Rupert Murdoch, owner of Teabagger megaphone Fox News and right-wing shill machine The Wall Street Journal, went on Twitter to abuse the people his media organization stalked, hacked and lied to.
Murdoch is apparently incensed that these people are getting the British Prime Minister's ear: Murdoch believes that ear is reserved for his exclusive use.
more beneath the orange cloud of whatever Murdoch's been smoking
According to Britain's The Guardian newspaper (The Guardian was the first British paper to reveal the extent of the Murdoch organization's criminal activities):
Rupert Murdoch has labelled victims of phone hacking "scumbag celebrities" after they met David Cameron during the Conservative party conference.
On Saturday night Murdoch took to Twitter to criticise the talks in Birmingham between the prime minister and members of the Hacked Off campaign, singer Charlotte Church, former Crimewatch presenter Jacqui Hames and actor Hugh Grant.
Murdoch tweeted: "Told UK's Cameron receiving scumbag celebrities pushing for even more privacy laws. Trust the toffs! Transparency under attack. Bad."
Many of Murdoch's senior British henchmen (and henchwomen) are facing criminal charges in the British courts over the illegal hacking, surveillance and stalking of celebrities and ordinary citizens.
Over 4,000 people were targeted by Murdoch's lackeys and many of them are suing his organization in the UK courts.
The Guardian went on to add:
The former Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris was one of the first to respond to the comments, tweeting: "By "scumbag celebs" do u mean the WPC (Woman Police Constable) u put under surveillance, the teen girl yr papers perved over, or the actor u hacked?". He accused Murdoch of being disingenuous and hypocritical. "I was at meeting & unlike yr secret meetngs w/ PMs promoting yr business, the victims went in front door & told media abt it," he wrote, calling for Murdoch to remove his tweet, labelling him a "bully".
Murdoch also engaged with one Twitter user who said: "Scumbags"? And your journalists and executives are what?". Murdoch replied, somewhat incomprehensibly: "They don't get arrested for indecency on major LA highways! Or abandon love child's".
This last remark of Murdoch's led one Twitter wag to tweet:
"The real scandal here is that the head of a news empire can't pluralise the world 'child'".
The Australian media tycoon started out as a press baron after he inherited Australian newspapers from his father, Sir Keith Murdoch; by aggressively buying newspapers all over the world, Murdoch created News International.
From there, Murdoch moved into broadcasting and film production after buying Metromedia’s U.S. TV stations and Twentieth Century-Fox. In the process Murdoch trampled all over federal newspaper/broadcasting cross-ownership regulations and played a major role in persuading various administrations to undermine those laws.
Murdoch used his U.S. broadcasting empire to exert a powerfully toxic influence on US political discourse, Fox News Channel (launched in 1996) being the most egregious offender.
It's widely understood that the repellent Fox News merely reflects the political views of its owner. Indeed, so extreme, so vile, so dishonest and so fundamentally undemocratic are the views of this Australian carpetbagger that he makes William Randolph Hearst look like Rachel Maddow.
Murdoch has never made any distinction between between business and politics: one is a continuation, or adjunct, of the other. Murdoch has always used his media outlets and his political connections to advance his business interests, even, as was the case in China, when those interests run counter to democracy...or, indeed, decency.
Even the rather staid and effete world of book publishing wasn't immune from Murdoch's baleful influence. Murdoch has played a major role in book publishing since he bought HarperCollins (previously Harper & Row) in 1987. Murdoch has been blatant about using Harper to win favor with leading political figures by offering them multi-million dollar book deals.
The most notorious case involved the buffoonish and insatiably greedy Newt Gingrich. In 1994 it was revealed that he was to receive a $4.5 million advance on a two-book deal while he was Speaker of the House and in a position to influence legislation that would benefit Murdoch's News Corp.
Although Gingrich called the criticism “grotesque and disgusting,” the outcry persuaded him to decline the advance. Other public figures such as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas were also offered large advances by Harper Collins.
While Murdoch and News Corp's troubles continue in the UK, with no end in sight, one would like to think that there will be consequences for Murdoch in the US, where his company is headquartered.
The bribery aspects of the phone hacking scandal strongly suggest the possibility of Murdoch and his company being prosecuted under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act aspect of the affair. Last July, the Justice Department announced that they were launching a 'preliminary investigation':
The Justice Department is preparing to launch a preliminary investigation into whether News of the World officials engaged in a systemic conspiracy to pay bribes to British police, ABC News has learned.
If that can be established, department officials will have to determine whether News Corp., the parent company of News of the World, violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and whether charges should be brought against against the company.
The revelation suggests that the Justice Department's look at News Corp. will reach beyond allegations that News of the World employees hacked the phones of 9/11 victims and their families, which is being investigated by the New York field division of the FBI. -- abcnews.com
Murdoch has ducked and dodged his way around U.S. law for too long, even becoming an American citizen to get around the restrictions on foreign media ownership. Touching, isn't it? He became a US citizen for
business reasons; and
that kind of patriotism is bound to run deep...or perhaps not.
It's high time this odious man and his vile company were brought to book. The damage he has done to political discourse in the United States is incalculable and he should be made to pay for it.