Across the pond

It was only over dinner that I reconsidered my previous blog about left handedness. Which is a serious issue, as anyone born left-handed in the west will testify for. But that is what I think. The really astonishing thing about the last few days is that one Murdoch newspaper,the London Times, has delivered a fiercely critical article about Obama, under the byline of its chief American correspondent. His article argues in clear and unmistakeable language that Obama is too left wing to win the American presidency.

Mostly in the last few months the Murdoch press has been welcoming of Obama. Murdoch, whatever his prejudices, has no problem with race. His current partner is coloured. And although he has become a born again Christian, he is sufficient of a realist to know that Huckabee could never win an American election. And that although, the younger Bush has warmed his heart through his allianance with the new American religious right, that Huckabee is not a credible candidate for the American Presidencty.

 What I forgot in myi previous blog tonight, is the fact that everyone knows. The New York Times, one of the most diutinguished American serious newspapers, is now owned by Rupert Mordoch.

So as I write now, only hours after I snurfaced myp conjectures as to why the NYT tookso long to publish its McCane story, do  I realise that the answer is nothing to do with the veracity of the story. It is do with fact that the NYT is now owned by Rupert Murdoch, who has said that he will uphold its editorail standards.

This is very much the Murdoch I know. Because when I first met him in 1968 he was concerned to say that he would listen to his journalists, not least, because, although he was the son of an Australian newspaper propi.etor, he actually learnt the trade at the front. He worked for the London Daily Express, when it was run by Lord Beaverbrook, who called his journalists while they were still in bed to complain about thiungs that they had written which deviaced from his views.

Murdoch has nenver madet tthis mistake. He appoints his editors, and leavest them to it. Mostly. But his view prevails, as it did in the Express newspapers run by Lord Beaverbrook. But unlikeLord B, Murhdoch is not on the phone to editors, still less the blokes wha are acuually wrinting the copy. He expects his editors to know his mind.

There are several people I could ring at the London Times to find out why they have suddenly turned anti-Obama. But they would not have any reason to speak truth.

If what I suspect is true.That Murdoch has realised that Obama, is almost as left wing as Clinton. And that his administration, if it happens, is not going to be a blind propaganda machine for the ieealogy of American consumer capitalism.