The aging media mogul is bashing Mitt Romney in public as if he were a paid hack for the Obama campaign.

Politico:

Rupert Murdoch, who last weekend took a Twitter shot at Mitt Romney over his lack of a strong stand on immigration after President Barack Obama's executive action involving some deportations, took to his feed again for a harder hit:

"Met Romney last week. Tough O Chicago pros will be hard to beat unless he drops old friends from team and hires some real pros. Doubtful," was the tweet from @rupertmurdoch about an hour ago.

Romney was in New York last week, where the mogul divides his time. The tweet doesn't describe the circumstances, and Romney's campaign didn't advertise it.

But the ding at Romney is unmistakable. In the pre-Twitter era, people would have to either guess what the influential mogul personally thought of politicians or attempt to glean it from the editorial pages of some of his holdings. The competition for his support in 2008 was fierce, and for a time, he seemed intrigued by then-Sen. Barack Obama. Since then, he's made clear he is disappointed with Obama for a variety of reasons, and some of his media outlets (including the New York Post, where my husband works) have been very critical editorially.

The immigration issue is one that Murdoch has taken up, forming a group of business-centric leaders and officials with Mike Bloomberg who see economic benefit, among others, to reform. Murdoch historically has been underwhelmed by politicians who won't take clear positions on issues. It's striking that he's hitting someone who comes from the business world, which is usually a resume line he respects.

This isn't the first criticism of Romney's staff. There have been grumblings from some GOP politicos that there aren't enough pros on Romney's staff who have run a national campaign, rather than a primary race in which the Romney team excelled. The difference is night and day, and compared to Obama's seasoned staff, some of Mitt's people are amateurs.

Murdoch should have passed along his criticism quietly to Romney, rather than blast it all over Twitter.