Prophecy

Hey. Sorry I have been in touch for a while. How a doin'? Me? I'm good. Busy as all get out. Been working out in Newark everyday for the last week and a half. That's why I haven't called lately, the three hour round trip commute on top of a whole day of work has been stealing all my time. No, that's no excuse I know, I'm just sayin'.

Anyway, I'm just checking in to say "what's up". So what's up?

Don't have much today.

But I do have a great thing to share. You all know I am obsessed with downloading live shows on the internet (if you don't know, see here) and I got a great one the other day from the Bard of Barking, Billy Bragg.

In an intro to one of his songs he said this:

I don't know if you in Philadelphia have ever heard of Rupert Murdoch, maybe you have maybe you haven't. I'll give you a quick biographical description of this chap.

He was born in Australia supposedly. And he bought lots and lots of media things in Australia. Built up an empire and that gave him the right to have his own Prime Minister. So having done that, he came to England, bought lots of media, and that gave him the right to have his own Prime Minister.

And now he's coming to America. He's bought the New York Post, The Village Voice, he's about to buy six TV channels so he can have his own station, as big as CBS and the others. And once he's got that, he'll be able to have his own President.

I warn you now, this man is coming. And in his wake there plenty of other people with quite similar ideas.

In England, not only does he have The London Times, he also has a newspaper called The Sun. Which is not unlike your Sun, much of the stories are in fact made up. They do kind of like, "Two-Headed Girl Found in Brixton" and things like that. And stuff like, "The Recession is Over," and you know, "We Have Turned the Corner."

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This is a song about Rupert Murdoch and his friends. How they bend the news when they say we've turned the corner. They mean we turned the corner into their direction.

This is called "It Says Here."


---Billy Bragg, Philadelphia, PA - May 8, 1985

Man, all the way back in 1985. Billy tries to warn us. He really tried. If only we had listened...

It says here that the Unions will never learn
It says here that the economy is on the upturn
And it says here we should be proud
That we are free
And our free press reflects our democracy

Those braying voices on the right of the House
Are echoed down the Street of Shame
Where politics mix with bingo and tits
In a strictly money and numbers game

Where they offer you a feature
On stockings and suspenders
Next to a call for stiffer penalties for sex offenders

It says here that this year's prince is born
It says here do you ever wish
That you were better informed
And it says here that we can only stop the rot
With a large dose of Law and Order
And a touch of the short sharp shock

If this does not reflect your view you should understand
That those who own the papers also own this land
And they'd rather you believe
In Coronation Street capers
In the war of circulation, it sells newspapers
Could it be an infringement
Of the freedom of the press
To print pictures of women in states of undress

When you wake up to the fact
That your paper is Tory
Just remember, there are two sides to every story


from Brewing Up With Billy Bragg