By MICHELLE GRATTAN
It’s hard to imagine Rupert Murdoch sitting on Twitter, isn’t it? But tweet he does and today Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his deputy Anthony Albanese tweeted back. For “tweet” and “tweeted” in that sentence, substitute “punch” and “punched”.
The brawl started with Murdoch’s: “Oz politics! We all like ideal of NBN, especially perfect for Foxtel. But first how can it be financed in present situation?”
This prompted Albanese, now in charge of NBN, to tweet “Our #NBN plan will deliver affordable high speed broadband to every home and business and produce a solid rate of return”.
This had Rudd (who incidentally has 1,309,250 followers to Rupert’s 456,452), chiming in: “100% agree @AlboMP. That might be Mr Murdoch’s view in New York. Here in Oz I want high speed NBN for all, not just some.”
Murdoch and his News Corporation and Rudd are at war in this campaign.
As he tries, against the odds, to survive this election, Rudd has every reason to be worried about the potential impact of the Murdoch press, especially the Daily Telegraph in Sydney, where the ALP is desperately attempting to hang on to seats and the Courier Mail in Queensland, where Labor needs to win them.
The Telegraph’s headline after the election was called – Finally, you now have the chance to … KICK THIS MOB OUT – spurred an enormous amount of debate. But there have been plenty of other in-your-face headlines in the tabloids.
Top Comments
What a bad time for journalism in Australia. We have a none australian trying to dictate who should be elected in this country no matter who it is. Be it for financial reasons or retribution for something, murdoch has no right to interfere with australian affairs. Murdoch you left Australia and became an American citizen. Worry about America and leave us alone. I have voted LNP for 28 years but thanks to you and Newman and Abbott I will now vote labour and have stopped my subscription to your newspaper. I have also stopped the Murdoch papers from my office as a protest to bad journalism.
This nation is now quite litterally at the fork in the road, down one path is the road of Welfarism, big government, crushing taxation, carbon taxes, where policy is guided by envy, laziness and greed.
The other path is road of Indivudual liberty, invidiual responsibility for ones own welfare, smaller governmetn, lower taxation, where policy is guided by a view of what is best for our people and their freedom.
I fear that Australia has already chosen the former path and will continue down that road.
Welfarism has corrupted our Democracy, we are now doomed to eternal deficits, increasingly tribal arguments where one half of the populace wants nothing to do with the ohter half and the government is used as a bludgeon to be used by the 'winner' in a so-called 'election' to attack the side that 'lost' the latest round of so-called 'elections'.
You see it every day...
Inner city vs suburban
Cars vs Bikes
Gays vs Straights
Indigenous vs Non Indigenous
'Progressives' vs 'Conservatives'
Global Warmists vs Skeptics
Unions vs business
Poor vs Rich
Left vs Right
Government vs private sector
In the last six years our society has been shattered and fragmented, I have never seen people who were once so civilised so ready to tear into each other, I have never seen so much anger and hatred based on identity and ideology.
Countless friendships have been destroyed, extended families broken apart, people can no longer have disagreements without them turning into raging arguments. People now decide their social circles based on identify and political alliegiences, those who do not fit into their clique are now viewed with suspicion and growing hatred/jelousy.
I remember a time when we were all AUSTRALIANS first and foremost, we could debate, argue even but that one thing held us together.. now.. we are a people divided and at each others throats!
If we do not change .. we are doomed to an eternal hell.
The anger and hatred started with Mr Howard and is continuing even more under Abbott, using his mates in the media to demonize refugees, trade unions and anyone that cares about the environment.
everyone needs to slow down and smell the roses, we haven't got it so bad if we live within our means. people these days want huge houses and expensive cars, and want it all now, then cry poor and blame the government when they can't pay the bills.
the media are to blame for the anger and hatred, spreading doom and gloom through there papers, that's until the Libs get into power, then the news will tell us everything's fantastic, no matter how bad things get. Just take a look at how bad public transport is, shootings, drive bys and murder in Sydney's west everyday, if Labor were still in power in NSW they would be getting crucified by the media.