Brendan O'Neill, and at last someone prepared to stand up for tabloid culture ...

This week it's about time the commentariat stood up for Murdoch and Monckton, two figures much abused by cheap shots from indolent inner urban types.

Sadly, Paul Sheehan isn't that commentariat member, as he spends Death and taxes, lies and truth brooding yet again about the matter of Ballard v Multiplex (court proceedings are available in less prejudicial detail at AustLII as Ballard v Brookfield Multiplex, and Ballard v Multiplex and David Ballard v Multiplex - AustLII really does need to sort out its search functionality).

It's true that Sheehan does take a bold stand by quoting a self-confessed money launderer as being opposed to the carbon tax, the Labor government, greenies, the public sector and trade unions, while the alleged capers of big business are given a free pass (and a chance to collect at least five hundred dollars passing go and building the education revolution).

This is a bit like the notion that in the matter of affairs men sow wild seeds while women are removed from the fray, when in reality, as the ancient sage noted, it's hard to carry on affairs with only one hand clapping.

If Sheehan had managed to make a point about the grasping, greedy, unethical behaviour of business when it comes to tendering and carrying out government business, he might have begun making a variety of points. But all in all the piece really just reflects the increasing irrelevance of a man with too many bees in his bonnet for any self-reflection or critical thinking.

So hey ho, it's on to The Australian, and what do you know, there's Brendan O'Neill on hand in Right rolls over and lets political correctness censor the world.

O'Neill spends an entire column blaming the dark forces of liberal campaigners who felt disgust for the News of the World's culture for the closing of the rag, and brooding about what a dark time it is for press freedom. You know, the press freedom enjoyed by workers in unca Rupe's vast coal mine ...

It seems to escape O'Neill that it was Rupert Murdoch (and the tribe of associated Murdochs) who shut down the rag. It needn't have been done - the paper could have gone on - but it was done as a cynical move to ensure that the main prize, the full acquisition of BSkyB, could still go ahead. And it was done in response to a variety of potentially illegal activities which have finally caught the attention of previously derelict constable plods.

Confronted with this kind of ineluctable reality, it takes a truly heroic cultural warrior, expert in implications of the culture wars, to ferret amongst the entrails, and extract from the tea leaves the true meaning of it all.

Above all, it seems Rupert Murdoch must face a charge of cowardice in the face of enemy fire:

What last week's events confirm most of all is the extent to which the right-wing sections of political and public life have lost the capacity or willingness to withstand pressure. Instead they roll over in the face of attack and think little, it seems, of bringing to an end one of the key media outlets for their way of thinking.

Yep, good old unca Rupe is morally bankrupt, craven and cowardly:

It is this defensiveness on the Right that morally empowers what are referred to erroneously as the liberal sections of public life, the anti-tabloid, respectable media and political classes, which feel emboldened to hound their increasingly at-sea opponents.

Uh huh. Lordy, how shocking to be law-abiding, and even worse, respectable.

And why would the righteous right, disrespectful down wit it rappers and hound dogs, the lot of them, larrikins and layabouts all - what are you rebelling against, what have you got - why would this fractious joyous right wing be at sea?

Fundamentally, the hacking scandal points to a shift in the culture wars, with an isolated Right on one side and emboldened illiberal liberals on the other. Indeed, one of the ironies of the media debate about the hacking scandal is that it has depicted Murdoch as an immensely powerful force that can devour politicians, political parties, and other media outlets at will. The truth, as we now know, is that the so-called Murdoch empire is on the back foot while the "liberal media" have demonstrated their capacity to mobilise the forces of the state - parliament and the police - in the pursuit of certain agendas.

Uh huh. Not in pursuit of certain crimes, and the people who conducted and/or permitted and/or encouraged such crimes, but in the pursuit of "certain agendas". Yes, it's the illiberal liberals standing in the way of free sex, free drugs, free criminality and worst of all tabloid culture celebrating same ...

Truly O'Neill's capacity to be perverse for the sake of perversity surely now must be acclaimed as legendary, as we now must demote unca Rupe from his alleged position of power, to a humble statue with wretchedly weak clay feet.

The overestimation of Murdoch's power and the underestimation of the influence of the illiberal liberals, the uncritical acceptance by many of the "Murdoch controls Britain" narrative, is perhaps another reason why some are unable to compute the enormity of last week's events.

Illiberal liberals ... Oh the pond does so love the ring of it, so much easier to say than truly liberal right wingers in favour of anarchy ...

Why it turns out that sweet unca Rupe has no more power than an ordinary 'umble pensioner in 'ackney, or perhaps East Cheam.

And the entire campaign against the NOTW isn't actually about crime, or the criminal behaviour by a newspaper, and its employees, or the extended, over years, extensive cover-up that took place, it's all about cultural aversion:

The influential anti-hacking, anti-News of the World campaign is not motored by a concern for journalistic integrity. It is underpinned by a cultural aversion to the tabloid world. That is why so many politicians have said the closure of the News of the World is a good start, but doesn't resolve the problematic "culture" of Murdoch's low-rent titles. A self-described "high-minded" columnist in The Times, keen to distance itself from its stablemate the News of the World, says there are "several journalisms in Britain": there's the one "represented by people like me and those I have worked with at The Times, The Independent and The Guardian" and then there are "our exotic colleagues".

Then of course there's the exotic Brendan O'Neill, who keeps on forgetting that it was within Murdoch's power to keep his title operating, but who chose to cut and run, mainly for the television prize, but also with an eye on the possibility of a new title, a Sunday edition of The Sun. (Will The Sun work on Sunday? News International plots new paper).

It goes without saying that such a Sunday Sun will exemplify the very best of tabloidism, and so the traditions handed on by NOTW will be handed on to a new generation. But is the exotic O'Neill pleased, and looking forward to his chance at working on a new Sunday tabloid rag, as he rages at Hugh Grant for getting upset about an unregulated tabloid press?

There you have it: this is about us and them, decent media and scummy media, and the latter must be policed and possibly punished. Who will be the next victim of this great shrinking of what it is permissible to publish? Surely the Sunday Sport, with its nonsense stories and naked girls, must go?

Actually I think most people would settle for an absence of criminal conduct and criminal behaviour, and so long as the Sunday Sport keeps its nose clean, or at least buried deep in the whiff of jocks and panty-less page three girls, most likely it can sail on into the future.

After all, if it's good enough for Brendan O'Neill to rabbit on endlessly about the evils of Julian Assange, and the way there's been a wide-eyed unquestioning worship of him that's both embarrassing and creepy, then surely it's just as problematic to indulge in wide-eyed unquestioning worship of tabloid culture (Left bows down to false WikiLeaks prophet).

Here's the double flip that is always required, a kind of bleating mea culpa, 'yes but' routine, designed to soft soap what has gone down:

You don't have to have been a fan of the News of the World, still less of its recent antics, to recognise that the anti-Murdoch moral crusade is likely to have a chilling effect on the British media and on press freedom.

Actually, you don't have to be a fan of Brendan O'Neill, or his various contradictory columns, to recognise that his pro-Murdoch tabloid moral crusade is likely to have a chilling effect on the birth of the Sun on Sunday.

He's already pronounced on what form any new tabloid might take:

That is likely to be the end result of the hysterical crusade against "evil" tabloids: a situation where the authorities speak "power to truth". British journalism is having its cojones removed. There will less risk-taking, muck-raking, daring. It is a sad day for press freedom when all journalists are put under extreme pressure to be good boys and girls, like those in the "proper press".

Oh no, not the cojones, not the end of risk-taking and muck-raking.

Will we have to eke out a miserable existence, spending our time learning that the Beckhams nee Posh have had a baby girl, that the real A-listers are the newly wed British royals, that Luka wants to leave and that Alonso has won the British grand prix (this day in the ordinary Sun, sure to be changed to equally compelling insights, and remember to always look for the best celebrity photos).

Shattering news, but a reminder of just how much Paul Sheehan has dropped the ball these days, confronted with opportunities to berating the evil world of rampant liberal left inner urban cardigan wearers, with only the likes of Brendan O'Neill still personning the battlements, defending unca Rupe - even if Rupe is a craven coward, abandoning the field of battle - and with a bit of luck, next week, O'Neill will be doing the same for Lord Monckton, tortured as the poor man is by evil ABC radio and inner urban elites everywhere.

Ain't it grand to have such a simple left right, black white, yin yang view of the world.

Oh please Unca Rupe, give Brendan a gig on the Sun on Sunday, you'll surely love the cut of his jib, and the jib of his assorted cultural war cuts ...

And he's surely dumb enough, since he doesn't seem to have the first clue about how to run a media empire, how to cut and run, how to take a loss, and how to go on with a long range plan that will ultimately see News Corp rule the world, an ambition which sadly remains only a dream for Pinky and the Brain.

(Below: fear not for the tabloids, as you sample the joys of The Sun with this screen cap. And remember after a dalliance with New Labor, The Sun returned to the Conservatives, thanks to the work of its traditional proprietor).