I’ve just pulled myself away from an hour of twittering (it’s raining, and all of my “real” mates are at work, honest.) It seems that the “tweet” consensus was that Jonnie lost his Marbles, and more than a fair few of the liberal presses are far from condoning his behaviour.
In the words of the Joker – Why so serious?
I mean, I’ve never liked slapstick beyond the level of Laurel and Hardy however, does Jonnie not get some credit for bringing back the form? Please can we take this “event” with a little less outrage? You got to admire the balls on the man at the very least…
Not if you are Billy Bragg it would seem, who said: “On the worse day in News Corp history, Jonnie Marbles has given The Sun and Fox News the chance to make Rupert Murdoch look like the victim.”
Are we losing perspective here? Jonnie Marbles make Murdoch look like a victim? Everyone will soon forget his name and he will swiftly become that bloke that pied Murdoch in Whitehall.
The Murdoch name however will stand as a testimony in the history books (hopefully) that no one, no matter how powerful, is above the law; moral, common or legislative. Does anyone who does not believe that the law applies to them, not deserve a pie in the face (at least)?
Mr Marbles (asides from having a name that could qualify him as one of Harry Potter’s classmates) was given space to explain his actions in the Guardian, where he claimed he threw the pie at Murdoch “for all the people who couldn’t.” (Would that be the vast amount other clowns out there, dreaming of, one day, creaming the face of a media mogul?) Other than this sentimental rhetoric, Marbles made quite an argument for why such an attack was warranted.
“It's not difficult to find reasons to dislike Rupert Murdoch. His reach is one of the most insidious and toxic forces in global politics today. The phone-hacking scandal, despicable though it is, barely scratches the surface of the damage done by News International. It is a media empire built on deceit and bile that trades vitriol for debate and thinks nothing of greasing the wheels of power until they turn in its favour. What's more, no matter what the grievances he wreaks on those he has never met, his power and money keep him forever safely out of their reach.
Yes it's true that Murdoch's power is waning. But it's also true that he will never face real justice. Yesterday's select committee hearing was a farce before the foam ever left my fingers: a toothless panel confronting men too slippery to be caught between their gums.”
Lets face it, nothing short of a Pol Pot massacre could ever make Rupert Murdoch look like a victim. What this pantomime has achieved is making him look like a target: which is exactly what he is, and this is exactly how he has made billions of others feel over his years in charge. He’s just not so comfortable when the shoe is on the other foot and neither (surprisingly) are his employees.
The only thing brought into serious question in my mind over the whole Marbles farce is the lack of security procedure that must have been in place during hearings of such import; really, if a comedian can get to Murdoch with a handful of foam whilst he is being questioned by MPs in front of the nation, who should really be taking this joke seriously?
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