By Christian Marx

Australia does not have a fair and free media. Anyone who believes this fallacy is grossly misinformed. In fact, almost 70% of media is owned and controlled by one individual.

That person is Rupert Murdoch.

Murdoch has controlled the narrative of the political and social landscape since the early 1970s. It was Murdoch and his extreme propaganda campaign against the then Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam which saw the fall of that Labor government. Since this period, Rupert Murdoch has increasingly gained greater and greater control of the media landscape.

How did it come to this?

Unfortunately many, many people believe what they read in the trash tabloids. The three biggest in Australia are the Herald Sun in Victoria, Daily Telegraph in NSW and Courier Mail in Queensland. These papers push a hard right wing narrative. All three papers demonize minorities, attack unions, support ultra right Neoliberal economics, and create hatred and division throughout the community.

Just this week we had Murdoch sock puppet, Andrew Bolt praising Israel and attacking Labor for daring to question Netanyahu`s ethnic cleansing and extreme nationalism.

Why are all Murdoch rags so militantly anti Palestine and anti Muslim? Follow the money!

Murdoch and his company Geanie Energy have a vested financial interest in seeing the destruction of the Assad regime in Syria and also have drilling rights in the Israeli occupied Golan Heights. This gross conflict of interest is at the very least unethical, at worst downright criminal.

How is it possible for one person who has vested corporate interests tied up in the Middle Eastern war machine to even be permitted to own one newspaper, let alone a near monopoly! The answer is very simple. Australia is run by gutless politicians on both sides of politics that refuse to take on this devil. Added to this is the ever increasing subservience to doing whatever Murdoch says.

Ironically it was Labor in the mid 1980s who first gave Murdoch more power by weakening the media ownership laws. Since that period this craven thug has been able to continue to buy up ever more media and manipulate a large portion of the public to support his grotesque ideology of bigotry, deregulation, smashing of unions and constant attacks on the working class.

How do many fall for this brainwashing? The answer is fear and manufacturing hatred. Murdoch`s newspapers and his television programs push extreme prejudice against minorities, most notably Muslims. Those who do not do their research will believe the rhetoric and fear mongering that Sharia Law or Immigrants are taking over the country. The reality is that Murdoch`s ideology of Neoliberalism and free trade have led to the demise of Australian jobs, not immigration. Added to this, if corporations didn`t constantly push governments to go to war and bomb other countries for resources, perhaps there would be less refugees and immigrants. People should be blaming Murdoch and his ilk for the loss of jobs and mass immigration.

No other country in the world apart from the United States and a few tin pot dictatorships allow this level of media monopolizing. Murdoch is the master at pushing misinformation and extreme bias, solely to suit his own warped ideology and to further his own business interests.

While this media monopoly exists Australia does not really have a democracy. Not only is our media completely corrupted and filled with false and destructive narratives, but both sides of politics are owned and controlled by Rupert Murdoch and a few other billionaires. Who was one of the first people Julia Gillard met with when her power was in the balance during the Rudd leadership challenge? It was mining magnate Twiggy Forrest.

Who was communicating social and economic policy to Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin during their infamous tenure in government? Yep, you guessed it, Rupert Murdoch.

Not only does Murdoch have huge power in parliament and control our media landscape, he also is one of the major supporters of the extremist right wing think tank, The Institute Of Public Affairs, which incidentally was co founded by his father. The IPA is a very insidious organization with deep connections to the Liberal National Party. Many of their key 75 policies on economic rationalism and attacks on social services were implemented under the Abbott LNP government.

How can the treachery of Murdoch be overcome? People must pull the curtain back behind the veil. Start critically thinking and know the evil that this man pushes for his own sick financial benefit. This one individual is arguably the greatest threat to the future of Australia and he is not even an Australian citizen. It is time the non Murdoch media exposed this parasite and long overdue for politicians to openly expose this threat.

Christian Marx is a political and social activist interested in making the world a fairer place. He has a Bachelor of Social Science and has a keen interest in Sociology, politics and history. He was one of the organizers of the March in March rallies in Melbourne and is the founder of the progressive news and information page, “Don`t Look At This Page”.

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