OK this is off topic, but certainly in line with regular discussion here.

Appearing on his own FOX News to discuss the financial crisis, Rupert Murdoch told Neil Cavuto:

""A lot of people will have lost money, don't get me wrong. A lot of people. But not the federal government, which is you and I, or the taxpayer."

There's a few other galling quotes in the interview, but this one jumps out because of the mindset that it reflects. In fact, I think it's either (a) a Freudian slip reflecting a very warped perception of reality, or (b) an admission that Murdoch and Fox have been unduly integrated into the Bush administration.

Think about it: "You and I, Neil, we ARE the Federal government." That's basically what he says.

And at the same time his is saying that "we" (i.e. FOX, Murdoch and the Bush administration) will not be losing money. That's rather strange considering that as I write nobody has yet seen even the vaguest details of the Bush administration's plan to ease the crisis - including the Senate and Congress, who have already said they will support a "new deal" without even having seen the details (shades of Patriot Act?).

Murdoch seems to already know more than most people, however:

What I hear - and it may not be right - we will see on Monday - is, they are going to really organize an auction of all these toxic loans, so people can come in and say, right, I will pay 22 cents on the dollar or 40 cents on the dollar.

And if the government says they're prepared to pay 45, fine. If the government is only prepared to pay 35, it goes on out into the private sector. And you will find whenever the government is left with, in time, they will get rid of it, and the taxpayer will not be on the hook for anything...

I think the people who have done it will have lost a lot of money and their jobs. You know, some of them may even lose their freedom, from what I hear.

Obviously Murdoch knows more than your average Joe Public. And that scares the bejeesus out of me, because I fear that whatever "solution" Bush & Co put in place could cripple the economic freedom of Joe Public for many years to come.

Consider this:

I think Secretary Paulson has done a fantastically good job. Now we have got to get it through the Congress, and that is going to be the nightmare.

Why is it going to be a nightmare, unless it's going to be more money to Bush's friends, and more partisan political games, instead of real solutions to an urgent global crisis?

Huffo has the video and transcript at my sig.

I am wondering if Murdoch has had much sleep in the last week? This interview was really a trainwreck.

I have added a few comments to the following text, just to make it digestible:

MURDOCH: I am very worried. I like Senator Obama very much. I have met him. He is a very intelligent man. But his policy of anti-globalization [wtf?], protectionism [eh?], is going to be - and card checks ["Papieren, bitte!"] - are going to do two or three things. It's going to give us a lot of inflation [well, actually, inflation is coming to the post-Bush USA regardless of who wins on Nov 2nd]. They're going to ruin our relationships with the rest of the world [errr, sorry... too late for that'. And they are going to slow down the rest of the world, too [err... ditto]. And they're going to make people frightened [look who's talking!] to add to employment.

You are going to find companies leaving this country [is that a threat or a promise?] if it's - if you put a protectionist wall around it [concrete barricades work better]. You're going to get - his policy is really very, very naive, old-fashioned, 1960s...[dirty F-ing hippies! they are everywhere, man!]

CAVUTO: But, if he became president, and we had more Democrats elected in the Senate and the House, for News Corporation, given your views you just stated, are you worried that you would have a chilly relationship with the White House, with Congress?

MURDOCH: We always have chilly relationships with politicians [yeah, right - who does Rove work for now?]. That's our job [well, once upon a time it was].

You know, if you're in the media, you want to keep your distance [cough! splutter! WTF?]. And we make judgments. We make enemies. We make friends. But, no, we keep our distance from the politics [try to keep your food down, folks]. And, no, we are not worried about that. I have a perfectly good, friendly dialogue with Senator Obama [maybe not any more], as I do with Senator McCain. I am not faintly close to either of them [err, how do you have a "friendly dialogue" without being "faintly close"?].

CAVUTO: OK.

A couple of parochial business issues, if you don't mind my addressing, sir... [kneels, genuflects, kisses the ring...]

PS: Now that's an endorsement for Obama, is it shooter?