There is however one kind of predator that roams the continent of Africa that hunts in packs; whose methodology has brought upon it much ignominy from, particularly the farming community in Africa.
The African wild dog has pointed needle-like teeth. They hunt in packs of twenty and beyond. When they target their quarry, they pursue it and, rather than bring it quickly onto its haunches; the wild dogs use their superbly designed teeth to take it in turns to leap at their prey and remove bits of its flesh. This is a slow painful death, and the wild dogs are relentless in their pursuit; they have incredible stamina and use it mercilessly to exhaust their prey. Where a lion may take seconds to kill its next meal – the wild dogs enjoy theirs on the hoof at great pain and distress to their prey.
I WAS REMINDED OF THE African wild dog and its behaviour when all hell broke loose this week at News International, the media conglomerate owned by Rupert Murdoch – perhaps the most reviled human being of the Left since Margaret Thatcher.
Like Margaret Thatcher, Murdoch changed forever (hopefully) the working practices that, in his case, almost ruined the Newspaper printing industry. It was he who stood up to the unions and their Spanish practices in what was then Fleet Street;
while other industrialists and their managers kow-towed to union oligarchs within every other industry, notably the car industry (Dagenham rings a bell) during the 1970s.
All other newspaper owners in this country owe Murdoch a great debt, as do their journalists who are today part of the wild dog pack trying to tear pieces of flesh of off News International. Where was Northcliff and Rothermere; where was Harmsworth and Maxwell; or the spirit of Beaverbrook during the 1970s-80s? It was left to an entrepreneur of Australian origin to take on the vested interests of the print unions and effectively keep all of his competitors in business.
Murdoch, along with Thatcher, managed to drag this country up from its slippery slope to third world status, and reignite a new spirit in the land. I was then, like many on the Left are today, the bitterest of enemy to these two. I hated all that they represented and, like that small band of ill-wishers protesting outside of Murdoch’s Sun-News of the World stable in London yesterday, I would have gladly seen both these heretics put to the torch.
The free press in this country today owes Rupert Murdoch a great deal. But of all his competitors, the one that has hounded him most over this hacking issue, probably also owes him the most.
THE GUARDIAN has been the alpha-male of the pack that has been stripping its pound of flesh from News International. This organ is part of the Scott Trust and was described by C. P. Scott’s son Ted as, "a paper that will remain bourgeois to the last". According to Wikipedia: ‘The paper's readership is generally on the mainstream left of British political opinion: a MORI poll taken between April and June 2000 showed that 80% of Guardian readers were Labour Party voters; according to another MORI poll taken in 2005, 48% of Guardian readers were Labour voters and 34% Liberal Democrat voters. [thus enhancing]The newspaper's reputation as a platform for liberal and left-wing’
When, last week, the hacking scandal began to involve ordinary people instead of celebrities; Rupert Murdoch’s many enemies on these shores saw their chance to strike. They knew that News Corp had overreached itself. After months (and in many cases decades) of sniping from the sidelines at Murdoch’s empire; the liberal Left had finally struck gold.
Now the wild dogs will not let go of their prey until, not just a newspaper, but a whole corporation is brought down. Railed against Murdoch are the following: his competitors in the print media who lacked, at the time, the courage to once and for all put the all powerful print unions in their place; as well as the unions who still today bare their predecessors’ grievances. Next comes the liberal press – the Guardian and its sister paper, the Observer, whose editors continually stick pins into Rupert’s effigy: the BBC, that overfed, flatulent, publicly (on penalty of imprisonment) taxed institution, that also, like Uriah Heap, pleads both humility and poverty to, in the BBC’s case, the licence fee payer each year when demanding their annual increase from the politicians - when did Rupert Murdoch last demand that his empire be subsidised through taxation?
NEWS INTERNATIONAL IS surrounded on all sides. As if the rest of the print media as well as the BBC were not enough; now the politicians are all too willing to weigh in against News International. For did not Murdoch arrange for his two mass selling newspapers (the Sun and the News of the World) to come out and support one of the main parties at election times? And did not all the political parties seek such support from News International? Indeed, David Cameron, like many of his predecessors from all the main parties, sought to court the support of News International.
Margaret Thatcher did it as well as Tony Blair; and Murdoch supported both; and both can count themselves grateful for such support. Murdoch believes in capitalism. To him it not only means the accumulation of personal wealth. If it meant only this, then he could have retired years ago. What I think motivates Murdoch is ambition pure and simple. To him it is his main driving force; and wealth, once accumulated, matters little. He is always prepared (given his undoubted power) to support any political party that supports fully the free market system
What I despise about this whole business is how lesser people are able to bring down such a giant. The Daily Telegraph, for instance (my favourite newspaper as it happens) is, and has always been, hell bent upon stopping Murdoch’s ownership of BSkyB. But the Telegraph, perhaps more than any other newspaper, should be grateful to Murdoch
So you see, the whole panoply of British culture, whether from the liberal Left or the centre Right; all have their grievances against Rupert Murdoch and News International and all are willing to go to any lengths short of Rupert’s murder, to see his empire flounder, and hopefully succumb to its death.
All Murdoch’s enemies have been waiting, hoping, and even praying for the great man’s demise along with his media empire. Murdoch has had railed against him in this country a combination of old grievances combined with new fears for his continuance as a media mogul.
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