The Government is convinced that after last year's digital TV decision, that
left Murdoch a loser, it's on a "hiding to nothing" with News Ltd, which
has turned sharply anti-Government in both reporting and editorials. The
attack makes the Packer-Keating breach of 1995 look like kids' stuff.
Caught between the conflicting ambition of the Murdoch and Packer corporate
giants, Howard feels he's being trampled.
News' toughness is unsettling and unnerving him.
He interpreted the suggestion in The Australian's Thursday editorial
and a front page commentary that he had shown favouritism (at the least)
to his brother's firm, National Textiles, as another front in an ongoing
News Ltd assault .
That perception shaped the strength and manner of his response. As he said,
"I haven't often called a news conference to deal with an individual editorial."
Some in the Government thought the PM made a tactical misjudgment by doing
so because it elevated the issue.
Their reservations overlook that Howard sooner or later would have had to
confront the controversy about the family relationship which was escalating
with the complaints of other workers. Better to face it quickly.
But having the allegations made so sharply in a News Ltd paper guaranteed
Howard would react fiercely, throwing back terms like "rotten" and "despicable".
During his rural tour last week, Howard accused News Ltd of running a
"ferociously anti-GST campaign against the Government" which was "contrary
to the support they gave to the Government in relation to the GST some time
ago".
The next day he was asked about a January Daily Telegraph story about
Tim Howard, headlined "PM's Son in Death House". The story reported Tim attended
a party where a girl (whom he didn't know) was attacked and later died.
"I'd prefer at the moment not to say anything publicly about that," Howard
said through gritted teeth. Yesterday he hit out at the death house story,
describing it as "quite outrageous"
He also had another go at the tabloids over the GST.
The Government says it is receiving two lines of response from News Ltd to
its complaints. On the one hand it is told the papers are just reporting
what's newsworthy. On the other, it says, the messages say that News thinks
Packer has been advantaged, News wants a TV station, and News is after Howard.
The Government believes the latter signals, despite Howard saying yesterday
"it's never wise for politicians to have conspiracy theories or paranoia
about these things".
Ironically, the Government, which would have liberalised the cross-media
rules if it could have got the change through Parliament, now observes privately
that News' behaviour is making a strong case about the risks of aggregation
of media power.
The Government is convinced that in the Murdoch empire it is up against a
relentless and determined opponent. Rightly or wrongly, it sees the attack
coming from the highest echelons.
For John Howard there has also been a painful twist in all this.
When, during a ministerial scandal, he was forced, reluctantly, to dispense
with Grahame Morris, a personal adviser and close friend, Morris went on
a very large salary to Murdoch.
Morris has been a trophy for Murdoch.
But yesterday he announced he was leaving, to become a partner in a PR firm,
Jackson Wells.
He says, however, that he'll have News as a client and he defended News'
political coverage as "talented editors treating issues on their merits".
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