News Corp patriarch Rupert Murdoch weighed into the debate around Greece’s discussions with eurozone finance ministers last week, taking to Twitter to reveal his musings that Greece was the European Union’s “big problem”, and that the EU “should let [it] default and go”.
The global media tycoon added that Greece contributed “only one per cent of the EU’s economy” but that it was a “big piece of the Med to fall to Russian influence”.
The twitterings of the 84-year-old media mogul have become something of a phenomenon since he opened his account three years ago; a window into the private and politically sensitive thoughts of one of the most influential men on earth.
Before social media he was known for keeping in the background and avoiding airing his own views publicly, all the while seeking to sway elections and policies through the editorial of his news media across the world.
But today the octogenarian (worth is reportedly worth over $13bn) is happy to share his not inconsiderable opinions with 562,000 followers and through them, millions more.
Highlights from Mr Murdoch’s colourful tweeting history include the one where he insulted an entire nation – the UK, on the occasion of a public holiday.
“Maybe Brits have too many holidays for a broke country!” said the man who played no small role in the victories of successive British prime ministers from the 1980s onwards.
In less than 140 characters, Mr Murdoch’s tweets have gone on to push his forthright views on – amongst other subjects – Mitt Romney’s suitability for the Republican US presidential candidacy, Tony Abbott’s performance (and the need for Peta Credlin to be sacked) and the removal of the British monarchy.
Unfiltered, Mr Murdoch’s ponderings have at times, caused offence on a global scale.
One recent tweet gained immediate notoriety when he delved into definitions of Islamic extremism.
“Maybe most Moslems peaceful, but until they recognize and destroy their growing jihadist cancer they must be held responsible,” he tweeted in January.
The notion that all muslims should be held responsible for the actions of a tiny minority was widely condemned.
Perhaps Margaret Simons, director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne put it best in her interview with The Guardian last month.
“Twitter has been very bad for him,” said Simons. “It has revealed something that those closest to him have always known: that his personal politics, and the way he intervenes in politics, are quite crude. It’s there for everyone to see now: Rupert Murdoch is not the world’s deepest thinker.”