Between rides and walks on the Trump Golf Course and embracing at the White House, Murdoch and Trump have debauched democracy.
John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.
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10 responses to “The love affair that made America grate”
“Debauched democracy” the very pith of aptness.
Yes ! but they are not the only ones.
John Pilger once said about propaganda The most effective propaganda is found not in the Sun or on Fox News – but beneath a liberal halo
Let’s work on that a tad! Both administrations have done their best to destroy the essential principles of constitutional democracy; the politics of terror, a culture of fear, and the spectacle of violence dominate America’s cultural apparatuses and legitimate the ongoing militarization of public life and American society; unchecked corporate power and a massive commodification, infantilization, and depoliticization of the polity have become the totalitarian benchmarks defining American society.
Both administrations have presided over that and our new president was gleefully supporting the result as vice president under Obama!
Murdoch embraced Trump out of envy as much as anything!
We should ask the questions, “Is the Australian mainstream right (its property interests, as represented by the Liberal and National Parties, and the ALP right) more fanatically and fearfully Sinophobic than the American? Is Murdoch, the stoker of Western fanaticism, the highly effective ambassador of the paranoid Australian mainstream right to the US and UK? Is it actually our lot at the bottom of the barrel? Has China got it right yet again?
I fear that even after the Trump and Covid experiences and the weaknesses they have exposed in the US, we are not closer to an independent foreign policy. Would the debate around a change to the Constitution for our own head of state propel that issue into the conversation?
I question if Murdoch is still the power he undoubtedly once was.
Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple are showing their control over the Internet, and what we read on the Internet. They are the new gate-keepers.
Parler, a relatively new communication service, was on Thursday the most popular app in the United States. By Monday, three of the four Silicon Valley monopolies united to destroy it.
The President of the United States has been silenced. He may have been his own worst enemy with repeated ridiculous comments, but think about it. The President of the United States has been silenced by private tech firms from Silicon Valley.
And none of the above, neither the tech firms nor the Murdoch press, are saying boo about the new Countering Domestic Terrorism Act.
Just as with Alan Jones, as long as politicians think Murdoch has power, he has power. Why are they glued to Fox After Dark when few others are?
The President of the United States has NOT been ‘silenced’!
He has merely been prevented by the owners of some very popular social media platforms from using their product. He still has options of press briefings and the like, which would undoubtedly be very well and widely publicised by the more traditional news media.
And it is equally hysterical to argue that the Silicon Valley ‘monopolies’ (wasn’t aware you could have multiple monopolies, but we live in strange times) ‘united to destroy’ Parler. They merely exercised their existing legal rights to refuse access to their platforms to another private service with which they didn’t wish to be associated. It’s ultimately no more terrible or democracy and freedom threatening than Harvey Norman refusing to stock Dodgy Brothers’ furniture.
Now there is an argument that we need publicly owned and publicly managed platforms, given the importance of Facebook and Twitter on so many levels, but, until we do (which is likely to be a rather long wait outside of mainland China) we simply have to accept private corporations exercising their legal rights. If anything, it is encouraging to see these corporations retreating a little from their infantile libertarian pretences and begin to accept some of the social responsibility their vast popularity confers on them by default.
I agree that Murdoch’s influence has greatly waned, along with most of the mainstream media. No longer can he boast “It’s the Sun wot won it” as he did with Thatcher.
As for the rest, I agree with Felix MacNeill. Trump has no absolute right to Tweet, and given what he is tweeting they are right to deny him access.
Mr Menadue, the picture on the left says “Sit!”
The picture on the right shows Trump embracing Murdoch, an Australian turned American. Have we become the 51st state of the US? The distinction is indeed blurred – we no longer seem to make our own decisions. He could be embracing Australia like he embraces Melania Trump. Yuks!
Thank you for sharing such meaningful pictures.
Sincerely,
Teow Loon Ti