6/17)
• Syrian Opposition Leader: Trump Has a Chance to Save Syria (4/7/17)
• Was Trump’s Syria Strike a Moral Impulse or a Policy Change? (4/7/17)
• Will Trump’s Decision to Strike Syria Reset His Presidency? (4/7/17)
• Trump Might Be Going to War. But He Has No Plans for Establishing Peace (4/7/17) (Though the piece has criticism of Trump, it starts by declaring that the missile strikes were “an appropriate response to an act of unspeakable horror.”)

Wall Street Journal

• Editorial: Trump’s Syria Opportunity (4/7/17)
• With Strike on Syria, Trump Sends a Global Message (4/7/17)

USA Today

• Editorial: Trump Pulls the Trigger in Syria (4/7/17)
• Syria Missile Strike Could Lead to Political Solution (4/7/17)

Daily News

• Praise Trump’s Syria Action, but Question His Explanation (4/7/17)
• Trump’s Syria Response Raises Urgent Questions (4/7/17)
• Trump’s Syria Action: A Limited Strike for a Specific Purpose (4/7/17)

Some, such as “The Riddle of Trump’s Syria Attack” (New York Times, 4/7/17) and “Was That Syria Attack Legal? Only Congress Can Say” (USA Today, 4/7/17) were value neutral—neither expressly in support of the attacks nor opposing them.

Cable news coverage was equally fawning. In the hours immediately following the attack, MSNBC had on a seemingly never-ending string of military brass and reporters who uncritically repeated the assertion the strikes were “proportional” and “limited.”  MSNBC didn’t give a platform to a single dissenting voice until four hours after the attacks began, when host Chris Hayes, according to his own account, had on two guests opposed to the airstrikes in the midnight slot.  MSNBC host Brian Williams got into a bit of hot water when he lovingly admired a slick video sent over by the Pentagon showing tomahawk missiles being fired from US navy vessels (FAIR.org, 4/7/17).

CNN’s resident Serious Military Person Lt. Gen Mark Hertling repeated over and over—seemingly on script—that the strikes were “bold, tactical.” CNN’s Fareed Zakaria gushed praise on Trump Friday morning (4/7/17; FAIR.org, 4/7/17), telling host Alisyn Camerota, “I think Donald Trump became president of the United States…. This was a big moment.”

Due to the mostly bipartisan support for the airstrikes, it’s somewhat predictable that corporate media would follow suit. No need to debate the morality or utility of the strikes, because the scene played out per usual: Dictator commits an alleged human rights violation, the media calls on those in power to “do something” and the ticking time bomb compels immediate action, lest we look “weak” on the “global stage.” Anything that deviates from this narrative is given token attention at best.

Read more at:

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/04/09/five-top-papers-run-18-opin...

Quite the same in Australia... or neutral news without proper study of the meaning of this. 

While the opinion polls continue to deliver bad news for the Turnbull government, it clings to the prime minister’s personal edge over Bill Shorten as proof that all is not lost.

It’s true that despite a sharp decline in his own personal approval since late 2015, the Essential Report shows that Malcolm Turnbull maintains a 39-26 lead as preferred prime minister.

First it was the clunky attempt to christen him “power Bill” – as the freshly minted Tony Abbott fought to keep his climate wars going from office. That attack went the way of its lead attacker.

Then there was the attempt to create “crooked Bill”, turning the taxpayer-funded guns of the Heydon royal commission onto Shorten with a terms of reference skilfully calibrated to target his time as a moderate union official.

Under evidence Shorten was forced to justify his model of centrist unionism, the right-wing lynch-mob wringing their hands about his betrayal at the same time as they were condemning the CFMEU for being too militant.

When Shorten was cleared by the commission and endorsed by former business leaders as a great example of a pragmatic union leader delivering for his members, that line of attack was also ditched.

At the start of this year, a new thrust began, call it “boot-licking Bill”, a weird twist on the politics of envy by attacking him for the powerful business contacts he had made during his union career.

Central to this attack is the contention that Shorten plays both sides of the street – that he talks about being the champion of the worker but he would rather be hobnobbing with the rich.

That this attack was led so vociferously by a multi-millionaire who had to personally fund his last election campaign to hold onto power, did tend to position the argument as “that’s not the sort of chap we want in our club”. Whatever, it seemed to fall away as soon as it had been launched.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/27/its-the-coalitions...

read from top...

Popular news agency industry blog condemns Telegraph’s front page featuring a Bill Shorten-led government for having ‘no facts’

Newsagents should refuse to sell Wednesday’s Daily Telegraph – which has a fictional front page featuring a Bill Shorten-led government – because it is pure political propaganda, according to the Australian Newsagency Blog.

Victorian newsagent and software businessman Mark Fletcher, who runs the popular industry blog, condemned the unusual front page, saying it had nothing to do with the news and was not journalism. If his two newsagencies were in New South Wales, he would not sell it, he said.

“There are no facts in this piece,” Fletcher said. “This game by News Corp is considered more important than key stories of the day, news stories. It is typical for a selfish publisher that runs its agenda ahead of reporting the news, reporting the facts.”

The Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid dated Wednesday’s page one 5 July 2019 and showed the Labor leader celebrating his “first 100 days” in power, a terrible period with “workers laid off, record tax rates, rents hit new high”.

Written by the paper’s national political editor, Sharri Markson, the article attempts to portray a dystopia under Labor including a $17bn injection for the Gonski funding package and marriage equality law passed – policies many would see as positive.

“A chuffed Bill Shorten celebrated his first 100 days in power yesterday, marking the milestone with a rousing party at ACTU headquarters,” Markson wrote.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jul/05/newsagents-urged-to-refuse...

turdy terrograph

Read from top...

By John Menadue

This week Crikey has been running a series, the Holy Wars on ‘How The Australian targets and attacks its enemies ‘This prompted me to recall my own experiences and earlier writing on how News Corp intimidates its critics and threatens and seduces governments. 

The way News Corp operates must be traced to Murdoch himself for he has told us that ‘for better or worse (News Corp) is a reflection of my own thinking, my character and my values’.  

Let me give examples of how News Corp operates

Ken Cowley was a former very senior and very loyal. executive of News Corp for many years. He was my Production Manager in Sydney at News Ltd. Unwisely 3 years ago Cowley told the Australian Financial Review that Lachlan Murdoch was not particularly smart and that The Australian ‘is pathetic’. To defend Lachlan, people were wheeled out within 24 hours. Cowley was brought to heel. The Australian extracted the following from him ‘The Australian has always been good, the Editor in Chief has been doing an excellent job…I have great respect for Lachlan Murdoch…

But this was all too late to avoid the smack down. The Australian had a leak, presumably from someone near the Murdoch family that one of Cowley’s business ventures had gone bad. News Corp refused Cowley’s request for help.

The News Corp modus operandi was clearly on display. Take us on at your peril

Rod Tiffen’s book ‘Rupert Murdoch, a reassessment’ published by UNSW Press Ltd. tells us a great deal about how News Corp operates. His account is consistent with my own experience

The central conclusion of Tiffen is that News Corp is a rogue organisation. Tiffen says ‘These outrages [the hacking scandals] were not the product of a few rogue individuals as much as of a rogue corporation. Of course, the great majority of News Corp’s 50,000-plus employees, and the overwhelming majority of its journalists, are as repelled as the rest of the population by the abuses that have been revealed. However, the scandals were the product of a corporation where power is, perhaps uniquely, concentrated and where a confirming hierarchical culture makes it difficult for instructions to be questioned or challenged. This is a corporation impatient with any ethical impediments to achieve the results it wants and which greets external criticism with blanket denial and often aggression’.

It is not a matter of a few rotten apples. The malady is deep seated.

Tiffen describes the governance of News Corp   as “a docile board, acquiescent management in thrall of the genius of their CEO, a vision of hereditary succession and a “whatever it takes “ethic”” Only a company with that sort of governance could pay $A89m in remuneration in fiscal 2017 to Rupert, Lachlan and James Murdoch from 20 th Century Fox alone

When confronted with even mild criticism News Corp’s retainers go into immediate attack mode and turn the issue into us against them. “Them “being a politically correct elite. Murdoch now usually limits himself to twenty word tweets. They are ideal as orders of the day for admiring and uncritical retainers around the world..

In 1992 PM John Major had just won an election. He asked the Editor of the London Sun how he proposed to cover Britain’s decision on the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. He was told “Well John let me put it this way, I’ve got a bucket of shit on my desk and tomorrow morning I am going to throw it all over your head”.  The ALP gets the same bucket treatment in Australian elections.while News Corp slavishly protects the Coalition and big business at almost every turn.

Ed Milliband, the leader of the British Labour Party was foolish enough to say that Rebecca Brooks, who was charged before UK courts, “should examine her conscience”. The Sun political editor responded ‘We take it personally and we are going to make it personal to you. We won’t forget.’ (p.309)

Tom Watson a British MP who relentlessly and courageously tracked News Corp tells of “threats, bullying, covert surveillance, hacking, aggressive reporting and personal abuse” at the hands of News Corp.  p.288

Appalled by News Corp’s methods of operations the UK Parliamentary Committee by majority vote (Labour and Liberal Democrat) found that ‘Rupert Murdoch was not a fit person to exercise stewardship of a major international company.’ p265. Perhaps the Conservatives were too frightened to say what they really thought.

On page 327, Tiffen says perhaps too politely that ‘Murdoch’s power has more often diminished rather than benefitted the quality of democratic life.’  It has been most obvious in the telephone hacking in the UK.

The New York Times identified Rupert Murdoch as someone  Donald Trump speaks to ‘on the phone every week’ although the White House denies this. At the ceremony in New York to remember the Battle of the Coral sea Donald Trump said.’Thank you my very good friend Rupert Murdoch-there is only one Rupert we know’

He is the largest employer of journalists in the English speaking democracies.  News Ltd holds 70% of the circulations of metropolitan dailies in Australia. In Brisbane and Adelaide there is little alternative to News Corp publications. Not content with its stranglehold on metropolitan media, News Corp wants to cripple the ABC.

Famous US journalist Carl Bernstein speaks of “Murdoch’s destructive march across the democratic landscape”p327Matthew Freud, Murdoch’s son in law told the New York Times “I am by no means alone within the family or the company being ashamed by Roger Ailes (the CEO of Fox News) horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News, its founder and every other global media business aspires to”. p.252. Yet Murdoch could say with a straight face “.people love Fox News.”p.253.

The slogan of Fox News used to be ‘fair and balanced’. But perhaps after the ridicule that followed and the demise of Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly the slogan was changed to ‘most watched and trusted’ But even that is not true. MSNBC regularly out rates it and Fact Checks make it the most negatively rated.

But there is some consolation in this for News Corp and Fox News. The new bill in the Australian Parliament to buy the support of Pauline Hanson in her vendetta against the ABC is titled ‘Australian Broadcasting Commission Amendment (Fair and Balanced) Bill 2017

News Corp. lives by a code of never admitting s mistake. It was the shrillest of all the urgers supporting the invasion of Iraq. The London Sun said of Saddam Hussein’s WMD ‘He’s got them. We know he’s got them’. ‘Many newspapers such as the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Economist have confessed that they got it badly wrong on Iraq. I have yet to hear of a News Corp outlet that has made a similar confession despite almost a million deaths in Iraq and neighbouring countries and untold destruction and chaos. Critics of News Corp were described as ‘weasels’.. Germany and France who opposed the invasion were an ‘axis of weasels’. The Australian referred to opponents of the invasion as the’ coalition of the whining’.

Just it was grieviously wrong on Iraq and Middle East New Corp now continually tells us we are all wrong on global warming despite the overwhelming scientific evidence.. Murdoch dismisses renewable energy as ‘windmills and all that nonsense’. Like Joe Hockey he decries the renewable energy projects that are ruining the English country side with ‘uneconomic bird killing windmills’ . With a President like that, cranks on climate change can be sure of a sympathetic run in the News Corp media.

Murdoch told us in 2014 that the ‘NBN was a ridiculous idea. It still is.’

On page 314 of his book, Tiffen recounts that. ‘Bruce Guthrie, Associate Editor of the Melbourne Herald, asked Murdoch at a “Confab” at Aspen, Colorado, in June 1988 “Do you have an ethical framework at all at the London Sun”.’ Tiffen records that Murdoch turned ‘red with anger’, and said to Cowley, I see we have a Fairfax wanker in our midst.  It was not a good career move for Guthrie.

Murdoch boastfully and recklessly told Thomas Kiernan in “Citizen Murdoch” ‘You tell these bloody politicians whatever they want to hear and once the deal is done you don’t worry about it” (Tiffen p 185). News Corp trifles with the truth. Murdoch told the Leveson Enquiry ‘I have never asked a PM for anything’. Only the most naïve and partisan would believe that .I know he asked Prime Minister Whitlam to be appointed Australian High Commissioner in London. I know because I was the intermediary. Its true but Murdoch denies it

Th.re is no doubt that Murdoch does inspire the loyalty of staff. They are usually well paid and provided they remain loyal, they will prosper. We see that time and time again. However many people with ability or a point of view don’t stay for long – either by their own choice or through dismissal. Andrew Neil, the Editor of the Sunday Times commented that ‘During the eleven years I was editor Rupert fired or eased out every Chief Executive of real talent or independent mindset …. [Murdoch) has never expressed regret about those he has axed and has repeatedly said that every individual can be replaced’ Tiffen p.298.

Loyalty counts for more than competence.

In China Murdoch failed to make commercial progress. One reason was that he was impatient, but the more important reason is quite simply that he could not brow-beat the political leadership in China in the way he has been able to brow-beat almost all political leaders in Australia, the UK and the US. .

Rod Tiffen explains very persuasively how and why News Corp is a rogue organisation that is doing untold damage to the fabric of public life. It will take us a long time to repair the awful damage.

Yet in his early days Murdoch offered so much promise and hope. After the entrenched conservatism and parochialism of the state based media ,The Australian was like a breath of fresh air. But the air has now gone rank and putrid. What a tragedy Murdoch’s career has been for himself and the media.

‘Power doesn’t always corrupt. What power always does is reveal. When a guy gets into a position where he doesn’t have to worry anymore then you see what he wanted to do all along’ Robert Caro

I have used the name News Corp to refer to all Murdoch’s operations in Australia, UK and USA. I was General Manager News Ltd. Sydney 1967-74.  John Menadue

Read more: https://johnmenadue.com/john-menadue-how-a-rogue-organization-operates/#more-13291

Trish Regan from Fox Business , who accused Danes of having employment issues and likened the Nordic country to Venezuela in a widely shown television show has responded to criticism. She briefly noted she wanted to “clarify” but not retract her reporting.

"Just to be clear, I was never implying that conditions in Denmark were similar in any way to the current tragedy on the ground there in Venezuela," Trish Regan said.

 “I was merely pointing out, using reports from The Atlantic, The Independent and other publications, that socialism is not the way,” she said. However, the initial comments appeared to have already hit a nerve both in Denmark and abroad, with politicians and general public taking to Twitter to crush Regan’s research.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/viral/201808161067251561-fo-host-schooled-social...

Read from top.

Trish Regan is parroting her master's voice: Rupert. Murdoch hates socialism and the global warming concept...

...

Rupert Murdoch is the name firmly in the frame along with his ubiquitous News Corp empire – an organisation which is accused of playing a major role in orchestrating the removal from office of not just Turnbull but also Labor’s Kevin Rudd.

In the case of Turnbull he believed his Liberal colleagues had been gripped by “a form of madness” so the only way they could see to end the unrelenting internal turmoil and negative coverage in the media was to cave into it and replace him as leader.

Rudd, equally, believes the cacophony of negativity from News Corp undermined his first prime ministership, then that of successor Julia Gillard. He has called for a “full-throated inquiry” into News Corp and branded the company “a cancer on democracy”.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/sep/20/very-australian-coup-murdo...

"A very Australian coup: Murdoch, Turnbull and the power of News Corp"...

The only thing wrong in this headline for this article is the word "Australian". Murdoch performed the same effect with "slightly different more subtle tricks" in the election of Donald Trump.

In the US, Uncle Rupe has swayed the evangelicals and other outlets to make Trump the winner over Hillary. NO RUSSIANS WERE INVOLVED, BUT UNCLE RUPE is smug about having achieved the impossible — and also letting the (some idiots in Macedonia) "Russians" be blamed for Donald's victory. The old kook Murdoch is still numero uno in the manipulative media shit. We've known this for a very long time...

Read from top.