Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire just got bigger after the British government approved his takeover of the British satellite pay TV group BSkyB on March 4.
Not even evidence raised in the British parliament of his minions from the notorious rag News of the World hacking into the phones of politicians and other prominent figures (including members of the British royal family) slowed down this latest takeover.
Perhaps these dirty tricks are part of the reason why the British government approved Murdoch’s BSkyB bid — he’s got so much dirt on them that they are terrified of offending the emperor.
If it isn’t the dirt files that worry them, it’s the power of mass brainwashing that Murdoch wields through the countless rabidly conservative newspapers and TV stations he runs, such as the notorious Fox News network in the US.
The March 4 British Independent reported that British Labour is just as likely to “kneel at [Murdoch’s] altar”.
It referred to a leaked memo from Labour leader Ed Miliband's “media guru” Tom Baldwin, which “argued that Labour should not go out of its way to antagonise Murdoch”.
It has become common for the leaders of the major parties in Britain to seek audiences with emperor Murdoch (who is also a regular White House guest) before they go to elections.
The Independent said former British prime ministers “Tony Blair and Gordon Brown went out of their way to [please Murdoch]. In the mid-1990s, Blair flew to Australia partly to reassure Murdoch that he had no plans to change the rules on media ownership.”
We’ve seen Australian politicians do the same. Before he won the 2007 election, former Australian Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd made sure he paid his respects to Murdoch in his New York headquarters.
In October, Labor PM Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott also had audiences with Murdoch.
As the world cheers the deposing of one despotic regime after another by the wave of people’s power uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, let’s not forget that corporate tyrants like Murdoch still rule the world from the West. They need to be toppled, too.
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