It’s probably just me, being a mean-spirited, grumpy old man, but I don’t feel inclined to join in the media excitement over Rupert Murdoch’s marriage to Jerry Hall. Perhaps it’s the company I keep, but I have not been aware of any public interest about the wedding arrangements of one of the most unpleasant human beings who has ever lived; just the odd joke, here and there, about what attracted Ms Hall to an 84 year old billionaire.
There is a certain irony that the happy couple will be exchanging vows in St Brides Church in Fleet Street, the street which the dirty digger himself was instrumental in destroying. And the very idea that such an evil man – I use the term and advisedly and I mean it – should even be allowed in a church of any kind should surely offend the sensibilities of the devout. This is a man who denied workers basic rights, like the ability to join a trade union. His journalists lied about Hillsborough and they hacked the phone of a murdered schoolgirl. And increasingly in the world of television, Murdoch is gaining a near monopoly of sporting events.
Murdoch paints himself as a scourge to the establishment, except that nowadays he is the establishment. Through his media interests, here and abroad, he considers himself to be the king maker, assisting politicians whom he thinks will best assist his business interests and being allowed direct access to the government. No one elects Murdoch, but his pernicious influence is everywhere, from the governments which are elected and the policies they follow.
Now he has married again and the Times, the fearless, campaigning Thunderer of long ago, has all the bite of a cuddly teddy bear, putting a photograph of the happy on today’s front page. Pass the sick bag.
On a day when what’s left of the free press in Turkey has been taken over by the government, I wonder how ours is that much more free. Only the small circulation Guardian is truly independent and who knows for how long that will survive given their current losses, the rest are owned by rich companies and individuals. They all pretend that ours is a free press, but free to and for whom?
Murdoch’s wedding to Ms Hall is no more news to me that Katie Price’s latest breast reduction operation. He is to journalism what King Herod was to child welfare. It’s a logical extension to the journalism of trivia that his newspapers have taken to new levels, or should I see new depths.
To me, he will always be the man who took journalism into the gutter and then into the sewer. Some legacy.
If you think your life is bad, at least you didn’t have to sleep with Rupert Murdoch last night.
