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Dear Puffin,
Rupert Murdoch is sort of an obvious candidate for asshole of the day/month/year at any given time. There is rarely a moment when the guy isn’t doing something I find disgusting, immoral, or downright douchy. And with the phone hacking scandal, he’s been even more douchetastic than usual. But this editorial cartoon which ran in today’s London Times is…. well, horrendous.
I think The Atlantic’s headline pretty much summed it up: Murdoch’s Times Would Like to Change the Subject. I think they’ve made that very clear!
The real kicker for me is the words they have put in the mouth of that little drawing of a starving child. “I’ve had a belly-full of phone hacking.” GEDDIT?? It’s funny cause he hasn’t had a belly full of anything in a long long time. You can tell because he’s so obviously starving! Hahaha! Isn’t that just so fucking funny?!?!
And admittedly, while the context makes this really despicable, it makes a good point. We do need to pay more attention to the crisis in Somalia, and the international media has been over focussing on Murdoch. There is, after all, nothing the media likes to cover more than itself.
But Rupert, that crisis does not exist so that you may divert global scrutiny away from your sordid and damaging crimes. The Somalian people’s suffering is not a PR strategy for your fucking media empire, and to treat it as such is fucking disgraceful. It sure is convenient that all those millions of people are starving so that you have a humanitarian crisis to point to. Of course, you aren’t pointing to it for its own sake, or because you really think it should be covered. You only care about the famine because PR-wise it’s better for the world to be focussed on starving babies than on investigations into your crimes. This might be the most insincere thing I have ever seen.
As Mediate put it:
There are several methods of dealing with a much-publicized scandal, some less advisable than others. Issuing a public apology for mistakes or poor judgment? Pretty much always a good idea. Holding individuals responsible for their roles and dealing with them accordingly? Usually works out pretty well. Publishing a tacky, potentially offensive cartoon making light of serious allegations AND life-threatening poverty? Oddly enough, that rarely ever works.
It sure isn’t working here.
Rupert Murdoch, and whoever decided to run this cartoon, are assholes.
Love
MacGuffin
See the gallery of past Assholes here
