Thursday, July 21, 2011

Is Irony Dead, Or.....

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...Did the Conradian pot really call the Rupertian kettle out for being blacker than he himself could ever possibly be?

RUPERT Murdoch is probably the most successful media proprietor and operator in history. There is no possible argument about his boldness, vision and skill of execution in conquering the British tabloid market, leading vertical media integration by uniting film studios and television stations, cracking the US television triopoly, being one of the great pioneers of satellite television and founding a conservative-populist American news network. It must also be admitted that the Wall Street Journal is the only quality product Murdoch has ever bought and actually improved.

It is unlikely that Murdoch, his son James, or Les Hinton committed crimes. Discerning people should not be impressed by the process of hostile media solemnly citing law professors and retired prosecutors and sources who spoke on condition of anonymity to comment on the Murdochs’ legal problems. No one should begrudge the Guardian, the BBC, CNN, the New York Times and others their fun at his expense, nor take it too seriously. He is, as Clarendon said of Cromwell and the British historian David Chandler updated to Napoleon, "a great bad man". It is as wrong to dispute his greatness as his badness......


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3 comments:

Norm Farrell said...

Conrad knows much about creating one's own reality. He looked deeply into his own life and found himself faultless. He extends that critical generosity to Rupert and his minions.

I must say though that, for all his despicable qualities, Black can bring a smile with his wordcrafting.

Bob Broughton said...

I'm hoping that they put Black and Murdoch in the same jail cell.

RossK said...

Norman--

I agree on both counts.

Case in point.... I'm sure that Mr. Black could write a very erudite and amusing passage about how this is actually just an example of a very fine fellow thinking of making a career change from moving tripe to moving boxes.

Or some such thing.

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Bob--

I dunno.

Do they pay P.Guards enough to put up with that kind of thing?

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