Murdoch deal with Abbott

[Matilda]

I've been listening to talk from some journos in the past couple of weeks, who say that when Murdoch was in Australia for his mother's funeral, he struck a deal with Abbott.

Murdoch will back Abbott in the next election, and in return, Abbott will privatise the ABC when he gets elected. It will be sold off to the highest bidder - of course, the corporation can enter the bidding itself, but it would have no chance against the wealth of Murdoch. Murdoch's main interest is in Radio Australia, which he tried to get hold of some years back because of its influence in Asia.

It's certainly feasible, given that there is currently no competition in the MSM - Fairfax has turned sharply right, and of course, the commercial radio and TV networks sing from the same songbook. The most worrying thing is that - despite all the cries of people like Gerard Henderson and Andrew Bolt of left-wing bias -the ABC itself is becoming more right-wing. Labor politicians are given little coverage by Aunty, especially on its News 24 program, which is little more than a Coalition mouthpiece. Currently Leigh Sales seems to be the only interviewer who will give Libs a difficult time; Chris Uhlman makes his Liberal bias very obvious. Do the powers at the ABC realise they're signing their own death warrant?

Such an alliance would also rule out any prospect Malcolm Turnbull would have of unseating Abbott before this year's election. Murdoch would definitely make sure any move from Turnbull would be dead in the water.

The only place to find anything like a left-leaning viewpoint is social media, via Twitter and its links to left-wing news media and blogs. But is this enough to defeat an Abbott-Murdoch alliance?

[Esra Star]

1. I don't find it difficult to see that Murdoch interests would back their sock puppets.

But, I don't believe that the ABC will be privatised. I think that you would find that most
of the "Liberal" brigade would not want that to happen, so it's dead in the water.
The "1%" types would only use this as a distraction so they could do something else while nobody is watching.
I'll keep my eye out for developments.

[Matilda]

2. Oh, it makes sense to me.

Murdoch would definitely want something, and he's tried before to get control of Radio Australia, but it didn't go down well with the Labor backbenchers, and if my memory is right, it was Rudd who stepped in and put a stop to it.

Of course, the Abbott deal would also knock on the head any hopes that Malcolm Turnbull would have of regaining the leadership before the election, because I don't believe he would do such a deal, and Murdoch would make sure that his man would stay in place.

Think back to the ascent of Tony Blair - he was backed by Murdoch, and I think Murdoch's price was war with Iraq. There was no logical reason for Blair to back Bush on that escapade, but Murdoch wanted it, because he said the price of petrol would come down. I can't prove that of course, but nobody has ever come up with a good reason for Britain to have invaded Iraq, and that it was Murdoch's doing is the only thing that makes sense.

[peakhillfm]

3. Murdock is a typical Liberal.....................

There is NO way that the ABC would be privatized.That is like saying that the AFL & NRL will form a joint Australian football team....never happen.Any way judging by the latest 'opinion poll' Labor will be returned in the December election.
Murdock could predict the winner on the next 5 Melbourne Cups...It would be great to see Turnbull as leader and I wouldnt be surprised to see it happen,BUT hey how much money is Murdock putting into the LNP coffers.
I wouldnt personally know how to operate Twitter and Murdock well he is a big TWIT