It is typical for Rupert Murdoch’s papers, that they don’t just publish a film review, but garnish it with republican propaganda. Theodore Harvey wrote an objective review of The King’s Speech, but Anna Brain of Melbourne's MX-Talk newspaper (8th Dec. 2010) could not help herself adding another attack on the Monarchy:
She and her fellow republican journos hammer it into our heads: “... the royals have no relevance to your average Aussie ... It’s great they can sit on thrones and be rich.”
One has to wonder if Rupert Murdoch considers his chair as chief executive officer of News Corporation to be a throne and himself as allmighty ruler, but he certainly accumulated more wealth than the British Royal Family.
According to the 2010 list of Forbes richest Americans, Murdoch is the 38th richest person in the U.S. and the 117th-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $6.2 billion.
In Rupert Murdoch’s own newspaper The Times our Queen held rank 214 on the 2009 Richest List with £270m – a very modest sum, which Murdoch probably earns in less than six months. Murdoch’s personal wealth is 14 ½ times the Queen’s wealth.
A comparison between the Monarch’s personal wealth and Rupert Murdoch’s immense fortune and political power is rarely made – and certainly not in a glossy junk paper like MX-Talk.
One has to wonder why Murdoch’s scribes hate the Monarchy so much. All the old accusations against our Australian Monarchy ("the royals have no relevance to your average Aussie"), had been heard and certainly printed millions of times before, but have not changed the Constitution. In the Australian Constitution the Crown plays a central role and puts the politicos on second place. They certainly do not like that.
It must be frustrating for politicians and journalists alike to realise that despite all republican efforts the number of Monarchists in Australia has not diminished.
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1 comment:
They speak of "relevance" as though Brits are obsessive royal-watchers who sing 'God Save the Queen' every night before they go to bed and constantly pray for the Royal Family, while Aussies don't really care. They seem to think that because Aussies no loner sing 'God Save the Queen' before a film at the cinema, or no longer give out Imperial Honours to our citizens, that we are less enthusiastic about the monarchy.
From my experience there is not really much difference - no one, British or Australian, is very enthusiastic about the monarchy - but that does not mean we hold contempt for it or want to see it gone. So talk of 'relevance' is irrelevant.
They seem to forget that it's because of republicans like them that all references to the Queen and the Monarchy have been discretely and underhandly removed or destroyed anyway. But it hasn't worked nearly as well they intended it to.
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