This past Monday, on the day of the big Leveson recommendations vote in Parliament, Rupert executed this reverse Godwin (Godwin's Law: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.") on the front page of his News of the World replacement tabloid, The Sun:
So eager was Mr. Murdoch to circulate this nasty bit of propaganda, he had his Sky News team tweet the image out a day early (Sunday). The tweet itself was also a reverse Godwin:
SUN FRONT PAGE: D-DAY #skypapers pic.twitter.com/cN0Yp1Yorj
6:49pm - 17 Mar 13
But it didn't work! -- Parliament and P.M. Cameron agreed on Monday to adopt enough of a legal underpinning to the new media regulations that even the heroic Hacked Off activist group was satisfied with the results. And so were the parents of Milly Dowler.
For reasons not entirely clear, Rupert is furiously opposed to any laws being born of Leveson. Maybe it's his legacy he's worried about - history will now mainly remember him as the dirty digger. Or maybe new laws make him more liable in future civil cases.
Regardless, he now believes David Cameron has betrayed him, so he lashes out in personal tweets and on his tabloid covers:
On Wednesday he tweets:
UK Royal Charter requires Queen's signature. Unlikely without full all party support. Queen doesn't do politics.
It takes stones to state so unequivocally what the queen does or doesn't do, especially after you've hacked her entire family!
Then, in a tweet on Thursday, he lets into Cameron:
Oz media censorship beaten back. UK holy mess with Internet unworkably included. Cameron showing true colors shocking many supporters.
10:45pm - 20 Mar 13
And finally, on the cover of
The Sun that same day, Rupert thinks he is taking down Parliament and Cameron by attacking their just-approved budget:
Ooh - Orwell reference. Nice one, Rupert - everyone's totally going to get that! Not. And it's rich to see Murdoch criticizing a budget for austerity that he surely lobbied for!
I believe it's fair to say Murdoch is in the throes of a megalomaniacal meltdown. He most readily calls to mind the character Newman the mailman from the sitcom Seinfeld:
"When you control the mail, Jerry, you control...information!!"