Learning to love Rupert Murdoch

Fearing Rupert Murdoch is natural because in all likelihood he is the anti-Christ, sent from Down Under to rule over mankind. Admiring him is more challenging, yet that is what I've started to try and do in the hope that I can develop even a tiny amount of the abilities that have made him the seventh most powerful 'person' in the world (according to Forbes.)

Being pro-Rupert is a bit like rooting for Marcus Tandy in Eldorado or supporting Manchester United, you have to learn to love an undisguised, immoral lust for power and an ability to relentlessly keep winning (if Rupe had been allowed to buy Man Utd it would have hastened The End Time.)

It has been a big week for us Rupert supporters this week because he notched up another big victory by gaining approval to gobble up the whole of BSKYB despite the fact that he already controls a massive proportion of what we watch and read. I genuinely admire his drive, which is combined with an undisguised contempt for any politician who tries to regulate his actions. In 1981, when he was buying The Times newspapers, Murdoch told his biographer Thomas Kiernan that: "You tell these bloody politicians whatever they want to hear, and once the deal is done you don't worry about it. They're not going to chase after you later if they suddenly decide what you said wasn't what they wanted to hear. Otherwise they're made to look bad, and they can't abide that. So they just stick their heads up their asses and wait for the blow to pass." I wonder if Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt who signed off the BSKYB deal will follow this advice if the assurances offered to him by News Corp prove to be hot air?

Does Rupert wield too much power? His enemies would say yes, obviously, if he wasn't all powerful already he wouldn't have got the BSKYB deal signed off this week. There are some assurances (for the doubters) in the new deal intended to guarantee 'media plurality'. They stipulate that a director with journalism expertise will sit in on Sky News board meetings where editorial decisions are made to basically prevent it turning into Fox News. You can imagine the impact this person will make on editorial decisions as he doggedly argues the case in the newsroom against the people who appointed him and pay his wages.

The all-mighty Rupe is experienced at dealing with this sort of meddling, anti-corruption organisation Corporate Watch quote 'Murdoch, The Decline of an Empire' on their website, which again describes the The Times takeover when Rupert: "...was required, however, to guarantee editorial freedom and the security of the editor. Murdoch agreed but privately said the promises were not worth the paper they were written on." And so it proved as "...he constantly interfered in the editorial process, and after a year Harry Evans, the editor of The Times, was forced to resign". The same thing had already happened to Sir William Carr who sold the News of The World to Rupe in 1969 on the understanding they'd operate it together; he was forced out after just three months.

Back in those days, when print meant more than pixels, Rupert cunningly managed to avoid being referred to the Mergers Commission by declaring that The Times and Sundays Times would support Margaret Thatcher (according to Murdoch in 'Decline of an Empire'.) The BSKYB takeover had to be approved by the Office of Fair Trading but the suspicion remains (among his enemies) that the rubber stamp was inevitable due to his papers throwing their weight behind the Conservative Party to help deliver their points victory at the last election.

If you can't beat Rupert, join him, admire him, worship him. It's easier and less futile as he really can't be stopped now, because the more politicians bend to his will and allow him to accumulate more media the less any will risk standing up to him. It won't end if he ever decides to die as his spawn Damian (or James) Murdoch will take over, ensuring the everlasting reign of The Murdoch.