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Paul Slansky

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Karmageddon

Posted: 07/20/11 12:37 PM ET

Murdoch Scandal. How obscenely pleasurable it is to type (and read) those two words back to back. Not since Watergate has a man so satisfyingly been shoved face to face with his self-created destiny. And who, finally, brought down this journalistic thug? One Milly Dowler, a murdered teenage girl just like all the countless other ones he built his craven career exploiting. What did Rupert know and when did he know it is an irrelevant question here, just as it was, on a certain level, with Richard Nixon. The tone is set from the top.

The Murdoch ethos has never understood that there really are some boundaries you can't cross. Throw in the failure of the sycophantic media to seriously call him on any of his previous egregiousness -- and to accord him an unearned respectability, rather than the pariahdom that his affronts to decency so clearly deserved -- and it was inevitable that he would eventually go too far and repulse the masses beyond the point of redemption.

Even in this era of vanishing standards, there are still some things that are just not done by people with any pretense of propriety. Hacking into a murdered girl's voicemail -- and, in the process, giving her parents false hope that she was still alive -- turns out to be one of them. Who could have known?

So don't fret about distractions like whether or not Murdoch retains his title or position at News Corp. Here's all that matters: this amoral grotesquerie is going to be in the lead of his obituary. Disgrace is his true legacy. This is karmic retribution on a cosmic scale. As such, I suggest that the official media title for this long overdue - but all the more rewarding for its delay -- blast of schadenfreudal bliss be known from this day forward as: KARMAGEDDON!

If there's a better name for the Murdoch Scandal, by all means please post it below.

 
 
 
 
 
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
CPAwADD
My super power is sarcasm!
02:55 PM on 07/21/2011
This is not original with me, but I forgot who first posted it. Schaudenfreudgasm!
09:21 AM on 07/21/2011
There is also the power of the internet, the way people use and get their information.
No chance of gatekeeping and control of that anymore. Murdoch used to rant about Google and even predicted the end of the internet.
http://socratesbooks.blogspot.com/2011/06/bye-bye-media-conflict-google-net-and.html
04:50 AM on 07/21/2011
The FOX is in the Murdoch house, and NEWS OF THE WORST eats its own parent's ceo. The Rupert caricature of a journalist is now roosting in the jaws of his own beast.

That's Karma nearly worthy of Slansky's remarks.
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imdesign
Expression is Everything.
04:21 AM on 07/21/2011
One President can survive a sex scandal and still stand beside his wife in office, another can openly lie about WMD and send sons and daughters to war, both remain respected and revered by many as honourable men. The list can go on and on with the "haves and have mores" - they become untouchable as they scoff at such criticism. Murdoch Inc will be no different.

As he said the paper was 1% of his corporation - 1%. His only need is to restore shareholder confidence who are also only interested in the same as he is - capital gain - for them, whatever it takes, thank you.

Meanwhile their energy is only interested in financial gain - how they get it justifies the means in their eyes. A little hand wringing and a sorry, will shut the minions up and they will move on, caught but not out.

However the energy of change is moving rapidly around the world now and while Murdoch and his like, will most likely retire on their treacherous wealth, the insidious tendrils of their web will ensnare those who live from it and I am sure their suffering will be self imposed - even with those who gained from what they think is clever and cunning business.
11:31 PM on 07/20/2011
Schadenfreude
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Momofsarahandem
38 yr old SAHM of 3, OWS supporter
07:44 AM on 07/21/2011
And it's been a LONG time coming. I have zero guilt in finding this whole thing enormously satisfying (for today).
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10:55 PM on 07/20/2011
Well stated and I do hope that Rupert gets exactly what the universe believes he deserves. Karma is a pretty tough lady - I would hate to get on her bad side as Mr. Murdoch has done so many times.
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09:54 PM on 07/20/2011
Karma geddon even.
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Momofsarahandem
38 yr old SAHM of 3, OWS supporter
08:08 PM on 07/20/2011
Excellent piece. It's so hard not to gloat right now. Especially for those of us who saw Murdoch's empire for what it was YEARS ago. C'mon...it hires Bill "The Godfather of Tabloid TV" O'Reilly to be its American news frontman and we are shocked that it used such disgusting tactics to get a story in the UK?
I have my suspicions that the pie thrower is also on Murdoch's payroll. Convenient that his wife has super-fast reflects and managed to divert public opinion into something favorable for the Murdoch's. Just watching the footage made me wonder, "Do they really think we're buying this?" China certainly is. It's dispicable.
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Tom Pumroy
practical dreamer-artist Man Ray
06:35 PM on 07/20/2011
Good one, a fairy tale villain must pay in the end; as he has sown now he must reap, I hope he appreciates the irony. Preposterous claims of I didn't know are a cowardly, underhanded, hardly believable cover but I guess that is his style. What is it about the despicable of this world and why does that give them an advantage over the rest of us and allows them to land up in high places politically and commercially?
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Paul Slansky
07:45 PM on 07/20/2011
My sense is that Rupert Murdoch's appreciation of irony is underdeveloped.
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DiogenesOfAlaska
Mitt Romney for president - of the Cayman islands!
05:57 PM on 07/20/2011
Nothing really matters, ... to me, ... anyway the wind blows...

Any Murdoch questions?
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Eric Ehrmann
05:06 PM on 07/20/2011
Murdoch's Last Hurrah is a better name, Paul. Watergate or the Gate tag are no longer valid barometers becaue most of the things that were illegal back then are not illegal now. And Hillary Clinton, who worked for Sam Dash... Don Riegle who flipped parties because of Watergate, and got nailed as one of the Keating Five while a Michigan democrat senator.

The karma is inherent to Murdoch but look at Berlusconi with his ties to P2 lodge, and the fake yellowcake incident. On Tony Blair's watch the self-suicide of a prominent British nuclear watchdog who did not buy into nuclear storytelling about Iraq... Colin Powell and his source Curveball who was a total fabrication. Murdoch's mighty Wurlitzer buzzed it out to the max. But its much bigger than Murdoch and it all needs a Last Hurrah. Unfortunately, the managed sub-communities of foreign policy social media preclude a real populist conversation. When Murdoch was an apprentice at all this, there was Robert Maxwell, and Mad Max got vilified. But he helped in the Cold War and every Mossad chief showed up at his funeral. A global conversation is needed to revive a modicum of public trust in electonic and print media.
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Jill Irish
O seclum insipiens et inficetum!
05:06 PM on 07/20/2011
Interestingly, watching the Murdoch testimony reduced my perceptions of the old man as "evil." He certainly is guilty of encouraging a "bread and circuses" approach to journalism, of "tabloid-izing" every news source he touches. I still dislike him for that. However, the real problem, quite simply, is that he's allowed to own so very, very much! I believe his claims regarding what he didn't know. No one could know enough about such sprawling concerns. Once upon a time, pre-globalization, antitrust regulation might have helped prevent this...but there are no remedies for a Hydra-headed multinational like Murdoch's, even when the consequences are so ugly.
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Ljilja
http://graciouslivingdaybyday.com/
02:05 PM on 07/20/2011
I couldn't agree more.

At first I felt guilty about feeling such schadenfreude, but then I asked, Why? The man deserves everything he gets. And his henchmen (and henchwoman!) as well.

http://graciouslivingdaybyday.com/
01:45 PM on 07/20/2011
For a writer of no known education and whose sole life experience is writing conscending articles about other people, your comments on Murdock are rather puerile. One may disagree with some or much of what the man has done, but knowledgeable people in the field of journalism and more particularly the business of journalism recognize him as a near-genius whose contributions to journalism have been immense.

Ideologies like Slanksy would be more respectable if they would simply say "I'm a lefitst, Murdoch is a conservative, I dont like him so I'm happy that he is in trouble because I prefer my extremists to his." That would be an honest opinion. But this article parades as commentary when its really just about Slanksy's emotions.

Even Tina Brown, whose experiences vastly exceeds Slansky's whose husband was fired by Murdoch, says that he made immense contributions to British journalism.
01:56 PM on 07/20/2011
Agree completely. Though the acts were terrible and worthy of swift and complete justice nobody claims Murdoch was a party, or even had any knowledge.

Success breeds envy, we are watching a delirious envy orgy. Murdoch will have the last laugh, just watch.
02:44 PM on 07/20/2011
You are defending Murdoch? Amazing. I guess you have no conscience either.
03:22 PM on 07/20/2011
Hey ajax cleanser,

Tina Brown actually does claim that Rupert had knowledge of what was going on at News Of The World. So, your contention that, "...nobody claims Murdoch was a party, or even had any knowledge." is false. Just read the below paragraph...

"I have to beg to differ. You remember the gangster who pretended to be nuts and used to walk around in his bedroom slippers? I felt with Rupert it was as he was, seeming to be this out of it guy who is now removed from his empire. He is utterly hands on, I don’t think to the point where he would listen to the detail of phone hacking. He wouldn’t need to or particularly want to.

When he talked about how he phones the editor of News of the World on Saturday night and asked if he ever asked about the $600,000 payoff, he said no, didn’t ask about that, he would absolutely know about that. When he said ‘what’s doing?’ he would say what’s in the paper the next day. The second question would always be how did you get it? He likes process."

Click the link...http://www.mediaite.com/tv/tina-brown-likens-rupert-murduch-to-gangster-who-pretended-to-be-nuts/
02:16 PM on 07/20/2011
If by journalism you mean yellow journalism, then yes, he made immense contributions around the world!!
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Bobolini
Crusty, But Delicious!
01:17 PM on 07/20/2011
Your word would be better if it wasn't already very well known as a traffic jam in LA - Here is an article about the origin -

http://www.thebrandwash.com/2011/07/17/carmageddon-–-conjuring-hell-works/
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Paul Slansky
06:50 PM on 07/20/2011
Living in L.A., I am all too aware of the -- how shall I put this? -- nauseatingly overused term "Carmageddon." Given the unavoidability of that word over the past two weeks or so, I assumed that it was evident that my "Karmageddon" was a play on that. I guess I assumed wrong.
09:03 PM on 07/20/2011
Some of us got the pun on the first read. I thought it was an clever improvement over the LA hype.