CANB ERRA, Australia - A petition, signed by over thirty million of Australia's twenty million population, formally apologizes to the United States for giving them Rupert Murdoch. The petition comes with a suggestion from its organizers.

"If you want mindless loyalty to the regime you're installing in Iraq - send Rupert to the Middle-East."

Sheryl Cunningham, Chairperson of Launceston's Murdoch Apology Organization (LMAO), launched the petition at a press conference in Launceston last Thursday with these words: "When Rupert Murdoch was born on March 11, 1931 in Melbourne, the day was marked by an eclipse, a comet in the sky and a plague of locusts ravaging Queensland."

"We hereby state that we are sorry that America got lumped with him. Thirty million signatures of Aussies support this apology." Ms Cunningham concedes that there are only twenty million Australians, but, she added, "many of us feel such vehement loathing that we couldn't help sign a few times. We're sorry America - that he lives with you now. As a nation we speak as one - he's a complete d***khead. Thank you."

Speaking that afternoon with the press, she told reporters "world opinion is currently divided over the War in Iraq. Unfortunately, the division is mostly between Americans and non-Americans.

"We feel that the reason for this is that our American friends are languishing in a sea of disinformation. Fewer Americans than ever before know of the world beyond their country's borders."

Ms Cunningham credits this fact to the activities of ex-Australian media-baron, Rupert Murdoch. Mr Murdoch's media empire currently includes the New York Post, Fox News, The National Geographic Channel, HarperCollins, 20th Century Fox, Fox, and TV Guide International. In addition, he owns 34% of the largest Satellite TV system in the US, DirecTV.

"The opinions of this media empire are his own," says Ms Cunningham. "The staunchly conservative Fox News reflects Mr Murdoch's world view. He's openly partisan - which means that his media empire doesn't report so much as reflect Murdoch's political preferences."

Terry Fields, of the US based Unchained Media Group, is an outspoken critic of Murdoch.

"I'm a conservative, and the US is enjoying a resurgence of right-wing thinking. Why? Because Mr Murdoch is a staunch conservative. Why are Americans increasingly out-spoken against France in recent years? Because Mr. Murdoch has always been out-spoken against France. He's happy to be a propagandist for his own opinions."

The reason this troubles Fields, however, is that Murdoch's media empire stifles debate and treats news as entertainment. During the build up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, he points out, all 175 Murdoch-owned newspapers around the world editorialized in favor of the war.

"I've supported the war," writes Fields, "but I felt that we weren't given any facts. The war was praised and we were told - by an Australian immigrant no less - that it was our patriotic duty to support the War in Iraq without those facts. To this day, few of us know anything about Iraq or the War we're fighting there.

"The only good thing about Murdoch," writes Fields, "is that he admits that he's partisan. Fox News shouldn't be considered a 'reporting' network, but rather an entertainment channel expressing the owner's personal political preferences. Even if people are reluctant to admit this, Murdoch at least has been up-front about it all along."

Critics of Murdoch's media empire say that if most of our exposure to news and current events comes from a single political viewpoint, then we're not going to be able to make informed decisions about our leaders.

"Most Americans are too busy making ends meet to dig up the facts. Most of us have to rely on television to tell us what is going on. But can we trust television to be fair and balanced? Or do we as Americans now have a more muted awareness of the world around us?"

In the land of his birth, where he lived for over fifty years, Murdoch is deeply unpopular. "We don't like being looked down upon by the likes of Rupert," says Sheryl Cunningham of the LMAO. She says that his condescending approach to the public, as well as his outspoken disdain toward ethical journalism, has not gone down well at home. According to Terry Fields, the current controversy that surrounds "Fahrenheit 9/11" illustrates exactly what is so ominous about with the Murdoch media empire.

"It is a sad reality that many Americans think Fahrenheit 9/11 is controversial. There are few revelations in that documentary that weren't well reported outside of the United States. My experience suggests that the only thing that shocks foreigners about the film is that it took Americans by surprise.

"When it comes to the President, the point is not whether you like Bush or not. It's whether your news channel tells you anything about him or his administration."

If American's rely so heavily on Fox News, the question must be asked - who is the man behind it? Few staunch conservatives realize their favorite news source was built upon the smut and soft-core porn trade of the UK tabloid press, says Fields.

"So much for conservative family value - in fact, people like Murdoch give us conservatives a bad name."

In the UK, Murdoch's holdings include News of the World, The Times and the Sun, The Weekly Standard, the Sunday Times, News International.

"He has a reputation for downgrading the newspapers that he buys. Murdoch, and he's characteristically candid about this, believes that the majority of people are stupid. He thinks that to have mass appeal, you must dumb your newspapers down to appeal to stupid people. This fairly elitist approach is typical of the Murdoch formula that he trademarked in the 70s and 80s in the UK. Ironically, he accuses his media-opponents of being 'snobs' for being 'too high-brow.'"

In Australia - a nation of only twenty million people - Murdoch still owns the Daily Telegraph, Gold Coast Bulletin, Herald Sun, Newsphotos, Newspix, Newstext, NT News, Post-Courier, Sunday Herald Sun, Sunday Mail, Sunday Tasmanian, Sunday Territorian, Sunday Times, The Advertiser, The Australian, The Courier-Mail, The Mercury, The Sunday Mail, The Sunday Telgraph, and Weekly Times. Such media saturation, according to Cunningham, means that Australians are better placed to know about him than Americans. And in the land of his birth, she says, Murdoch is considered a "a toad of considerable repugnance." According to Ms Cunningham, the petition alone indicates how bad Australia feels about Rupert Murdoch's contribution to global ignorance.

"We have failed the world by letting him loose," she jokes. "In any half-way decent society, he would have been drowned at an early age."

In 1999, The Economist reported that Rupert Murdoch has made $2.1 billion in profits over the previous 11 years and paid no net corporation tax. Normally, Murdoch would have been expected to pay nearly $350m in tax which, according to The Economist, is enough to "build seven new hospitals, 50 secondary schools or 300 (elementary) schools." The article explains how the News Corporation's international structure and the use of off-shore havens work to minimize their tax obligations.

"He's a piece of work," laughs Terry Fields in New York. "But it's a nice gesture from the Australian people. It goes to show that there is a sincere feeling of regret out there about people like this."

Is of the petition of apology for Rupert Murdoch well known in the US?

"Not at all," says Fields.

And why is that?

"I don't know. Ask Rupert."



Disclaimer: Rupert Murdoch does not (yet) own Brainsnap News. Our paper is holding out for what the Editor likes to call 'the right price'.