If Rupert Murdoch is a journalist then what does that make Bill Gates? A data entry clerk?

Whine, whinge, wail, the sky's falling. What a load of bollocks.

If American capitalists buy up the rest of the world, that's just spreading American values.

If an Australian does it in the US, he's an upstart immigrant.

Having worked for Murdoch as a staffer for many years, I can tell you that his flagship newspapers like The Australian and The Times of London are neither right nor left leaning. Editors are not pressured to support Murdoch's choices of political candidate, and are generally free to exercise their editorial independence.

They have done so, and continue to do so, without fear or favour especially in the past 20 years. A case in point: on our paper recently, support for the Labor candidate in the coming federal election and a couple of years back, an expose of the dreadful working conditions in Chinese factories building goods for the west, putting paid to the notion that Murdoch won't run anything bad that might upset the Chinese government

On offer from News Corp to its staff are loyalty, decent pay and perks for fair day's work, generosity and a great deal of benevolence (my own experience: my wife has been ill for a few years, and when I told them I needed time off, they told me to take as much as I wanted and not to worry about it. When I asked about my pay, they said it would be looked after, and it was).

Anyone who thinks Murdoch should be judged on a couple of racy tabloids, The New York Post (now outselling the Daily News) and the Fox News network (which is more entertainment than news) is deluding themselves. What he is is an astute manager who can turn failing business concerns into money-making ventures, which means more jobs and a stronger economy.

Some years ago, I left News and went to work at the Sydney Morning Herald, which the trendies and lefties of this city see as "quality journalism" because it's dressed up in a broadsheet suit.

What they asked me to do there was no different, except I had to write a bit more. But people not in this business still can't get their heads around the notion that the journalism skills required weren't any different at either place.

Get over it Heloise ... The US is the instigator of the global economy, because it suits its needs, and you reap what you sow. Now you know what it feels like to have all your precious institutions bought up by foreigners.

We're familiar with it in Australia because American companies love taking over our icons so they can make a buck.

Chalk this one up as a nice bit of revenge in the don't get mad, get even vein.

Revenge of the Aussie media tycoon ... good stuff. America needs to be shaken out of its inwards-looking, navel-gazing, isolationist lethargy and who better to do it than an Aussie.

And here's the rub: since Australia and the US signed a free-trade agreement in 2004, despite it being held up in the Senate in Australia and nearly not happening, in three years it is now running at two and a half billion dollars in favour of the US.

The big problem is that very efficient Australian farmers feeding a continent and half the rest of the world have to compete with some very inefficient US farming practises propped up by US govt subsidies (a fact acknowledged by the US govt). Do you hear us complaining though? No, we just go out and do what we do.

Go and do your homework Heloise before you put pen to paper. And Murdoch's dad, Sir Keith, owned a smallish daily newspaper in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia and a very nice but provincial place tucked way down south in what seems like the middle of nowhere.

Murdoch has built his media empire from that one newspaper. An American-style capitalist if ever there was one.

Heloise said he was "the perfect centrist." Now, can you top that? I was purely guessing.

Is that why Australia is in a severe drought? You are reaping your righteous karmas just like the US of A.

You failed to mention how your countrymen slaughtered the aboriginal population there...hmmm. Heloise is the man, don't forget it.

I thought there were laws in the US against monopolies. That's my sole objection. Oh well: one more law BushCo is going to ignore or violate in order to line cronies' pockets.

John Nichols on "GO LEFT TV" discussing the pending WSJ takeover by Rupert

Nichols says his pattern is to change the papers to slant to his beliefs. And why should he change? Not to say they are all rags, but Rupert clones is more like it!!

BTW he has 175 papers. If that is not the definition of monopoly Nancy, I don't know what is. Of course they are global.

Heloise

"Is that why Australia is in a severe drought?"

We're not in severe drought. The drought's broken. But I prefer to blame el nino for our drought, as it's been happening thus for millions of years.

And no, we didn't slaughter our aboriginal population.

I've just been speaking to my part aboriginal son this morning, and if such a slaughter had taken place, I wouldn't have been.

But yes, just like the US, we gave our indigenous population a hard time.

"We're not in severe drought. The drought's broken. But I prefer to blame el nino for our drought, as it's been happening thus for millions of years." (emphasis added)

Sorta like global warming...

No, it's Climate Change now Clav ... after the coldest UK summer for years, they had to change the name :)

Doubtless there is a tad of blame to be laid re climate change in regards to our recent situation, but everyone here older than 60 can remember alternate fluctuations of drought and flood, really hot weather and cold (well, for us).

But Karma it ain't. Heloise, as usual, doesn't seem to have a clue what she's torkin about. I bet she's never been here either.

I thought Kevin Kline did a great job portraying a Murdochesque figure in the movie Fierce Creatures. Remember - the follow-up to A Fish Called Wanda that everyone hated? Kline was the best thing in it. Pity about his shocking Aussie accent though.

In my experience, no bastard can do an Aussie accent except an Aussie. Many have tried, and many have been laughed at.

Other accents appear to be easy enough to mimic, but ours is a struggle it seems. Yet it should be simple enough - just a cross between bog Irish larrikin and cockney barrow boy. Perhaps it's all the, um, subtle nuances.

Good thing though ... it means you can tell the imposters :)

I have been invited to New Zealand by someone I met in India. It is just too damn far.

However, the many Aussies I've met I have to say have been some of the sweetest people ever. Many who moved to enslave the South Africans have since moved to the U.S. to get away from the after effects of Apartheid.

I thought I would NOT like them, but couldn't help it...strange.

Heloise

So talk what you know. Heloise has either been to or knows people from every corner of the earth....now

Re #12:

I dunno, mate. The worst Aussie accent I've heard probably has to be Russell Crowe's. Even Mel's was better... remember when he used to have one?

Funnily enough, I'm often asked by people over here if I'm Australian. Perhaps because of this strange habit I've picked up of saying "No worries" when someone apologizes to me.

Re #13:

Heloise, you're in Texas, right? But, uh, isn't India further away from there than NZ??

As long as you're in moderately robust health, you should definitely go. Air New Zealand flies direct to Auckland from either LA or San Fran - can't remember which right now. You'd just have the one long-haul flight, instead of the minimum two it takes to get to India.

Just thought of it: What do you get when you cross an Aussie with a Wall Street: a Dow jones!

Heloise

Vote for me...

"In my experience, no bastard can do an Aussie accent except an Aussie. Many have tried, and many have been laughed at. "

yeah, it is funny hearing an australian accent. especially a poorly done one... it's so silly to begin with. it's like the yelp you hear out of man at the instant he is kicked in the nuts. that strange cry of anguish that gets stuck in his throat. except on australians, that sound is always in their throat... warbling around, elongating vowels, making up new vowels... it's almost musical in the purity of its anguish. it floats from tone to tone without reason or warning, like a mosquito searching for blood. nasty things.

We laugh our tits off here at your nasally, front of the mouth American accents, too zing. The general concensus is that most sound like two cats being strangled at the same time, volume often being a key issue here, but worse, they invariably sound really fu.king stupid, especially when making ridiculous comments about the state of the world or asking silly questions :)

And don't get me started on the Poms, Scots, Welsh, Irish, Kiwis, Canadians, West Indians and Indians proper and those bloody Seth Effricans (if I left any bastard out, include them too). How anyone understands all these poorly enunciated, bastardised strains of "English" is beyond me.

You all need to do some remedial English pronunciation classes and learn how to speak properly.

"I have been invited to New Zealand by someone I met in India. It is just too damn far."

NZ is way closer to the US than India. It's a trans-pacific flight and if it's non-stop, it's about 10-12 hours I believe from LA to Auckland.

India's much further from the US. Flying time from here is about 10 hours, so you could add at least another 15 from the west coast of America.

Going the other way around via the middle-east wouldn't be any quicker either.

But as for not wanting to go to NZ, I don't blame you :) It's a great place for sheep, though - especially those looking for lonely men to shack up with.

"However, the many Aussies I've met I have to say have been some of the sweetest people ever. Many who moved to enslave the South Africans have since moved to the U.S. to get away from the after effects of Apartheid."

Heloise, Australians had nothing to do with South Africa and apartheid. They are two totally different countries about 8000 miles apart.

One is populated by wonderful people, the other by boorish dutchmen.

Perhaps you could invest in a map to get a better idea ... Mercator does a very nice line in world maps.

Or one of those spin-around globe, so you can actually pinpoint everything outside Doodad County.

Very poetic, zingzing.

He's a poet and don't know it

And don't get me started on the Poms, Scots, Welsh, Irish...

And how exactly, Stan, can accents that were flourishing at a time when the only words in the Australian language were "Honest, Your Honour, it wasn't me what pinched 'is purse" be bastardized?

Go after zing, by all means, mate - he was well out of order. But leave the beautiful tongues of the mother islands alone. Except for Liverpool. And Birmingham. Those are fair game...!

How're ya, ya old bastard?

And just in case you can't find a world map, Heloise, here's one for you. Click on the world continents map at the top left to get an idea.

Please note Australia is the large island continent at the bottom of the world (with the two main islands of NZ just to its right), and has nothing to do with Africa, and particularly South Africa, which sits to its left.

Nor do Australians particularly like certain white South Africans, and agitated strongly along with Britain for an end to Apartheid, ordering as far back as the 60s an end to political and sporting contact with South Africa because of its policy of apartheid.

Indeed, it was a cause celebre here. One of my mates is a pro-surfer who put his world title on the line by making a decision not to go there.

Apologies, but in view of your muddled statement about the two countries, which only serves to foster the sterotype of the ignorance of some Americans, I hope you'll excuse me I if I can't again take seriously anything you write.

Never mind. I think I know the answer.

I'll ask again tomorrow...

I'm pretty good actually, Clav, except that I'm at work (it being Saturday here already) and what I really need is a whole weekend off. I am going to Portugal in three weeks, and then Thailand for a few weeks afterwards so I'll have some time off then, which will be good.

What about you? Is yer wife OK?

PS: I notice you and moonraven were having some sport with each other during the week :)

Yes... it does seem as if someone fell off the wrong side of their surfboard this morning...!

DD writes: "Yes... it does seem as if someone fell off the wrong side of their surfboard this morning...!"

Possibly, and I did get a pounding in the surf this morning thanks to a bloody backpacker who shouldn't have been out there taking off in front of me and missing my family jewels by millimetres after turning his board (minus rider) into an exocet missile.

But no, what I'm mad about is Heloise writing what she purports to be fact, and then finding herself unable to tell the difference between South Africans and Australians and suggesting that those Aussies who had enslaved black south africans in South Africa during apartheid were now moving to the US to get away from it all.

Actually, we've had an influx of South Africans here (and quite a few Aussies live here too - in Australia, that is - believe it or not).

How are things in British West Fresno?

DD: "Honest, Your Honour, it wasn't me what pinched 'is purse"

Lol. 'Course, haven't heard it before, but it's still funny.

Pom arrives at Sydney airport.

Customs officer: "Do you have a criminal record?"

Pom: "No, sorry, officer - I didn't know you still needed one".

I understand, Stan: my hackles rise in much the same way when people on BC say ignorant things about Britain - especially when it's Mark Manning... ignorant, because he bloody well lives there and should know better.

By golly, you do have an evocative turn of phrase... I can just picture that hapless surfer and his rebellious board right now... and hear the "Aussie invective" you no doubt hurled in his direction (in a temporary falsetto voice)!

Things in the Saharan Republic of West Fresno are as usual: like opening the oven door every time you're unwise enough to step outside an air-conditioned building. Another 100+ degree day today... and two more months of this shit before autumn finally realizes it oughtnto put in an appearance. (Don't you come denying global warming to me, Clavos!)

Apologies for all the shocking typos: they are there because (a) I just bought a new Apple laptop and am still getting used to the switch from PC (with all the keyboard quirks along with everything else) and (b) I left my glasses uopstairs in the bedroom, where my wife is trying to sleep and I don't want to disturb her, so I can't actually see any of the typos.

Because of (b), I've probably also done a Ruvy and left an HTML tag open somewhere. Sorry, everyone...! Tank you for flying Blogritics and I hope you enjoyed your universally italicized experience!

Spare a thought for Clavos. At least you'll get a winter in California. It's a bit like north Queensland down there in south Florida ... it rarely gets cool (temperature-wise, that is) in Miami. And summer there can be very hot and sticky. I am glad I live in a continent at the bottom of the world (near South Africa).

And, ah, yeah ... I think the backpacker did learn a few new English words this morning.

Fist, lucky, fair and face might have been among them.

dreadful: "Go after zing, by all means, mate - he was well out of order."

bah. just having a bit of fun. the aussie accent is like any other accent... it has its moments. from having spent time in england, i know your southern accents are just as wretched on the ear. but the northern accents... oh my. how affected can you get? see? just a bit of fun.

you say you just got a mac, eh? so did i. have you had any reason to mess about with x11? i'm trying to run open office, but it keeps fuckin with me. it won't let me run it off the desktop, and i think it has something to do with x11. i'm no computer expert, but macs make me feel really stupid.

more stupid than my accent. not that i have one.

zing: "more stupid than my accent. not that i have one."

Yes, mate, you do ... and it's an absolute dead-set barry crocker on the ear'oles. People say it sounds like two cats being strangled, but I reckon it sounds more like a trodden-on parrot.

Stan, I can commiserate about working on Saturday; it's Saturday morning here, and I'm leaving to show boats all day to two airline pilots; but at least they've a good budget, so if I find them something they like, the wife and I'll be able to eat another couple of months...

Do you know the difference between God and an airline pilot?

Wait for it...

Easy now.....



Here it is!



God doesn't think He's a pilot!

Ta Da!

PS: Thanks fer askin' about me wife; we just saw her principal Dr. a couple of days ago. Based on our consultation, 'e changed her meds and there's been a GOOD improvement! Hope it lasts...keep yer fingers crossed!

STM - just because I enjoy contradicting you so much:

...wasn't there a significant migration of Aussies (miners and artisans) to SA circa 1900 - ?

isn't Heloise's comment a bit closer to truth than you give her credit for - ?

Heloise speaks from speaking to people who live there. The Boer war brought the Brits, but no titts to S. Africa. Are the Aussies also formerly British? You are related by blood and race to the same people who went to SA.

I just reviewed a book about British involvement in SA, and I already know they set out there. How did white people get in SA in the first place?

The Aussie here wants to sidestep that mess that Brits and Aussies and SA whites are all one and the same people. NOt the same place, dummie. If I have flown all over and taken trains all over Europe I think I have a better sense of what's what. JFK went to Viet Nam before anybody ever heard of the damn place in 1957. The world is my oyster buddy.

Heloise

Heloise: How dare you describe us as British?

You can almost be prosecuted for that in Australia.

Bloody hell ... one thing we are NOT is British.

There is too much Irish in us for that. About half the country is Catholic.

And considering the bastards sent the early settlers here in chains, it's meant there hasn't been a lot of love lost since then.

We don't exactly hate the buggers, but still ...

Australia's national pastime is tonking Poms.

Your thoughts above are rather disjointed, Heloise, but I think I get what you're saying... and it's still not valid.

It would be a bit like me saying you were partly responsible for the Rwandan genocide. Africans... African Americans... all one and the same people, right?

Troll: "isn't Heloise's comment a bit closer to truth than you give her credit for - ?"

No, it's like saying that Americans and British are the same people. They ain't.

Yeah, we all share common things, but none of us are the same.

And none of us are like South Africans :)

They're one of a kind, that mob.

And sure Heloise, you knew all the time, eh? I say you didn't know the difference between Australians and South Africans and are just now doing a bit of tap dancing so you don't look too much of a tit :)

Bloody hell, mate, what are you doing still up at this hour?! Isn't it, like, 4,000,000 a.m. over there?

Heloise writes: "I just reviewed a book about British involvement in SA, and I already know they set out there. How did white people get in SA in the first place?"

The first white people in south africa were Boers (Afrikaners). They still describe themselves as the white tyribe of africa. It was Afrikaners who took over the reins of government after the British left for self-rule.

The Republic of South Africa, and its apartehid policies and the results in the form that we all saw unfolding on our TV screens, was largely an afrikaner invention.

Nah, Doc, 12.45am.

I'm at work, slaving for Rupert. And contrary to popular belief, he actually pays us reasonable remuneration to do so.

It's also a lot of fun, as I'm in sport. Like being at the pub, but with no beer. I guess if you have to work Saturdays and you're a bloke, that's the way to do it.

Good on yer Clav. Make sure they throw a free trip into the bucket on the deal.

First-class Down Under wouldn't go astray! Bit of sailing, few beers, chillin' ...

Ah. I was forgetting you're on winter time down there at the moment. Nevertheless - who's playing sport at 12.45 a.m.?

I'll answer my own question: there's always a sporting fixture going on somewhere in Australia - or failing that, a game somewhere in the world involving Australians!

And I thought you said earlier in this thread that you used to work for Murdoch, but now no longer do? Does he own the Herald?

No, sorry doc, I should've made myself clearer about that. I worked for years at News, went off to work for a minister (govt, not church) then went to the Herald.

I just couldn't deal with it, though. It was like working for the Post Office in some ways.

So I went back to the devil I know. And one thing you can't take away from Murdoch is that he does have a go.

That filters down I think, so the place is pretty lively and very old-school newspaper business in many ways.

Sold my soul? Possibly, but I didn't bloody get much for it ...

Roogby league, and replays of AFL.

I just have to stay back after we've tidied everything up in case there are problems. But I'm off soon.

First though, I'm going to have a nice cup of tea. I'm sure you and Rosey can relate to that :)

Stan,

In view of some of your comments above, I think you might enjoy this opinion piece from one of your journalistic cousins.

Clav. I feel the same way. In the past 35 years, I have worked on most papers in this city ... including four that no longer exist.

Working for Murdoch has been a hell of a lot of fun. The things I've learned have held me in really good stead when I've moved to other news organisations, and because times change, I'm still learning every day.

Murdoch's teams are old-school newspapermen through and through, which is what makes it all so much fun.

People who've never worked for News Corp or sonme of its affiliates just don't understand.

People tend to judge him on a couple of racy tabloids in England and the Fox News network in the US, which is a classic example of how Murdoch picks his markets. People get really serious about it, but it's entertainment mildly packaged as news - and aimed at one specific market.

It's almost talk-back television.

But his flagship newspapers, The Times of London and The Australian, both broadsheets, are really serious operations and are rightly regarded as independent journals of record.

Things ain't always as they seem, and I maintain in regard to the kinds of comments we're seeing from Heloise and the staff of the WSJ, it's OK for American companies to buy up the world because that's American values and a free-market economy, but if a non-American buys up Americasn institutions, that's a jumped up immigrant who should mind his Ps and Qs.

Well, Murdoch is a global capitalist and a man who built a multi-billion publishing/media/entertainment empire from a small newspaper in Adelaide left to him by his father.

And anyone who knows anything about Adelaide, it being a very provinical State capital stuck down the bottom of nowhere (our own private Idaho), knows that's no mean feat.

Ted Turner built Turner Broadcasting and CNN from a small outdoor billboard company in the Savannah, Georgia area that was in such bad shape financialy his father committed suicide over it.

Some guys are VERY good at building...

I think the mass hysteria about Murdoch's purchase is fueled by what is the joke Fox News Channel is. Many fear that the well renowned publication will become a cesspool of weak inconsequence much like FNC.

Many fear that the well renowned publication will become a cesspool of weak inconsequence much like FNC.

A bit like this, maybe...?

come on doc, you lived in London ... you know it didn't have any impact on The Times, and what many Americans don't even realise is that Murdoch has owned quite a few of their well-known, top-selling daily newspapers for decades.

I can think of three cities just off the top of my head where News Corp owns major dailies: Chicago, Boston and San Antonio.

I won't count NY because everyone knows Murdoch has the Post, which icidentally is now outselling the Daily News. As a staffer, I know ehere I'd rather work: the paper with rising sales, not falling ones.

That bit's right anyway, Stan: the Times was a festering stack of used bog roll before Murdoch took it over and not a lot changed. (Except maybe the crossword got easier.) Any broadsheet reader worth their salt knew that the Telegraph or the Independent were the way to go.

My Dad was a diehard Telegraph reader. He never bought a copy because he knew he could just pick up one that someone had left behind on the train when they'd finished with it.

So he would come home each evening and settle down with the Torygraph crossword, which he firmly believed was harder than anything the Times could come up with.