The momentum of the Murdoch backlash must not slow
The Murdoch red-tops are not moral arbiters, they are brutal mercenary machines.
By Laurie Penny Published 08 July 2011 15:52
For years, the Murdoch press has manipulated a particular type of moral outrage in order to peddle its propaganda of war and hate. Now, with the scandal of Milly Dowler, the murdered schoolgirl whose phone was reportedly hacked by a detective employed by News of the World, that very same moral outrage has been turned back against News International. It's like an attack-dog finally turning around to savage its abusive master.
It has become clear to the public that the Murdoch red-tops are not moral arbiters. Rather, they are brutal mercenary machines.
They have been permitted to continue these practices by a toothless and impotent Press Complaints Commission which is itself coming under scrutiny as more and more abuses are uncovered. What is startling about the avalanche of other 'revelations' that have followed the Milly Dowler affair is that most of them have been public knowledge for some time.
It was widely acknowledged that the News of the World paid the police handsomely for information; it was known that News International has for some time enjoyed a close working relationship with the Metropolitan police, a relationship that began thirty years ago in Wapping, when News International crushed the print unions with the co-operation of Mrs Thatcher and the Met.
It was also well known, to the point of being dinner-table conversation, that the Murdoch empire has had at least five successive British governments in a headlock, and that Rupert Murdoch and his son wield colossal unelected power in this country, as well as in Australia and the United States.
David Cameron, like Tony Blair before him, has been convinced that the office of Prime Minister is in the gift of the Murdoch empire. This is no longer entirely true - the Conservatives increased their share of the vote by less than 4 per cent and failed to win a majority at the last General Election despite a thundering campaign across News International. But the idea of the Murdochs as kingmakers is tenacious. Yesterday, during a seat-clutchingly irreverent episode of Question Time, it was former Sun journalist Jon Gaunt who put his finger firmly on what everyone knows and few have dared to say, as he described a Murdoch summer party three years ago:
All of what you might call the great and the good were there. All of the Labour cabinet were there, all of the shadow cabinet, it was like being in the court of the Sun King - if you get the joke - and these people do control the country...What we need in this country is a separate judiciary, we need an independent police force...and we need the press and the politicians to be separate as well.
It is not without reason that News International and its sister companies have come to be known as the Murdoch "Empire". Rupert Murdoch is an oligarch in the classic understanding of the term; his extraordinary influence extends across continents, and governments across the world clamour to bring him tribute in the form of lucrative business deals and favours. In the UK, despite the current scandals, the public still have no assurance that the remaining 60 per cent of BSkyB that Murdoch does not currently own will not be handed to him.
What is truly terrifying is how little the strategic amputation of the News of the World, one of the most widely-read English language papers on the planet with a 168-year history, seems likely to damage News International. It is not inconceivable that that this imperial spell will only be broken when the ageing oligarch finally goes to meet his gods.
Right now, the backlash has begun, and it is about far more than Milly Dowler. Her face, plastered all over the tabloids yet again, has given the rest of the press and a few brave politicians enough moral backbone to stand up and speak truth to power, which is precisely what they have allowed themselves to be bullied out of doing for 30 long years.
We have been shown incontrovertible proof, in Shirley Williams' words, of "how corrupt it all is". However the momentous the closure of the News of the World may seem, we must not allow ourselves to be satisfied with it, nor even with a drawn-out public enquiry. The momentum of this backlash must be maintained, and we must demand, at very least, that the BSkyB deal be thrown out.
These oligarchs need, for once in thirty years, to be told "no". They need to understand that the public are not mindless consuming animals who can be manipulated into buying their products and electing their politicians. They need to understand that people, on the contrary, are complex, and decent, and can only be pushed so far.
Latest tweets
More from New Statesman
- Tools and services:
- Polls
- Predictions
- Jobs
- Archive
- Magazine
- PDF edition
- RSS feeds
- Subscribe
- Special supplements
- Stockists

















114 comments
Louis Vuitton handbag Garnering seeking Spring/Summer 2012 is designed after another women: girlish and in ages, who likes caper and immortal style, preferring pastel and splendid colors. Some handbags are fitting to fortuitous advantage, some to more formal. Spring/Summer 2012 Omnium gatherum doesn’t have in the offing a certain border or lone style. The barely thing that can league with all the units is open like fabrics.
http://www.bagoutletes.com/Monogram_Canvas_SOLOGNE_M42250-p-4066.html,We’ve gotten a basic many stirring comments from our consumers and deserve a acutely adequate noted in foreign makerts, greater than 90% shoppers are in seventh heaven with our goods and armed forces, till then our on the internet members are beyond 80 Louis Vuitton Damier Geant Canvas M93601 Starless,000. As of suitable right away, we a while serve prospects from more than 18 nations, and we’re nonetheless developing. We certainly security to lengthen our project close passage of synergism with people and providers from worldwide.
In universal, everybody can find at least joined version to his taste. Most purses wishes regurgitate you elegant soft look. And of movement, each one tells ‘I’m a Louis Vuitton handbag’. http://www.bagoutletes.com/Taiga_Book_fold_Wallet_with_9_Credit_Card_Slo... Impartial suspect, just inseparable action can enlarge your self-assurance and it is a handbag from Louis Vuitton exchange house.
So, Louis Vuitton handbags are zero and clearly women can upon these purses to
who like to get unripe luxury Louis Vuitton near low evaluate
The charm of handbags for girls may everyone. Every lady likes handbags and it is in most forms for example they might be mulberry bags or Chloe bags or any other bags. Therefore if you want to provide something unique additionally to amazing for the beloved one this valentine a mulberry bag is certainly the most effective gift on her behalf.
A mulberry bag is certainly the very best gift for every lady. It is so because mulberry bags come in this fashion they not only give you the look nevertheless the feel for the person moving it too. You'll find various colors additionally to designs accessible in mulberry bags that may help you more to get the right mulberry bag that fits for the dress from the wife or friend. Therefore if you are considering buying mulberry bag for big day then it is sure that you might want to and know bond from to possess the correct one based on your choice.
It's correct that might be several shops additionally to stores provided by to buy mulberry bags or other bags. Yet it is unsure in the event you have the right quality based on cost you'd purchase this.
A particular place where it's sure for that finest quality mulberry bags together with other bags is eurohandbag. If you have been perks that explain why it's preferred over other stores available. A couple of from the advantages are outlined below:
1.Status inside the area: The main reason eurohandbag is known as different then others is its status in the http://www.mulberrystylebags.com/ - Mulberry Bags region. You'll find other stores or shops available that are selling mulberry bags or any other bag however, if it calls for status, eurohandbag is certainly at more powerful position.
2.Indication of greatest quality: Eurohandbag is known as trustworthy status for a number of handbags additionally to handbags and handbags. It's known as the indication of greatest quality. Thus when you shop at eurohandbag, it's must for that finest quality product.
3.Products in budget: If the requires the problem of cost, then too eurohandbag reaches more powerful position than these. At eurohandbag, it'll certainly get quality products which too within your budget range. Here you're going to get the whole range starting with most pricey ones to the most affordable ones.
4.Every color available: A bag is not only a factor that is frequently employed for moving your things. Furthermore, it reflects the status additionally to straightforward of the baby getting it. Thus it is vital it has to match for the dress additionally to personality. At eurohandbag you'll find every color available hence you're going to get the primary one matching your chosen dress.
5.Manufacturing if needed: It's another feature that puts eurohandbag store apart from others. At eurohandbag you will get the advantage of acquiring a mulberry bag or any other bag you would like, manufactured based on your requirement. Thus you're going to get the item exactly based on your choice at eurohandbag.
The above mentioned pointed out stated are merely handful of advantages you will get by collecting your most preferred mulberry bags or any other bags from eurohandbag.
-----------------------------------------------
http://www.mulberrystylebags.com/
The words "big society" will be written on the tombstone of this Conservative government.192.168.1.1&192.168.0.1&mortgage calculator
So now the NOW is gone. Does that mean the good people of this country are going to stop buying "the Sun"? Nope!
Flasbuck, what is sooo funny? Forgotten to take your medication again?
Well said Laurie!
When I cease to be interested in tits and bums they can turn up my toes and cart me away. On the other hand, political theory grabs me less and less each year.
As an American let me tell you about how Rupert Murdoch gave our country Glenn Beck, a right wing rabble-rouser so extreme even sympathetic conservatives at Murdoch's FOX News network had a hard time tolerating him. Many split from the company dogma and pleaded to have his daily hour long show canceled because it was too inflammatory and bigoted but Murdoch loved Beck and ignored their pleas. It wasn't until an ad hoc group of African-American citizens called Color of Change led a boycott against Beck's sponsors that Murdoch relented and Beck was let go from the cable "news" network. The lesson we Americans learned was that even though Murdoch and News Corp my hold an undue sway over our politics and national discourse he can't force us to buy his product. Don't wait for the government or the police to do the job – organize and take the fight to him. The power of the boycott is still our trump card over his propaganda machine. We wish you all the best in bringing British journalistic standards back to the quality they enjoyed before Mr. Murdoch arrived on the scene.
Democracy, the political system under which we are purported to live and function in the UK , requires certain conditions before it can function as it is supposed to do, that is to protect and serve the people it represents.
The first condition is accountability. This means that those elected to govern, at both local and national levels, must present themselves periodically to those that elect them and there, answer for their husbandry and governance. This condition is met through elections, when all those chosen have their continuation in office contested.
This contesting is done through the provision of choice. This condition is important since we all of us can have opinions that differ in degree from our neighbors and I must be given the opportunity to choose the one who most closely agrees with my opinions of how and in what manner the country is governed, just as my neighbor must have his choice. This condition is met through the creation of political parties.
To enable us to know the policies and their purposes of the divers political parties there must be the condition of debate. In debate policies are presented and subjected to exploration, analysis and question. This debate should free, open, honest and informed.
For intelligent debate to take place and fitting choices made there is one last but very important condition. This condition is the free access to relevant information.
All these conditions need to exist and are indeed reliant each upon the other. So it follows that if the free access to information is denied then the debate is sterile, the choice is faulty and the governance poor.
Murdoch knows this and it is aim to so control the debate that his choices become ours. To this end through reportage that is slanted, opinionated, full of value judgments, omissions, half truths and damn lies the debate is controlled. His media empire is designed to dominate the flow of information so that his agenda is met. The whole system masks the reality of its intent, behind a culture of bread and circuses in the form of tits, bums and bingo together with a mixture of vitriolic character assassination and prurient, salacious, voyeuristic reports on the lives of celebrities. These celebrities that they have created and they then destroy for our amusement.
Unfortunately, many of the other members of the right-wing press share the same agenda and techniques.
Moronic right wing troll " On the other hand, political theory grabs me less and less each year."
So that is why you come on here, A Political site and write your pointless bullshit? Right wing trolls really are too stupid.
Oh, and they do so love their right wing thug masters.
=http://www.abcneed.com==
==http://www.abcneed.com==
==http://www.abcneed.com==
==http://www.abcneed.com==
==http://www.abcneed.com==
==http://www.abcneed.com==
==http://www.abcneed.com==
==http://www.abcneed.com==
==http://www.abcneed.com==
InNegative; First of all you can say everything in print is aesthetic or a work of art, for everything is created. So saying The Sun is aesthetic is meaningless.
But my point comes back to your use of language. Textural is a word that most people can't understand easily. Why can't you just use the word 'content' or composition as these are words that people can understand? Like I said you should study semantics, and in particular the prime words of Natural Semantic Metalanguage.
People also use the word 'agenda' incorrectly, and it is confusing because what they really mean is 'purpose'. Agenda is things to be discussed, usually at a meeting. Purpose is a much more accurate word.
Like I said to before all things/concepts can be explained using 24 prime words that can't be 'divisible' by other words.
Paradoxically, the government and police becoming involved will actually perpetuate Murdoch's hold over the British media. If there hadn't been any government and police involvement, a lot of people would have abandoned the Murdoch papers such as the Sun and NotW. There would have been great shame in buying the papers after hacking into people such as Milly Dowler's phone.
By government and police saying 'we will sort it', you are taking responsibility away from the individual that buys these papers. They will now think 'I don't have to take responsibility for buying this paper. I will just enjoy the salacious gossip. No need to worry about how the story was acquired. The government is holding an inquiry so everything is above board.' There will hardly be a dent in sales for The Sun and Notw (or Sunday Sun). They may even go up.
Those who think that the phone hacking of Milly Dowler is just one instance of a larger malaise in newspaper culture bought about by Murdoch should have been campaigning for no inquiry.
In his attempt to score political points Ed Miliband has seen off a great chance to see the Murdoch empire crumble due to public opprobrium.
Other points:
How much is the inquiry going to cost in money and police resources?
Is this prolonging the agony for people such as the Dowler family? For what, a white wash years down the line? An earnest apology would be better and allow them to move on.
BERLUSCONI, MURDOCH, BERLUSCONI AND MURDOCH
I am ashamed as a citizen of this country for ever trying to point fingers at the Italians for ever voting in a man like Silvio Berlusconi to power.
Silvio, at least was voted in a free and fair election. Who voted Rupert Murdoch in the UK?
He even had the nerve to question the choice of the American people after the last presidential election had been won and lost.
Forget Rebecca Brooks.
If Conrad Black could be put where he belongs why not the Australian with a US passport? No?
He had succcessive British governments including the Police in his pocket. We the people let him. Shame on us.
A brutally concise summation - a pleasure to read.
Now for similar public revulsion, not only in the USA Australia and such visible media-savvy countries, but also in the hidden corners of the News International evil empire such as in Papua New Guines, where his outlets foster oppostion to the government andd here in Jakarta where he's in league with oligarchs, some with political aspirations, whose TV channels control over 50% of the programming.
When I say we live in a 'textural reality', I mean that a clear point of view is no longer enough. In the world of images, there is more going on in the mind than goes on in 'x is right and y is wrong'. In using an image to say 'x is right', you generally convey a lot of primal, irrational and aesthetic pleasure too. An image is never completely rational even if the idea behind it is.
News and entertainment have imploded into each other - much to Charlie Brooker's chagrin. Entertainment is textural/aesthetic. The news today too is textural/aesthetic. Brooker looks back to a golden age of media where the pressman just gave us the news. This was a literate/word-based culture trying to deal with TV and images. What Murdoch recognised was that that form didn't work - the modern mind, as it gets better at reading textures and images, doesn't want news; it wants complex emotions and aesthetic patterns. LP above is oft accused of rhetoric and hyperbole - "self interested spokeswoman of a generation, yappity yap'. What she recognises perhaps is that she has to make an appeal to a politics of texture in which reasoned argument is just one componant of the whole package. In part, left v right wing politics is then just a form of entertainemnt and a way of moving/motivating audiences and keeping people in work.
Murdoch is art insofar as he appears very good at writing to his various audiences. Moreover, he is totally detached from any fixed point of view himself (except that the market should rule). Murdoch's output has been infinitely superior say to that of Tracy Emin who is no more than a simulation of tired, prepackaged social issues. In fact, a good deal of left v right wing conversation is an endless rehashing of tired and repackaged social issues - abortion rights? Rhe influence of the church in social life? For goodnessake...
Murdoch has no real existance; he is the void behind the emptying out of meaning, ideology and point of view. He's art perhaps in the same way Warhol was.
In_Negative: Given what qualifies as deep thinking in the intellectual tradition to which you belong, you will probably be disappointed with my reply. Mr. Divine has pretty much summed up my principle objection. But the absence of clarity in your posts would not be so irksome if not for the fact (or perhaps I should say, my contention) that it is employed in order to mask their want of substance and insight.
In_Negative: More on this later...
Never mind all the usual Penny blather - 'ave a butcher's at that sizzling blonde bit of crumpet on the bench in the header photo. Phew! Wot a scorcha! Cheers Rebekah ... I mean Laurie.
"When I say we live in a 'textural reality', I mean that a clear point of view is no longer enough. In the world of images, there is more going on in the mind than goes on in 'x is right and y is wrong'. In using an image to say 'x is right', you generally convey a lot of primal, irrational and aesthetic pleasure too. An image is never completely rational even if the idea behind it is."
Unless you accept, as a rational being, that along with the primary 'meaning' of an image you will be always cognisant of or influenced by subjective emotions aroused by associations inspired by the image. It would be entirely irrational to suppose otherwise. Rational people can sort the wheat from the chaff...then come to a rational conclusion on the basis of the wheat alone. (Relativists have varying degrees of gluten intolerance. Post-Structuralists/ Deconstructions, trendy young would-be left-liberal tyros and the likes of Ms Penny probably suffer from Coeliac disease)
"What she recognises perhaps is that she has to make an appeal to a politics of texture in which reasoned argument is just one componant of the whole package.In part, left v right wing politics is then just a form of entertainemnt "
So you're kind of affirming that she's a deliberately provocative, attention seeking, stunt pulling propagandist? Isn't that what you object to when other people say it?
"Murdoch is art insofar as he appears very good at writing to his various audiences."
Is that what art is? Aiming at specific demographics and giving them what they want? Wouldn't that make the entirety of global Capitalism art?
"Murdoch has no real existance; he is the void behind the emptying out of meaning, ideology and point of view."
If "Murdoch has no real existence" then surely he must exist only in some sort of mythological realm?
...but you go on to say..
"he is the void behind the emptying out of meaning, ideology and point of view."
So, would it be any more or less meaningful to say: "I despair at the debased nihilism of modern existence...and it's all Agamemnon's fault"?
"When I say we live in a 'textural reality', I mean that a clear point of view is no longer enough. In the world of images, there is more going on in the mind than goes on in 'x is right and y is wrong'. In using an image to say 'x is right', you generally convey a lot of primal, irrational and aesthetic pleasure too. An image is never completely rational even if the idea behind it is."
Unless you accept, as a rational being, that along with the primary 'meaning' of an image you will be always cognisant of or influenced by subjective emotions aroused by associations inspired by the image. It would be entirely irrational to suppose otherwise. Rational people can sort the wheat from the chaff...then come to a rational conclusion on the basis of the wheat alone. (Relativists have varying degrees of gluten intolerance. Post-Structuralists/ Deconstructions, trendy young would-be left-liberal tyros and the likes of Ms Penny probably suffer from Coeliac disease)
"What she recognises perhaps is that she has to make an appeal to a politics of texture in which reasoned argument is just one componant of the whole package.In part, left v right wing politics is then just a form of entertainemnt "
So you're kind of affirming that she's a deliberately provocative, attention seeking, stunt pulling propagandist? Isn't that what you object to when other people say it?
"Murdoch is art insofar as he appears very good at writing to his various audiences."
Is that what art is? Aiming at specific demographics and giving them what they want? Wouldn't that make the entirety of global Capitalism art?
"Murdoch has no real existance; he is the void behind the emptying out of meaning, ideology and point of view."
If "Murdoch has no real existence" then surely he must exist only in some sort of mythological realm?
...but you go on to say..
"he is the void behind the emptying out of meaning, ideology and point of view."
So, would it be any more or less meaningful to say: "I despair at the debased nihilism of modern existence...and it's all Agamemnon's fault"?
Why can't I post as Spud Middleton?
What a fuckin useless site.
Unless I'm getting the sums wrong?
InNegative; I think genre is a better word than textual although it is not strictly accurate. What you're saying is that Murdoch has a number of different media outlets. Each one has the ability to appeal to a certain 'type' of person; each has its own genre.
Murdoch's enterprises doesn't have 'one' point of view as there is more money to be had by appealing to different points of views.
I always see Murdoch as more a great modern artist that a demon.
http://innegative.wordpress.com/2011/05/15/rupert-murdoch-andy-gray-rich...
He is democratically elected in that everyone bought his stuff and everyone knew what he was. There are no real excuses.
Even the 'Backlash against Murdoch' is merely a point of view, and the information surrounding this view can be packaged and sold.
Laurie's article is a prime example. The information about a backlash is being packaged as a New Statesman's blog article: the author is rewarded by money, and the audience (us) reads something we are interested in.
The information we read and hear is then absorbed into our minds in various ways. We are all a combination of original and unoriginal thought. Unoriginal because we copy what others have thought and passed on. Original because we mix a combination of 'information' and presented them back into the world.
Where and how will my words end up?
@Spud
"Rational people can sort the wheat from the chaff...then come to a rational conclusion on the basis of the wheat alone."
I think my personal contention here would be, 'but do we want to?' I quite like the idea of a mixture in which rationality is just one componant. I don't want to be a purely rational being. I enjoy that other things take place and the possibility that you can create and live in less rational realities.
This preference itself seems bound up in a world flooded with image-media, say contra the Enlightenment which was textual.
"So you're kind of affirming that she's a deliberately provocative, attention seeking, stunt pulling propagandist? Isn't that what you object to when other people say it?"
What I object to in others is the dismissal of the clear talent so that they can emphasize this other aspect which in fact expresses part of what it is to exist right now. To appear iconic and to imagine how we look on screen is now a solid part of our psyche. It's going to take a while to work out what this actually means for us politically and what we want to do with it. For the time being, I'm happy to see where this pattern-self is going, what new opportunities it affords etc. I don't think it is 'attention seeking' as much as it is 'being full up with the iconic vitality of those media images that influence her'. In this, she'll have to work out for herself what is real and what isn't. What is politics and what is play.
"Is that what art is? Aiming at specific demographics and giving them what they want? Wouldn't that make the entirety of global Capitalism art? "
There is certainly artistry in creating patterns that communicate with others, particularly where it does so at an aesthetic level. There is artistry too in working out what patterns work best for particular media. I never get the impression he 'aims at demographics'. Fox News is a visual and emotional entity well beyond what a focus group could deliver.
Yet my point might be more that he is a work of art rather than an artist. He appears to me as a sort of feedback of what is at the center of ourselves, which is a Lewisesque delerium. I think in the future, you will be able to read his output as quite a profound representation of what this culture was. But I'll admit, I'd rather have Dennis Potter or David Lynch.
"If "Murdoch has no real existence" then surely he must exist only in some sort of mythological realm?"
His 'real existence', I guess, instances in his submission to the market as the arbiter of meaning. There is no other morality that guides him, which would be ok if the market wasn't so damn brutal. The textural aspect of what this neo-capitalist project has brought us, I'm becoming increasingly fond of as i feel closer to knowing what it means. It's not all bad.
@James: "By government and police saying 'we will sort it', you are taking responsibility away from the individual that buys these papers. They will now think 'I don't have to take responsibility for buying this paper. I will just enjoy the salacious gossip.'"
When you listen to Murdoch talk, you generally get the impression he doesn't think people are this stupid. He sees people very much as responsible, democratic consuming agents and he gives them what they want. 'If it sells, then it's good content'. 'Of course people can tell the difference between an editorial and a news story', etc. Entertainment is textural, not rational/moral - morality is as much a part of texture as sadism is. Murdoch is textural art in as much as a scene from a David Lynch film or in as much as the nonsensical simulated battle of left v right that continues to take place across a middle-class spectacular press.
LOL Spud Middleton - I was taken aback when the multiplication was introduced. Addition and subtraction, fair enough - but multiplication ! I'm dreading the differential calculus log-ins.
Thats pretty close to what I'm on about Mr. D. I prefer 'textural' though as it gives the impression of a photograph or a more complex mix of sound, colour, speech etc that youd get in a film. All these things impact on the mind and create an experience and as such, 'genre' doesn't cut it.
If you look at Murdoch in this way, he produces a texture of textures in his various publications. An empty value system projecting a huge array of competing experiences.
(You might prefer 'pattern' to 'texture'. I play a lot of Second life. Patterns there are referred to as 'textures'.)
In_Negative: On second thought, I won't go any further with this as I'm sure you already know what my objections to the postmodern project are (yes, the standard arguments - my 'patter' about which I am sure will bore you senseless).
Sorry to have made it personal, but your posts so perfectly illustrated the problems with this particularly odious strain of thought - the jargon, the verbosity, which, when de-coded, reveal only truisms or banality (despite their superficial appearance of profundity).
The more substantive arguments against 'high theory' are too important to be dealth with here (and again, I'm sure you know what I would likely say on the topic) so I'll leave it at that.
@Tim: "Many split from the company dogma and pleaded to have his daily hour long show canceled because it was too inflammatory and bigoted but Murdoch loved Beck and ignored their pleas."
Murdoch is not 'right wing' and he is only conservative insofar as he wishes to conserve that political (democratic?) form that he has been credited with creating. Behind Murdoch is a profound nothingness - Beck was appealing because people liked to watch Beck; Beck, like Hennity or O'Reilly are textural in that they are insane, superficially/comically ideological and brutally dogmatic respectively. Murdoch himself though only believes in you, the spectator. I'm pretty taken with the phenomenon of Fox News. Extraordinary piece of work visually and emotionally. It's almost made for youtube.
In_Negative: Tried and failed to post a new comment to you.
I'm just not welcome here.
Alas.
NK: sometimes the gremlins get into the NS system. It's nothing personal. It's best to post a series of shorter comments than a longer one. And don't copy and paste past failed comments.
Thanks for the advice, Mr. D.
Potter on Murdoch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnVrK38xI-A
God, I miss that man... An altogether better texture.
Perhaps textural is a more accurate word to use but people don't understand what it means and can confuse it with the word 'texture' as in clothing or something like that.
For instance, when you write ' a texture of textures' the reader is confused and has to stop and think too long what it means. If you wrote ' a variety of different genres' it would mean the same and the reader wouldn't be confused.
Wonderful.
Share a website with you ,
put this url in google sirch
( http://www.chic-goods.com/ )
Believe you will love it.
We accept any form of payment.
Talking of different genres how about a 'Marxist Horror Writer'? The blog is very well presented visually. Benjamin is a real gung ho 'hip' lefty but what is really interesting is that he advertises big multi-national corporations on his website. He also buys brand new big flat screen TVs and computers but has a 'donate' function which he justifies by saying he is a poor writer in need of financial support!
Try posting a criticism and see what happens.
http://www.benjaminsolah.com/blog/
Thanks for that Laurie, the first time I heard about Rupert Murdock was back in the 60's it was the Profumo affair when small time people like Kristine Keeler made well at the expense of a family break up and wrecked career. It was that kind of dirt digging that made Murdock.
It would be very difficult to indict Murdock as he will always cross his 't's' and stay on the legal side of the ledger.
I can't see his statecraft as an art as he is serving th interests of the global elite. But I will concede that a lot of us have given him power by purchasing his scandal rags.
Though I never have.
Tim has hit the nail on the head here' boycott his papers and isolate the sociopath from his sopporters. that is the only way to disarm these people.
I understand your concern, but 'genre' doesn't mean the same at all. A genre is a category more than it is an inter-relation of elements. The following scene is not a genre, it is an experience made up of various elements - desire, movement, music, colour, isolation etc:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EotNv1Tsa_Q
An experience? All you are doing is watching a kind (or a genre) of film. That's the sum of your experience. You might feel something as a result of watching or reading something, but that thing is merely one of a kind.
You can categorise that film like you can with any other work of art. By categorise I mean you can lump it with another film of a similar style. Like I said it's a type of film, and a type is a genre.
You say 'inter-relation of elements'. Of course all film has interaction of people and things (dogs, cats, music, beds, colour etc etc). Because some films are similar to others in the way the things interact (like Westerns) people categorise them under the same genre.
The word 'textual' is an adjective that means related to a text. It's confusing the way you use the word. Trust me, if it doesn't make sense to someone who has a Masters in Linguistics it wont make sense to anyone else. So whatever you are trying to say will not be understood. Use a different word... like genre.
The momentum of the Murdoch backlash will slow. The backlash will end up in the dustbin of history - like Laurie Penny's confected outrage.
In_Negative: Sorry, I lie...
As a socialist, I doubt Sokal proposed that 'reason' alone is a sufficent underlay for a political project as you say, but rather, that a political project *not* informed by reason is utterly meaningless.
"They need to understand that the public are not mindless consuming animals who can be manipulated into buying their products and electing their politicians."
OK...but how are they to come to understand this when all the evidence points to the public's salient characteristics consisting precisely in mindless consumption, political apathy/illiteracy and, above all, openness to cynical manipulation?
If your answer is that they should cease to engage with News International, then: fair enough. However, if your idea is that, instead, they should take their opinions from a posturing, middle-class, political-naif whose work is largely characterised by hyperbole and an excessively liberal attitude in relation to 'interpreting' what she regards as 'facts' then: no.
"They need to understand that people, on the contrary, are complex, and decent, and can only be pushed so far."
...and why do you suppose this? If your only evidence for this is the short-lived campaign by a bunch of middle-class students, somewhat put out by the news that they'd have to fund their own worthless degree courses, then I think you're a little optimistic. Far from 'fighting back', from what I unferstand, most of them allowed themselves to be herded like cattle in pens, then spent the next few hours texting their mums that they were a bit cold, hungry and needed a piss.
It was more a tantrum than a protest. Which, I'm supposing, is why you were so inspired. Just the platform for the 'voice of a generation' to turn up, stamp her feet and scweam and scweam.
I don't know Spuddles. If there is hope, it is in this sort of sentiment being reinforced and guiding personal politics:
"They need to understand that people, on the contrary, are complex, and decent"
Mindlessly as we do consume, we are very much this too.
We should be careful of what we hope for. I personally don't trust Cameron, if he gets a chance to muzzle the press as a result of this, he will and we will end up like the French. Do we really what him to have control over everything we read? That will happen if we are not careful!
@Mr D.
"First of all you can say everything in print is aesthetic or a work of art, for everything is created. So saying The Sun is aesthetic is meaningless."
You can say everything has an aesthetic impact, yes. But the tabloid is designed for impact, it uses headlines, word melody, arrangement of content specifically to 'speak for and to' its audience. It uses the medium to convey a message - in that, there is a good deal of what you can call art over, say, a paper that concerns facts.
"People also use the word 'agenda' incorrectly, and it is confusing because what they really mean is 'purpose'. Agenda is things to be discussed, usually at a meeting. Purpose is a much more accurate word."
I'll give you this though.
I'm saying everything can be viewed as aesthetic because everything is created. For instance, the tea ceremony in Japan is considered an art.
'Impact' of different art differs from person to person.
When I say everything, I mean everything. All landscape has been created, most of it influenced by people. Even here in Australia, for thousands of years people started bush fires to clear land. People shaped the land by fire. It is a creation of partly people and partly other things. It can be seen as art ...because it has been created.
Who is to say that one type of creation is any 'greater' than another type? That one type of art has 'more' impact than other art?
Post new comment