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Comment by threeseed | Hacker News Reader

Seriously don't EVER compare Bezos and Murdoch.

Murdoch is easily one of the most evil people to have ever walked on this planet. He enabled the Iraq war which has seen a mass loss of life for no real gain. He supported the widespread hacking of UK citizens. His meddling in politics and elections in the UK, US and Australia is unprecedented, brazen and has unquestionably undermined democracy.

Even now he flew over an Editor from the NY Post to Australia to influence the election here who already is shocking the political scene here.

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Absurd to blame Murdoch for a war that had majorities of Congress vote for it. If any media outlet deserves some blame for Iraq, it was the New York Times. In any event, the Iraq war has saved lives compared to the sanctions regime that it replaced.

I think there is enough blame to go around.

...compared to the sanctions regime that it replaced.

Even if I were to believe that, it would be an odd comparison to make.

It is not absurd to blame Murdoch for his role in the war.

He didn't take a negative or neutral position. He actively campaigned for it across three continents (UK, US and Australia). And it has been widely reported that Blair was heavily influenced by Murdoch.

The NYT didn't officially take a position. It just failed in its duty to check the facts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_coverage_of_the_Iraq_War

He supported the widespread hacking of UK citizens.

Yeah him and healthy majorities of both houses of Congress. Did Parliament not get the memo?

I was talking about his papers actively hacking not the government.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_International_phone_hackin...

Murdoch's papers supported Rudd in Australia when he won in 2007.

Was that undermining democracy?

Murdoch was a major force in getting Gough Whitlam (of the Australian Labor Party) elected which was probably his first major step into the political scene. He was also a major force behind the election of Malcolm Frazer (of the Australian Liberal Party) a few years later. Just because he elects leaders from the left or the right does not mean he isn't influencing them. Murdoch has long had a hand in picking the government of the day. Why he picks one leader or another is less of an issue than the fact he is picking leaders.

Are you in Australia right now ? There is a world of difference between what News Corp, Faifax, AFR etc papers have done in the past and what happened with the Daily Telegraph yesterday.

http://mumbrella.com.au/stephen-conroy-an-apology-171009

Why Murdoch wants Rudd to lose the coming federal election is not merely political, it is commercial. News Corp hates the government's National Broadband Network (NBN). The company has formed a view that it poses a threat to the business model of by far its most important asset in Australia, the Foxtel cable TV monopoly it jointly owns with Telstra.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013...

Did you see the front page of the Daily Telegraph (highest circulation of any paper in Sydney) yesterday?

On the first day of an election campaign the headline was:

"Finally you now have the chance to KICK THIS MOB OUT"

http://resources3.news.com.au/images/2013/08/05/1226691/2756...

That is undermining democracy.

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