There’s a new root cellar over at the Washington Post. It’s under the turnip cellar and the storm cellar, below the subcellar under the parking garage. That’s how low the Post had to go in its July 16 warning to the British Parliament (and others) not to go “too far” in their investigation of Rupert “Mad Dog” Murdoch and his merry gang of hoodlums.
“It would be easy,” the Post intones, “for the reaction to the scandal to go too far, driven by the long-standing antipathy among the media and political left for Mr. Murdoch and his rightward-leaning organs. Calls by some Democrats in Congress for the Justice Department to investigate News Corp. for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, for example, are premature at best; Britain has good bribery laws and is perfectly capable of following up allegations of payoffs to its police or others.”
Well, if the Post is happy with Britain’s bribery laws, and its competence with regard to enforcing them, I’m happy. But, of course, what the Post is really worried about is the tarnishing of the Murdoch brand in America, which includes the most prestigious outlet for right-wing neocon bilge in the U.S. (that would the Wall Street Journal) and the most pervasive (that would be Fox News). And Post editorial page director Fred Hiatt wouldn’t want that to happen.*
Afterwords
Hilariously, the Post goes on to “explain” that News Corp.’s innumerable offenses are due to Britain’s overly strict libel laws (which are in fact shitty). “Onerous libel laws deter critical reporting about public figures and arguably drive journalists to measures such as phone hacking to obtain lawsuit-proof stories.” Yeah, Parliament! It’s your fault that News Corp. folk hacked phones, paid off the cops, and covered up their crimes!
All that you really need to know about Murdoch and the Post can be summed up in the tale of Marcus Brauchli, who was managing editor of the WSJ when Murdoch bought it. An elaborate superstructure was established to protect the editorial independence of the Journal from its new owner, said superstructure unilaterally jettisoned by Brauchli, who resigned four months after Murdoch took over, saying that the new owner deserved to have his own editor in place. On his way out the door, Brauchli pocketed a $3-$5 million payout for being such a nice guy and was quickly hired as the Wash Post’s new executive editor by publisher Katy Weymouth, who obviously saw Brauchli’s complete lack of journalistic ethics as a perfect complement for her own.
*Yet I would point out that the Post, even in the deepest depths of Bushian lickspittle, always drew the line at torture, which puts them one up on Barack Obama. And where does that put Barack? Below the Post? Ow!
