Across the pond

In the years I have taught joirnalism students I have been concerned to teach them te be good journalists, And not to fall into the media studies trap af spending their lives complaining that the media is dominanated by the powerful .

Of course it is.

And they have a right to their say.

But the rest of us need to speak out as well.

When I met Murdoch, way back in 1968, I found him quite different to the stereotyped hate figure he already was amongst the Australian media, where I had many friends. He has succeeded partly because he has listened to the journalists he employs.  And he has been wise enough to avoid making the mistakes of so many newspaper propietors who have tried to tell their journalists waht to write.

 He appoints editors he can trust to follow his line. And he only phones them when he thinks theyui are not in tune witth his latest thinking.

 Like most of the world’s media, I have beenn wondering why it took the NYT so long to run their revelations on McKane. Because the NYT has had to endure its own agonies. It is now owned by Murdoch, who has aqquired his power by making millions from the Sun and the News of the World, who think that the British worknig classes only think about sex and slease.

Murdoch, has spent millions on losses at the London Times, because he knows that Britain’s opinon makers are influenced by The Times, rather than The Sun. And in America by the New York Times, rather than the New York Post or Fox Television, which Murdoch also owns.

 Six months ago, -Obama to Murdoch seemed an attractive option. Better than the clearly left wing Clinton and the undistingished people the Republicans were putting forward.

Now, Murdoch has realised that Obama may be as ‘left wing’  as Hillary Clinton, to whom he does not warm. So he is having second thoughts which are being communicated down his chain of command.

Let me end with a q;uote from the latest post of a humble Times reporter, reporting on Obama’s latest moves. .

Critics say his rallies are more like religious revivals, that voters are being deluded into following this freshman senator with dazzling oratorical gifts and the power to sell hope without asking if he is remotely ready to be president. It is the beginning of a backlash actively encouraged by the former First Lady’s aides, dismayed by a phenomenon threatening to destroy what only four months ago looked like an inevitable Clinton restoration.

 Murdoch is beginning to realise that if Obama gets in he and his ilk may not have the kind of read access to the White House and to Downing Street, that they ha’ve been used to.