How to sell newspapers

In case you needed further evidence that The Hun is more a political propaganda outlet than a news organisation, today’s new low should leave you in no doubt.

The News Ltd stable has launched a crusade this week against the suburban father who dared to question the government’s tax policy on live television. What made it even worse was that it was on the ABC, which News Corp considers unfair competition.

The Murdoch media has been the loudest to complain about how hard it is for them to make a dollar in the digital age. It’s a fair point, which is why it’s so odd that they would turn again someone like Duncan Storrar.

I am no businessman, and I’m not much of a demographer either, but it seems to me that a lot more people like Mr Storrar would buy and read the Herald Sun than people like Innes Willox, Kelly O’Dwyer or Rupert Murdoch. That’s simple law-of-averages stuff really. There are more Duncans out there than Ruperts.

So why denigrate your main market? Well, the wealthy know there are more poor people than rich people, so they need to convince enough of the poor that the rich are on their side and it’s the really poor who are holding them back. Sounds nonsensical? Yes it does. But why else would the most powerful media outlet in the country, which is already overtly campaigning for the sitting government, sic their editors onto a disabled father?

You know what else people who buy newspapers like? Intellectual and moral consistency. So if you’re going to dedicate the front page to being all sanctimonious about one man’s criminal record, don’t plug an interview with a notorious gangland figure, referred to by his son’s first name, on the same damn page! That just makes you look stupid.

That would be notorious gangland murderer Carl Williams, whose drug trafficking father George died recently.