Almost completely absent are stories highlighting problems in the police department, in the mayor's workfare program, in social services. They don't want it. Any negative stories about the administration tend to be about bureaucracy stepping on the little guy. The mayor is usually a bystander, as outraged as anyone. In playing political hardball with his news columns, Murdoch is guilty of degree rather than kind.
Many media barons do it, but with more decorum and finesse.
In other areas, however, Murdoch seems to stand almost alone, and very exposed. One obvious Murdoch trademark is his use of bathing beauties and sex to sell copies, a tendency that has even afflicted the once-staid TV Guide. Another is race-baiting. During the interregnum, when Murdoch did not own the Post, that paper's tendency to inflame racial passions in New York diminished remarkably. But Murdoch is back in force.