Who's to blame? Listen carefully . . . Make: CanonModel: Canon EOS-1D Mark IVDate/Time: 2013:08:28 08:06:55 Source: News Limited SUDDENLY, when the spotlight turns to Kevin Rudd, it's a crime against journalism to question a politician's character. On Monday the ABC held an orgy of hatred against newspapers owned - like this one - by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. ABC Melbourne radio, ABC 24 and the ABC's Q&A all interviewed Tom Watson, a British Labour MP flown here by activists to attack Murdoch. Meanwhile, Media Watch devoted that night's show to trashing Murdoch's papers, while Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr claimed on Lateline they'd been "mobilised to vilify the Labor Government." The scandal? Murdoch papers, which backed Rudd at the 2007 election, say this time he's a deceitful failure leading a dysfunctional party. Watson is so stunned that he says this coverage can be explained only by Murdoch greed. "To him it's all about the business and he clearly has a business interest in the outcome of this election," he declared. I've often talked to Murdoch about politics and know the editors of the papers toughest on Rudd. I never reveal private conversations but will say this: Watson, you are an idiot. No conspiracy is needed to explain why our editors criticise a Government that has squandered billions and given us record deficits, knifed two of its prime ministers, let in 50,000 boat people, presided over rising unemployment, deliberately hiked power bills, preached division, protected an MP accused of corruption and broke fundamental promises. It doesn't take the whiff of profits to make our editors conclude a Prime Minister holding up a Vegemite jar to pretend his opponents will tax food is a liar out of ideas. It's no surprise for our editors to figure that a Prime Minister who impulsively announces he'll move a naval base from Sydney to Brisbane - against the opposition of the Navy and a Defence Minister who warned the $6 billion move was almost "impossible" - is so reckless nothing is safe in his charge. All right, I confess. Murdoch does also prefer parties that put people in work - people who'd then have money to buy his papers. Strange, I know. But here's the real joke. For three years this Government demonised Murdoch, vilified his papers, demanded editors delete some stories critical of the former prime minister, held a witch-hunting inquiry into this "hate media" and tried to put journalists under a state-supervised censor. Now people like Watson wonder: why don't Murdoch papers like Labor? Yep, a real mystery. Media Watch host Paul Barry at least concedes Labor "deserves to lose," but still complains News Corp criticism of Rudd is "character assassination." Or as Watson says: "We're having a debate about the character of the people who seek to represent the country . . . and that's a real shame." Labor and the Fairfax media for years smeared Tony Abbott, falsely accusing him of being a "misogynist," "bully" and "thug." Just this week Rudd claimed Abbott was a "great pugilist" but too impulsive to be a statesman. So says Rudd, who damned the Chinese as "rat f---ers," called UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "Spanky Banky" and lied that he'd had to explain the G20 to that oaf George Bush. But Rudd is right. Character does count. When a make-up artist claimed last week Rudd was rude to her it mattered, because we don't want a leader who'd trample on the lowly. When Rudd claimed last week to be solving the Syrian crisis when he was frolicking on a cooking show it mattered, because we want a leader who's honest. BARRY condemns News Corp reports on these "trivial" issues as "beat-ups" that prove Murdoch newspapers' bias. Bias? I call it judgment. Yet I'm sure Watson, Barry, Carr and others pushing the Murdoch conspiracy sincerely believe it. It's that arrogant self-delusion of so many of the Left: assuming voters would always back Labor if only rotten people didn't block Labor's message: people so rotten they must be censored, sacked, threatened into silence or hounded off the ABC. Remember the Labor MPs and journalists who repeatedly claimed Prime Minister Julia Gillard simply needed "clear air" to sell her carbon tax and the rest of her broken wares? Back then it was Rudd who was blamed for getting between Labor and the voters. It was Rudd who was demonised by Labor and ordered to shut up. And now Rudd blames Murdoch. As usual, the real fault lies closer to home.