Rupert Murdoch's fourth divorce...

This time, it's from reality.

Listening to Rupert Murdoch defend President Bush strikes me as profoundly sad. It reminds me of parents whose child has been caught in a nasty prank, when the evidence is overwhelming, and they are the only people left defending the child. Admirable and understandable in many ways, but hardly a credible source. And Murdoch falls into that same category - hardly a credible source - papa Rupert defending his infant, W.

Murdoch, attending Michael Milkin's Global Conference in Los Angeles, resumed his hackneyed Bush PR campaign earlier today. (Isn't that what your network and newspapers are for, Rupert?)

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Murdoch remains solidly in the president's corner:

The News Corp. chairman and CEO said that, personally, Bush is "persuasive, strong and articulate" but that "he seems to freeze whenever a television camera appears."

Motioning to Paul Gigot, editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal, Murdoch said, "Apart from your newspaper and mine, there's a sort of monolithic attack on him every day of the year."

News Corp. is the parent company of Fox News Channel, the New York Post and dozens of other media assets.

"The atmosphere is absolutely toxic," Murdoch said of the partisanship of U.S. politics and much of the media. "You can't really expect anything to be achieved in the next 18 months, and it's a very serious, sad problem for this country."

Yes, the atmosphere in Washington, and in fact around the U.S. is toxic, but Murdoch and his media outlets never, ever miss an opportunity to slam, defame and defile anyone with the audacity to oppose President Bush and his disastrous policies, both foreign and domestic.

The examples are too numerous to mention, and quite frankly, I grow bored of pointing out all of them. Okay, disclosure - it's fun, especially when there are so many who insist that Fox News is merely doing what other networks have done for years. Yea, sure.

I haven't been above some name-calling at times when someone really makes me angry, but I'm not running a daily newspaper with a circulation into the hundreds of thousands, either.

The New York Post has made sport out of embarrassing Democrats or anyone who dares oppose the president. The example at right is just one of literally dozens of examples. This headline ran when the Iraq Study Group (a.k.a. the Baker-Hamilton Commission) released its report saying what the rest of us have known for years - that the War in Iraq is a waste of American and Iraqi lives, to say nothing of the half-trillion dollars we've spent (and counting). (The Baker-Hamilton was a bipartisan group made up of five prominent Democrats and Republicans.)

Again, I repeat - it's people like Murdoch, who defile and denigrate those who oppose Bush's radical, right-wing agenda, who are principle architects of the toxic atmosphere in Washington.

One other thing from Murdoch's comments that had me heaving with violent fits of laughter - he called Bush "persuasive, strong and articulate." Yea, and I'm Tickle Me Elmo.

Has Rupert gone senile? Maybe he thought he was at a Comedy Central roast of President Bush.