Paying for Murdoch's propaganda

[Mark Stapleton]

Calling Murdoch the dirty digger is a bit misleading. While he loves war (well there's so much money in it), he would never become a participant himself. He leaves that to others.

I agree. It's also arguably a slur on Australians.

However, the phrase originated with the English satirical magazine, Private Eye, because, after buying The Sun, central to Murdoch's strategy to sell newspapers to working class Brits was putting photographs of topless women on Page 3.

Murdoch told the staff that he wanted the Sun to focus on ‘sex, sports and contests’, a mission translated in the satirical paper Private Eye as ‘a tear away appear with a lot of tit’. Private Eye labeled Murdoch ‘the Dirty Digger’, well before the paper’s launch in 1970 of a regular feature, which continues to this day: a photograph of a naked woman on page three. As recently as October 2002, the Sun was congratulating itself on the emergence of a Sun-look alike in Moscow (dubbed inevitably, the Sun-ski) complete with page three ‘lovelies’. The Sun’s page three girl has also made a successful move to the paper’s website.

http://runningbetweenthewickets.blogspot...-nick.html

Interesting. Murdoch had a similar strategy here. I remember when the Murdoch's Daily Mirror, a Sydney newspaper, had the page 3 girl as a regular feature. It lasted through to the mid 1980's I think.

He'll leave a legacy of editorial interference, dubious political alliances, advocacy of war, tax avoidance and tits.