Seumas Milne writes:
The Tory operation to bury the phone-hacking scandal in spin and official inquiries is now in full flow. On his way back from Africa, David Cameron declared it was essential to get the whole business into perspective, echoing Rupert Murdoch’s insistence that his competitors had got up “this hysteria”. Today, the prime minister chided Ed Miliband for “chasing conspiracy theories” and claimed it was really Gordon Brown who had been in the pocket of the global media billionaire.
Meanwhile, News International pundits and others with their own reasons to stem the flood of revelations have been loudly insisting that the political clout of Murdoch’s corporate colossus has been exaggerated. The hyper-regulated BBC is the real media monopoly, they say, and in any case the current fixation with phone hacking has meant no one is discussing bankers’ bonuses and the threat of another financial meltdown. This is a “frenzy that has grown out of control”, the Daily Mail complained.
But the real frenzy isn’t the exposure of the scandal – it’s the scale of corruption, collusion and cover-up between News International, politicians and police that the scandal has revealed. As the cast of hacking victims, blaggers and blackmailers has lengthened, and the details of the incestuous payments and job-swapping between News International, government and Scotland Yard become more complex, it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture that is now emerging.
If it were not for the uncovering of this cesspit, the Cameron government would be preparing to nod through the outright takeover of BSkyB by News International, taking its dominance of Britain’s media and political world into Silvio Berlusconi territory. But what has been exposed now goes well beyond the hacking of murder victims and dead soldiers’ families – or even the media itself. The scandal has lifted the lid on how power is really exercised in 21st-century Britain – in which the unreformed City and its bankers play a central part.
Murdoch’s overweening political influence has long been recognised, from well before Tony Blair flew to Australia in 1995 to pay public homage at his corporate court. What has been less well understood is how close-up and personal the pressure exerted by his organisation has been throughout public life. The fear that those who crossed him would be given the full tabloid treatment over their personal misdemeanours, real or imagined, has proved to be a powerful Mafia-like racket.
“Murdoch’s overweening political influence” has been first at the service of his empire but he and his empire have been at the service of Zionism and the state of Israel. Murdoch is the consummate Zionist propagandist.
Murdoch to the Anti Defamation League, New York, New York, October 13, 2010:
“You have championed equal treatment for all races and creeds.”
“My own perspective is simple: we live in a world where there is an ongoing war against the Jews… Now the war has entered a new phase. This is the soft war that seeks to isolate Israel by delegitimizing it… In this war, the aim is to make Israel a pariah.”
“Often this new anti-Semitism dresses itself up as legitimate disagreement with Israel.”
“For me, this ongoing war is a fairly obvious fact of life. Every day, the citizens of the Jewish homeland defend themselves against armies of terrorists whose maps spell out the goal they have in mind: a Middle East without Israel.”
“Israel becomes increasingly ostracised, while Iran – a nation that has made no secret of wishing Israel’s destruction – pursues nuclear weapons loudly, proudly and without apparent fear of rebuke.”
“Some believe that if America wants to gain credibility in the Muslim world and advance the cause of peace, Washington needs to put some distance between itself and Israel…. My view is the opposite. Far from making peace more possible, we are making hostilities more certain.”
“Far from making things better for the Palestinian people, sour relations between the United States and Israel guarantees that ordinary Palestinians will continue to suffer……The peace we all want will come when Israel feels secure.”
“Right now we have war. There are many people waging this war. Some blow up cafés. Some fire rockets into civilian areas… Some are fighting the soft war, through international boycotts and resolutions condemning Israel.”
And so another soldier for tribal/racist Zionism has been manipulating power at the highest levels for many years in the “usual way” …… “The fear that those who crossed him would be given the full tabloid treatment over their personal misdemeanours, real or imagined, has proved to be a powerful Mafia-like racket.”
If not war crimes, crimes against humanity, murder or identity fraud, it is blackmail and corruption, yet Israel is always pretending to portray itself and its people as the victims with their backs against a wall.
I don’t thing “de-legitimizing” is a word, but as far as Israel is concerned it should be, because between the actions of its regime and its footsoldiers in the corporate, media, and political world abroad like Murdoch it is doing exactly that to itself.
I really expect that the phone hacking scandal/Murdoch power over politics will turn out to be a tempest in a teapot. After all the outrage and bluster it will quickly return to business as usual. News International will retain its hold over the stupidest segment of the electorate—in Britain and US—politicians will still kiss Murdoch’s ass, no one will go to jail (except perhaps the coffee boy who worked in the hackers’ offices), the politicians will clear all their policies with the powerful, and democracy will continue to be a sham.
Hey, Brits—Henry VIII would have handled this better.
Here is Gordon Duff’s article on Murdoch — Duff runs a US Marine veterans page, mainly writing for those who disillusioned at being stranded by their own govt, cheated, and they feel very very pissed off that they fought a war in Iraq for Israel, and feel anger at AIPAC’s power.
Agree or disagree with the following from Gordon Duff , it is a very powerful article :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EgZBb31rfs&feature=channel_video_title
Part Two, an Advaita-Vedantic view of Murdoch —
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxcC_3WTJO0&feature=channel_video_title