Rupert Murdoch Finally ‘Gets’ Twitter, Using it to Go After Google and President Obama

Foster Kamer — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 19:22:01 -0400

And another bites the dust. And another one bites the dust.

Rupert Murdoch joining Twitter was one of the more shocking developments in the history of microblogging; not so much because it was an old person using Twitter, or an old, famous person using Twitter, but because it was an old, famous, media conglomerate chief using Twitter. They're not exactly the type to engage with the public. It would seem, only a few weeks after joining, he has finally got the hang of the thing.

Rupe's first weeks on Twitter were a little awkward, but the training wheels are off: Here he is shilling for wife Wendi Murdoch's high-profile tech investment, Art.Sy, and more recently, pumping up the art market as "ablaze" for her.

Now, he's going after his enemies: specifically, other conglomerates like Google and people like President Barack Obama.

Watch the old battle-axe in action:

Now, why would a guy like Rupe go after Google? So he can wash their mouths with SOPA, which the Obama administration started to lean against over the weekend.

Rupert Murdoch has a ton of intellectual property interests to protect: film, television, movies, awful news networks, Joe Buck, and so forth. SOPA—or the Stop Online Piracy Act—aims to give the government power to shut down anyone accused of aiding and abetting online piracy. Google indexes the results of people who sometimes host pirated content. To hold them responsible for it would be like, for example, holding Big Pharma responsible for making products that people can turn into meth whenever they choose to do so. But the government doesn't do that, so why would they ever do it to The Entire Internet?

[Hint: Has to do with lobbying money. Lots of it.]

What's Murdoch's appeal to the public for his side of the SOPA argument?

Ah, "risky filmmaking." Which FOX is definitely known for. Either way, here's to Rupe's continued adventures on the microblogging platform. This should remain as patently interesting as it's been.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

Betabeat » Rupert Murdoch Finally ‘Gets’ Twitter, Using it to Go After Google and President Obama

Rupert Murdoch Finally ‘Gets’ Twitter, Using it to Go After Google and President Obama