Murdoch Backs Bent Politician

Not content with making the bid for the 61% of Sky that he does not yet own that little bit more difficult, Rupert Murdoch has now taken personal charge of Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse) and turned it into a shameless propaganda weapon for the benefit of Combover Crybaby Donald Trump, who is in the crosshairs of a whole series of investigations regarding various aspects of his behaviour.

And increasingly, the conclusion being reached by more and more commentators is that Trump is about to follow the inglorious path last trodden by Richard Milhous Nixon - an early and probably forced exit from the White House. Tricky Dicky once said “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I earned everything I've got”. But he was a crook. And off he went.

So what does the media outlet under the personal direction of Rupert Murdoch, one of that family that our Government has decided is “fit and proper” to take over Sky, now say in response to the prospect that Trump, like Nixon, is likely to be unmasked as yet another crook? What is the Fox News take on this hottest of hot issues?

The headline from the Fox News Halftime Report tells you all you need to know: “Would you even care if he was guilty?” So what if the President is a crook? Meh.

But do go on. “The stock market is up, unemployment is down and the economy seems to be picking up some steam. The streets are mostly safe, the nation is mostly secure and the world is mostly at peace … So does it matter to you whether or not the president is a crook? The answer for a lot of Americans may be no”.

Yeah, just sit back and do nothing. So the law got broken? Hey, it happens all the time. Nobody got killed, well, not yet, anyway. Relax. And the reasoning behind the idea of not being bothered about lawbreaking? “Despite the day-by-day revelations, about a third of the country sticks with Trump”. Is this the future of jury trials?

The reasoning behind sticking by Trump? “The tar-thick corruption of the House of Clinton”. Look over there at Bill and Hill. “We hate to have to keep harkening back to the impeachment of Bill Clinton, but the parallels are too overwhelming to ignore”. No, the parallels are with Nixon. And Fox News ignores that because Nixon walked.

And it gets worse: “Plus, with peace and prosperity reigning across the land, who wanted to yank the president out of office? Removing or even further isolating the president could jeopardize a growing economy … whatever is revealed will almost certainly fall short of the most hysterical claims of Trump’s foes”. All that would be needed would be “to pass some kind of economic stimulus soon. Tax cuts may be a matter of survival”.

Think about that. Rupert Murdoch is CEO of Fox News. That this statement has gone out there, and stayed out there, must at the very least have had his acquiescence, if not his approval. The channel’s hosts mainly shill for Trump. So they are happy to endorse a bent politician, a crook, a charlatan, a traitor to his country. For them, that is OK.

So a little light holiday reading for Karen Bradley, and the inevitable question: still happy with declaring the Murdochs “fit and proper”? Because a growing number of voters aren’t.