Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News :



Keith Rupert Murdoch was born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

When Murdoch was 22, his father died, prompting his return from Oxford to take charge of the family business; becoming managing director of News Limited in 1953

On 4 September 1985, Murdoch became a naturalised citizen

Age 58, Murdoch became a US citizen.

Murdoch's history with unions goes back to Wapping days :



The Wapping dispute was, along with the miners' strike of 1984-5, a significant turning point in the history of the trade union movement and of UK industrial relations. It started on 24 January 1986 when some 6,000 newspaper workers went on strike after protracted negotiation with their employers, News International (parent of Times Newspapers and News Group Newspapers, and chaired by Rupert Murdoch).

Immediately after the strike was announced, dismissal notices were served on all those taking part in the industrial action, effectively sacking 6,000 employees. As part of a plan that had been developed over many months, the company replaced the workforce with members of the EETPU and transferred its four main titles (The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun and the News of the World) to the Wapping plant. Murdoch had led the print unions to think that the Wapping plant was to be used for a new evening newspaper, the London Post. And so began what became known as the Wapping dispute.

So we are seeing an attack on American teacher unions (along with other public sector unions). The state is claiming high deficit will cause it to cut jobs unless it can dictate without bargaining, conditions for its public employees.

A Republican legislature is doing this.

Fox News, Murdoch's media outlet, donated a million dollars to the governor campaign, along with televising enormous amounts of right wing propaganda via its media outlet.

AUG 18, 2010

Rupert Murdoch, after publicly praising Barack Obama during the 2008 run for the White House, donated $1 million to the Republican Governors Association (RGA) in June,

The Governor steps up, and the foreign born owner of Fox News just happens to have recenlty bought a business where he has stated he expects the sector to be worth $500 Billion dollars. Per year. That's half a trillion US taxpayer dollars heading towards an Australian oligarch, and the sacrifice is teacher jobs.

As was seen at Wapping, Murdoch thinks long term about making money, no matter who it hurts and even if it means manipulating the public to work collectively against their own interests.

Murdoch to GOP : Quid Pro Quo time