Rupert doesn't need to tell journalists what to write

3 June 2007

The easiest thing to do when accused of one thing is  to try to prove you are not guilty of another - the 'straw man' tactic. Meanwhile everyone gets confused and forgets the original criticism (you hope).

I've never heard anyone claim that Murdoch sends memos telling journalists what to write. That's the straw man you have just cut down.

What Murdoch does is to select editors who hire journalists whose views echo his own rather extreme ones. He has long been against the 'theory' of global warming for example. He didn't have to tutor the staff: he had sufficient propagandists onboard already. He knew that they knew what he believed, and would parrot it faithfully. No Murdoch journalist has ever behaved differently.

Likewise, Murdoch was for the Iraq invasion - a catastrophe which, according to the most comprehensive study, has cost 655,000 Iraqi lives alone - "mostly women and children" to cite a second study. Because, in 2003, Murdoch had made sure “sound” people were in place in his opinion columns, those columns were generally also pro-war. He didn't have to tell anyone anything.

So no-one is tricked by this diversion.