Murdoch and the media

I always laugh when people complain that Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation control the media and hence make and break governments and Prime Ministers. Yes, News Corporation has vast media resources; that also means that Murdoch does not have the time to dictate to editors and journalists daily editorial content.

In terms of media ownership in Australia, News Corporation publishes 23% of newspaper titles in Australia - somewhat below the 70% as claimed by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. However, as newspapers are highly localised, News Corp accounts for 59% of daily published newsprint and is thus pretty influential.

Phillip Adams, socialist, writer and Labor Party member is employed to write in Murdoch's flagship newspaper The Australian, the only national newspaper in the country.

So now, these people are saying that Rupert has direct input to what Adams writes, he is also employed by the government owned ABC, that is the left leaning Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The editor-at-large Paul Kelly was formerly married to Roz Kelly, the Keating Labor government minister; hardly a right-wing conspiracy here. 

That is a sledge on Adams and his professional ethics; if you have read any of Phillip Adams' work, you will quickly conclude that Murdoch has had no input into the tripe he puts out - it is that bad. But if you are an ultra left leaning person, you will probably love the highly offensive nature of his writing.