In which the pond settles for pious hypocrisy, which means a serving of "Ned", of course ...

 

 

Another dismal day at the lizard Oz, with Dame Slap given the plum spot, but luckily the pond could match her with a cartoon ...

 

 

And that's all the pond had to say about Dame Slap and the reptiles ongoing war with comrade Dan and all the rest of the premiers doing the heavy lifting ... while the man from marketing talks about wife and daughter yet again (but more of that anon) ...

And so the pond went further down the page in search of substance, and found the usual ...
 

 

Wow. Shanners came up with a new one there ... practical pragmatism, which must be a new one, a bit like lunar loon ... 

Some might think that the presence of Bob Brown was new, but relax, he's just joining the reptiles in the war on China, so it's just business as usual with a green fringe ...

As for the traumatised staffer, the infallible Pope had a thought ...

That cartoon might lead some to read Katharine Murphy's Australians don't need a father figure, Scott Morrison. They need a prime minister.

Below that came 'My wife set me straight' is a trope older than time. What's required isn't a new bit of advice, it's a substantial cultural and institutional shift.

Perhaps a bit of practical pragmatism? And that's all the pond had to say on that, and so it was back to the top and nattering "Ned", sounding righteous and pious, in the way that only that pompous portentous prolix reptile can manage ... (you must remember spotting "Ned", he was just above the news of the other Covid Kelly being given a slap on the wrist with a warm lettuce leaf by Facebook) ...

 

 

 

Conservatives must be brave and deny fealty to Trumpism?

 

Before the pond even began, it had a fit of nausea, of gagging and heaving, and when it had finished with its Technicolor yawn, it had to shake its head and wonder what planet "Ned" lived on? 

 

Did he not realise he was kissing cousin with Fox News? Was he completely unaware of what Fox had been up to of late? Must the pond remind him, courtesy of the Graudian?

 

 

It's all at the Graudian of course, but the pond thought it might be amusing to juxtapose the reality of the Chairman's minions, with the bullshit of "Ned's" noxious natter ... but first we need some more of "Ned's" delusions to set the scene ...

 

 

Have you no sense of decency Sir? Have you no shame?

When will you resign from News Corp? Or will you continue to blather away, oblivious to the Chairman's deep concerns, and the steps he's taken, as reported in Vanity Fair, back on February 3rd, At Fox, Rupert Murdoch is Reportedly Stepping in to Right the Ship ...

Sorry, what was that about righting the ship? It is of course a matter of steering the ship hard starboard in search of the great orange whale's supporters. Take it away Graudian ...

How desperate and pathetic they are. What an appalling form of Trumpism they dress themselves, and yet here we are, with the oblivious "Ned" nattering away about the need to make a stand, not realising that the square cracked long ago, and his Gatling jammed ...

 

So be brave? Or be stupid, as the Chairman pulls the old WSJ and nattering "Ned" trick, while going about the real business that he runs ... look, over there, conservatives of the old school, reassuring you that all is well in right wing nutter land, now look over here, we have Fox News, and the ship is being righted, and welcome back aboard, orange whale devotees ...

Yes, News Corporation is still full Trumpist and rotten to the very core, and yet its delusional kissing cousins down under feign a piety and a bravery on the matter of the orange whale and his supporters. 

And speaking of this "bravery", is there more of a chocolate soldier to be found melting in the sun than our very own nattering "Ned"?

 

Fox News is at the conservative margins? Tell that to the hand and the Chairman. But to be fair, our "Ned" has found a match for his hypocrisy in the turtle hoping that the Justice Department will do the work he didn't have the guts to do ...

Sir, the only path forward is for you to resign in protest at the Chairman's wicked ways, and his ongoing fealty and kowtowing to the Donald, because he's deeply anxious about a loss of revenue, by way of a loss of Trump supporters ... there is no other option.

Oh wait, of course there is. Keep banking the pay cheques and blather on, in a meaningless morass of tedious ineffectuality, give new resonance to the notion of a boring old fart ...

And now to another footnote about the chairman which turned up in Crikey. Those who can get past the paywall will find it here ... but as the pond values all things News Corp, it thought the piece needed another, if belated, airing ...

I love The Guardian. It has long been my most trusted news source worldwide. I have been honoured to write for and work with this grand institution. So I am sorely disappointed that it’s dancing with the devil, Rupert Murdoch, in backing Australia’s news media bargaining code.
The code is built on a series of fallacies. First is the idea that Google and Facebook should owe publishers so much as a farthing for linking to their content, sending them audience, giving them marketing. In any rational market, publishers would owe platforms for this free marketing, except that Google at its founding decided not to sell links outside of advertisements. The headlines and snippets the platforms quote are necessary to link to them, and if the publishers don’t want to be included, it is easy for them to opt out.
Second, the major media companies of Australia — Murdoch’s News Corp, Nine and, yes, The Guardian — are not beggars in Oliver Twist’s poor house as they would have us believe. They will survive.
Third, no matter what happens in this political drama, Murdoch — as ever — wins. Either he gets paid by Google and Facebook, or, as threatened, Facebook bans news from its newsfeed and Google pulls out of Australia. Since Murdoch and Nine own almost all the biggest media brands in the nation, they’ll be fine. Any media start-up that dreams of competing with Australia’s media oligopoly will be unable to find a hold in the market. Small companies in many sectors will suffer. Users will suffer.
I predict that the politicians who made this happen at Murdoch’s behest will suffer once citizens realise what they must do without. But Murdoch won’t.
What worries me most is what the code would do to the internet, worldwide. As The Guardian reported, Sir Tim Berners-Lee himself, the man who invented the web, said the code would break it. The precedent of having to pay for the privilege of linking to someone is antithetical to the core ethic of the web: that the edges finally win over the power at the centre.
In the United States, where I work, it is only because of the web and its architecture of the link — as well as social media and its hashtags — that we have finally heard the stories of #BlackLivesMatter and #LivingWhileBlack and #MeToo from voices too long excluded from mass media, run by old, white men (who look like me). The net challenges the old mens’ hegemony.
No wonder Murdoch does everything he can to cripple the internet and its proprietors, cashing in his political capital — conflict of interest be damned — to buy protectionist legislation favouring his companies against his competitors.
In beginning to pay publishers for their articles, Google and Facebook are playing into his hand — and I’m unhappy with them, too, for setting a precedent I consider dangerous for the future of the net.
You may ask why I’m so vitriolic about your native son, Australia. (In disclosure, I once worked for Murdoch as TV critic for America’s TV Guide. Also, the school where I teach has raised funds from Facebook and Google, but I receive nothing from them.)
My animus toward Murdoch comes from seeing his media company damage my family and my nation. Fox News brainwashed parents across the country. Donald Trump was the Frankenstein’s monster of Murdoch’s network. The January 6 riot at the US Capitol might as well have been Murdoch’s garden party.
Rupert Murdoch is the single most malign influence in democracy across the English-speaking world — and his influence spreads even wider now, as even formerly sensible Canada and the European Union are considering following Australia’s lead in killing the web with carbon copies of the code.
If Murdoch is the devil, The Guardian was the guardian angel come to battle him. That’s why I’m so disappointed. I’m equally concerned that The Guardian, as well as most news media lately, have turned dystopian in their coverage of the internet and technology. I am old enough to remember when they were optimistic, even utopian. But that is a discussion for another day, another beer.
I say this at the risk of my relationship with The Guardian, an affection that goes back many years. But as much as I love The Guardian, I love the internet even more.
Jeff Jarvis is professor of journalism at the City University of New York.
Private Media, the parent company of Crikey, is a current participant of the Google Showcase program. Content from Crikey and other Private Media brands is featured on Showcase as part of a commercial partnership.

There's only one thing to add to that, and that's to note that Google itself is no innocent lamb. 

The fight to get on to the front page of a Google search is intense, because most searchers never go beyond the first page.

SEO's have died in their attempts to get to that nirvana ...but then Google made it easy for them, by selling ad links that they'd put at the top of the page, the very first response ... in short, selling links for cash in the paw ...

Some don't care - it's a never no mind for the pond if its own site falls down the list, but others care deeply, and pay Google, hearing the siren song of Curious about paid search?

To hell with them all, the pond says, but who could argue with that line Rupert Murdoch is the single most malign influence in democracy across the English-speaking world?

Just spare a thought for his enabling heirs and successors in the family, and his many, many accomplices and minions, the allegedly pious nattering "Ned" amongst them, while the pond finishes up with a Rowe cartoon, with more Rowe always here ...