Rupert Murdoch Quotes
One thing I resent is the slur that I just support political candidates because of the business.
Murdoch, Rupert. Testimony to the Leveson Inquiry. Royal Courts of Justice, London, 25 Apr. 2012.
This quotation illustrates a political phenomenon that used to be common in American politics—the spoils system where government activities, positions, contracts and grants were awarded to the supporters of the winning party and not to the opponents. In modern times government contracts were supposed to have been awarded on the basis of qualifications and price and not conditioned on political support. In this rare quotation, the secretary admitted to violating his own Department’s regulations and using politics as a criteria where existing laws prohibited that.
One classic example is the scientist who is testifying before a Congressional Committee. Typically if there is a political issue, the politician of each viewpoint will find a scientists who supports their view. In a huge country, they can always find on or two to support any idea regardless of its validity. In the world of science, the scientist who has been doing experiments in a field for years and has published articles in peer-reviewed journals, teaches other scientists who do outstanding work, and have won prizes or accolades from his/her peers is given much more credibility than the scientist who has none of these accomplishments and just may have a different point of view and claim that the first scientist is in error UNLESS the critical scientist can show mathematical or other scientific proof that the first is wrong. Often in politics, the lesser critical scientist offers questions which the leading scientist cannot answer bit in science that proves nothing. There is ALWAYS much more a scientists does NOT know about an area than he does know. See {623513}.
Keith Rupert Murdoch AC KCSG is an Australian-born American media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including in the UK (The Sun and The Times), in Australia (The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun and The Australian), in the US (The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post), book publisher HarperCollins, and the television broadcasting channels Sky News Australia and Fox News (through the Fox Corporation). He was also the owner of Sky (until 2018), 21st Century Fox (until 2019), and the now-defunct News of the World.
