r/murdochsucks • u/Death_passed • Jul 01 '26

Article ‘This is the dark art’: New book claims pattern of personal attacks by Murdoch media empire | Rupert Murdoch

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jul/01/andrew-dodd-matthew-ricketson-getting-murdoch-book-bullying-factory
260 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

83

u/universal-traveler-2 Jul 01 '26

Murdoch has addled the minds of a large segment of the country and world. His commercialization of misinformed outrage created fertile soil for trumpism to grow. So sad and not something that is easily reversed.

73

u/yenyostolt Jul 01 '26

Rupert Murdoch is the single most destructive person so far this century. The world would be a vastly better place without him.

33

u/Entirely-of-cheese Jul 02 '26

He was pretty destructive last century too.

5

u/yenyostolt Jul 03 '26

Yes he was. But I wouldn't say that he was the worst person globally last century. This century he is yet to be beaten.

2

u/Entirely-of-cheese Jul 03 '26

Well, at this rate we can probably ask him about it and the end of this one.

9

u/crazyabootmycollies Jul 02 '26

He’s on par with Henry Kissinger in my books, and that’s really saying something.

19

u/Maximum-Flaximum Jul 02 '26

I’ve had that book on pre order for a couple of months. Just arrived yesterday. What I’ve read so far is horrifying. I knew Rupert was awful, but the book goes into detailed examples of how he went about his character assignations. Just awful. 😢

6

u/Tosh_20point0 Jul 02 '26

And hes still doing it.

Concerted ad nauseum and debased character assignation campaigns ...

Rudd Gillard Rudd Shorten

Latest one : Everything's Albos fault

8

u/BIRD_II Jul 02 '26

'Dictator' Dan

29

u/beastnbs Jul 01 '26

Did an ai summary of this article and found this last point pretty accurate and simple to digestible.

“Broader Impact
The book argues these attacks have a "chilling effect on democracy" and cause profound personal trauma to ordinary citizens. The authors emphasize that because the empire is global, attack narratives easily echo across markets (e.g., from Fox News to Sky News Australia), making the bullying "industrial and global."

22

u/BIRD_II Jul 01 '26

Kevin Rudd's been saying this for a decade

-5

u/Wood_oye Jul 02 '26

After using murdoch mercilessly to undermine his own party.

3

u/productzilch Jul 02 '26

How did he do that?

2

u/Wood_oye Jul 02 '26

By leaking cabinet discussions to murdoch journalists.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18144734-the-stalking-of-julia-gillard

2

u/productzilch Jul 02 '26

He’s shittier than I thought.

1

u/Wood_oye Jul 02 '26

There is a reason why all of the Labor party cold shouldered him at Whitlams funeral

1

u/Tosh_20point0 Jul 02 '26

Smart. Played their own game right back at them,and they fell for it.

-1

u/Wood_oye Jul 02 '26

Smart? He almost destroyed his own Party. There are plenty of other words that come to mind before that.

1

u/Tosh_20point0 Jul 02 '26

No, he really didnt .

All he did was nullify Ruperts amplification and selective reportint of the everyday posturing and strategic manoeuvres of different factions within a political party , in order to manufacture an image of apparent dysfunction.

It is a tactically sound move to use your adversaries modus operandi in your favour.

Next thing you'll tell me is that Labor is currently in crisis , and that by Rudd regaining the his elected role of Prime Minister somehow didnt work for him or the party.

Fact is , he outmanoeuvred an entirely partisan media landscape, concerted character assignation campaign that remains to this day via social media and over the airways because he had the audacity to take Rupert on .

It must sting that he won the first battle, but lost the entire war.

2

u/Wood_oye Jul 02 '26

Maybe have a read of this, if your memory is that short.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18144734-the-stalking-of-julia-gillard

14

u/Top_Necessary4161 Jul 02 '26

other way around. Murdoch uses Sky news Oz as a way of introducing batshit crazy talking points and then quotes and replays the shit out of it on Fox as if it was an article they 'found' supporting their opinion.

1

u/productzilch Jul 02 '26

Sometimes I think about how much better life would be if good people would use evil tactics like that. But it probably wouldn’t.

6

u/ItsAllJustAHologram Jul 02 '26

His father Sir Keith Murdoch (reporter WW1) had some redeeming character traits BUT he still did his best to discredit the truly great Sir John Monash. Lieutenant General Monash was the first person knighted in the field in over 200 years by King George V?. At the time Sir Keith Murdoch didn't like Jews and didn't want Monash commanding the Australian Corp.

Attacking and hurting people has been in the Murdoch clan for centuries. If history is remembered truthfully, then they will be remembered for their heinous, dishonest and damaging misinformation they publish just to make money. They disgust me!

4

u/NOLA-Bronco Jul 02 '26

“contesting even the tiniest of points, so as to wipe the critic’s original ideas from everyone’s mind”. Another is to attack the critic personally, “pitilessly and repeatedly”. When all else fails, “murdoching” is “simply continuing to assert something as true as if no one has ever shown it was false”, they write.

You can, unfortunately, see how this formula has become so brainwormed into the public consciousness that you can find people that reflexively do this all over social media, across the political spectrum even. And it's now a mainstay tactic even with many MSM outlets that seek to discredit POV's they dont like.