Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Lord Rupert Murdoch is proud to announce the successful repeal of that odious carbon tax in Australia. It required skillful media and political manipulation.
Opponents of the carbon tax implemented in 2012 had the media largely on their side. Electricity prices soared — not mainly because of the tax, but because power companies were spending billions on infrastructure. Most electricity users were compensated for the added cost of the tax, but many of them didn't know that. And rising gas prices fed the fury — even though the tax didn't apply to gasoline.
The low information voter and consumer is the perfect target for carpet-bombing a message.
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., which owns 70 percent of Australia's newspapers, supported Rudd in 2007 but by 2010 was backing Abbott. The top talk radio hosts in every major Australian city pushed the climate skeptic line.
All hail Lord Rupert! The coal industry is now free to mine Australia dry to sell coal to China without no stinking carbon tax.
What is the moral of this story? It seems rather straightforward. Our goose is cooked thanks to Lord Rupert and others like him.
Let's face it. Lord Rupert laughs at us. We seem so puny hiding behind our sustainability mumbo jumbo. We are no match for his media empire.
Wrap your head around how quickly public opinion in Australia turned against the carbon tax which was collected from the 350 or so biggest carbon polluters. There was a tax refund to individual consumers but no one knew that unless they bothered to read the fine print in their energy bill.
The carbon tax was falsely accused of contributing to higher energy costs.
Grattan said about half the rate hikes were related to expensive upgrades by Australian electricity providers. The companies can increase rates to recoup capital expenditures. Many critics accused them of "gold plating" their networks but industry officials said they were improving infrastructure to meet rising demand.
Opinion polls indicated Australians were overestimating the impact of the carbon tax.
It worked like a charm.
I know many a good person out there trying to drum up support for a carbon tax in the United States. I like it in theory but. Through his Fox News outlets, Lord Rupert will unleash the same media blitz here that worked so well in Australia. And there is an excellent chance he will win here too.
Let history record that Lord Rupert perfected the mind worm. It slowly turns your brains to goo and you become a climate zombie for the 21st century. Behold, the zombie-fueled climate apocalypse is upon us. Right now, we are just up to our ankles in climate change. By the end of the century, we will be over our heads. All hail Lord Rupert.
Just in case you doubt what I say, you only need to look at Murdoch's campaign to destroy the Affordable Care Act. The first politicians to scatter were some of the Democrats that voted for it. Before long there were fewer and fewer champions of the Act, creating the perfect environment for misinformation campaigns. Public support fractures along party lines. Calling it ObamaCare was a masterstroke, sure to piss off Obama haters. Murdoch even riled up religious conservatives over the contraception provisions. Cleverly designed public misconceptions brought to you by Fox News brands.
Future generations will deservedly curse us unless we find an antidote to Murdoch's mind worm.