[asymptosis]

So Murdoch's empire gets propped up to the tune of over $300 million per year and needs nothing in exchange except keep sending traffic to his sites.

Bad news for Australia for starters, but don't think Murdoch will be content just with drinking our blood. He's coming for USA and UK too, and now he has a tested playbook for getting Facebook & Friends on the leash.

[sytelus]

For a right price, politicians can pass any laws just for you. This whole thing is an amazing case study.

[shanecp]

Murdoch has now practically purchased the Australian Government, Google and Facebook.

I wouldn't be surprised if the talks behind the scenes were 'if you want to hear anything good from news about Facebook, just pay us'.

So much for the 'trust' in any one of them.

[0xy]

The fact it's bipartisan proves both sides sell you out every time, similar to Labor giving a full-throated endorsement to the encryption ban as well as metadata retention.

[rstuart4133]

You divided $1 billion by 3 years to come up with $300 million per year?

This has been a political campaign featuring truck loads of bluff and bullshit from the very start. Google's threat to "ban search in Australia" was the highlight for me. So they were going to disable the "Hay Google, navigate to ..." feature of Android phones, since as we all know that that uses search. Yeah right, pull the other one, it plays jingle bells.

If I was Facebook I want want to take the "Facebook steals news" heat off me using the punchy'ist headline I can justify, using I'd be scrounging every dollar we pay every news organisation over the entire planet, including advertising.

[asymptosis]

I said over 300 million.

$33.333333333 recurring million per year is small change to these people.

Not sure why I would need to explain basic math on hacker news ...

[joering2]

He is coming for USA?? This is like 10 years old news. He is destroying American at least since the first Obama term. Just turn at any time see the hate they spew. You have to be blind or brainwashed by FN not to see these people agenda is to divide America from within.

[asymptosis]

I hear you, and I understand a lot of people in USA have had concerns about Murdoch for a long time. What I particularly have in mind though is that this whole Facebook thing seems like it was Murdoch trying out a new playbook for bringing big tech to heel.

And the first round of testing has been a resounding success from the Murdoch point of view.

[rorykoehler]

Long before Obama. He was instrumental in pushing the illegal war in Iraq.

[bdcravens]

I don't think the comment you're replying to was talking about a political agenda, but rather, replicating the financial rewards they received in Australia: "The announcement comes days after the tech giant struck a deal with Australian lawmakers to pay local publishers for their news content"

[asymptosis]

I had in mind that the political power and monetary kickbacks go hand-in-hand. Yes, it is probably widely acknowledged across USA that Murdoch wants more political power over there. But what we've seen here is what he does when he gets that power. It doesn't sit idle.

He has demonstrated that with his political power in Australia, he can make Facebook bend the knee within Australia. And once he has completed his control over USA politics, he'll make the big tech companies bend the knee over there too.

A billion dollars changing hand is just cosmetic to these guys. What has been displayed is a flex of power.

[SAI_Peregrinus]

> But what we've seen here is what he does when he gets that power. It doesn't sit idle.

Of course not. He's malicious, not stupid. Unused power is pointless. He'd have to be an utter moron to waste enormous amounts of money and effort and then do nothing with the results. He wants a return on that investment. Of course he's going to try to get more money by using his power.