Since taking to Twitter, Rupert Murdoch appears to have found the ability to say exactly what he wants, whenever he wants, to be quite liberating.
However, the 83-year-old media mogul may have gone too far this time by using the platform to praise his Sydney paper the Daily Telegraph for getting the end of the cafe siege into its final edition on Tuesday.
AUST gets wake-call with Sydney terror. Only Daily Telegraph caught the bloody outcome at 2.00 am. Congrats.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) December 15, 2014
The comment provoked criticism online, with Jim Roberts, executive editor of Mashable, typical of the responses: “3 people died in #Sydney hostage siege; @rupertmurdoch gloats about his newspaper’s coverage.”
Bruce Guthrie, former editor of both Murdoch’s Melbourne daily the Herald Sun, and its Fairfax competitor the Age, and now editorial director of the New Daily, summed it up as: “Dirty digger now gleeful ghoul.”
Neither was the Tel’s splash headline – “Death cult CBD [central business district] attack” – an exercise in measured restraint, prompting the New Daily to mock it up thus:
People react online after Rupert Murdoch’s ‘bloody outcome’ tweet: http://t.co/I68xWZkJW1 pic.twitter.com/wa95YMn1it
— The New Daily (@TheNewDaily_) December 15, 2014
Around the same time Rupe also said on Twitter:
AUST, UK and US likely to catch most plots. Lone Wolves are the frightening danger.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) December 15, 2014
He hasn’t opined any further, but Monkey will keep a watchful eye on Twitter so you don’t have to.
