If this election campaign has been marked, or should I say marred, with anything in particular, it is the appalling level of coverage by the right wing press. Today’s issues, north and south of the border, of Rupert Murdoch’s Sun reach new depths of lies and hypocrisy.
The English edition has an entire front page dedicated to a mock up photograph of a baby being born, but with head of David Cameron planted on top of it. The headline is, “It’s a Tory”, followed by several sub-headlines and outright lies about how “Labour wrecked the economy”. That’s just for starters. But go to the Scottish Sun and the headline is very different: “May the seventh be with you: why it’s time to vote SNP”. Woah, just a minute. The English Sun calls the SNP “wreckers” but the Scottish Sun featuring Nicola Sturgeon mocked up as Princess Leia from Star Wars encourages readers to back her as a “new hope” for Scotland.
Laughably, and completely unbelievably, the editor of the Scottish Sun says that it is a story of “two distinct editorial positions from two distinct, editorially-diverse newspapers.
“We are a Scottish newspaper, run in Scotland, printed in Scotland, produced in Scotland by Scots, and it’s not a surprise to anybody – least of all Rupert Murdoch – that these two papers have a diversion of view tonight.”
That, is what we in the business call bollocks. Complete and utter tosh, as they might say in Scotland. No one seriously believes that Murdoch’s newspapers are independent of their master’s voice, not unless they haven’t been paying attention. These are the real reasons for the Sun’s editorial policies:
1) Murdoch does not want a Labour government under any circumstances and will do anything he can to prevent it because he believes Labour will not be so sympathetic to his monopoly-building media interests.
2) Murdoch believes that an SNP rout in Scotland will give the Conservatives the best chance of winning a majority in Westminster.
3) Murdoch likes to be seen to be on the winning side.
So, with breathtaking chutzpah, Murdoch tries to be everything to everyone, but in so doing he shows his weakness. There can be no doubt that his newspapers are conducting what is all but bullying campaign on their readers, especially the Sun whose readers, more than most newspapers, will be the most vulnerable in the event of a Tory/SNP axis following May 7th.
The lie that Labour wrecked the economy and that the Tories saved it must be put to bed once and for all. Labour did not wreck the economy: the banks did. It was Lehman Brothers in the USA that started the worldwide economic crash, not Labour. Labour was not responsible for what happened in Greece and Spain. If Labour did one thing wrong, it did not regulate the banks tightly enough but it is a matter of record that, before the crash occurred, the Tories were calling for less regulation – less regulation in case you didn’t read it the first time – not more. But it is not Labour that has doubled that national debt since 2010, it is not Labour that presides the slowest economic recovery in modern history, it is not Labour that has caused over a million people to use food banks.
Murdoch comes just below Margaret Thatcher in my all time hate list. He pretends to be anti-establishment but in reality, he is the establishment. His newspapers have hacked the telephones, not just of celebrities, but of a murdered schoolgirl, they lied repeatedly about the dead and the dying at Hillsborough and they celebrated wildly the era of Margaret Thatcher, Murdoch’s hero, who almost destroyed this country and her evil legacy that remains today. There is so much more about this hateful man and his behemoth of a media company.
Murdoch will probably be celebrating when Labour is obliterated north of the border next week, but no one will be celebrating more than David Cameron and the nasty party. This little website, read by hundreds, not millions, will not affect the election outcome, nor would I expect or want it to, but I hope beyond hope that Sun readers will look beyond the lies, the smears and the rank hypocrisy of Rupert Murdoch’s media and make their minds up on the basis of the issues, facts and the policies the parties are offering the people.
Even Danny Alexander, the right wing Lib Dem lapdog to George Osborne in the outgoing Tory government now says “Britain is being conned”. I could say, well yes Danny: you were one of those who conned us, but for now it’s time to hear his words wisely.
You could even resurrect that old joke again. There are two things I don’t like about Rupert Murdoch: his face.
