People in glass houses

Sadly, the indignant barking and growling going on now in your House of Commons is spilling over into our tv news. I was willing to let this subject be, as long as you kept it confined to the UK, but it is now affecting (not impacting) my personal life, so let me explain remind you of a few facts of life in an effort to calm your blood pressure a bit.

First, let me say the obvious: what they did was despicable. wire tapping, hacking, lying, betraying their offices, intruding on the lives of people who already had suffered enough, and the rest. The lot of them. Now, the list of reminders:

1. All politicians are lying, cheating, dastardly, bribe-taking, sell-their-souls scumbags. Beware when you see them on tv pointing fingers and being all holy. And stuff.

2. There are no exceptions to number one, above. None.

3. All news organizations have one goal and that is to make money. They will lie, cheat, wire-tap, bribe, lie again, intrude, betray confidences, hurt the innocent, and fill in what they don't know with more lies. Beware when you see a newspaper spouting off about what low-lifes their competition is.

4. There are no exceptions to rule number three, above. All have sinned and come short of the glory of .... I don't know.... Randolph Hearst. ::Rosebud::

5. All moguls are out to make Billions and Billions of dollars (or Euros or £££s or whatever you prefer) on the backs of whomever it takes for them to make money. Moguls have a personality which combines the traits of politicians, news organizations, bottom-feeders (lawyers) and will do whatever it takes to make more money.

6. Politicians will attack like a rabid dog any opponent who has made an embarrassing public error. They will be relentless. Never mind they were just as dirty last month.

7. News organizations will do whatever it takes to make themselves look good in order to trash and hopefully run a competitor out of business.

8. One of the most hilarious things you will ever see in your life is to watch a mogul dragged before people he doesn't respect and despises and be called publicly to account for his dastardly actions. Sometimes the same actions the stone-throwers were doing themselves last month. (Hint: an honest neutral special prosecutor needs to be appointed to get to the bottom of this, chips fall where they may, and stop letting the pot people keep calling the kettle people black.)

9. The people have a very short attention span. After the intitial mud-slinging and Rupert bashing excitement are over, they will likely just walk away and go back to watching football at their favorite pub...

So, the holier-than-thou detractors who seek short term possible re-election points by being on tv shouting insults at the PM on the evening news, and the wonderful remaining lilly-white pure newspapers who condemn the vile Rupert style of "journalism" which they themselves so vehemently abhor, had better strike while the iron is hot and before the next public scandal supplants the present opportunity to demonstrate their virtue. You may be sure there will be one.

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There but for the grace of God....

There is absolutely no financial difference between Rupert Murdock and myself except that he has a lot of money and I have next to none. And, except for a completely different set of values and morals, we could be twins.

I can assure you that at this time next year, Rupert will be again hobnobbing with the politicians and the rich and famous, thinking up new scams to increase the circulation of his new newspaper that he will have replaced this one with. This because he is contrite, you see. ::tears welling up again::

And me? I will still be eating beans out of can and blogging.

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In the next post in this spot I will analyze some of the bloggings of outrage on some of the higher class British blogs I frequent. You may be sure I will be my usual respectful self.

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Chill Wills, in "Giant": "People, people, people."

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Nobody cuts deeper or more on target than Nate Beeler.