Triumph of The [Rupert's] Will: How Murdoch Manipulates Voter's Perceptions & Public Policy

Australian born Billionaire Appears to use his Media Outlets to Shape Voter's Views, Loading them with Misconceptions, So They'll Elect Compromised Fox Nation Pols, Who Upon Assuming Office, Seem to Reward Murdoch's Media Support, by Crafting Public Policy to Conform to Murdoch's Will, Favoring his Business Interests

September 4, 2020 / NYC Neighborhoods / U.S. Politics / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.

As mentioned previously, I've been doing a fairly deep dive into learning as much about the Third Reich and Nazi Germany as time permits, in order to more fully understand what's happening in present day events.

Media Manipulation for Fun & Profit

I began noticing similarities between Australian born billionaire Rupert Murdoch's manipulative use of his large share of Amerian media in 2016, to what Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Propaganda for the Nazis, did beginning in the 1920's until his end in 1945. On May 1, 1945 Goebbels poisoned his children, his wife and himself as the Allied forces neared his home. Hitler and his companions had committed suicide the day before, as Allied forces invaded Berlin. None of them had the courage to stand trial for their crimes against humanity ... although like Mussolini, they may not have made it to court.

1. Did Fox 'News' Attempt to Protect the Reputation of a Propaganda Asset via Omission?

So today, we're going to look at just a few of Murdoch's media manipulations made in just the past couple of months - and I'm nearly certain that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately, I don't have the resource to fact check what is the largest misleading news content producing organization in the nation, and possibly the free world.

Let's start with the first two photos on this page. This story broke in the Guardian on July 7, 2020.

The first photo shows Fox News 'reporting the news' regarding the sexcapades of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislane Maxwell. In the first photo, Fox News conveniently cropped out Donald Trump. In the second photo [at right] we have the 'full picture' aka the truth.

The man who calls everyone else a 'sleezeball' is seen with Melania 'being best', and two of the people alleged to be among some of the sleeziest on the planet [Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislane Maxwell]. Do birds of a feather flock together?

So we must ask why Rupert Murdoch would crop Donald Trump out of the photo? Is it to avoid portraying the Donald in a negative light in order to keep him - a Murdoch asset - in office?

Trump appears to have been a boon to billionaire Murdoch through massive billionaire tax cuts funded by debt to be paid for by America's children and unborn? Or is because Trump's actions in the Middle East vis a visIsrael seemed to serve to legitimize Murdoch's investment in Genie Energy in the illegally occupied Syrian Golan Heights? Or was it because Trump loosened up the FCC ownership limits for mega media companies like Murdoch's thus allowing the few to control our media, which givens them the power to influence the national democratic conversation - and in Murdoch's case - it seems the power to corrupt it in order to profit from it. Or was it because Trump famously fired all U.S. Attorneys, including Preet Bharara - who was investigating Murdoch's companies for sexual harrassment and phone hacking - less than 24 hours after Sean Hannity on Fox News told him to do just that? Perhaps most importantly, Trump's Attorney General Bill Barr, greenlighted the merger of Disney / ABC, which was an inverted takeover resulting in Rupert Murdoch becoming Disney / ABC's largest shareholder.

• CLICK here to read our report on NYPBA police union endorsement of Trump seems out of step with the union rank and file, as well as the NYPD and NYC - but Murdoch's NY Post provides propaganda cover.

Triumph of The [Rupert's] Will: How Murdoch Manipulates Voter's Perceptions & Public Policy

Australian born Billionaire Appears to use his Media Outlets to Shape Voter's Views, Loading them with Misconceptions, So They'll Elect Compromised Fox Nation Pols, Who Upon Assuming Office, Seem to Reward Murdoch's Media Support, by Crafting Public Policy to Conform to Murdoch's Will, Favoring his Business Interests

September 4, 2020 / NYC Neighborhoods / U.S. Politics / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC. Continued.

2. Did the NY Post Tell Another Big Lie to Minimize the Yawning Disconnect between the NYPBA Trump Endorsement, with Many of its Own Members, as well as the NYC Community?

On August 14, 2020 the NY Post seemed to intentionally disinform its audience with a front page infommercial [free ad] for Donald Trump, telling Murdoch's NY Post readers that 'New York is in Play'.

During the time period before and after the publication of the NY Post front page shown at right Biden was and remains between 25% - 31% ahead of Trump in New York.

In the chart below right I show the 'poll of polls' by Real Clear a conservative leaning website. While some of their reporting may be found lacking, their poll of polls seems to provide an organized summary view of polling statistics that encompasses both conservative and liberal polling.

Did Lynch's Endorsement of Trump Expose the Huge Gap between NYPBA Leadership - Versus its Union Membership & NYC as a Whole, including the NYC Police Department?

So, we must ask, why would Rupert Murdoch's NY Post publish such a lie? It was probably designed to set union members of the NYPBA at ease as their union boss, Pat Lynch, broke with tradition and politicized the union by endorsing Donald Trump on August 14, 2020 at Trump's golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey. Thus Pat Lynch's union endorsement of Donald Trump seemed not only a usurpation of the union's neutrality, but also appeared very out of touch with the sentiments of New Yorkers in general.

It wasn't clear in any of the reports I read, who in the NYPBA union made the endorsement decision. Was it the 24,000 active duty members who voted on it, or the 50,000 NYPBA membership [includes retired] who voted on it, or just Pat Lynch and some of the top ranking NYPBA members who voted on it.

Based on a September 2, 2020 report in the Gothamist, it appeared to be the latter as they reported that,

"... the Guardians Association of the NYPD, a fraternal order of Black police officers, said Lynch showed Patrolmen Benevolent Association members a "lack of respect" by making the endorsement without asking, or even informing them, ahead of time..."

The Gothamist also noted that over half of the 36,000 officers on the NYPD are minorities,

"... While more than half of the NYPD's 36,000 uniformed officers are people of color, the department's top ranks are still overwhelmingly held by white men..."

Pat Lynch's NYPBA Union Leadership is Representative of NEITHER the NYPD Nor NYC

The one thing that is clear from the photo of the NYPBA leadership which I found on their website, is that the New York Patrolmen's Benevolent Association Board is a white male dominated organization. In the photo I see only one woman, three African Americans, no Asians and I cannot say for certain as to whether or not Hispanics are represented on the 27 member board of the NYPBA.

The skewed demographics of the NYPBA doesn't seem to reflect the population of New York City, which is comprised of 52% women and 42% whites [only half of which are males, so white males represent about 20% of NYC population]. So the NYPBA union leadership is a far way from representing the demographics of New York City, for if they did, only one in five of the people in the photo at right would be a white male and half of them would be women.

The NYPBA website posted the following June 2019 election results for the Board Members, who serve four year terms.

"... PBA President Patrick J. Lynch and the entire PBA Executive Board were re-elected without any opposition this month, , making Lynch the longest-serving president of the modern PBA, as well as the longest-tenured leader of any major New York City municipal union ... "

Time for a Change?

I suspect that many of the 12,000 officers of the NYPD who are not union members, are likely minorities and women. Were more minorities and women to join the NYPBA, they could increase their representation and wield greater influence in the union leadership. Whether such a move would make the NYPBA more representative and thus more responsive to the community remains to be seen. The next NYPBA union leadership election is in June 2023, so there's still time for minorities and women to join the NYPBA and organize.

I have more Fox / NY Post propaganda vignettes just like this, coming next week. It should help expose Fox News and the NY Post media outlets for what they are - Murdoch's poisonous propaganda for profit machine. This report should also help our readers begin to equip themselves to pay closer attention to how Murdoch's Fox News / NY Post / WSJ reporting appears to corruptly manipulate the presentation of the news. To be sure, other large corporate news organizations exhibit bias, but none appear to go to the lengths that Murdoch's media do to deceive the public in order to manipulate their voting decisions, so the billionaire who controls them can profit from it.