This afternoon on Twitter, News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch offered his take on the controversy his network willed into existence regarding comments Obama made about small businesses. Murdoch endorsed the distorted take on the president's July 13 remarks, writing: “Yesterday Obama went off script, showed real self ie government omnipotent, individuals secondary. Must be big damage,” thus getting wrong both what Obama said and when he said it.

On July 13, the president made the determinedly unremarkable observation that success in business derives from “individual initiative” as well as a community supported by public works: schools, roads, bridges, fire stations, telelcommunications infrastructure, and so forth. Led by Fox News, the conservative press (and eventually the Romney campaign) have distorted Obama's remarks, claiming that he said success in business comes solely from the government.

Murdoch's been a busy tweeter of late: he endorsed Romney and prayed that he will “save us from socialism, etc,” offered encouragement to the GOP nominee, and trolled the entire liberal blogosphere. This endorsement of Fox News' distortion of Obama's remarks shows impressive message discipline throughout the entire News Corp. family, from the top (Murdoch) all the way down to the very, very bottom.