and now we're seeing also the we've had the Trump efficacious and the Trump ofin
of our media there's a new right-wing website out and it's being run by
Patrick Holloway a guy who was a regular guest on I used to debate him all the
time he was a guest on my TV show and in Washington DC and he's running this this
website that is even weird or even more out there than Breitbart right I mean
the people who were like too crazy and they're literally making stuff up and
you know like one of the reporters was assaulted and at and Tifa rat riot right
no such thing I mean you know it's literally making this stuff up where did
this all start well you know there actually is a backstory here kevin rudd
who was the the equivalent of the president of australia he was the Prime
Minister of Australia back some years ago the last Labour government Kevin
Rudd wrote a piece for the Sunday's the Saturday morning Herald or Sunday
Morning Herald in the Australian paper thus it excuse me the Sydney morning
maybe it's the city where his ass mhm I'm sorry I don't have the paper right
in front of me I just have a predator but it doesn't have the name of the
paper but for the morning in fact actually you know I've got her right
here on my computer it's the Sydney Morning Herald okay got it right Kevin
Rudd the former prime minister wrote a piece and the title of it is cancer
eating the heart of Australia and democracy and he opens up by saying you
know Australian politics has become vicious toxic and unstable the core
question is why why and then he gets right to the answer he says at the top
of it all has been Rupert Murdoch the greatest cancer on the Australian
democracy this is the former prime minister saying this he said he writes
Murdoch is not just a news organization Murdoch operates as a political party
acting in pursuit of you find commercial interests in
addition to his far-right ideological worldview in Britain Murdoch made Brett
sit brexit possible because of the position taken by his newspapers in the
United States Murdoch's Fox News is the political echo chamber of the far right
which enabled to treat the Tea Party and then the Trump party to stage a hostile
takeover of the Republican Party in Australia as in America Murdoch has
campaigned for decades in sport of tax cuts for the rich killing action on
climate change and destroying anything approximating multiculturalism what's
unique about Australia former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd rights is that
Murdoch owns two-thirds of our country's print media no other democracy has
anything approaching his effective media monopoly again the former prime minister
the the Australian equivalent of President the former Prime Minister of
Australia Kevin Rudd writes Murdoch is also a political bully and a thug who
for many years has hired bullies as his editors the message to Australian
politicians is clear either toe the line on what Murdoch wants or he kills you
politically this has produced a cowering fearful political culture across the
country is not taught Fox News doing the exact same thing which remember Murdoch
owns they have created this monster of Trump they promote trumpism they promote
xenophobia they promote fear they promote conspiracy theories they promote
hatred as a political weapon they promote the idea that there are you know
of illegal voters out there that there's voter fraud right over a billion votes
were counted in a major study University study they found 31 instances of people
voting illegally in quotes and only two of those were people pretending there
were somebody else you know campaigns of fear and lies
being promoted by right-wing media and the right-wing media is getting even
farther to the right and then we hear this absolute BS on networks like CNN
and MSNBC well actually on CNN I heard I heard it twice yesterday
where that were where somebody was talking about well you know you got the
far right on Fox and you got the far left on MSNBC telling lies really I mean
there's an entire website Media Matters org devoted to and Fox sounds us is what
is it fox hounds News hounds News hounds dot us that well you know we watch Fox
see you don't have to that are devoted to literally to daily debunking the lies
on Fox News do you know of any website that does that for MSNBC can you
identify one lie about the Republicans that has been promoted on MSNBC I mean I
can I can complain about their their sins of omission they don't talk about
for example net neutrality because they're owned by Comcast they don't talk
about corporate mergers and and you know the the power of wealth because a they
are the power of wealth but they don't lie over on Fox they actually lie and
then CNN comes along go oh you got the far left on remembers every shit afar
right on fine I'm sorry that's a false equivalence it's a completely false
equivalence and I'm not somebody who typically defense MSNBC as you well know
but this is I mean this is what it has come to and I think Kevin Rudd has
nailed it I think Rupert Murdoch poisoned the
politics of Australia been he left Australia and went to the United Kingdom
where he set up shop and he poisoned the politics of the United Kingdom and
brought us conservative rule in the United Kingdom and then he moved to the
United States and poisoned the political discourse in the United States and took
over the Republican Party and excuse me and frankly it seems to me now that the
Republican Party is being run by Herbert Murdoch I mean you know in in
I mean bill shine the guy is now the White House communications director he
was forced out of Fox News over by the me2 movement for his sexual
predatory behavior but he's obviously still you know the hot tide into into
Fox News and the you know the Fox News it's just like it's it's like state
television except it's not state television it's billionaire television
you've got the billionaire media in Australia Rupert Murdoch you've got the
billionaire media in the United Kingdom they all The Times of London Rupert
Murdoch and you've got now the billionaire media in the United States
you know again I went through an airport last week and in the United clubs the
only newspaper that they get they used to give away you know the New York Times
The Washington Post the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal now it's all
Wall Street Journal nothing but and I'm convinced that you know maracas no dummy
he see he knows giving away free media is a great way to get people to use it
to think like that he did this with Fox News and Fox News you know you can't get
MSNBC on basic cable you have to pay an extra fee to get MSNBC typically five
bucks a month but it varies depending on the package and the and the cable
provider that you have for the satellite provider that you have you have to pay
extra for MSNBC Fox is free and this this has poisoned our political
discourse in this country and the question is you know how do you do
something about this when what you're talking about is the media which is like
this First Amendment sacred thing I don't want to get into the end of the
business of defining what is and isn't the media I mean when that happened
Google has already done it right they they don't spider alternet any longer
because they say oh it's not the media they talk about Republican fascism and
so you can't you can't you know look to search for articles there this is the
Thom Hartmann program so anyhow we we've got a serious problem here with the
billionaire takeover of our media and the billionaire takeover basically of
the Republican Party what do we do about
you