Sun Putin Congratulation Hypocrisy

After Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, head for the time being of the gangsterist régime that passes for Government in Russia, was re-elected in another of those sham elections that they have been staging so successfully since the days of the USSR, there was the customary chorus of disapproval. But there were also diplomatic niceties to observe, and so Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, did just that.

The Murdoch Sun could not let that go unchallenged, and so non-bullying political editor Tom Newton Dunn was sent over the top to tell readers “EU boss Jean-Claude Juncker congratulates Vladimir Putin on election win and fails to mention spy attack on Britain … The European Commission president wrote to Russia's leader this morning”.

There was more. “The 63 year-old Commission chief also … addressed Putin as ‘Excellency’ … He was angrily accused of undermining world efforts to confront the Kremlin boss over the sick assassination bid by fellow Brussels bosses”. No fellow Brussels bosses are cited. Nor are the Sun’s double standards addressed.

Because there are two small details the paper has managed to forget. One, Combover Crybaby Donald Trump also congratulated Putin, and made sure everyone knew by Tweeting out the news: “I called President Putin of Russia to congratulate him on his election victory (in past, Obama called him also). The Fake News Media is crazed because they wanted me to excoriate him. They are wrong! Getting along with Russia (and others) is a good thing, not a bad thing”. What you won’t read in the Sun.

And two, as Alexander Clarkson has pointed out, “Ronald Reagan congratulates Yuri Andropov to his election as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet in 1983. Traditionally even the most bitter adversaries have observed basic diplomatic decorum. It is key to sustaining a rules based international order”. Moreover, Ronnie addressed Andropov as “Excellency”, the term which the Sun found so distasteful.

On top of all that, while the Sun, in that same year, dumped comprehensively on Michael Foot during a General Election campaign where they shilled shamelessly for Margaret Thatcher, and told anyone who would listen that he was too old to serve as Prime Minister, the following year the paper was rooting for someone even older.

That older man was Ronald Reagan, who received gushing praise from the Murdoch goons when he ran for his second term in 1984. Except in Ronnie’s case, we now know that he really was too old to serve, and that his memory had already begun to fail him.

But that, too, won’t be getting into the Murdoch press, where the abuse just continues: “Jean-Claude Juncker congratulating Putin’s bent election win is sickening - because it’s a clear disregard for democracy … The EU chief's celebration of the leader's rigged election is more evidence that he would love to see our Brexit vote reversed as he has scant regard for genuine votes” ranted yesterday’s Sun editorial.

Is that like the genuine massive vote in Parliament for both parts of the Leveson Inquiry and the Crime and Courts Act, including Section 40? Away with you, Murdoch clowns.