Who Was Behind Brexit

Who was behind Brexit in the United Kingdom? None other than Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch owns the most popular newspapers in the United Kingdom, the largest share of the television market (Sky Media & News Corp.), and Sky News Radio which supplies the news to most of the UK’s commercial radio stations. Murdoch owns The Sun newspaper, the most read newspaper in the United Kingdom. Murdoch also owns The Times, which was considered the most prestigious newspaper in the United Kingdom, and The Sunday Times among others. Murdoch blatantly used his media, including The Sun newspaper, to stir up anti-Europe, anti-EU, and anti-immigrant sentiment. He used his papers, T.V., and radio in the United Kingdom to stir up hostility and push for Brexit.

His front page headlines were often used to stir up hostility toward immigrants. One of his front page headlines was entitled, “The Great Migrant Con.” Click here to see the cover. Another was stirring up anti-Polish immigrant hostility with a headline on “How to be a Pole on the Dole,” stirring up hostility by claiming that the Polish immigrants were ending up on British welfare. Click here to see one article. He used his media in the United Kingdom to create nationalist, xenophobic, and anti-immigrant sentiment to promote his own agenda. Sound familiar to his FOX News tactics in the U.S.?

The Sun newspaper also stirred up nationalist sentiment and urged voters in its headline to “beLEAVE in Britain.” And to free Britain of the “dictatorial Brussels.” The paper routinely bashed Europe and the EU calling it greedy, wasteful, a bully, and incompetent. Furthermore, his media stirred up old WWII resentments. Click here to see cover stirring WWII resentments.

When anyone would raise counter arguments to Brexit, his media would go into a full frontal attack on them like the shocking front page picture when actor Emma Thompson came out against Brexit. The Sun newspaper’s headline was “Shut Yer Cakehole” and then had a picture of Emma Thompson and a large piece of cake being shoved into her mouth. Click here to see the cover. When Obama came out against Brexit, The Sun accused him of ‘blackmailing’ the British people. Any anti-Brexit arguments were dismissed as fear mongering and elitist.

Why did Murdoch push for Brexit? His own words sum it up. Anthony Hilton from the Evening standard said, “I once asked Rupert Murdoch why he was so opposed to the European Union. ‘That’s easy,’ he replied. ‘When I go into Downing Street [the home of the British government] they do what I say; when I go to Brussels [where the EU governing body is based] they take no notice.” Deputy chairman of the London Press Club Professor Martyn Bond also explained why Murdoch was so anti-EU, “The immediate answer lies in the potential of the regulatory authorities in Brussels, particularly the anti-competition authorities, to hamper the growth of Murdoch’s media empire,” said Bond. “While he is clearly the major single player in the UK market, with both press and broadcasting interests, his holdings on the continent are considerably more modest.”

Murdoch was further worried about his media empire in the Britain being regulated by the EU. There were serious questions about the media monopolies in Britain and the willingness of senior politicians in Britain to kowtow to the newspaper owners. If he was able to get Britain to separate from the EU, he could maintain his media monopolies in Britain and his control over British politics. Moreover, if the EU falls apart, he can enter more European markets that he has been kept from controlling by EU anti-monopoly regulations. Even more, he was able to show the EU his power by causing Brexit and scare the EU that he could cause further leave campaigns to take hold.

Murdoch emphasized this after the Brexit vote by putting the following headline in The Sun: “IT'S THE SUN WOT SWUNG IT Our paper led the fight against the EU and had the strongest influence on people voting for Leave.” “[A poll found that] *** 30 per cent of them were most motivated by our Brexit campaign.” “The Sun’s BeLEAVE in Britain front page and Independence Day plea helped give millions of readers the courage to cut free from Brussels.” “Director Patrick Basham added: “It appears a Leave victory would owe a fair amount to The Sun campaign’s resonance among working class, male, and older voters especially.” Click here for the article.

Finally, without EU regulations over Britain’s banking and hedge fund markets, Murdoch’s hedge fund billionaire friends stand to make millions. The EU has many regulations that are designed to control reckless trading and limit the amount of money hedge fund managers can pocket. Without the EU, the hedge funds will be able to escape regulation in Britain because the politicians in Britain are controlled by the anti-regulation billionaire media moguls like Rupert Murdoch.

Murdoch uses the age old formula of nationalism, xenophobia, and anti-immigrants to push his agendas in the U.S. and Britain. He also uses the same attacks on anyone who counters his agendas. He bullies them and portrays them has un-American or un-British and/or elitist. He tells people that they cannot trust the motives of the people or the press who are against his agendas. Why has no one learned that these are age old means of controlling the masses for other people’s purposes? I’m still shocked that the masses do not see through the manipulation and so easily fall prey to these control devices.

The Trump nationalist, xenophobic, and anti-immigrant phenomenon here and the nationalist, xenophobic, and anti-immigrant Trump copy cat phenomenon in Britain, Boris Johnson, are not an accident. Rupert Murdoch is aware that these are easy control devices for the masses and is behind it all to get us to support his and his rich billionaire friends’ agendas. Boris Johnson’s resemblance to Trump is truly uncanny. Not only does he push the same messages as Trump, he looks and acts almost exactly like him and is wildly popular despite the fact that he makes “inappropriate remarks” and “outrageous comments.”

Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson stood to be the next Prime Minister of the U.K., but in the fallout of the Brexit vote said he would no longer run. Hopefully, Murdoch’s formula will not work in America.

There have been many polls and studies on the media in the UK recently showing that the media has a distinct pro-conservative bias. Here are some:

Click here for a poll on bias. Click here for an article on the conservative bias of UK papers.