Rupert Murdoch tweeted this morning that "every voter should read" the anti-Obama book written by Ed Klein, an author so discredited that even conservatives have denounced him - on Fox News. This is just the latest in a number of steps Murdoch has taken to insert himself into the U.S. presidential campaign.
As I've previously posted, Murdoch has recently tweeted campaign tips for Mitt Romney. Now he's promoting an anti-Obama book by an author that Think Progress summed up as follows:
The nation’s top book reviews have all panned Klein and his work. The Boston Globe called him “an author devoid of credibility,” the New York Times described him as “smarmy and sleazy,” the Los Angeles Times called his work “bio-porn,” and the Tucson Citizen referred to it (a previous book) as “the literary equivalent of a backed up-septic tank.” (It got a grade of “F”).
Murdoch's increased visibility in U.S. politics comes on the heels of his disgraced exit from British politics. In a recent column, Eric Boehlert wrote in Media Matters:
It's the same role Murdoch played, and relished, in Britain for decades. With the revelation he was overseeing a criminal enterprise disguised as a newspaper business, where employees allegedly hacked phones and emails when not paying off police sources for information, Murdoch's public role there has been reduced to almost nothing, except that of villain.
Tired of the litany of lies and a culture of corporate obfuscation, Brits have given Murdoch the boot. But while Murdoch's a pariah in England, he's emerged a GOP kingmaker in America. For now, Republicans don't seem concerned about the allegations of rampant law breaking that ended Murdoch's reign in Britain.
(H/T Think Progress)
Which, naturally, makes his work “classic literature” for the Fox viewer . . .
.