Thursday, June 12, 2008

RUPERT MURDOCH'S LOW CUNNING, MY GULLIBILITY

I've got nothing to add to the justifiable howls of outrage in the blogosphere in response to the decision by Fox News to refer to Michelle Obama as her husband's "baby mama":



...or, rather, I have nothing to add that wouldn't be slithering into the sewer with Murdoch (I considered doing a payback post involving Murdoch's young, non-white third wife and realized that, even as an exercise, a post like that just spreads more ugliness).

But, good Lord, was I naive when I fell for this:

...Murdoch described Obama as a "rock star" and "fantastic," saying his Republican opponent John McCain is "unpredictable" and "doesn't know much about the economy." While he is a "patriot" and a "decent guy ... he doesn't know much about organizing a campaign it would seem."

Murdoch added that he wasn't backing anyone, saying he wants to know more about Obama's plans and the people around him. But he said he was involved in the New York Post's decision to endorse Obama in New York’s Democratic primarily earlier this year....


Murdoch's New York Post actually did seem to be pulling its punches during the primary fight (the anti-Hillary front pages near the end were rather ugly) but Murdoch's playing a double game here -- I think he wants to be able to point to mild Post coverage in the event of an Obama administration, when he'll want to use the new president, but he's also clearly decided that a months-long Two Minutes' Hate with Obama as target is fresh, exciting new programming for Fox News this year. Both MSNBC and CNN are gaining on Fox right now, and a "Holy crap, what did they say now?" strategy for Fox is probably good business and effective sleazeball politics.

Maybe we're actually doing him a favor by drawing attention to it.

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