The Murdoch Press is fighting a desperate rear guard action in its broadsheets today as Do-nothing Malcolm turns to screeching in Parliament and lies about energy to save his skin. The list of articles is as impressive as it is obsequious:
Dennis Shanahan says ‘Turnbull woke from a political paralysis to deliver a withering assessment of Shorten’s character after months of being subjected to Labor’s politics of envy’.
While James Jeffrey, in The Sketch, wrote ‘the atmosphere on the government benches changed so quickly from resigned to surprised to delighted, it’s amazing no one got the bends’.And Troy Bramston believes ‘there was a touch of the Keating yesterday in Malcolm Turnbull, who finally showed some passion and fire’.
The politics blog also gives free reign to Coalition lies about energy markets.
But over at the tabloids the tone is entirely different with Andrew Bolt demanding the resignation of Do-nothing and openly canvassing a replacement (much like myself today):
MALCOLM Turnbull is finished as Prime Minister and must be replaced — but only by a conservative.
Don’t listen to the dumb talk that says Turnbull’s crash and burn in the polls proves changing leaders does not work.
Wrong. It’s changing to a dud leader — whether Julia Gillard or Turnbull — that does not work.
But changing to a better one does. Changing to Paul Keating won Labor the 1993 election. Changing back to Kevin Rudd after Gillard turned toxic saved at least 10 Labor seats at the 2013 election.
This is very unusual for the Murdoch press which generally takes a seamless line in support of its own interests, such as it did during the invasion of Iraq when every paper worldwide supported the Bush Administration and in a completely unrelated outcome US regulators passed Murdoch’s anti-competitive takeover of DirectTV.
We can see these kinds of close relationships at work again today with the news that:
Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka was a trustee for a large bloc of shares in 21st Century Fox and News Corp that belongs to Rupert Murdoch’s two youngest daughters, underscoring the close ties between the US president’s family and the mogul behind the Fox News Channel.
The president’s daughter was a trustee of Grace and Chloe Murdoch, Mr Murdoch’s children by his ex-wife Wendi Deng, during the campaign. The two girls, aged 15 and 13, hold shares worth close to a combined $300m in the two media groups, which are controlled by Mr Murdoch and his family, and an additional interest in Murdoch companies worth more than $2bn.
A spokesman for Mr Murdoch declined to comment on Ms Trump’s role on a five-person trustee board, which was confirmed by several people briefed on the situation who said she was a trustee for several years. A spokesperson for Ms Trump told the Financial Times that she stepped down from the board on December 28.
The civil war says one of two things. Either Andrew Bolt has run off reservation or, much more likely, Murdoch can see the obvious, that Do-nothing is doomed and so is his party.
