Has Tony Abbott done a deal with Rupert Murdoch? Is the Murdoch press in Australia about to change horses, as they just did recently in the UK, and back the conservative political party in an election year?
Let’s read the tea leaves. Supporting the Liberals sits with Rupert Murdoch’s own politics … there is no apparent personal chemistry between Rudd and Murdoch … Murdoch hates intellectuals and wonks … there’s a distinct lack of personal chemistry between Rudd and some of Murdoch’s key Australian henchmen, notably Australian editor Chris Mitchell, who has been conducting a fatwa on Rudd for a year or more … the Government decision to enrich the free-to-air stations is a large public snub to News Limited … Murdoch is on the record as opposing the Rudd and Obama stimulus packages … Tony Abbott is close to Telegraph attack dog Piers Akerman … Murdoch respects hard men like Abbott and dislikes liberal wimps like Malcolm Turnbull … Murdoch loves to be a king-maker … Abbott needs to pull a rabbit out of the hat …
Of course there’s no piece of paper, and denials from both sides will be shrill. But you don’t need documentary evidence to confirm such a deal: it will be available for verification in the news and editorial pages of a dozen capital city newspapers between now and the federal election.
Watch that space.
Would Murdoch risk backing a loser? Maybe, I think he’s losing it at a business level.
Why, its doing that already,I just hope Rudd wins and has a long memory I would not give the Liberal dogs a sniff of an oily rag,and Murdock’s pay TV empire needs lots of completion, there more than one way to skin a Murdock
Not since Whitlam has a ruthless Murdoch favoured a Labor person. The ‘Australian of the Year’ rubbish a few weeks ago was just to cover his you-know-what in the future, i.e., ‘we gave you credit when it was due, but now we have to…blah, blah, blah’. Labor will win anyway.
Murdoch’s ability to pick winners is vastly overrated – just witness his sad purchase of MySpace – so it’s possible he’s believing his own rags and thinks Abbott’s in with a chance.
Alternatively, he may be investing in a two-term plan to get Abbott into the Lodge. A rotating Liberal leadership doesn’t help Murdoch get his pet party into government, so by endorsing Abbott he may prevent any future leadership spills, while his trollumnists can deify Abbott full-time for the next few years without fear of looking like deluded hypocrites if he gets toppled.
Never have I read such confected garbage as this.
It’s no secret the open festering hatred Crikey has for Murdoch but it is this kind of crap journalism that will keep Crikey mired firmly with the fairies at the bottom of the garden struggling for relevance.