He's Funny That Way

Oh My ...

Love is burstin' out all over ...

Author: Murdoch 'absolutely despises' the 'bullying' Bill O'Reilly

“It is not just Murdoch (and everybody else at News Corp.’s highest levels) who absolutely despises Bill O’Reilly, the bullying, mean-spirited, and hugely successful evening commentator,” Wolff wrote, “but [Fox News chief executive] Roger Ailes himself who loathes him. Success, however, has cemented everyone to each other."

“The embarrassment can no longer be missed,” Wolff wrote, in another section of the book. “He mumbles even more than usual when called on to justify it. He barely pretends to hide the way he feels about Bill O’Reilly. And while it is not that he would give Fox up—because the money is the money; success trumps all—in the larger sense of who he is, he seems to want to hedge his bets.”

Wolff adds that Fox CEO Roger Ailes shares Murdoch's opinion. "It is not just Murdoch (and everybody else at News Corp.’s highest levels) who absolutely despises Bill O’Reilly, the bullying, mean-spirited, and hugely successful evening commentator, but Roger Ailes himself who loathes him. Success, however, has cemented everyone to each other."

According to Wolff, Murdoch's desire not to be defined solely by his ownership of Fox underlay his purchase last year of the Wall Street Journal, which "was in no small way about wanting to trade the illiberal -- the belligerent, the vulgar, the loud, the menacing the unsubtle -- for the better-heeled, the more magnanimous, the further nuanced."

Steve Benen: NOBODY LIKES O'REILLY...

Editor and Publisher: 'Politico' Carries Excerpts from New Murdoch Book

Quick, somebody call in Sarah Palin.

Maybe she can teach the Grand Ayatollah of Ignorant Dolts how to do that "starburst" thing, that so enthralled the frequent guest host for the Warrior on Christmas, that young pup, Rich Lowery.

No doubt, O'Reilly will likely ignore the jilt, and, perhaps, go around singing this tune;

Billie Holiday - He's Funny That Way




Loofahs, anyone?

Firing It Up - My Wall Street Journal

From Danny Shea, on HuffPo;

My Wall Street Journal, a parody of the Wall Street Journal on newsstands this week to mark the April 15 tax deadline, has rankled News Corp executives so much that they're trying to make sure no one sees it

Oh, this is rich!

Sticking to the WSJ is delicious of-and-by itself, but seeing Sir Rupert react to it .... Priceless!

Murdoch Freaks

And they (News Corp. cronies) have attempted to buy up the copies!

It was not supposed to go on sale until this week, but some newsstands began selling it early. Last Thursday, Alexander Laurence was working at one such stand in Los Angeles, chatting with a customer, David Metz, when, both of them say, a man in a shirt with a Journal logo asked if anyone had seen a paper that looked sort of like The Journal.

"This guy comes by all the time to bring promotional stuff for The Wall Street Journal -- bags, coin trays, stickers," Mr. Laurence said.

Sure enough, they found what he was looking for. "He grabbed them all, said, 'I need to buy all of these,' " Mr. Laurence said. "He had been going around to different stands, buying them."

The man paid with a corporate American Express card. "At first he's saying they have to make a correction or it's not supposed to be out yet," Mr. Metz said. "But then he said these are not published by The Wall Street Journal."

Priceless! ...


Bonus Links

My Wall Street Journal Website

Gawker: WSJ Trying To Suppress Parody?

NYT: A Funnier-Than-Usual Journal Gets Snapped Up Early

We're Waiting, John Fund ... For You To Take Your Head Out Of Your Ass ... Lieberman Abandoned The Democrats To Run As An Indie, He Wasn't Forced To

Clock's Ticking Again - Some More Heads To Be Pulled Out of Asses ... Step Right Up Dorothy Rabinowitz ... And Richard Cohen To

Oh Ronnie, How I Long For You ...

Barry Crimmins with "Our Space"

Spot-on posting by satirist Barry Crimmins, with his "Our Space" yesterday.

Crimmins rails against the state of entertainment, working for free, Huffington, Murdoch and television executives (and I might be willing to wager there's already been half-a-dozen breakfast meetings on the prospects and logistics of launching his "Piss On Yourself" reality show).








Read Barry Crimmins' Our Space

Visit Barry Crimmins Website

Barry Crimmins On The Garlic

Moyers Mashes Magpie Murdoch

I don't have a particular emotional investment in the Wall Street Journal - Great reporting, lousy politics.

But its' fight with, or submission to, News Corps' Rupert Murdoch ... Well, it does have a George Bailey-Mr. Potter element to it.

"...You're the Board here. You do what you want with this thing. Just one thing more, though. This town needs this measly one-horse institution if only to have some place where people can come without crawling to Potter ..."

So tonight, on Bill Moyers Journal, the great Moyers offered a blistering smackdown.

So thorough, that if it had happened on the street, no doubt, Murdoch's rags would have had the bloody mess splashed on the front pages, screaming headline and a Weegee-imitating photo.

"...But Rupert Murdoch is no saint; he is to propriety what the Marquis de Sade was to chastity ..."

...But THE JOURNAL’s newsroom is another matter – there facts are sacred and independence revered. Rupert Murdoch has told the Bancrofts he’ll not meddle with the reporting. But he’s accustomed to using journalism as a personal spittoon. In the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq, he turned the dogs of war loose in the newsrooms of his empire and they howled for blood ...

Read "Moyers on Murdoch"

Watch The Video "Moyers on Murdoch"

Bonus Links

Rupert Murdoch: Bigger than Kane

Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War On Journalism

Wall Street Journal reporters protest Murdoch bid for Dow Jones and contract proposals

Update

Keeping Rupert Murdoch at bay

Update II

Paul Krugman's "The Murdoch Factor"