In 1949, Albert Einstein warned that the time would come “when the very rich so controlled the means of communication that it would be almost impossible for ordinary people to make informed decisions and so democracy would then be broken”.
A future prime minister of Great Britain had to travel thousands of miles to Bow before a press Baron and in your time in power you didn't think maybe we should Curve this guy's power!
Back in those days when social media wasn't what it is now, people were avid newspaper readers. If you started a war with a corporation responsible for millions of readers' daily paper, you'd find yourself very unpopular. Taking them on would backfire immensly. I don't think there's a way they would have gotten away with it back then.
Same still happens now as The Sun but even the left-leaning Guardian did not back Corbyn's Labour, so to win about 40% of the vote in 2017 was the all the more remarkable. @@easycoding8255
"Tony gave the (hesitation)....sort of. ....speech". This is the moment when everything changed. When Comms (Alistair Campbell's domain) started to reign supreme. It's been downhill ever since - catastrophically so.
Same still happens now, as The Sun but even the left-leaning Guardian did not back Corbyn's Labour, so to win about 40% of the vote in 2017 was the all the more remarkable, the media have been softer on Starmer as the party moves to the centre.
The Guardian did what they ALL should do - Report the facts without attempting to steer the public’s decision towards the paper’s favourite guy.. He does the same with his Australian papers - Part of why a historically bad decision was made yesterday Murdoch has changed this little blue planet - not for the better
Major was a totally busted flush in '97 Labour would have won with or without Murdoch. Maybe it helped increase Labour's majority, but definitely not the overall outcome.
I think voters actually voted in. Right wingers did their usual Properganda, Thatcher this & that. But even after all this time, I have never forgotten what a evil piece of work she was & how life in the UK was awful it was for us common people. Suella is like her twin but without the tutored voice, which was grating. Even writing this post has given me cold shivers. 😱😬
The economy took a hit but it needed to happen. Inflation was out of control and increased interest rates were needed to cool the economy. Ironically not listening caused a later recession.
@@gardenroom65It was iffy. Although it is painful and definitely horrific for those on the doll but cooling down inflation was the right thing to do. However other than messing up a certain Wednesday, Sir John Major did a brilliant job on the economy.
@@GrahamRead101The left still cannot understand that forcing unions, having to force them, to democratise was vital and that they can be a vested interest which destroys not only the fabric of society but also democracy.
I was a journalist and covered the antics of Murdoch for some years as I actually wrote about my own industry, I also met Maxwell several times and was a personal friend of his own press officer who of course leaked to us like mad, because Maxwell was so awful, much to his puzzlement and consternation... I once showed him some incriminating material which showed something naughty he was going to do ON TV and he screwed it up in a ball and threw it in my face hahahahaha...ON TV, in front of cameras. Just didn't care......these people! They don't care about politics only insofar as interfering, or attempting to interfere in politics serves their business interests. I'm sure Campbell is right about 1997, and we all thought that at the time. Stop worrying about his 'influence'. He doesn't own any TV media in the UK any more, and the Sun is now a comic on a permanently downward circulation trajectory, including online. We should be very worried about the Daily Mail, which has been incredibly successful online, worldwide now. That needs looking at. Murdoch is a distraction. The Mail's owner and his vile puppet Paul Dacre are a far, far bigger threat to democracy. I don't agree with the all the TRIP couple's ideologies but they know stuff, and certainly Stewart tells the truth. Which is why he didn't win the Tory leadership campaign of course.
Campbell admitting that Labour was in Murdoch’s pocket and boasting about it. He’s confirming what we’ve all suspected - Labour is no different from the Tories.
Murdoch backed you in 97 because he knew Blair was in his pocket. Blair is the Godfather to one of his kids. Everyone Murdoch has backed since he took over The Sun has become PM, literally every one of them. To pretend he backs the winning horse rather than crowning them is naive to say the least.
Labour would have won in ‘97 regardless of The Sun. It’s Murdoch et al who likes to over egg his ego by making him out to be this king maker type figure. They’re a populist newspaper - hence why in 2008 following the financial crash they were writing stories about bankers bonuses and fat cats. Murdoch’s main concern is selling newspapers and making lots of money - they follow the public opinion at the time.
@@benpurvis4677 Yep. Although Starmer's probably even more one of Murdoch's own who will be in govt if he doesn't mess it up considering he's still u-turning on stuff i.e. equalities. Further right on equalities than Braverman and that's a disgrace.
@@benpurvis4677 There is no evidence that Blair would have been the exception to the rule. Murdoch has just retired but Starmer writes articles for The Sun and is very friendly with the right-wing press. So he is already courting their blessing.
Blair was not the brightest, they call him Bambi in the US as he was so open eyed at anyone famous in front of him. He even thought Brazilians spoke Spanish for goodness sake.
Yeah and mean someone that became PM of the UK was not the brightest....Tony Blair could wipe the floor intellect wise with anyone here making any comments!
@@indivestor you think Thatcher, Boris, Truss were clever people? They were not. If you ever met Blair privately you would be surprised, he is not the brightest.
Murdoch recognized the inevitable and swung his support behind Labour there was never any need for Blair to bend the knee but unfortunately the latest Labour leader also felt that he had to do the same.
Rory, tell everyone about your time as chair of the secretive anti democratic group, Le Cercle. Their agenda from 1979 stated: "Undercover financial transactions for political aims" "International campaigns aiming to discredit hostile personalities or events" "Creation of a (private) intelligence service specialising in a selective point of view" Under your leadership did you help further these causes at the same time that you were also an MP?
@@Thomas_basiv Just listened and he gave a complete non-answer, Ash should have pushed and asked what they have accomplished and if it’s not secretive, name some names.
@@Brokout He wasn’t there in 1979, he’d be naming names of people that feign self-importance by attending pseudo-espionage networking events. You can probably find out who was involved with a little digging, how did u find out Rory was involved
@@Thomas_basiv He must have known the history of that group and was fine to join knowing it. If his ‘people meet up to talk about China and Russia’ answer satisfies your curiosity then that’s cool but I think joining an unaccountable secret group that ties directly to your role in government is worrying and should be further explored.
@@ferociousfrankie well not really he's been rehabilitated in the public eye. Send all Murdoch collaborators to the Barclays island for now and in perpetuity
Starmer will probably be the first elected PM in 50 years that doesn’t have the support of the Murdoch press. It will be interesting to see what kind of climate that subsequently creates in our political ecosystem
All that means (IMHO) is that the Murdoch press is no longer relevant or has the same power anyone thought it had. We live in a pluralistic media landscape now, thanks to social media and all the different news channels online, like TLDR or news Podcasts like the News Agents, which didn't exist even ten years ago.
@@corincowley1351 I think it may be more a case of the Conservatives being SO unpopular, some of his outlets have no choice but to back Starmer, rather than feeling remotely supportive of him. I think The Times will back Labour, but it’s hard to see The Sun doing the same now, they’re too far down the Tory rabbit hole
Was Paul Keating a good Prime Minister? Lowest satisfaction rating. Since Newspoll began in 1985, the lowest satisfaction rating of any prime minister is by far Paul Keating's at 17% in August 1993, with a 6% difference between Keating and the nearest low rating of Julia Gillard at 23% in September 2011.
Keating was a bloody brilliant Prime Minister. and Gillard's government was the most productive in legislative terms for many years. Newspoll's 'results' aren't worth a cracker because they just massage the data to express whatever opinion Rupert tells them to.
