Murdoch and the Sopranos

Published on Thursday, July 14th 2011. Edited by Rat Outacefat.

Why was Tony Soprano behaviour reserved for the UK?
There are probably several answers, not least that the ground work had already been laid in politicians previous behaviour with other media moguls.
However there is a very revealing photo - how many times does it seem I have seen this image before - of an adoring Rebekah Brooks with the old tyrant.

There can be no doubt, looking at the two, that this is a moment of pleasure in each others company while standing up against 'them', their accusers.
It has been said (on the BBC) that if Brooks were to be sacrificed then the spot light would fall on James. This misses the point. It is the intensely humiliating frisson between pere et fils that keeps James on his toes.
Murdoch will never let Rebekah Brooks be sacrificed, she is his secret, a secret that is so obvious that no one dare allude to it. Far craftier than Belusconi with his 'violinas', an incestuous relationship which defies the law.
It is this lack of law and accountability that characterises the barons behaviour.
Murdoch describes the disruption to News Corp as minimal. However, he will need to have a sense of ground gained in order to arrive at an end of 'disruptions'. Typically Murdoch gains ground through violent distortion of truth and manipulation of both subjects of his news stories and the reading/listening public.
It is unlikely that News Corp, given the different legal system, will have set its foot quite so wrong in the US as in the UK. It is unlikely that there will be a sufficient ground swell against him, and without that or similar, a corresponding drastic fall in stock value.
The ground that will be gained will be a renewed note of vitriol in his US right wing media.
One might, quite correctly, see this as spite. Ill fortune - self inflicted - experienced here, will be taken out on the centre and left in the US, in other words on the vulnerable in the US.
That's Murdoch.