1040 The Man Behind the Curtain

1040 The Man Behind the Curtain

It’s amazing how many pearls of wisdom you can find in the Wizard of Oz.  But chances are, you’re not going to like this posting.

Because in this case, the man behind the curtain -- the wizard -- is Rupert Murdoch.  Yes, Rupert Murdoch, the man of sensational headlines, naked women on page three, gossip on Page Six, the right wing propaganda machine we all love to hate: Fox News.  Rupert Murdoch of the phone hacking scandals.  Of the wife with the championship quality right hook.  (Good thing it was the right hook and not the left.)  The Australian who became an American Citizen so he could buy TV stations.  The union buster.  And lately, the lowly writer of tweets on Twitter.

The Last Press Baron.  Or at least the last one with actual presses.

You may not like him.  You might think he’s a political caveman.  A believer in a dying form of media: Newspapers!  Who wants newspapers?!  (Even Rupert concedes the future is digital.  But he’s in the minority of big money moguls who believes there’s a future for news at all.)

You might want to think that the New York Post is made up two weeks in advance.  You might think the Times of London has lost its virginity.  You might think that the Wall St. Journal is nothing more than a shill for big business.

You might.  But Murdoch saves dead newspapers. (The Journal is a trade paper. It may win Pulitzers, but it’s still a trade paper, like Women’s Wear Daily, Variety, the Journal of Pediatric Oncology and Modern Grocer.)

Murdoch is in his 80s and won’t live forever.  So when NewsCorp splits itself in two and the papers become a separate company, his heirs will be able to sell off this drag on its bottom line.  If they can find buyers.  

Anyone want a crack at “The Sunday Tasmanian?”  How about “The Bronx Times-Reporter”?  All kinds of hot print properties there.

Without Mama Fox to make up the shortfall, and with newspaper readership sinking like the Titanic it once was, Murdoch may be able to have it both ways.  If he can make the new newspaper division self-supporting (somehow) and keep the Fox balls in the air it’ll be life in Oz.  It’s a bad bet on the surface.  But you bet against this wizard, chances are you go broke.

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Now, the latest from the Associated Wes:

US vs. Alvarez - Making Lies Legal

LOS ANGELES (AW) -- The US Supreme court has lowered the bar making it possible for all bottom dwelling liars, lawyers and fake I.D. makers to slither over it. The decision to let anyone lie in or out of  US courts also marked the official start of the US Pathological Liars’ Millennium – or Alternative Truth Millennium theorized by some truth seekers to already  be in full political and corporate swing.

At the center of the issue lies our first amendment right to freedom of speech which has been trivialized to include small untruths in court because there is no legal mechanism in place to find and punish the massive number of cheaters.  It sounds like a trick to provoke people to admit their lies in public so they can be held accountable.  But it isn’t.

The ruling instantly turned all fraudulent I.D.s and paperwork from unacceptably fake to acceptably fake.  

Ninety-five percent of diamond jewelry wearing smart phone users, surveyed on line at their local food stamp offices, agreed that the ruling to accept alternative truths made their own lies legally and morally acceptable.

Members of the Supreme Court who are expected to be charged with violating the laws of perspective later this month are said to be claiming plausible deniability and blaming the first amendment.

(Click here to read the full decision.)  

We’re both Wes Richards.  Our opinions are our own but you’re welcome to them ®
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