tag:theconversation.com,2011:/es/topics/news-corp-6657/articlesNews Corp – The Conversation2024-03-01T13:39:34Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2225452024-03-01T13:39:34Z2024-03-01T13:39:34ZBen Shapiro’s hip-hop hypocrisy and white male grievance lands him on top of pop music charts for a brief moment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575372/original/file-20240213-30-rqc3ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro speaks at the 2018 Politicon in Los Angeles.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Over the past decade, conservative commentator and podcaster <a href="https://www.economist.com/open-future/2019/03/28/inside-the-mind-of-ben-shapiro-a-radical-conservative">Ben Shapiro</a> has made a living telling his followers that <a href="https://x.com/benshapiro/status/156246995978293248?s=20">rap isn’t music</a>. </p>
<p>If anyone thinks so, <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/156246995978293248">Shapiro tweeted</a> in 2012, “you’re stupid.”</p>
<p>Shapiro <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSxoLJujM-k">explained his reasoning</a> during a 2019 interview: </p>
<p>“In my view, and in the view of my music theorist father who went to music school, there are three elements to music,” Shapiro said. “There is harmony, there is melody and there is rhythm. Rap only fulfills one of these, the rhythm section.”</p>
<p>As a result, Shapiro concluded, rap is “basically spoken rhythm.”</p>
<p>“It’s not actually a form of music,” he said. “It’s a form of rhythmic speaking.” </p>
<p>Leave it to Shapiro, then, to drop a “rhythmic speaking” song filled with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/dec/30/audiences-dont-want-white-anger-how-white-rap-grew-a-conscience">white grievance</a> during the early days of the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign. </p>
<p>Teaming up with Canadian rapper <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/the-right-wing-troll-rappers-are-coming-1341251/">Tom MacDonald</a>, Shapiro released “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kGpohEpuTE">Facts</a>” in January 2024. Given today’s bitter partisan divide and <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/culture-wars-identity-center-politics-america/story?id=100768380">extremist culture wars</a>, it comes as no surprise that Shapiro’s track quickly found a devoted following. But his racist, anti-rap rap lyrics ultimately repeat the same tired charges right-wing politicians have <a href="https://theconversation.com/scapegoating-rap-hits-new-low-after-july-fourth-mass-shooting-186443">used against hip-hop</a> since its birth over 50 years ago. </p>
<h2>Pop goes racism</h2>
<p>My father isn’t a music theorist. But as a scholar who <a href="https://news.clemson.edu/clemson-doctoral-student-produces-rap-album-for-dissertation-it-goes-viral/">earned a Ph.D. by writing a rap album</a> and continues to release rap music about race and American society as <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/twentieth-century-music/article/abs/leaders-of-the-new-school-music-departments-hiphop-and-the-challenge-of-significant-difference/D6025AE31E4FF60A4A57347CDCE4AC86">my academic work</a>, I knew a hit song filled with racist diatribes like “Facts” was <a href="https://www.theringer.com/rap/2023/8/14/23831167/hip-hop-50th-anniversary-future-of-rap-music-ad-carson-virginia">bound to happen</a>. </p>
<p>It’s not the first time blatant racism has propelled an artist to the top of music charts. </p>
<p>In July 2023, Jason Aldean, a white country singer, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66248807">released a video for “Try That In A Small Town”</a> that was criticized for promoting racial violence. That <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/2024/01/31/ben-shapiro-song-tom-macdonald/">song shot up</a> to No. 1. </p>
<p>In November 2023, a video of country singer Morgan Wallen, who is also white, surfaced and went viral. In the video, he is captured saying, “take care of this p— a– n—.” While Wallen was roundly condemned and apologized for his racist and sexist language, <a href="https://www.theroot.com/despite-morgan-wallens-racist-past-america-is-still-ob-1851059418">his music has also topped the charts</a>. </p>
<p>But to simply call MacDonald and Shapiro’s “Facts” racist would be too quick a dismissal of all that is at play.</p>
<p>By performing over a popular-sounding trap-style beat, Shapiro and MacDonald might lead listeners to overlook their heavy reliance on <a href="https://theconversation.com/everyday-african-american-vernacular-english-is-a-dialect-born-from-conflict-and-creativity-193194">Black vernacular speech</a>, which toes the line between <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/foster-blackface-minstrelsy/">minstrelsy</a> and abject <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/30/t-magazine/cultural-appropriation.html">cultural appropriation</a>. </p>
<p>Because it’s delivered in the form of a conventional rap song, a listener might even be convinced that the racism and sexism the artists are performing are expectations, and Shapiro and McDonald are just doing what all rappers do. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1750977386676711740"}"></div></p>
<p>It’s a clever gambit. It’s “rapwashing” racism so audiences don’t perceive the obvious intent. </p>
<p>Early in the song, MacDonald tries out a melodic delivery, rap-singing:</p>
<p><em>“This ain’t rap. This ain’t money, cars, and clothes.
We won’t turn your sons into thugs or your daughters into h—.”</em> </p>
<p>The song goes further: </p>
<p><em>“Claim that I’m racist. Yeah, alright.
I’m not ashamed because I’m white.
If every Caucasian’s a bigot, I guess every Muslim’s a terrorist.
Every liberal is right.”</em></p>
<p>For a brief moment, during the last week of January, the song hit No. 1 on the iTunes U.S. chart, which gave Shapiro the audacity, and the apparent receipts, to call himself the “#1 rapper in America.”</p>
<h2>White male grievance</h2>
<p>It’s not surprising that such a large swath of music consumers would find “Facts” entertaining. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A white man dressed in black clothes appears on stage with a band." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578931/original/file-20240229-16-7kl1wv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578931/original/file-20240229-16-7kl1wv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578931/original/file-20240229-16-7kl1wv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578931/original/file-20240229-16-7kl1wv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578931/original/file-20240229-16-7kl1wv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578931/original/file-20240229-16-7kl1wv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578931/original/file-20240229-16-7kl1wv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hip-hop artist Eminem performs in Los Angeles in 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/inductee-eminem-performs-on-stage-during-the-37th-annual-news-photo/1439523090?adppopup=true">Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Eminem, a white rapper, might be a case study. In the early 2000s, he achieved great success in part because of the way <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-feb-21-mn-28235-story.html">he gave voice</a> to the repressed rage of certain segments of “<a href="https://www.vulture.com/2017/01/eminems-white-america-15-years-later.html">White America</a>.” </p>
<p>But since the presidential election of Donald Trump in 2016, that rage felt all across white America has been politicized and commercialized <a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2022/11/14/loss-fear-and-rage-are-white-men-rebelling-against-democracy">to such a degree</a> that I believe hip-hop listeners have heard enough of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/dec/30/audiences-dont-want-white-anger-how-white-rap-grew-a-conscience">white grievance</a>. </p>
<p>It also seems white artists like Eminem took notice.</p>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/d3ybbz/lets-all-settle-down-about-eminems-bet-hip-hop-awards-cypher">2017 BET Hip Hop Awards freestyle cypher</a>, Eminem went to great lengths to distance himself from the actions of his fans who seemed to be <a href="https://ew.com/music/2017/10/11/eminem-trump-storm-lyrics/">politically aligned with Trump</a> and <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/alt-right">the alt-right</a>. </p>
<p>Eminem’s freestyle affected his popularity badly enough that he <a href="https://www.thefader.com/2018/08/31/eminem-regret-anti-trump-freestyle-secret-service-interview">later backtracked his remarks</a> and apologized to his Trump-loving fans on a song called “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT150Zl0Ay0">The Ringer</a>” on his 2018 album “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=undRq8xKR8Q">Kamikaze</a>.” </p>
<h2>Hip-hop capitalism</h2>
<p>From its start more than 50 years ago, hip-hop has never been singularly focused <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/is-hip-hop-still-radical-1234950995/">on mainstream measures of success</a> such as Grammy nominations and awards, music industry chart rankings or sold-out concerts. Nor have its cultural practitioners and producers been gender or race exclusive. </p>
<p>In fact, before rap became <a href="https://projects.apnews.com/features/2023/hip-hop-50th-history/getting-the-money.html">an international multibillion dollar industry</a>, early rappers were wary of the mainstream music industry, and many believed it would negatively affect the integrity of the music and culture. </p>
<p>But even early rappers were forced to find a complicated balance between culture and capitalism. </p>
<p>For instance, in the late 1990s, Yasiin Bey, formerly known as <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/yasiin-bey-clarifies-drake-comments-1235593284/">Mos Def</a>, and <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/talib-kweli-social-media_n_639bafffe4b0aeb2ace22f13">Talib Kweli</a> released their first album, “Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A Black man wearing sunglasses is surrounded by a group of other Black men." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578929/original/file-20240229-30-1qku6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578929/original/file-20240229-30-1qku6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578929/original/file-20240229-30-1qku6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578929/original/file-20240229-30-1qku6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578929/original/file-20240229-30-1qku6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578929/original/file-20240229-30-1qku6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578929/original/file-20240229-30-1qku6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mos Def in New York City before a Black Star concert in 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mos-def-attends-black-star-in-concert-at-sony-hallon-news-photo/1441918449?adppopup=true">Johnny Nunez/WireImage</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.okayplayer.com/originals/yasiin-bey-talib-kweli-black-star-timeline.html">critically acclaimed project</a> was filled with lyrics focused on Black consciousness, the perils of mainstream hip-hop and a kind of <a href="https://colorlines.com/article/yasiin-bey-aka-mos-def-talks-about-his-move-south-africa/">Pan-Africanism</a>. </p>
<p>Their label, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/jul/11/james-murdoch-hip-hop">Rawkus Records</a>, was known for recording and signing several underground rap acts including <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/eminem-blows-up-91979/">Eminem</a>, <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/pharaohe-monch-mental-health-9607525/">Pharoahe Monch</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/07/24/1189040805/hip-hop-50-chicago">Common</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zweuggu9IUQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Yasiin Bey, formerly Mos Def, responds to a question about Drake, pop music and hip-hop.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But Rawkus was just as much a part of the music industry as any other record label. </p>
<p>It was co-founded and <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90411108/that-cringe-worthy-rap-on-succession-must-be-a-reference-to-james-murdoch-erstwhile-hip-hop-mogul">financially backed</a> by James Murdoch, a son of the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/rupert-murdoch-billionaire-mogul-helm-global-media-empire-2023-09-21/">media mogul Rupert Murdoch</a>. The label was eventually bought by Murdoch’s News Corp.</p>
<p>Over the past five decades, rap music and hip-hop culture has come to mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.</p>
<p>For Bey, though, the question goes beyond the money or popularity.</p>
<p>“Where’s the message that I can use?” he asked during a 2024 interview. </p>
<p>I would love to believe that racist, sexist, white male grievance rap isn’t where the zeitgeist is in America. </p>
<p>But Ben Shapiro and his conservative followers are betting that it is – at least for a brief moment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222545/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>A.D. Carson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Since its birth 50 years ago, hip-hop music has embraced artists of every race and ethnic background. An avowed hip-hop hater might be a step too far.A.D. Carson, Associate Professor of Hip-Hop, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2130242023-11-15T14:22:00Z2023-11-15T14:22:00ZAs Lachlan Murdoch takes over from his father he may need to reset News Corp’s relations with Donald Trump<p>As Rupert Murdoch hands over the reins of News Corp and Fox <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e13a0081-538a-4cdf-966d-1a20da47605f">to his son Lachlan</a>, there is an opportunity to rebuild the relationship between the family’s media empire and former US president Donald Trump. This would make business sense for Fox as Trump is a ratings winner. But it may prove to be more difficult than it first appears.</p>
<p>The deterioration of the relationship between the Murdochs and the former president resulted in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-he-wont-take-part-republican-debates-2023-08-21/">Trump choosing</a> not to attend the Fox’s Republican debates. But Trump’s refusal to participate in any of the three debates has not affected his chances of gaining the nomination.</p>
<p>After the third debate on November 8, absent Trump was judged by 30% of the viewers to be the winner, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12731283/Donald-Trump-named-real-winner-debate-DeSantis-Daily-Mail-poll-viewing-figures-revealed.html">in a J.L. Partners poll</a>. Further proof, according to one <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/08/how-donald-trump-got-the-upper-hand-on-fox-news">commentator</a>, that missing the debates has illustrated that Fox is more reliant on Trump than vice versa.</p>
<p>Trump’s love-hate relationship with Fox has been a long one, particularly his <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/16/donald-trump-rupert-murdoch-friendship-fox-news">connection</a> with Murdoch and his family. During the late 1970s and 1980s, Trump featured regularly in the Page Six gossip column of the Murdoch-owned New York Post. His constant appearances in the paper <a href="https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a30709872/page-six-gossip-history-new-york-post/">catapulted</a> Trump from a New York real-estate developer into a celebrity figure.</p>
<p>During the 2016 election cycle, Murdoch originally <a href="https://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/04/murdoch-says-jeb-bush-paul-ryan-top-2016-list-but-he-could-vote-for-hillary-186645">supported</a> Jeb Bush, the son of former president George H.W. Bush and brother to president George W. Bush. Trump’s initial support within the Fox organisation in 2016 was through Roger Ailes, the chief executive, as well as leading presenter Bill O’Reilly.</p>
<p>When Trump became the leading candidate for the 2016 Republican nomination, the Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2016/04/14/the-post-endorses-donald-trump/">endorsed</a> him for the candidacy, while Murdoch <a href="https://twitter.com/rupertmurdoch/status/705134886324215808?s=20">stated</a> that the Republican Party would “be mad not to unify” behind him. Consequently, Fox and Trump’s relationship became a mutually supportive one – Fox supported his campaign, while Trump enhanced Fox’s viewing figures.</p>
<p>That’s not to say it was all smooth sailing. In January 2016, he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/27/us/politics/trump-feud-fox-debate.html">demanded</a> that Fox anchor Megyn Kelly be replaced as host of the second Fox-hosted debate after he accused her of treating her badly in the first. When Fox <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-35422552">refused</a>, he avoided the second debate and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-election/trump-abruptly-withdraws-from-fox-debate-in-iowa-idUSL2N15B00Z">told</a> reporters: “Let’s see how much money Fox is going to make on the debate without me.”</p>
<p>Fox News was committed to the Trump presidency. During the first year, Fox News acted as a crucial mouthpiece for the Trump administration. Fox and Friends, the station’s breakfast show was a conduit between Trump and Republicans, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/sep/17/fox-and-friends-fox-news-donald-trump">exaggerating</a> Trump’s achievements. Trump reciprocated by parroting Fox’s talking points in his Twitter feed.</p>
<p>The Trump-Fox relationship started to deteriorate on 2020 election night, when the station announced that Joe Biden had won the state of Arizona. For the Trump campaign, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/05/fox-draws-trump-campaigns-ire-after-early-call-of-arizona-for-biden">this</a> was a betrayal. In March, Steve Bannon, host of the War Room podcast and Trump’s former chief strategist, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/03/the-trump-world-fox-news-war-gets-nasty-00085506">told the audience at CPAC</a>, the leading conservative conference, that Fox had done so illegitimately, constantly attacking Fox during his speech.</p>
<p>The gulf between Trump and Fox widened in April of this year. Fox’s <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/markets?utm_source=business_ribbon">support</a> of Trump’s baseless conspiracy theories surrounding vote rigging during the 2020 presidential election resulted in the organisation <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/first-read/fox-news-pays-price-2020-lies-trump-hasnt-yet-rcna80382">settling a defamation lawsuit</a> with the owners of the voting machines, Dominion Voting Systems, for US$787.5 million (£631.8 million).</p>
<p>According to some <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/03/donald-trump-relationship-fox-news">reports</a>, the settlement of the case, which involved admitting that the claims were without merit, was seen by Trump as the organisation turning its back on him. This was made worse by <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fox-chairman-rupert-murdoch-said-under-oath-2020-election-was-not-stolen-according-to-court-filings">Murdoch’s sworn testimony</a> that “the election was not stolen”.</p>
<h2>Maga-hating Murdoch</h2>
<p>Trump still has a good rapport with some Fox hosts, but his relationship with Murdoch has deteriorated to the point where Trump <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11807939/Trump-ups-attacks-MAGA-Hating-Globalist-RINO-Rupert-Murdoch.html">called Murdoch and the Fox executives</a> a group of “MAGA Hating Globalist RINOS” (Republican in name only). And his relationship with Fox in general is not the same as it was 2016. He also recently <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/110904845212218957">complained</a> about being unfairly treated by Fox and Friends.</p>
<p>Posting on his <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/110924112193729328">Truth Social website</a>, Trump claimed his decision to not attend the debate was because he was so far in front of his rivals in recent polls. While viewing <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/24/media/fox-news-gop-debate-ratings/index.html">figures</a> for the debate without Trump were higher than expected, they were half of those for the corresponding event in 2016.</p>
<p>Trump’s decision to release a recorded <a href="https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1694513603251241143?s=20">interview</a> on X with former Fox star Tucker Carlson shortly after the debate was another slap in the face for Fox. Choosing Carlson to be the host, who has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/business/media/tucker-carlson-trump.html">stated</a> he hated Trump on numerous occasions and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/26/tucker-carlson-fox-news-firing-condition-dominion-settlement">claimed</a> he himself had been fired from Fox News as part of the agreement with Dominion, was a thinly veiled attack on the channel.</p>
<p>Trump’s absence from the debates is unlikely to affect his chances of getting the Republican nomination. Polling experts <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/">FiveThirtyEight</a> give Trump 51.4% of the projected <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-r/2024/national/">vote</a>, with his nearest rival Floridian governor Ron DeSantis at a dwindling 14.5%. </p>
<h2>Lachlan Murdoch enters the fray</h2>
<p>Lachlan Murdoch thinks as much of Trump as his father does. One unnamed source is <a href="https://people.com/lachlan-murdoch-more-conservative-than-rupert-source-says-7973718">quoted as saying</a> that Lachlan has “had trouble with Trump’s antics” in the past. </p>
<p>So resetting the Murdoch-Trump relationship might not be so easy. It would show immense weakness on Lachlan’s part and might jeopardise his relationship with his father, <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/lachlan-murdoch-reunite-fox-news-trump-biographer-michael-wolff/">according to</a> Michael Wolff, Murdoch’s biographer.</p>
<p>But regardless of who is in charge, Fox News will need to start rebuilding bridges with Trump to ensure that it maintains the attention of its Republican audience. After all, despite not being there, Trump was still the source of much <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/24/business/media/fox-republican-debate-trump.html">debate</a> and interaction between the candidates in the debates. </p>
<p><a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/4168345-fox-news-is-the-debates-biggest-loser/">Criticism</a> of the format of the first Fox debate suggests that Fox needs to do something if it wants to win the ratings war. And with <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12732397/Viewing-figures-Republican-debate-drop-NBC.html">declining viewing figures</a> for the debates without Trump, it needs to do something quickly. Meanwhile Trump, it seems, can do without Fox.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213024/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dafydd Townley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Will the son choose to build bridges with Trump that his father burned?Dafydd Townley, Teaching Fellow in International Security, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2141412023-09-22T01:50:29Z2023-09-22T01:50:29ZWhy is Rupert Murdoch stepping aside now and what does it mean for the company?<p>At age 92, media mogul Rupert Murdoch is <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-21/rupert-murdoch-steps-down-as-newscorp-chair/102887474">stepping down</a> as chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corp but will stay on in the role of chairman emeritus, presumably to help guide his eldest son Lachlan as the new head of the firm.</p>
<p>In many ways, the news was inevitable. The company is clearly planning its succession and how it manages Rupert’s decline. It has one eye on the market and one on ensuring the company maintains its direction.</p>
<p>But why now, and where to from here for the company? And what will Rupert Murdoch be remembered for?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-first-biography-of-lachlan-murdoch-provides-some-insights-but-leaves-important-questions-unanswered-192403">The first biography of Lachlan Murdoch provides some insights, but leaves important questions unanswered</a>
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<h2>Why now?</h2>
<p>Rupert’s departure was always going to come in one of two ways: either Rupert dropping off the perch or him leaving on this own terms. He has opted for the latter. </p>
<p>This means the company has chosen to manage the transition in a market-favourable way.</p>
<p>The transition to Lachlan looks, for the moment, to be well and truly secure. This gives him the chance under the leadership of Rupert to guide the company in the direction he – or Rupert – wants.</p>
<p>Rupert says he is in robust health but he was keen to hang on as long as possible. So, perhaps today’s news suggests his health is declining. We can only speculate but the man is, after all, 92.</p>
<h2>Would the recent lawsuits have played a role?</h2>
<p>Fox has been subject to several very expensive lawsuits in recent years, which caused a lot of turmoil internally. At the cost of US$787.5 million, Fox settled a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems over baseless claims made about its voting machines in the 2020 US presidential election. A different voting technology company, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/sep/21/rupert-murdoch-fox-news-lawsuits-donald-trump">Smartmatic</a>, is also suing.</p>
<p>But I doubt this played a huge role in Rupert stepping down because, in the end, a billion in lawsuits is nothing to a company that a few years ago made $70 billion by selling just some of its assets to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/09/21/fox-and-news-corp-stock-surges-as-rupert-murdoch-steps-down/?sh=37463b772a49">Disney</a>. </p>
<p>This is the price the company pays for its take-no-prisoners approach. It is proud of its uncompromising editorial stance, which is designed to pander to its right-wing audience. And there is no indication Lachlan will take it in a different direction. </p>
<h2>What next for Lachlan, with Rupert as chairman emeritus?</h2>
<p>In a sense, Rupert is not really stepping down. His new papal-like title of chairman emeritus recognises he will struggle to let go. But the new role is also about calming the market and saying, “Don’t worry, I haven’t gone away; I am still here and I have my hand on Lachlan’s shoulder.”</p>
<p>The best indication of Lachlan’s future stewardship of News Corp is his recent behaviour. He was at the helm of Fox News during Donald Trump’s presidential years and the immediate aftermath, when Fox News did enormous damage in its reporting on the 2020 election result. He was at the helm when Fox was making those baseless claims about Dominion Voting Systems. He had ample opportunity to guide the company in a different direction, but he didn’t. </p>
<p>So I think we can expect News Corp will continue to be the zealous right-wing media company it currently is.</p>
<h2>How might this affect the 2024 US election?</h2>
<p>News Corp has finally seen what millions of US voters saw at the 2020 election, which was that Trump was ultimately destructive as a leader. Now, outlets like Fox News are umming and ahhing about whether to back him. Some at Fox are clearly reluctant to let go of their adoration of Trump while others are disappointed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis isn’t emerging as a viable challenger.</p>
<p>If Trump continues to be the most popular Republican candidate, Fox will probably fall into line and support him, albeit with less enthusiasm than last time. </p>
<p>There is a sense of confusion within Fox about whom to back and where to stand, which reflects the chaos in US politics more broadly.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-the-earliest-years-of-his-career-the-young-rupert-murdoch-ruthlessly-pursued-his-interests-207829">From the earliest years of his career, the young Rupert Murdoch ruthlessly pursued his interests</a>
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<h2>So what’s Rupert’s legacy?</h2>
<p>It comes down to a ledger. Has this man done more harm or good in his life in the media?</p>
<p>On the good side, he has been a champion of newspapers. He has employed thousands of journalists and his outlets have often practised good public-interest journalism.</p>
<p>But I am afraid I believe the good is outweighed by all the harm done on Rupert’s watch.</p>
<p>His news media empire is fundamentally antisocial in the way it operates. I believe it’s caused so much harm to so many people along the way, and that cannot go unacknowledged. From the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-british-scandal-murdoch-20150611-story.html">UK phone hacking scandal</a> and beat ups to <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/sites/default/files/Sceptical-Climate-Part-2-Climate-Science-in-Australian-Newspapers.pdf">climate denial</a> and the demonisation of minorities, News Corp can be counted on to dumb down complexity, make issues binary and turn one side against the other.</p>
<p>He has damaged democracy and civil discourse and journalism itself. The behaviour of News Corp has on occasions been reprehensible, for which I think Rupert must take the blame.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rupert-murdoch-how-a-22-year-old-zealous-laborite-turned-into-a-tabloid-tsar-204914">Rupert Murdoch: how a 22-year-old 'zealous Laborite' turned into a tabloid tsar</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214141/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Dodd is on the Public Interest Journalism Initiative's academic research advisory group. He is also a former media writer for The Australian, Crikey and the ABC. </span></em></p>This is a decision that was always going to come in one of two forms: either Rupert dropping off the perch or him leaving on this own terms. He has opted for the latter.Andrew Dodd, Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2003542023-02-24T01:23:27Z2023-02-24T01:23:27ZBillionaire stoush over alleged media bias highlights the need for greater media diversity<p>The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-17/twiggy-forrest-kerry-stokes-michelle-rowland-spat-media/101990722">recent stoush</a> between mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest and media mogul Kerry Stokes is just the latest flashing neon sign above the parlous state of media diversity in Australia. </p>
<p>Laws protecting media diversity in Australia have been gradually dismantled in recent decades. Because of this, their objective of preventing a select few media owners or voices from having too much influence over public opinion and the political agenda has been placed at risk.</p>
<p>But traditional approaches to protecting media diversity may be less effective as the role of online news – now curated for us using algorithms – becomes ever more prominent in our news diets. This could require a new approach. </p>
<h2>Misuse of media power?</h2>
<p>Stokes’ Seven West Media owns the West Australian Newspaper, the only major daily paper in Perth. Stokes also has a controlling interest in the mining equipment company WesTrac, which supplies Caterpillar mining machinery. </p>
<p>Forrest’s Fortescue Metals previously had a supply arrangement with WesTrac. But he then placed on order to purchase 120 emission-free, hauling trucks from the German Liebherr company, putting him in direct competition with WesTrac. </p>
<p>Forrest claims this move was met with “<a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/forrest-stokes-in-battle-of-billionaires-over-media-coverage-20230215-p5cknp">biased, inflammatory and inaccurate</a>” coverage about his company in Seven West Media.</p>
<p>In a complaint to Communications Minister Michelle Rowland, Mark Hutchinson, the chief executive of Fortescue Future Industries, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-17/twiggy-forrest-kerry-stokes-michelle-rowland-spat-media/101990722?utm_medium=social&utm_content=sf264324662&utm_campaign=abc_news&utm_source=m.facebook.com&sf264324662=1&fbclid=IwAR0ykr77aP7SV6ewUk31BQiDupuYRZTMXMpV-hbcnf7bFhFLbbPdTf5JErA">described</a> what he calls “the misuse of the West Australian newspaper to pursue commercial interests”. He added, according to the ABC: </p>
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<p>The West’s coverage has gone far beyond fair scrutiny and is clearly driven by fossil fuel interests with the aim of damaging Fortescue’s green energy mission.</p>
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<h2>‘System not fit-for-purpose’</h2>
<p>Hutchinson says the issues points to a wider problem: the lack of media diversity in Perth, which has only one major daily newspaper for a city of two million. </p>
<p>That Seven West Media is one of only three major commercial corporations owning the bulk of Australian media – alongside <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/australia-needs-more-media-diversity-and-there-are-ways-to-achieve-it-20210413-p57iso.html">News Corp and Nine Entertainment</a> – is a sad indictment of the state of our media ownership laws.</p>
<p>With such a highly concentrated media ownership, the partisanship of big news brands has become the norm. The Senate inquiry into media diversity has investigated a litany of problems associated with this, deeming Australian media regulation a “<a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/Mediadiversity/Report">system not fit-for-purpose</a>”. </p>
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<p>For example, Australia’s relationship with China, its largest trading partner, is typically cast in hyperbolic “war drums” language by the Murdoch media. And during the pandemic, News Corp’s online tabloids were especially keen to link COVID with China. China scholar David Brophy documented in his book, <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/china-panic">China Panic</a>, how Sky News seized on a “dodgy-dossier” linking COVID to a laboratory in the city of Wuhan. </p>
<p>More recently, News Corp is at it again, this time airing an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUD-sCvtDE0&t=9s">hour-long special</a> advocating for a doubling of Australia’s military spending so the country can be protected against the imminent and “inevitable” Chinese invasion. </p>
<p>In its <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/Mediadiversity/Report/section?id=committees%2Freportsen%2F024602%2F78577">final report</a>, the media diversity inquiry commented,</p>
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<p>It is noteworthy that the overwhelming majority of the evidence to this inquiry relates to one dominant media organisation, News Corp. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/news-corps-job-cuts-cast-a-shadow-over-the-future-of-its-newspapers-199762">News Corp's job cuts cast a shadow over the future of its newspapers</a>
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<h2>How Europe is leading the way</h2>
<p>To counter unaccountable media power and a lack of transparency in media ownership, the European Commission has recently proposed a new regulatory framework: the <a href="https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/european-media-freedom-act-proposal-regulation-and-recommendation">European Media Freedom Act (EMFA)</a>. </p>
<p>Introducing the new framework, EU commissioner Thierry Breton <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_5504">said it contains</a></p>
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<p>[…]common safeguards at EU level to guarantee a plurality of voices and that our media are able to operate without any interference, be it private or public. </p>
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<p>He said a new European watchdog would be set up to ensure transparency in media ownership. Another key feature will require EU member states to test the impact of media market concentrations on media pluralism and editorial independence. </p>
<p>At a <a href="https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/webstreaming/cult-committee-meeting_20230206-1500-COMMITTEE-CULT">recent EU parliament hearing</a>, a media freedom expert, Elda Brogi, explained how the new measures benefit the public as well as regulators: </p>
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<p>[…] it helps media users to understand how ownership may influence the [news] content.</p>
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<h2>A better method for measuring media diversity</h2>
<p>The Australian government and its principal media regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), have recently released a <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/consultations/2023-01/new-framework-measuring-media-diversity-australia?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ACMA%2520seeks%2520feedback%2520on%2520news%2520measurement%2520tool&utm_content=ACMA%2520seeks%2520feedback%2520on%2520news%2520measurement%2520tool+CID_042b83509756ee8b7018e52ad73be76b&utm_source=SendEmailCampaigns&utm_term=consultation%2520paper">discussion paper</a> seeking comment on developing a sophisticated new way to monitor media diversity in Australia.</p>
<p>This is the second phase of a process begun in 2020. The goal is to assess how Australians actually consume online news, including personalised news delivered to them through social media, search engines and news aggregators. </p>
<p>The current media diversity rules are based on an assessment of the ownership and control of traditional media outlets. However, as ACMA says, this misses the volume of news being published and consumed online. This omission is “notable”, the agency says, given 81% of Australians access news content online. </p>
<p>This news measurement model will be able to track the level of connection of stories (news connected to localities), the extent of originality (unique news stories), and the level of civic journalism (news of public significance). </p>
<p>This kind of internationally informed and evidenced-based approach is urgently needed to truly gauge the level of media concentration in Australia and determine its impact on public interest journalism and the news people read. Only then can we put in place new regulations that will have a real impact. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/forget-calls-for-a-royal-commission-into-australias-big-media-players-this-is-the-inquiry-we-really-need-171842">Forget calls for a royal commission into Australia's big media players – this is the inquiry we really need</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200354/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Dwyer receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>In such a highly concentrated media market as Australia, the partisanship of big news brands has become the norm.Tim Dwyer, Associate Professor, Discipline of Media and Communications, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1962172022-12-13T02:33:47Z2022-12-13T02:33:47ZThe Prime Minister’s Literary Awards have proved contentious, but this year’s winners are worth celebrating<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500571/original/file-20221212-25-dtcwh9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=634%2C0%2C3275%2C1640&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Winners of the 2022 Prime Minister's Literary Awards: Nicolas Rothwell, Mark Willacy, Sherryl Clark, Andy Jackson, Christine Helliwell and Leanne Hall.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>The winners of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards were announced this morning at a ceremony in Launceston. This year’s <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/pm-literary-awards/shortlist">shortlists</a> presented a challenge for the judges, who selected 30 titles from more than 540 eligible entries. </p>
<p>The winning books in each category are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>Fiction</strong>: <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/pm-literary-awards/shortlist/red-heaven">Red Heaven</a> – Nicolas Rothwell (Text Publishing)</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Poetry</strong>: <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/pm-literary-awards/shortlist/human-looking">Human Looking</a> – Andy Jackson (Giramondo) </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Non-fiction</strong>: <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/pm-literary-awards/shortlist/rogue-forces-explosive-insiders-account-australian-sas-war-crimes-afghanistan">Rogue Forces: An explosive insiders’ account of Australian SAS war crimes in Afghanistan</a> – Mark Willacy (Simon & Schuster)</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Australian history</strong>: <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/pm-literary-awards/shortlist/semut-untold-story-secret-australian-operation-wwii-borneo">Semut: The untold story of a secret Australian operation in WWII Borneo</a> – Christine Helliwell (Michael Joseph)</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Children’s literature</strong>: <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/pm-literary-awards/shortlist/mina-and-whole-wide-world">Mina and the Whole Wide World</a> – Sherryl Clark and Briony Stewart (University of Queensland Press)</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Young adult literature</strong>: <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/pm-literary-awards/shortlist/gaps-leanne-hall">The Gaps</a> – Leanne Hall (Text Publishing) </p></li>
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<h2>Criticisms</h2>
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<p>The awards have a short and occasionally contentious history. This year, they were met with strong criticism.</p>
<p>Given the “consecrating” value accorded to literary awards, the judging panels are closely scrutinised. The panels are a measure of credibility; they define the notions of literary merit upon which the awards are based. </p>
<p>This year Peter Rose, editor of Australian Book Review, <a href="https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/current-issue/984-december-2022-no-449/9918-editorial-the-narrow-road-to-influence">called out</a> the judging panels as Sydney-centric. Central to his critique was the clear links of six judges with the Murdoch-owned NewsCorp papers:</p>
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<p>Remarkably, six of those ten judges have close associations with The Australian newspaper. This includes no less than three literary editors (including the current one, Caroline Overington). The other three are Troy Bramston, a senior writer and columnist with The Australian, Peter Craven (a frequent columnist), and Chris Mitchell, a former editor-in-chief (2002–15) and current columnist.</p>
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<p>The 2022 panels were appointed by the previous federal government. Rose sees the composition of the panels as evidence of the Morrison government’s “cosy association with News Corp”, the charge of partisanship evoking wider conversations about the “stacking” of cultural institutions. </p>
<p>Indeed the July 2022 Grattan Institute report, <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/new-politics-public-appointments/">New politics: A better process for public appointments</a>, shows that “pork-barrelling” and “jobs for mates” can have a corrosive effect on our democratic institutions, seriously affecting the impartiality of decision-making.</p>
<p>Literary prizes are inherently if implicitly political; the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards are explicitly so. One of their peculiarities is that they are bestowed at the prerogative of the prime minister, who can overrule the decisions of the judging panels. </p>
<p>The timing of the awards also came in for criticism this year. Although they represent a significant injection of funds into the literary sector, the benefits would be greater if there were time for titles to build momentum. </p>
<p>The shortlist was not announced until November 7 2022, and the announcement of the winners is timed to fit around the prime minister’s schedule and parliamentary sitting requirements. But the mid-December date is not ideal for its visibility. It allows little notice for the publishing and bookselling industries to spotlight titles for Christmas, which inevitably affects potential sales. As Mark Rubbo, managing director of independent bookshop chain Readings, told Peter Rose:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards are the worst-run prizes in Australia; there is no consistency in the timing of the announcements of either the shortlist or the winner, giving neither booksellers nor publishers the opportunity to promote the shortlisted and winning authors.</p>
</blockquote>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/two-thirds-of-australian-authors-are-women-new-research-finds-they-earn-just-18-200-a-year-from-their-writing-195426">Two thirds of Australian authors are women – new research finds they earn just $18,200 a year from their writing</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<h2>History of the awards</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500305/original/file-20221212-94261-em7gyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500305/original/file-20221212-94261-em7gyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500305/original/file-20221212-94261-em7gyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500305/original/file-20221212-94261-em7gyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500305/original/file-20221212-94261-em7gyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500305/original/file-20221212-94261-em7gyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500305/original/file-20221212-94261-em7gyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500305/original/file-20221212-94261-em7gyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>The winners of the 2022 awards each receive A$80,000 tax-free, with shortlisted authors receiving $5,000 each. It’s a substantial prize, but not the highest amount of money for a literary award – the Victorian Prize for Literature offers $100,000.</p>
<p>The awards are intended to recognise individual excellence and the contribution Australian authors make to the nation’s cultural and intellectual life. They have evolved every year since their inauguration by Kevin Rudd in 2008. </p>
<p>In 2008 and 2009, awards were given in the fiction and non-fiction categories. In 2010, the awards were expanded to include young adult and children’s fiction. The decision to reward all the shortlisted authors was made in 2011. This was a widely applauded move. </p>
<p>There is growing public awareness of author poverty, with a 2022 <a href="https://australiacouncil.gov.au/advocacy-and-research/2022-national-survey-of-australian-book-authors/">Macquarie University study</a> finding that the average income is $18,200 per annum.</p>
<p>In 2012, the poetry category was added and the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History was incorporated into the Awards. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500220/original/file-20221211-90146-ktdtu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500220/original/file-20221211-90146-ktdtu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500220/original/file-20221211-90146-ktdtu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500220/original/file-20221211-90146-ktdtu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500220/original/file-20221211-90146-ktdtu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500220/original/file-20221211-90146-ktdtu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500220/original/file-20221211-90146-ktdtu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500220/original/file-20221211-90146-ktdtu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Kevin Rudd with novelist Steven Conte at the first Prime Minister’s Literary Awards in September 2008.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alan Porritt/AAP</span></span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/something-remarkable-has-happened-to-australias-book-pages-gender-equality-has-become-the-norm-177362">Something remarkable has happened to Australia's book pages: gender equality has become the norm</a>
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<hr>
<h2>Literature and diversity</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500307/original/file-20221212-96198-65pkn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500307/original/file-20221212-96198-65pkn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500307/original/file-20221212-96198-65pkn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500307/original/file-20221212-96198-65pkn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500307/original/file-20221212-96198-65pkn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500307/original/file-20221212-96198-65pkn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500307/original/file-20221212-96198-65pkn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500307/original/file-20221212-96198-65pkn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>The inauguration of the <a href="https://stella.org.au/about/">Stella Prize</a> for women’s writing and the associated <a href="https://stella.org.au/initiatives/research/">Stella Count</a> have sharpened our focus on questions of gender and diversity in the awarding of prizes and in literary reviewing.</p>
<p>The Prime Minister’s awards are beginning to mirror the multiplicity of modern Australia. This year’s shortlists included five First Nations authors, with one in every category except history. The young adult category was the most diverse, containing two authors of Asian-Australian heritage, Leanne Hall and Rebecca Lim, and one of Muslim-Australian heritage, Safdar Ahmed. </p>
<p>Andy Jackson’s winning poetry collection, Human Looking, elevates the profile of disabled poetics and “<a href="https://www.australianliterarystudies.com.au/articles/writing-disability-in-australia">crip culture</a>” more broadly. </p>
<p>The gender mix is relatively even, an overall trend that aligns with Melinda Harvey and Julieanne Lamond’s <a href="https://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/stella-count-crashes-through-the-gender-parity-barrier">report</a>, released in March 2022, which found that gender parity was becoming a reality when it comes to prizes.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500310/original/file-20221212-97751-uu5no9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500310/original/file-20221212-97751-uu5no9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500310/original/file-20221212-97751-uu5no9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500310/original/file-20221212-97751-uu5no9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500310/original/file-20221212-97751-uu5no9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500310/original/file-20221212-97751-uu5no9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500310/original/file-20221212-97751-uu5no9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500310/original/file-20221212-97751-uu5no9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Minister for the Arts Tony Burke has been open about his love of literature. In his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXwb-YOkgFQ&ab_channel=AustralianSocietyofAuthors">Colin Simpson Memorial Keynote</a> for the Australian Society of Authors on 15 November, he revealed that he reads a poem each day. Among his favourite local works are Tara June Winch’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-yield-wins-the-miles-franklin-a-powerful-story-of-violence-and-forms-of-resistance-142284">The Yield</a> (which <a href="https://theconversation.com/prime-ministers-literary-awards-the-yield-and-the-lost-arabs-throw-fragile-lines-across-cultural-and-linguistic-divides-151848">won the fiction category</a> of the 2020 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards) and <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-dystopian-or-utopian-future-claire-g-colemans-new-novel-enclave-imagines-both-182859">Claire G. Coleman</a>’s Terra Nullius. </p>
<p>A government that says “you are creators, you are workers and you are required” has been missing for a decade, Burke said. In his new role, he has pledged to improve authors’ conditions.</p>
<p>University of Melbourne publishing and communications scholar Alexandra Dane has <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003124160-20/literary-prizes-public-sphere-alexandra-dane">argued</a> that “literary prizes have long served as a shorthand for the nation’s understanding of what constitutes literary value”. Prize culture is a flawed mechanism for establishing that value. The choice of an ultimate winner also involves the elevation of one set of values at the expense of others. </p>
<p>Whatever their shortcomings, the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards still expose works of literature to new readers and enhance their chances in a crowded market. Two of the finalists, the poet Jordie Albiston and musician <a href="https://theconversation.com/archie-roach-the-great-songman-tender-and-humble-who-gave-our-people-a-voice-187974">Archie Roach</a>, are no longer with us, but their shortlisting recognises the excellence of their late works. </p>
<p>In common with other <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2011/oct/18/booker-prize-history-controversy-criticism">controversial prizes</a>, the awards are fought over precisely because of their symbolic and enduring cultural function.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196217/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brigid Magner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The winners of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards have been announced. The awards are contentious – but are fought over precisely because of their symbolic and enduring cultural functionBrigid Magner, Associate Professor in Literary Studies, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1940232022-11-06T07:31:55Z2022-11-06T07:31:55ZAttacks on Dan Andrews are part of News Corporation’s long abuse of power<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493667/original/file-20221106-11-ie9e1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Carrett/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sane people trying to fathom the Herald Sun’s bizarre coverage of Victorian Premier Dan Andrews over the past few days might be helped by some insights from the founding of News Limited, the company on which Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation empire has been built and of which the Herald Sun is part.</p>
<p>The main insight is that journalism is not, and never has been, the purpose of News Corporation. Its purpose, its reason for existence, is to provide the means by which three generations of the Murdoch family accumulate wealth and exert power.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1589016704696619008"}"></div></p>
<p>In her magisterial history of Australian newspaper empires, Paper Emperors, Sally Young tells what she calls the <a href="https://stella.org.au/prize/2020-prize/paper-emperors/">real story</a> of the birth of News Limited. </p>
<p>The company’s own creation myth is that its first newspaper, the Adelaide News, was the work of a couple of rugged individuals, a “miner” called Gerald Mussen, who was in fact an industrial consultant to Broken Hill Associated Smelters, and a former editor of the Melbourne Herald, J. E. Davidson.</p>
<p>As Young makes clear, these two had long worked as collaborating propagandists for the Herald and Weekly Times, of which Keith Murdoch was managing director, and its associated mining interests in Broken Hill and Port Pirie. The evidence indicates that Mussen and Davidson were financed into the newspaper start-up by these interests for the purpose of continuing the propagandising.</p>
<p>Keith Murdoch later acquired the paper in his own right and bequeathed it to Rupert.</p>
<p>Propagandising was News’s original sin, and it has never been redeemed. Instead it has broadened out to beat-ups, misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-news-corp-goes-rogue-on-election-coverage-what-price-will-australian-democracy-pay-181599">As News Corp goes 'rogue' on election coverage, what price will Australian democracy pay?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Of course, along the way it has done plenty of journalism, some of it very high quality. In 1959, the Adelaide News, under the editorship of Rohan Rivett, played a <a href="https://aso.gov.au/titles/features/black-and-white/notes/">large role</a> in securing a judicial review of the Rupert Max Stuart case. Stuart had been sentenced to hang for the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl, after a trial that caused much public disquiet. His conviction was never conclusively overturned but he was released after 14 years in prison. </p>
<p>More recently, Hedley Thomas’s exposés of <a href="https://ro.uow.edu.au/gsbpapers/34/">the wrong done</a> to Dr Mohamed Haneef and the inadequacies of the police investigation into the murder of Lynette Dawson, for which her husband Chris was recently convicted, have been instances of public-interest journalism at its best.</p>
<p>However, this function of doing journalism – the “what” – is to be distinguished from the “why”. The journalism is done in pursuit of the organisation’s primary purpose, the empowerment and enrichment of the Murdochs, while every now and again also serving the public interest.</p>
<p>The coverage of Daniel Andrews needs to be seen in this light.</p>
<p>The starting point is that the Murdochs – Lachlan or Rupert or both – clearly prefer a non-Labor government, and the continuance in office of a Labor administration in Victoria is an offence against their wishes.</p>
<p>So we saw in the 2018 election campaign a racist scare campaign against so-called <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/gang-violence-in-melbourne-new-intel-on-core-apex-members/news-story/9873f9e18ac0a9c611601885b453e69d">African gangs</a>, pushed along by Peter Dutton, now leader of the Liberal-National opposition in federal parliament, and turbo-charged by the Herald Sun.</p>
<p>It backfired spectacularly, and Andrews won in a landslide. That simply aggravated the offence.</p>
<p>Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Herald Sun promoted increasingly shrill criticisms of the Andrews lockdowns, particularly by the former Liberal federal treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, who subsequently lost his Melbourne seat of Kooyong in the May federal election. More aggravation.</p>
<p>Most recently, on November 4, 22 days before the 2022 Victorian state election, there was yet further offence. Newspoll showed the Liberal Party trailing Labor 46-54% in two-party-preferred terms. Landslide territory again. </p>
<p>This succession of rebuffs shows that the capacity of the Murdoch media to influence electoral outcomes is weaker than it once was, adding insult to injury.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/victorian-newspoll-has-labors-lead-down-but-would-still-win-with-three-weeks-until-election-193825">Victorian Newspoll has Labor's lead down, but would still win with three weeks until election</a>
</strong>
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</p>
<hr>
<p>Time for some mud-chucking in the hope that enough will stick.</p>
<p>First, the Herald Sun resurrects a nine-year-old motor accident involving not Andrews himself but his wife. It <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/cyclist-hit-by-daniel-andrews-car-demands-justice/news-story/e3c34431cc48668fd2d228b01b22b39a">publishes online</a> a video-taped interview with the cyclist involved in the collision, and his father.</p>
<p>The interview is long on innuendo and short on facts. It is insinuated that in some undefined way, Andrews improperly used his power to deny the young man justice and that the legal system let him down.</p>
<p>Time, too, to resurrect a conspiracy theory.</p>
<p>On March 9 2021, Andrews slipped on some outside stairs at a holiday house he and his family had rented on the Mornington Peninsula, injuring his back and ribs.</p>
<p>As The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jun/11/daniel-andrews-injury-inside-the-conspiracy-theory-around-the-premiers-fall">has reported</a>, an anonymous post about what had allegedly “really” happened appeared first on an encrypted messaging app favoured by far-right activists and conspiracy theorists, then moved to a fringe website promoting QAnon and Port Arthur massacre misinformation.</p>
<p>The conspiracy theory asserted that Andrews’ injuries had been sustained in dark circumstances.</p>
<p>For reasons best known to herself, the Liberals’ then Shadow Treasurer Louise Staley, decided this was a fire worth throwing fuel on, so she published a list of 12 questions she said Andrews needed to answer about the incident.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1402757037021302786"}"></div></p>
<p>The list was predicated on so much misinformation and disinformation that <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/ambulance-victoria-issues-statement-on-premier-s-fall-20210608-p57z2l.html">Ambulance Victoria</a>, whose crew had taken Andrews to hospital, and the <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/police-did-not-attend-after-andrews-fall-says-chief-commissioner-20210610-p57zuo.html">chief commissioner of police</a> both felt it necessary to issue statements setting out the facts.</p>
<p>This had the effect of killing off the conspiracy theory, and when Matthew Guy took over as leader of the Liberal Party a few months later, he demoted Staley to shadow minister for scrutiny of government.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493666/original/file-20221106-52167-c2g8i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493666/original/file-20221106-52167-c2g8i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493666/original/file-20221106-52167-c2g8i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493666/original/file-20221106-52167-c2g8i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493666/original/file-20221106-52167-c2g8i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493666/original/file-20221106-52167-c2g8i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493666/original/file-20221106-52167-c2g8i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Herald Sun front page, November 6 2022.</span>
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<p>Yet on November 6, the Sunday Herald Sun devoted many hundreds of words to a rehash of the conspiracy theory. This time it included a photograph of the steps, noting that the house had been repainted since the incident. What might have been covered up by a fresh coat of paint, the reader is implicitly invited to ask.</p>
<p>News Corporation is cradled in conflict of interest, overt and covert influence-peddling and propaganda, all for the purpose of advancing the Murdoch family’s interests. Abuse of media power is baked into its culture.</p>
<p>This does not excuse what the Herald Sun is doing, but helps explain it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194023/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>News Corporation’s media outlets have always been about gathering and exercising power. The Victorian premier’s ability to survive News Corp’s hostile coverage shows its power could be waning.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1892282022-08-24T02:58:58Z2022-08-24T02:58:58ZMurdoch v Crikey highlights how Australia’s defamation laws protect the rich and powerful<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480688/original/file-20220824-11-lq8kfh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C0%2C2002%2C1462&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lachlan Murdoch, far left, with his father Rupert and brother James in 2014</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Steinberg/AP/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is no better example of how Australia’s defamation laws enable the rich and powerful to intimidate their critics than Lachlan Murdoch suing Crikey.com over a comment piece concerning Fox News, Donald Trump and the Washington insurrection of January 6 2021.</p>
<p>Crikey says it has <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/08/22/lachlan-murdoch-letters-crikey-why/">published the correspondence</a> between its lawyers and Murdoch’s in order to show how media power is abused in Australia. </p>
<p>The correspondence begins with a “concerns notice” Murdoch sent to Crikey, which is the essential first step in launching an action for defamation. In it, Murdoch claims that the <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/06/29/january-six-hearing-donald-trump-comfirmed-unhinged-traitor/">Crikey commentary</a> by Bernard Keane, published on June 29 2022, conveyed 14 meanings that were defamatory of Murdoch.</p>
<h2>Murdoch’s allegation and Crikey’s defence</h2>
<p>According to Murdoch’s claims, Keane’s piece alleges that Lachlan Murdoch illegally conspired with Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 US presidential election result and incite an armed mob to march on the Capitol to prevent the result from being confirmed.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/web-activists-avaaz-put-lachlan-murdochs-media-interests-under-the-spotlight-7083">Web activists Avaaz put Lachlan Murdoch's media interests under the spotlight</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Crikey has responded by disputing that these meanings are conveyed, saying they are
“contrived and do not arise”. Crikey also argues that whatever it published could not possibly have done serious harm to Lachlan Murdoch’s reputation. </p>
<p>In order to get an action for defamation off the ground, Murdoch, the plaintiff in this case, has to satisfy the court that serious reputational harm has been done. The court may well decide this is the case.</p>
<p>Crikey says that given what much bigger media companies such as the Washington Post, the New York Times and the ABC (American Broadcasting Company) have already published about Murdoch’s Fox News and its propagation of the “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen, what Crikey has published cannot further harm Murdoch’s reputation.</p>
<h2>US vs Australian defamation protections</h2>
<p>This brings us to the first way Australia’s defamation laws facilitate intimidatory action by the rich and powerful.</p>
<p>Since those two big American newspapers have published similar material to that published by Crikey, the question naturally arises: why has Lachlan Murdoch not sued them? The answer is that in the United States, there is a “public figure” defence to defamation. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-defamation-suits-in-australia-are-so-ubiquitous-and-difficult-to-defend-for-media-organisations-157143">Why defamation suits in Australia are so ubiquitous — and difficult to defend for media organisations</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the US, Lachlan Murdoch would easily qualify as a public figure, being executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation. If he sued there, he would have to prove malice on the part of the newspapers. That means he would have to prove that the newspapers lied or were recklessly indifferent to the truth.</p>
<p>No such defence is available to the media in Australia, despite decades of intermittent campaigning by the media that it is needed. The reasons these efforts have gone nowhere are twofold.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480694/original/file-20220824-12-swa4nd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480694/original/file-20220824-12-swa4nd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480694/original/file-20220824-12-swa4nd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480694/original/file-20220824-12-swa4nd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480694/original/file-20220824-12-swa4nd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480694/original/file-20220824-12-swa4nd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480694/original/file-20220824-12-swa4nd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480694/original/file-20220824-12-swa4nd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Murdoch claims that Crikey’s piece alleges that he illegally conspired with Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 US presidential election.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>First, Australian politicians are among the most avid users of defamation laws, and it would be unrealistic to expect they would change this convenient state of affairs. This has been illustrated recently by the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/05/friendlyjordies-%20defamation-case-jordan-shanks-apologises-to-john-barilaro-to-settle-claim">successful defamation action</a> taken by the former deputy premier of NSW, John Barilaro, against an online satirist, Jordan Shanks, aka friendlyjordies.</p>
<p>Second, the tradition of accountability in public life is weak in Australia and the tradition of secrecy is strong, as vividly demonstrated by Scott Morrison’s behaviour in the affair of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/16/scott-morrison-five-more-secret-ministries-minister-portfolio-ministry-including-treasury-home-affairs">multiple portfolios</a>.</p>
<p>Another major factor in the chilling effect that the Australian defamation laws exert on the media is the extravagant damages the courts have awarded to plaintiffs that sue media companies, as well as the high cost of litigation. This has caused large media companies to settle cases even when they had an arguable prospect of defending themselves.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-law-says-the-media-cant-spin-lies-entertainment-magazines-arent-an-exception-132186">Australian law says the media can't spin lies – 'entertainment magazines' aren't an exception</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A recent example was when the biography of the AFL player Eddie Betts was published, confirming what had happened at the now notorious training camp held by the Adelaide Crows in 2018. At the camp, Betts alleged he was targeted, abused and the camp “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-02/eddie-betts-autobiography-adelaide-crows-training-camp/101294046#:%7E:text=Former%20Adelaide%20star%20Eddie%20Betts,from%20the%20club's%20leadership%20group">misused personal and sensitive information</a>.” </p>
<p>However, when The Age broke the story initially, it was sued by the company that ran the camp. The newspaper <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/afl-players-betrayed-by-a-win-at-all-costs-culture-%2020220804-p5b78a.html">issued an apology</a>, although it did not admit the story was wrong.</p>
<p>The Age said its parent company, Nine Entertainment, had made a “business decision” to settle the case. In other words, it did not want to risk the costs and damages involved in contesting the suit.</p>
<h2>Liabilities for online publication</h2>
<p>A third main factor is the failure of the Morrison administration to bring to finality stage two of the defamation law reforms, which concern the liabilities and defences for online publication. </p>
<p>Currently, anyone who publishes a website or a blog is liable for the comments made there by <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-08/high-court-rules-on-media-responsibility-over-%20facebook-comments/100442626">third parties</a>. Continuously moderating comment streams for potentially defamatory material is onerous and expensive at a time when media organisations have far fewer resources than they did in the pre-digital age.</p>
<p>Against this backdrop, it is hardly surprising that Lachlan Murdoch feels he can use his immense wealth and power to intimidate and silence a relatively small outfit like Crikey.com. Behind him stand corporations with a market capitalisation of billions. Crikey says its company, Private Media, is valued at less than $20 million.</p>
<h2>Murdoch’s demands</h2>
<p>Murdoch wants Crikey to take down the story and issue an apology. In
pursuit of his case, he has filed suit in the Federal Court.</p>
<p>In defiance of Murdoch’s claim, Crikey has published his 2014 oration at the State Library of Victoria named in honour of his grandfather, Sir Keith Murdoch, as part of its <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/08/22/lachlan-murdoch-letters-crikey-why/">publishing of the legal correspondence</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Censorship should be resisted in all its insidious forms.
We should be vigilant of the gradual erosion of our freedom to know, to be informed
and make reasoned decisions in our society and in our democracy.
We must all take notice and, like Sir Keith, have the courage to act when those
freedoms are threatened.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Quite.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189228/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia’s defamation laws have been inadequate for years - as this case starkly shows.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1891242022-08-23T20:05:14Z2022-08-23T20:05:14ZIn Plagued, journalists have traded their independence for access, resulting in a kind of political pornography<p>The publication of <a href="https://www.panterapress.com.au/product/plagued/">Plagued</a>, by Simon Benson and Geoff Chambers, is destined to become a classic study of the perils for journalists in writing books about current political events.</p>
<p>You might have missed it in the tumult swirling around former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s multiplying ministries trick – but Plagued is where the public got its first inkling that Morrison had a yen for job-sharing.</p>
<p>By “inkling”, I mean the book had part of the story, but not the most important part. That should ring alarm bells: the main benefit of journalists writing books is they have the time and space to dig deeper into current events to reveal what is not known, or is rushed past, in daily media coverage.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Plagued: Australia’s two years of hell – the inside story – Simon Benson and Geoff Chambers (Pantera Press)</em></p>
<hr>
<h2>Politically significant ‘inside story’</h2>
<p>The book’s revelations are not just politically significant but will surely feature in future historians’ accounts of the 2019-2022 Coalition government.
So, what happened?</p>
<p>Plagued is the work of two experienced journalists: Simon Benson, political editor for The Australian (and before that for The Daily Telegraph) and Geoff Chambers, chief political correspondent for The Australian (previously news editor at The Daily Telegraph).</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480284/original/file-20220822-64723-nyikjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480284/original/file-20220822-64723-nyikjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480284/original/file-20220822-64723-nyikjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480284/original/file-20220822-64723-nyikjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480284/original/file-20220822-64723-nyikjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480284/original/file-20220822-64723-nyikjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480284/original/file-20220822-64723-nyikjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480284/original/file-20220822-64723-nyikjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>The newspapers’ owner, News Corp Australia, has a large, well-resourced Canberra political bureau and appeared to have a direct line to the former prime minister and his office. News Corp regularly received speeches ahead of other journalists and broke numerous stories. The company’s media outlets strongly supported the former Coalition government, to the point of using its journalism to campaign for it – as academics <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-news-corp-goes-rogue-on-election-coverage-what-price-will-australian-democracy-pay-181599">Denis Muller</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-news-corp-change-its-approach-after-labors-election-win-not-if-the-us-example-is-anything-to-go-by-183650">Rodney Tiffen</a> have written in articles for The Conversation.</p>
<p>The subtitle of Plagued is “Australia’s two years of hell – the inside story”. The back-cover blurb trumpets the two journalists’ “exclusive access to the crucial machinations of government at the country’s highest levels, not just within the corridors of power but also behind doors normally sealed”.</p>
<p>The promise of taking readers into places normally hidden from their view is territory Bob Woodward of The Washington Post has been mining since the 1976 publication of his account, co-authored with Carl Bernstein, of the end of the Nixon presidency, <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/The-Final-Days/Bob-Woodward/9781439127650">The Final Days</a>.</p>
<p>Woodward and Bernstein took us into the Lincoln Sitting Room the night before Nixon resigned in 1974, to see Nixon asking his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, to pray with him. Similarly, Benson and Chambers take us into the Lodge in January 2020 after Morrison, “badly bruised by the fierce criticism of his family’s Hawaiian holiday”, has returned to work and is receiving early warnings about <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-response-to-covid-in-the-first-2-years-was-one-of-the-best-in-the-world-why-do-we-rank-so-poorly-now-187606">COVID-19</a>. </p>
<p>The authors describe Morrison stepping out of a dinner at the Lodge with his treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, and the Nationals leader, Michael McCormack, to take a phone call from his elder brother. “Morrison could hear the dread in his brother’s voice even before he heard the fateful words, ‘Dad’s gone’.”</p>
<p>What we’re offered is a seat in the room where great ones make crucial decisions affecting all our lives. It can be thrilling to read. Watch Nixon as he beats the carpet in anguish, contemplating his political mortality. Listen as Frydenberg tells Morrison early in the global pandemic that the budget surplus is toast and the wage subsidy package is going to cost $130 billion. My God, replies the PM.</p>
<p>There are a number of problems here. First, positioning the reader at the scene of important events is alluring, but how do we know the events are being accurately recounted? We don’t. We have to trust the authors. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-scott-morrison-was-sworn-in-to-several-portfolios-other-than-prime-minister-during-the-pandemic-how-can-this-be-done-188718">Explainer: Scott Morrison was sworn in to several portfolios other than prime minister during the pandemic. How can this be done?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Gaining readers’ trust</h2>
<p>One way journalistic authors can gain trust is by telling readers how they know what they know – and sharing their means for weighing sources’ conflicting accounts of events. This has become increasingly common in recent years, precisely because of earlier <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/159333/bob-woodwards-critics-missing-point">controversies</a> involving Bob Woodward, among others. There was a lot of debate, for example, about whether Nixon did actually thump the carpet.</p>
<p>A recent example of improved practice in book-length journalism is Patrick Radden Keefe’s <a href="https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781529063073/">Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty</a>. It has 62 pages of endnotes and a five-page note on sources, outlining the thousands of pages of court documents, law enforcement files and letters Radden Keefe drew on (and how he obtained them), along with the number of interviews he conducted – 200-plus. Where Radden Keefe attributes thoughts or feelings to people, it is because his interviewees have told him what they thought and felt, or he is relying on a characterisation from someone who knew them.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JxlY7TgECrE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Patrick Radden Keefe’s Empire of Pain is an example of improved practice in book-length journalism.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Plagued has endnotes, but they are for secondary sources or transcripts of ministers’ media conferences. This is fine, but it accounts for only a portion of the book’s contents and none of its insider material. For instance, a series of text messages Morrison sent the Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews – which range from comradely support (“Hang in there Dan”) to an exchange about the Commonwealth and state governments coordinating responses to the second wave of the virus in mid-2020.</p>
<p>Morrison and Andrews, the authors report, enjoyed good relations in private, even if they sometimes clashed in public. After Andrews <a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-aged-care-crisis-reflects-poor-preparation-and-a-broken-system-143556">sharply criticised</a> aged-care facilities and Health Minister Greg Hunt publicly rebuked him, Morrison sent the premier a text saying, “Am standing up shortly, I assure you my tone will be very supportive […] There is nothing to be gained by personalising the challenges we face”, to which Andrews replied, “Agreed”.</p>
<p>I say “report” because the book says nothing about who was interviewed or when. Occasionally the phrase “Morrison later recalled” is deployed, but that’s primarily when he is quoted commenting on past events. It is the only (oblique) sign that he has been interviewed for the book. Very few others – not Andrews, nor federal ministers – are quoted from interviews with the authors, as far as can be told from the book itself.</p>
<p>Benson and Chambers have not only failed to give readers any idea of the source of their exclusive material, but aggravate matters by rendering numerous passages in the omniscient authorial voice – as quoted above, when Morrison learnt of his father’s death. The omniscient authorial voice is a longstanding device in novels where the author is literally the creator of their fictional universe, but journalists by definition are not omniscient. They deal with verifying the truth of events that are contested or confected or hidden.</p>
<p>Again, it is a common criticism of Woodward’s work. The trend in recent works of long-form journalism is to avoid an omniscient authorial voice and practice some humility, drawing attention to the limits of what can be known – and to the writer’s own position and predisposition towards the subject. Margaret Simons has been doing this for years, first in her 1999 book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1179555.Fit_To_Print">Fit to Print</a>, when she shone a light on the workings of the Canberra press gallery.</p>
<p>More recently, when Katharine Murphy, political editor of Guardian Australia, wrote about the global pandemic for <a href="https://www.quarterlyessay.com.au/essay/2020/09/the-end-of-certainty">a Quarterly Essay</a> (published in late 2020), she foregrounded how she was not part of the “Yes mate” club of male broadcast interviewers chosen by Morrison to reach his preferred public – and neither was her publication, Guardian Australia.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/parliament-must-act-to-ensure-australia-never-has-secret-ministers-again-188884">Parliament must act to ensure Australia never has 'secret ministers' again</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Morrison’s perspective</h2>
<p>With humility and transparency not in the offing, what becomes clear by the end of Plagued is that it recounts the past three years primarily from the perspective of Scott Morrison.</p>
<p>The reader is given his version of every event; it is the authors’ preferred version. Morrison, according to Plagued, works harder than anyone, is across his brief better than anyone, cares more about the Australian people, knows better than anyone what is needed, sees geopolitical trends more clearly. He wants to rise above daily politics and yearns to bring people together – a quality he admired in former Australian prime ministers <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-larrikin-as-leader-how-bob-hawke-came-to-be-one-of-the-best-and-luckiest-prime-ministers-91152">Bob Hawke</a> and Joe Lyons.</p>
<p>Problems that arise are always the fault of others, from the “sclerotic”, “folder-bearing bureaucrats” who fail to brief him quickly enough about the crisis in aged-care homes, to overly cautious officials on the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, and everyone in between. </p>
<p>The result of the 2022 federal election comes as something of a jolt to this relentlessly Morrison-marinated narrative. The change of government is dispensed with in four short paragraphs on the book’s final page. A brief explanation is proffered a few pages earlier: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Politically, the prime minister had fallen victim to the longevity of the plague, the elevation of hostile Labor premiers to a national platform, the inevitable mistakes that would be made the longer it persisted, and an impatient and cranky public.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Morrison’s own reflection is: “The only thing I can observe is that our critics are seeking absolute perfection and anything less than that is a failure, and that means the whole world failed.”</p>
<p>If that straw-man-seeking language sounds familiar, it is. Morrison sounded a similar note <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFSB7cMfqTk">in his hour-long media conference</a> on 17 August, when he said as prime minister he was “responsible pretty much for every single thing that was going on, every drop of rain, every strain of the virus”. </p>
<p>It was at that media conference, too, that Morrison pitchforked his obedient chroniclers into the briar patch. He revealed he had given Benson and Chambers “contemporaneous interviews” where he told them he’d been sworn in as health minister alongside Greg Hunt in March 2020.</p>
<p>As they report, Morrison and Hunt agreed that checks and balances were needed on the powers of <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2021/04/foi-request-2268-release-documents-advice-to-the-governor-general-foi-2268-explanatory-memorandum.pdf">section 475</a> of the Biosecurity Act. Passed in 2015 under the previous Coalition government, it gave a health minister sweeping powers that overrode other laws and were not disallowable by parliament. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Morrison then hatched a radical and until now secret plan with [then Attorney-General, Christian Porter’s] approval. He would swear himself in as health minister alongside Hunt" who “not only accepted the measure but welcomed it”. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the next paragraph, they quietly report Morrison also swore himself in as finance minister alongside Matthias Cormann, but don’t say whether Cormann knew.</p>
<p>Excerpts of Plagued, including reference to Morrison’s hidden new powers, were published in The Weekend Australian on 13 August. But nobody seemed to notice until nearly 48 hours later, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/aug/19/australians-buried-lede-on-morrison-begs-the-question-who-knew-what-when">according to a chronology</a> pieced together by Amanda Meade, media writer for Guardian Australia.</p>
<p>Then, thanks to reporting by Samantha Maiden of News.com.au and Andrew Clennell of Sky News, it was revealed there was a third portfolio Morrison had acquired – Resources – and that Cormann had not been let in on the secret. </p>
<p>On Monday 15 August, the current Labor Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, expressed his alarm at news of the secret plan and vowed to seek advice about its legality, and its implications for the Westminster system of government. The issue ran all week, prompting calls for Morrison to resign from parliament and launching a thousand comic memes, which Morrison himself wanted everyone to know via Facebook that he too found amusing. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-morrisons-passion-for-control-trashed-conventions-and-accountability-188747">View from The Hill: Morrison's passion for control trashed conventions and accountability</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Journalists seduced and betrayed</h2>
<p>On Sunday 21 August, Maiden clarified on ABC TV’s Insiders that it was Cormann who rang Morrison demanding an explanation, rather than Morrison <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/insiders/from-the-couch/14027376">calling his former longtime finance minister</a> to apologise. Something else was becoming clear: Morrison had done <a href="https://theconversation.com/remembering-janet-malcolm-her-intellectual-courage-shaped-journalism-biographies-and-helen-garner-163005">a reverse Janet Malcolm</a>, first seducing, then betraying his two journalistic courtiers.</p>
<p>He had seduced them with the prospect, unique as far as we know, of exclusive access to him “in the middle of the tempest”, as Morrison put it at his media conference. He gave them the most defensible end of the story – assuming power for Health alongside Hunt at the beginning of the pandemic – and another morsel – assuming power for Finance.</p>
<p>But no more. Now, Benson and Chambers have no one but themselves to blame for failing to ask more questions. They called it “a secret plan” and secrets are to journalism what catnip is to cats.</p>
<p>Then Morrison betrayed them by revealing 58 minutes into the media conference that he’d told them about the shared ministerial arrangement at the time. It’s not clear whether Morrison told them about all five portfolios, and that he had actually overruled one minister, Keith Pitt – on an issue driven not by the pandemic, but the desire to be re-elected. And the authors are being reticent. </p>
<p>Asked by Kieran Gilbert on Sky News when they became aware, Chambers said, “Well, we spoke to dozens of people over two years and this was part of the story and, well, the story is out now. So that’s my response.” If Chambers were a politician bowling up that answer at a media conference, do you think that would satisfy his questioners?</p>
<p>The whole tawdry episode brings to mind <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1996/09/19/the-deferential-spirit/">a famous essay by Joan Didion</a>, where she argued Bob Woodward wrote books “in which measurable cerebral activity is virtually absent”. That is, Woodward relentlessly accumulates quotidian details – what people eat, what they wear – but refuses to question the meaning of events or discuss the issues he is reporting. She quotes Woodward saying, essentially, he writes self-portraits of the people who cooperate with him for his books. </p>
<p>This sounds eerily like Plagued. It’s replete with quotidian details: the former PM’s official car in Sydney was a “bullet-proof white BMW 7 Series”; early in the pandemic he and Daniel Andrews enjoyed a “glass of whiskey from a bottle of single-malt Tasmanian lark”. Yet it rarely pauses to question Morrison’s version of events – and equally rarely seeks to contextualise events, or consider alternative perspective in any but the most cursory way. </p>
<p>On the former, Plagued does not mention, for instance, that one of the main reasons Morrison was fiercely criticised for his Hawaiian holiday was because he was <a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-scott-morrison-trips-on-a-truth-test-172316">secretive about it</a>. On the latter, the issue of <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-2021-metoo-finally-made-it-to-auspol-what-happens-next-173153">gender equality</a>, for instance, loomed large in the last term of government; but it occupies just two pages in Plagued.</p>
<p>What began as two News Corp Australia journalists’ attempt to secure Scott Morrison’s reputation as the leader who steered Australia through the global pandemic looks most likely to have tarnished his legacy forever. That’s an eye-watering own goal. </p>
<p>When Didion’s essay about Woodward’s work was published in The New York Review of Books in 1996, it was headlined “The deferential spirit”. For its republication five years later in a selection of her essays, she chose another title: “Political pornography”. Sad to say, it is a title that could refer to Plagued.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/remembering-janet-malcolm-her-intellectual-courage-shaped-journalism-biographies-and-helen-garner-163005">Remembering Janet Malcolm: her intellectual courage shaped journalism, biographies and Helen Garner</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katharine Murphy, whose work is mentioned in this article, is an adjunct associate professor of journalism at Deakin University. </span></em></p>What began as two journalists’ attempt to secure Scott Morrison’s reputation seems likely to tarnish his legacy forever. It’s an eye-watering own goal – and problematic journalism, in various ways.Matthew Ricketson, Professor of Communication, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1836502022-05-29T19:54:39Z2022-05-29T19:54:39ZWill News Corp change its approach after Labor’s election win? Not if the US example is anything to go by<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465633/original/file-20220527-22-acn1fm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=59%2C0%2C3892%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Key moments on Sky News in the week following the election result.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sky News</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1953, the Communist East German regime quashed a widespread uprising and afterwards admonished the protesters, saying the government had lost confidence in the people. In a famous satirical poem, left-wing author Bertolt Brecht said that, if so, perhaps the government could dissolve the people and elect a new lot.</p>
<p>One guesses that after the recent Australian election, News Corp would also like to elect a new public, as the result highlighted its own irrelevance and how out of touch it is with the Australian mainstream. Rather than directly attacking the public, though, it aimed its vitriol at the Greens and the teal independents, both of whom had wildly successful elections, and against Labor, which regained government from opposition.</p>
<p>So far, the media company’s epic fail seems not to have occasioned any soul- searching. Indeed some in its stable – in a triumph of ideological fantasy over numeracy – have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/23/in-shock-and-anger-over-liberal-defeat-sky-news-commentators-urge-party-to-shift-right">asserted</a> the result was due to the Liberals moving too far “left”.</p>
<p>Questions remain about the future though: will the election lead News Corp to change, either out of professional shame or in the interests of expanding its market share beyond the right-wing, populist ghetto it inhabits? And how will it treat the incoming government?</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-reality-distorting-machinery-of-the-federal-election-campaign-delivered-sub-par-journalism-183629">How the 'reality-distorting machinery' of the federal election campaign delivered sub-par journalism</a>
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<p>Some insight might be gained from how the jewel in Murdoch’s crown, his greatest commercial and political success of the past three decades, Fox News, covered the administrations of US presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, both of whose elections it had vehemently opposed.</p>
<p>The opposition to Obama from Fox’s commentators was immediate and unrelenting. Even before he took office, after an economic setback during the global recession which had been going on for months, Fox News star Sean Hannity said Obama was to blame, because the prospect of his taking over had made wealthy people get out of the market. </p>
<p>On the day of the president’s inauguration, Rush Limbaugh <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/feb/02/barack-obama-right-wing-pundits">declared</a>: “I hope he fails”. On day three, Laura Ingraham declared “our country is less safe today”. The next day, their new star Glenn Beck said Obama had ended the war on terror, and a week later asserted the country was on a march towards socialism.</p>
<p>Over the next few years, Fox gave oxygen to the “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37391652">birther</a>” issue. This was the claim that Obama was not born in America and so was not eligible to be president – that his birth certificate showing he was born in Hawaii was fake. In two months in early 2011, Fox devoted 52 items to “birther” stories, 44 of which featured the claim without any other view being put.</p>
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<span class="caption">Fox News’ Sean Hannity has been a loud critic of Barack Obama and equally loud supporter of Donald Trump.</span>
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<p>Fox also took decisive steps transgressing what others would consider professional boundaries in becoming directly involved in the formation of the Tea Party, a right-wing movement that proclaimed it wanted to take their country back, who demanded ever more right-wing candidates in the Republican Party. Not only did Fox give abundant publicity to their rallies, its then most prominent star, Glenn Beck spoke at numerous rallies. </p>
<p>This points to an interesting paradox: Fox News probably persuades few Democrats to change sides. Rather, the biggest losers from Fox’s impact have been moderate Republicans, as Fox has helped move the party ever more to the right. </p>
<p>Could it be that News Corp is having, or will have, a similar impact on the conservative side of Australian politics, making it harder for the Liberals to develop sane policies on issues such as global warming?</p>
<p>After Biden’s election, several Fox presenters supported Trump’s claims that the election was stolen, that Trump had really won. This strikes at one of the fundamental pillars of democracy: that the vote count can be trusted.</p>
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<p>More recently, Fox has promoted an equally dangerous idea, especially promoted by its highest-paid performer, Tucker Carlson. This is known as the Great Replacement Theory. A long-term demographic trend in the US is that the proportion of whites is gradually declining as those of Blacks, Latinos and other ethnic groups grow more quickly. </p>
<p>Carlson and others turn this into a conspiracy theory: that Democratic elites are seeking to force demographic change through immigration, to replace the current electorate with new more “obedient” people from the Third World. </p>
<p>Carlson has made more than <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/videos/business/2022/05/18/tucker-carlson-replacement-theory-zw-orig.cnn-business">400 references</a> to this absurd conspiracy. In the past year these dangerous views have moved from the fringes, with substantial proportions of Republicans agreeing with some aspects of the theory.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-news-corp-goes-rogue-on-election-coverage-what-price-will-australian-democracy-pay-181599">As News Corp goes 'rogue' on election coverage, what price will Australian democracy pay?</a>
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<p>It is impossible to imagine a more moderate or centrist Fox News. Its business model is built on delivering a predictable product to its niche audience of alienated, older whites, mobilising their resentments over status anxiety, cutting through the complexities of the modern world with simple affirmations of their prejudices.</p>
<p>Its most successful shows rarely attract more than 2-3% of the viewing public, itself a shrinking percentage of the total population. But its mix of strong opinions and minimal expenditure on reporting has been wildly profitable.</p>
<p>There was a time when Rupert Murdoch had a shrewd populist touch and, for reasons of both patronage and reputation, aimed to be on the winning side in elections. Those days are gone. The past few decades have seen the “Foxification” of News Corp. </p>
<p>This does not mean we will see claims of electoral fraud or replacement theories in Australia. But it does mean that the company’s formula for commercial viability is giving a predictable product to a niche audience.</p>
<p>In turn, this means that Murdoch’s outlets are now rusted-on supporters of right-wing parties and views, indifferent to any electoral counter-currents. Many of his most prominent commentators have the consistency of a stopped clock.</p>
<p>Decades of conformity in a strongly hierarchical empire have produced a hardening of the editorial arteries, a mediocre culture that seems incapable of delivering anything other than more of the same.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183650/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rodney Tiffen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>News Corp has its path on relentless right-wing championing, and it’s unlikely to change its ways now.Rodney Tiffen, Emeritus Professor, Department of Government and International Relations, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1832132022-05-22T20:03:31Z2022-05-22T20:03:31ZAustralian voters have elected their government. Now the Labor Party has to make them believe they were right<p>Elections are a test – the ultimate test, really – of those who serve as parliamentarians and those who aspire to serve. Scott Morrison asserted quite absurdly early in the 2022 campaign that the election was not a popularity contest.
Clearly, the opposite is true. An election involving every eligible voter is by definition a popularity contest.</p>
<p>It was not hard to see why Morrison was trying to argue that day was night. With the early halo effect of the pandemic that boosted his popularity towards the stratosphere a distant memory, he was trying to overcome his rising levels of unpopularity. Ultimately, in the final days of the campaign, with his initial Lewis Carroll-esque stylings having failed to change the Liberals’ tracking polling, he pledged to become a different person.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-morrison-was-routed-by-combination-of-quiet-australians-and-noisy-ones-183600">View from The Hill: Morrison was routed by combination of quiet Australians and noisy ones</a>
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<p>As we know from the election result, Morrison’s resort to something more akin to comics where a superhero assumes a new identity because the writers have run out of ideas didn’t work either. But among the attempts to reframe the democratic process and remake himself, he offered one observation that contained an element of truth: that the election was not about him, it was about “you”. “You”, in this case, was each voter.</p>
<p>This election and its fractious, atomised, and possibly revolutionary aftermath will definitely be about Australian voters. They are about to be tested. After all, in the strictest sense they have collectively created this situation – historically low primary levels of support for the major parties, the denial of a strong working majority to either side, an expanded crossbench in the lower house - by casting their votes.</p>
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<span class="caption">Scott Morrison’s attempts to redefine himself were too little, too late.</span>
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<p>There are complexities here. It can be argued the candidates and their parties and support groups – donors, volunteers and media companies – are coauthors with the voters of each election outcome. The interactions between political players and voters shape the result; of course they do. But now that the votes are in and the tallies being finalised, the voters are obliged to own the result. I’m a voter, so I’ll pose the question this way: do we have it in us to do that?</p>
<p>It’s a reasonable question, because even if this election produces a Labor government with a slim majority, rather than the minority government that appeared more likely at the close of counting on Saturday night, the new administration will be built on a Labor primary vote of around 33%. Until not so long ago, conventional wisdom had it that anything less than a Labor primary of 40% would consign the party to the opposition benches. So that’s one more truism consigned to the dustbin.</p>
<p>But there will be no shortage of Liberal and National MPs and media commentators, especially those working for News Corporation, who will be arguing from day one that the Albanese government is somehow illegitimate and without a mandate. That criticism will come regardless of whether Labor commands a House of Representatives majority in its own right or operates in minority with the tacit acceptance of enough of the crossbenchers to maintain confidence and supply. </p>
<p>The Liberals’ Senate leader, Simon Birmingham, began that narrative on television on Saturday night and continued it in an interview on Sunday morning. At least two of News Corp’s senior commentators have run it out too.</p>
<p>You have to wonder whether Anthony Albanese and his deputy Richard Marles – neither of whom has an especially combustible or pugnacious style - are ready for the onslaught. They should be, given they were around when Julia Gillard fell short of a majority at the 2010 election, which in many respects began Labor’s long political winter that was broken only at this election.</p>
<p>That was a dreadful time for our political system and for that Labor government. Gillard made a series of political errors, going back on a pre-election promise not to introduce a carbon tax and allowing herself to be portrayed as too close to the Greens. A vengeful Kevin Rudd lurking inside her government also didn’t help.</p>
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<span class="caption">The attacks on the Gillard government helped foster a sense of ‘buyer’s remorse’.</span>
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<p>Encouraged by the media, a substantial chunk of the voting public recoiled from the very idea that somehow the parliament they had helped elect had produced a minority government in which crossbenchers had influence on policy. Meanwhile, the Coalition under Tony Abbott set about saying and doing anything that would wreck the Gillard government’s standing, with little thought of what would happen on the other side of the next election.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/albanese-wins-with-a-modest-program-but-the-times-may-well-suit-him-182521">Albanese wins with a modest program – but the times may well suit him</a>
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<p>This led to buyer’s remorse on a grand scale. And it now falls to Albanese and his cabinet and backbenchers to simultaneously defend and aggressively assert their government’s authority while trying to lure more electors to the Labor fold. Yes, it’s true that in our electoral system in which preferences determine outcomes, and everyone 18 and older is required by law to lodge their ballot papers, every vote counts. (This exposes the claim thrown around since Saturday night that Labor has no right to govern because two-thirds of the people voted against it as utterly ridiculous. If so, what was Morrison doing serving as PM when 58.5% of voters didn’t cast a primary vote for the Liberals or Nationals in 2019?)</p>
<p>But for a government to prosper and feel confident it can take bold decisions when they’re required, and to be re-elected, it will more than likely need more than one in three voters who are willing to put a “1” next to the name of its candidates on the ballot paper. To counter its natural enemies, this Labor government will need as many community advocates as it can muster.</p>
<p>That, as much as climate change action, the reform of aged care and the NDIS, an anti-corruption tribunal and the other policy items on the party’s to-do list, should be a first-order objective for Albanese and his team.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183213/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shaun Carney does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Now that Labor has won and the Liberal Party has been severely wounded, its enemies will be baying for blood, so a first order of business will be to make Australian voters glad they elected them.Shaun Carney, Vice-Chancellor's professorial fellow, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1815992022-05-08T19:59:12Z2022-05-08T19:59:12ZAs News Corp goes ‘rogue’ on election coverage, what price will Australian democracy pay?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461724/original/file-20220506-24-24idyq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=197%2C0%2C3778%2C2000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
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<p>In 2022, News Corporation is confronting Australia with this question once again, as it did in 2019, 2016 and 2013, and as it did in the United States in 2016 and 2020.</p>
<p>“Going rogue” here means abandoning any attempt at fulfilling one of the media’s primary obligations to a democratic society — the provision of truthful news coverage — and instead becoming a truth-distorting propagandist for one side.</p>
<p>The evidence that News Corp has gone rogue during the current federal election is plentiful. It can be seen every morning in its newspapers across the country, and every evening on Sky News after dark.</p>
<p>A sample of its election coverage over the period April 27 to May 2 makes the case.</p>
<p>On May 2, the Daily Telegraph in Sydney devoted its front page to a publicity puff for Katherine Deves, the Liberal candidate for Tony Abbott’s old seat of Warringah.</p>
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<p>Deves is campaigning to have transgender women banned from sport, but has had to apologise twice as <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-15/trans-women-in-sport-politicised-and-weaponised/100989438">statements by her</a> have emerged claiming “half of all males with trans identities are sex offenders”, and likening her view on the issue to standing up to Nazis.</p>
<p>The Telegraph splashed the headline “They are all with me”, alongside a photo of a smiling Deves, pushing the argument that “the silent majority” supported her position. Rowan Dean on Sky went so far as to say this could win the election for the government.</p>
<p>On May 1, the Herald Sun in Melbourne turned its front page into a campaign poster for Josh Frydenberg. According to the headline, Frydenberg was in the “fight of his life” to retain Robert Menzies’ old seat of Kooyong against a “teal” independent, Monique Ryan.</p>
<p>Inside, the paper produced a double-page spread promoting Frydenberg with the banner headline, “Why you need to vote for me”, reportedly lifted straight from a Liberal campaign advertisement. </p>
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<p>Pictures of his wife and children featured prominently in this piece of rank propaganda.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, on Sky after dark, the big guns Andrew Bolt, Peta Credlin and Paul Murray kept up a relentless barrage of pro-Liberal, anti-Labor and anti-teal propaganda.</p>
<p>Bolt picked up on a Scott Morrison jibe about Labor’s policy on the Solomon Islands, saying it involved sending the ABC to head off China in the south Pacific.</p>
<p>Over the week it was part of an eclectic contribution from Bolt, touching on Hong Kong, border protection, male birth control and a new twist on the concept of climate denialism. On Bolt’s planet, increasing power prices are the result of “being in denial” by thinking coal-fired power stations can be replaced by wind and solar energy.</p>
<p>Credlin also spent a lot of time on climate but had a quite different take. Having re-run a Liberal attack ad saying Labor is proposing a carbon tax, she went on to say the Coalition is divided more fundamentally than Labor on climate.</p>
<p>To her obvious chagrin, the Liberal Party had allowed itself to be distracted by this and by identity wars, a clear reference to the Deves problem, and she conceded the government was “a little bit shop-soiled”.</p>
<p>But Credlin’s main targets were the teal independents – women candidates standing on a platform of climate action, integrity and gender equality against Liberal incumbents in seats such as Goldstein and Kooyong in Melbourne, and Wentworth and North Sydney in Sydney.</p>
<p>Their sheer impertinence made her cross.</p>
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<p>It meant, she said, the “hard heads” at Liberal campaign headquarters were having to spend time and money defending Liberal seats that “by right” they should not have to defend. In other words, the Liberal Party was entitled to occupy these seats without serious challenge.</p>
<p>Then there was Murray, presenting himself as “the last line of defence for common sense”.</p>
<p>In this role he was running a countdown: by the evening of May 2, there were only 19 days left to “save the country from the mad left”.</p>
<p>When a Labor figure, Nicholas Reece, tried to argue the cost of Labor’s election promises was dwarfed by the debt run up by the present government, Murray shouted him down, saying, “I’m not interested.”</p>
<p>Murray also asserted, without a shred of evidence, that Labor and the Greens had struck a power-sharing deal, so in the event of a hung parliament Labor would govern with the Greens’ support. This added up to the fact that “Labor and the Greens are the same thing”.</p>
<p>The lesser lights on Sky, such as Chris Smith, Chris Kenny and others, made their own toxic contributions, using words such as “fraud”, “sewer” and “spewing” in crude attacks on the teal independents.</p>
<p>And so it went for the whole week: propaganda, distortions, crudity and pro-Liberal apologia.</p>
<h2>A fraud on the people</h2>
<p>This abandonment of a fundamental news media obligation to truth-telling is by definition harmful to a democratic society. Not only does it rob the population of a bedrock of reliable news, it debases the entire discourse. It is also a fraud on the people by misrepresenting propaganda as news.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461672/original/file-20220506-12965-57lm1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461672/original/file-20220506-12965-57lm1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461672/original/file-20220506-12965-57lm1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461672/original/file-20220506-12965-57lm1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461672/original/file-20220506-12965-57lm1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461672/original/file-20220506-12965-57lm1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461672/original/file-20220506-12965-57lm1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Paul Murray keeps up a relentless barrage of pro-Liberal, anti-Labor and anti-teal propaganda.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Bianca de Marchi</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The dilemma facing a democracy is that measures needed to counter these harms would violate free-speech principles to a degree that would harm democracy in a different way.</p>
<p>Any abridgement of free speech must be proportional to the harm that is sought to be avoided. How that balance might be struck in a case like this is highly contestable on political as well as ethical grounds.</p>
<p>Yet existing measures are clearly ineffectual. The broadcast industry’s codes of practice for television and radio require news programs to be accurate and fair – but give no guidance on what this consists of. Current affairs programs are exempt even from this requirement.</p>
<p>The broadcast regulator, the Australian Communication and Media Authority, is a “co-regulator” that has shown itself to be utterly captured by the industry it is meant to hold to account.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/10-years-after-finkelstein-media-accountability-has-gone-backwards-159530">10 years after Finkelstein, media accountability has gone backwards</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Newspapers are accountable to the Australian Press Council, but it has proved just as ineffectual as the ACMA. In any case, it is fatally compromised by being reliant on funding from the newspaper companies, among which the largest contributor is News Corporation.</p>
<p>All efforts to establish an effective independent media accountability body have foundered on the rock of implacable opposition from the commercial media organisations.</p>
<p>Yet, even if one were to be established, the dilemma would remain: what standards would strike the right balance, and how would they be enforced during an election campaign in ways that did not unreasonably burden free speech?</p>
<p>In the end, democracies are thrown back on conventions, which provide the boundaries within which politics operates in ways conducive to the public good.</p>
<p>The conventions depend on people in power, including those running media organisations, living up to the responsibilities that their role in a democracy imposes on them.</p>
<p>By convention, those responsibilities include prioritising the public interest over the private interests of media organisations and their owners, and providing news content calculated to inform, not repel, the voting public.</p>
<p>News Corporation fails on both counts.</p>
<p>It prioritises the understood financial and ideological interests of one man, Rupert Murdoch, over the public interest, and its toxic news content is calculated to reinforce the worldview of its target audiences.</p>
<p>If News Corp were merely an online echo chamber, this would be bad enough, but it is not.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461671/original/file-20220506-15-9j7kr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461671/original/file-20220506-15-9j7kr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461671/original/file-20220506-15-9j7kr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461671/original/file-20220506-15-9j7kr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461671/original/file-20220506-15-9j7kr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461671/original/file-20220506-15-9j7kr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461671/original/file-20220506-15-9j7kr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rather than servicing the public, News Corp is serving the perceived interests of Rupert Murdoch.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/AP/Mary Altaffer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The ready availability of its newspapers to the population as a whole, and the spread of its Sky after dark content beyond the confines of pay television into regional free-to-air services, make it a far more damaging influence than any online filter bubble.</p>
<p>WIN and Southern Cross Austereo, the companies that carry the Sky content on free-to-air TV into regional Australia, are complicit in inflicting this damage on the Australian polity. They too have abandoned their conventional responsibilities.</p>
<p>In an age where communications businesses are enjoined to “move fast and break things”, breaking these conventions risks breaking democracy itself. Events in the United States since 2016 provide a stark example of what this looks like when it happens.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181599/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What does a democracy do when a dominant news media organisation goes rogue during an election campaign? In 2022, News Corporation is confronting Australia with this question once again, as it did in 2019…Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1794682022-03-24T19:03:09Z2022-03-24T19:03:09ZIs News Corp following through on its climate change backflip? My analysis of its flood coverage suggests not<p>Several months ago, Australia’s Murdoch media news outlets launched a <a href="https://www.themercury.com.au/technology/environment/mission-zero-putting-australia-on-a-path-to-a-net-zero-future/news-story/83f521bfd9d592ab6defdab7d3b81ce8">new climate change campaign</a> advocating a path toward net-zero emissions by 2050. The launch included a 16-page wraparound supplement in all of its tabloids supporting the need for climate action.</p>
<p>We do not usually expect news media to campaign for political and social causes. Yet, here was one of the most powerful media organisations in the country not only implying it has held an editorial stance against climate action in the past, but also declaring a plan to reverse this position. </p>
<p>In announcing the launch, News Corp <a href="https://www.themercury.com.au/technology/environment/mission-zero-putting-australia-on-a-path-to-a-net-zero-future/news-story/83f521bfd9d592ab6defdab7d3b81ce8">said</a> a major reason climate action has stalled in Australia is “the debate has fallen victim to a culture of constant complaint”. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] so here you will see only positive stories: real, practical and pragmatic solutions that will help the planet and also help Australia’s interests as well.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1447466450076282881"}"></div></p>
<p>Can a leopard change its spots? My analysis of the Murdoch outlets’ recent flood coverage suggests not.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-behind-news-corps-new-spin-on-climate-change-169733">What’s behind News Corp’s new spin on climate change?</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Climate change downplayed in flood coverage</h2>
<p>Climate change is reported in a range of ways in news media to help audiences understand its causes and consequences, as well as the policy responses. </p>
<p>Extreme weather events such as bushfires and floods allow journalists to show how climate change is <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-of-the-most-extreme-disasters-in-colonial-australian-history-climate-scientists-on-the-floods-and-our-future-risk-178153">contributing</a> to the severity of natural disasters in an urgent and visual way.</p>
<p>However, my analysis of recent flood coverage in the Murdoch news outlets shows that although the terms “climate change” and “floods” were placed together in a range of articles, these outlets are still well behind others when it comes to emphasising the connection between extreme weather events and our warming planet. </p>
<p>I looked at 171 articles (both news and opinion) in major Australian print and online news media from March 1–13 that mentioned climate change and floods together – and those that downplayed the link between the two.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453766/original/file-20220323-17-5gq2e3.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453766/original/file-20220323-17-5gq2e3.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453766/original/file-20220323-17-5gq2e3.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453766/original/file-20220323-17-5gq2e3.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453766/original/file-20220323-17-5gq2e3.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453766/original/file-20220323-17-5gq2e3.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453766/original/file-20220323-17-5gq2e3.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Climate Floods Graph.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There was some standout coverage making the link in at least one Murdoch outlet, news.com.au. This included a <a href="https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/flooding-disaster-firmly-embedded-in-climate-change-new-report-warns/news-story/c491eac3cae87874a40f12577acde0d8">report</a> about the Climate Council’s warnings of the impact of climate change on flooding, and <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/farmers-for-climate-action-report-shows-reason-behind-grocery-price-hike/news-story/157984a28c7609540b5df75c1995092e">another</a> about the impact of climate change on food prices. </p>
<p>Yet the total number of articles linking climate change to floods in the Murdoch outlets (which also include The Australian, Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph and Courier Mail) lagged behind ABC News, the Nine newspapers, The Guardian and The Conversation.</p>
<p>The analysis also shows the Murdoch outlets were the only news organisations where voices argued the floods <em>were not</em> exacerbated by climate change. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1501458061357379585"}"></div></p>
<p>As reported by <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/03/09/nsw-qld-floods-climate-change-denial-right-wing/">Crikey</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/10/what-are-conservative-commentators-saying-about-the-floods-and-climate">The Guardian</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/floods/13795580">ABC’s Media Watch</a>, conservative commentators such as Andrew Bolt and Chris Kenny continue to muddy the water when it comes to the impact of climate on extreme weather. </p>
<p>For example, Kenny wrote in <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/climate-catastrophists-see-opportunity-in-disaster/news-story/d4d934d45ecbd9b328363527d831ccdf">The Australian</a> on March 4: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The pretence that climate policies can relieve us of these natural traumas is a ridiculously emotive and deceptive ploy.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Australian’s <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/media-blames-scott-morrison-for-floods-but-voters-wont/news-story/c1ff23a4de19c57ef69f20b230d8a5f4">Chris Mitchell</a> even complained that other media outlets such as the ABC put too much emphasis on the link between climate change and flooding.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1503153061761466369"}"></div></p>
<h2>How the media advocate on issues</h2>
<p>This analysis suggests the Murdoch outlets are not overtly advocating for climate action, nor linking catastrophic flooding with the need for political action aimed at achieving net zero by 2050. </p>
<p>Indeed, editorial hostility toward climate change is alive and well among the most powerful voices at the Murdoch outlets, with coverage that is seemingly more interested in advocating against climate action than for it.</p>
<p>This provides insight into different styles of news coverage and their influence on democratic debate. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/ACCC+commissioned+report+-+The+impact+of+digital+platforms+on+news+and+journalistic+content,+Centre+for+Media+Transition+(2).pdf">Although Australian audiences expect</a> media outlets to produce news that is objective, ideologically neutral and independent of politics, journalists and commentators sometimes play the role of “advocates” for particular issues and causes.</p>
<p>This style of journalism is not widely understood because it clashes with the idealised expectation that journalists shrug off their own perspectives to report without fear or favour. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/extreme-weather-news-may-not-change-climate-change-skeptics-minds-112650">Extreme weather news may not change climate change skeptics' minds</a>
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</em>
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<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14648849211072717?casa_token=zn7HHufw1NIAAAAA%3A4LAp7iQbJHKdB7DibQKFp1a89iiqvTXZnm7fAD8Y1NgIYt7ItI-LUcexDJT7YvJ-SiQTQdSxP16U7aw">In a recent study</a> I conducted, I propose there are three styles of advocacy journalism – radical, collaborator and conservative. And each one either enhances or degrades democratic debate.</p>
<p>What I call “radical advocacy” is when journalists deliberately campaign to increase the diversity of voices in news media, particularly when those voices are marginalised from mainstream debate. </p>
<p>An example is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/series/keep-it-in-the-ground">The Guardian’s</a> “Keep it in the ground” campaign, which is transparently aimed at improving the public’s understanding of climate change. This style of journalism – although subjective and biased – arguably has a positive influence on democracy since its mission is to increase understanding of a crucial global issue and rally the public to join the cause. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1471813940720152582"}"></div></p>
<p>“Collaborator advocacy” journalism is when media organisations cooperate with government, such as when they broadcast flood warnings, advise the public what to do in an emergency or agree not to publish the locations of troops at war. </p>
<p>This style of advocacy can be good for democracy when it is deemed in the public interest. It can, however, be detrimental if the government controls media coverage to the point at which opposition voices are deliberately excluded. </p>
<p>The third style of advocacy – “conservative advocacy” – is one I’ve coined to describe journalism and commentary that promotes the agenda of powerful players in a political or social debate. </p>
<p>An obvious example is the Murdoch media traditionally siding with big fossil fuel and oil interests through their <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/rupert-murdoch-newspapers-24-hour-news-channel-to-champion-net-zero-emissions-20210905-p58oyx.html">longstanding editorial hostility</a> to policies designed to address climate change. </p>
<p>Conservative advocacy degrades democracy by locking less powerful voices out of the debate, spreading what some would deem misinformation and deliberately downplaying or countering scientific research and evidence-based policy.</p>
<p>If the Murdoch media follow through with their promise to advocate for net zero by 2050, their campaign would fit within the radical definition. But since these outlets are historically entrenched in a conservative tradition, this shift to a more radical position on climate might prove difficult to achieve.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-gloom-and-doom-bring-it-on-but-we-need-stories-about-taking-action-too-79464">Climate gloom and doom? Bring it on. But we need stories about taking action, too</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179468/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victoria Fielding is a member of the South Australian Labor Party and a member of the National Tertiary Education Union.</span></em></p>The Murdoch outlets said they would pursue ‘positive stories’ on climate change. An analysis of stories during the recent floods, however, shows this wasn’t necessarily the case.Victoria Fielding, Lecturer, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1760322022-03-03T19:10:56Z2022-03-03T19:10:56ZFact-checking can actually harm trust in media: new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445327/original/file-20220209-47970-1trdj95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With a federal election expected in May, at a time of great upheaval at home and around the world, the need for trusted media to accurately inform voters’ choices and debunk myths will be critical.</p>
<p>Yet <a href="https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2021-06/apo-nid312650_0.pdf">studies</a> show about two-thirds of Australians are worried about misinformation, especially about COVID-19, and do not know who or what to trust.</p>
<p>This is further complicated when politicians are the culprits, making <a href="https://www.news.com.au/technology/united-australia-party-mp-craig-kelly-sends-out-unsolicited-texts-about-covid19-vaccine-reactions/news-story/a15bc05f818a150d33105d7ad2166590">false claims</a> in the news media and online. </p>
<p>So what role should journalists play in calling out these falsehoods? Or should this role be left to third parties, such as independent fact-checkers, to test verifiable claims? </p>
<h2>The fight against ‘fake news’</h2>
<p>Fact-checking is one global response to countering fake news, which has become a multi-billion-dollar industry. More than 340 fact-checking outlets now operate <a href="https://reporterslab.org/fact-checking-census-shows-slower-growth/">worldwide</a>. </p>
<p>In Australia, independent fact-checkers include newswires AAP and AFP, and RMIT ABC Fact Check (a collaboration between RMIT University and the public broadcaster). Yet little is known about what effect independent fact-checking has on public trust in news where false claims can be found.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2022.2031240">a new study</a> published in a major international journal, we investigate if third-party fact-checking affects public trust in news. To do this we used the case study of the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-sports-rorts-affair-shows-the-government-misunderstands-the-role-of-the-public-service-130796">sports rorts</a>” scandal. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-sports-rorts-affair-shows-the-need-for-a-proper-federal-icac-with-teeth-122800">The 'sports rorts' affair shows the need for a proper federal ICAC – with teeth</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As a quick refresher, the sports rorts scandal unfolded just before the 2019 federal election. Sporting clubs in Coalition and marginal seats disproportionately benefited from a taxpayer-funded community sports grants program. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/award-funding-under-the-community-sport-infrastructure-program">Australian National Audit Office</a> later investigated the funding process. It found the then sports minister and National Party deputy, Bridget McKenzie, had not allocated funds based on independent advice given to her. Several senior ministers, including Peter Dutton, defended McKenzie’s actions before she was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/feb/02/bridget-mckenzie-resigns-following-sports-rort-affair">forced to resign</a> from that role because of the alleged pork-barrelling.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445307/original/file-20220209-16-1kjpidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445307/original/file-20220209-16-1kjpidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445307/original/file-20220209-16-1kjpidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445307/original/file-20220209-16-1kjpidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445307/original/file-20220209-16-1kjpidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445307/original/file-20220209-16-1kjpidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445307/original/file-20220209-16-1kjpidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The research focused on fact-checking around the ‘sport rorts’ affair, which ultimately led to the resignation of Senator Bridget McKenzie.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marc Tewksbury/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We use this real-life example in an experimental design to see what impact a real <a href="https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/duttons-mckenzie-defence-fails-audit-test/">AAP fact-check</a> about the scandal had on Australians’ trust in news. We mocked up two news stories – one presented as being from ABC online and another from Newscorp’s news.com.au. The stories contained identical wording and headlines, but used different fonts and banners. </p>
<p>Both stories contained a real quote from the then home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, about McKenzie’s decision-making process. On January 23 2020, Dutton stated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Bridget McKenzie made recommendations, as I understand it, on advice from the sporting body that these programs that have been funded were recommended.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Dutton restated this position in <a href="https://twitter.com/TheTodayShow/status/1220453323087798300">other media</a> that week, including on Nine’s Today program, suggesting his words were not a slip of the tongue.
The AAP fact-checked the statement and labelled it “false”.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1220453323087798300"}"></div></p>
<p>Months after the scandal subsided, public recall of specific details was likely overtaken by pandemic news stories. So, we invited 1,600 adult Australians to do an online survey and randomly assigned them to read either our constructed ABC or News Corp story, and then answer questions about the trustworthiness of that story (and the media outlet more generally). We randomly assigned half the respondents to also read the <a href="https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/duttons-mckenzie-defence-fails-audit-test/">AAP fact-check</a>. </p>
<p>The findings tell both a positive and negative story about how Australians view political news. On the up side, trust in the news story (without seeing the fact check) was high for both our ABC (86%) and news.com.au stories (79%). Political partisanship has some impact, with Labor supporters the most trusting of the news story overall (87%). </p>
<p>Consistent with other <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-au/australians-trust-media-less-ipsos-trust-media-study">Australian surveys</a>, we found the ABC had higher levels of public trust overall than News Corp. However, some strong Coalition and right-wing supporters had greater trust in the news.com.au story, as other research has also <a href="https://www.ussc.edu.au/analysis/americas-trust-deficit">found</a>.</p>
<p>Concerningly, we found that when participants read the AAP fact check after reading the news story, trust in the original story fell sharply (by 13% overall), even after respondents’ political or news source preferences were taken into account. Counter-intuitively, the act of fact-checking had a clear negative influence on readers’ trust in the original news story for both the abc.com.au and new.com.au stories as the chart below shows. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444945/original/file-20220208-13-vlqbpl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444945/original/file-20220208-13-vlqbpl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444945/original/file-20220208-13-vlqbpl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444945/original/file-20220208-13-vlqbpl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444945/original/file-20220208-13-vlqbpl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444945/original/file-20220208-13-vlqbpl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444945/original/file-20220208-13-vlqbpl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444945/original/file-20220208-13-vlqbpl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Measurements of trust in the news story when fact checked and not fact checked, the news source and political party.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Authors</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This suggests news audiences may not separate a politician’s false claims within a news story from the news reporting itself. Think about that for a second: </p>
<ul>
<li>the politician told a falsehood</li>
<li>a fact-checker corrects it</li>
<li>but, as a consequence, the news story itself suffers the loss of public trust.<br></li>
</ul>
<p>This finding is particularly important given Australian journalists’ reliance on a “he said/she said” news reporting style (this excludes opinion pieces), in which readers are presented with competing statements, one or both of which may be false, rather than the reporter actively adjudicating the false claim. </p>
<p>In this case, letting fact-checkers determine the truth may be a deeply unwise strategy for journalism. While fact-checkers unquestionably do many positive things such as identify misinformation, in this instance it lowered trust in political journalism.</p>
<p>With the public demanding the truth, it seems journalists have a very important role to play by critiquing politicians’ false claims in news stories at the time of reporting. </p>
<p>While some outlets like Crikey already practise active adjudication in political stories, we acknowledge it might be problematic for an organisation like the ABC, which has impartiality as a duty in the ABC Act 1983. </p>
<p>However, the ABC’s 2019 revised code of practice specifies that “impartiality” does not mean every perspective receives equal attention. Other media have the same policy. For example, The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-deniers-are-dangerous-they-dont-deserve-a-place-on-our-site-123164">approach to reporting climate change</a> has decided in favour of the scientific evidence and does not give air time to climate denialism. </p>
<p>We see lessons in our findings for independent fact-checkers as well. Fact-checkers might help increase trust in news by more clearly stating they are fact-checking a politician’s specific claim, rather than the media coverage that contains it. Some fact-checkers make this distinction already on their websites, but rarely on every fact-check explanation. </p>
<p>Spelling this out may help audiences avoid conflating a fact-check of a specific political falsehood with the trustworthiness of the news story and media outlet. </p>
<p>With a federal election just months away, this study is a timely reminder of the important role that political journalists can play as sense-makers rather than just conveyers of political information.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176032/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Carson receives funding from the Australian Research Council and Facebook. This project was funded with research grants from La Trobe University (academic start-up award).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron Martin receives funding from the Australian Research Council and this project was funded by University of Melbourne Policy Lab. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Justin Phillips' individual and collaborative research receives funding from the Facebook, the Royal Society Te Apārangi, and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Gibbons does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our study found high levels of trust in media reports – but that trust can be eroded by fact-checking. Journalists need to rethink the way they report political stories.Andrea Carson, Professor of Political Communication, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe UniversityAaron Martin, Associate Professor, School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of MelbourneAndrew Gibbons, Postdoctoral Fellow, Edward A. Clark Center for Australian and New Zealand Studies, The University of Texas at AustinJustin Phillips, Senior lecturer, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1697332021-10-18T04:23:21Z2021-10-18T04:23:21ZWhat’s behind News Corp’s new spin on climate change?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426834/original/file-20211018-7324-1j5x0jm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Justin Lane/EPA/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s Murdoch-owned tabloid newspapers – including The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun and Courier Mail – have embarked on a bold new climate change campaign. </p>
<p>This climate rebrand, dubbed “<a href="https://www.themercury.com.au/technology/environment/mission-zero-putting-australia-on-a-path-to-a-net-zero-future/news-story/83f521bfd9d592ab6defdab7d3b81ce8">missionzero2050</a>”, is billed by the company as “putting Australia on a path to a net zero future”. </p>
<p>The change has surprised Australian media observers and, no doubt, media consumers given News Corp’s long-held <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/nov/21/news-corps-rupert-murdoch-says-there-are-no-climate-change-deniers-around-here">climate denialist stance</a>, which is well documented <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/1/24/how-murdochracy-controls-the-climate-debate-in-australia">in public commentary</a> and <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/sites/default/files/Sceptical-Climate-Part-2-Climate-Science-in-Australian-Newspapers.pdf">research</a>.</p>
<p>So why is this happening now? And what does it mean? </p>
<h2>What does the new campaign say?</h2>
<p>Last Monday, News Corp’s tabloid mastheads began the new campaign with a 16-page wraparound supplement and a splashy <a href="https://www.themercury.com.au/technology/environment/mission-zero-putting-australia-on-a-path-to-a-net-zero-future/news-story/83f521bfd9d592ab6defdab7d3b81ce8">online campaign</a> championing the drive to cut climate warming emissions by 2050.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-cop26-and-why-does-the-fate-of-earth-and-australias-prosperity-depend-on-it-169648">What is COP26 and why does the fate of Earth, and Australia's prosperity, depend on it?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>News Corp must have done its climate communication research. It has assembled a collection of stories using <a href="https://www.climatechange.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/419148/CCC-Lit-Review-Guide-for-Policymakers.pdf">best-practice climate communication</a> techniques: telling a global story with a local face, <a href="https://www.themercury.com.au/technology/environment/from-sydney-to-london-what-rising-seas-could-do-to-our-cities/news-story/ef34e8be6c460aedc85dc99366354601">visualising climate impacts</a> and focusing on solutions, not creating fear.</p>
<p>Crucially, the campaign marks a change from News Corp’s long-held position on climate action. It’s moved from calling decarbonisation <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/shortens-climate-push-hits-workers/news-story/f8e965f5841fa06838671144f4513022">too expensive</a> and bad for jobs (it tagged the cost at A$600 billion in 2015), to describing it now as a potential $2.1 trillion economic “windfall”, offering opportunities for 672,000 new jobs. </p>
<h2>News Corp and climate change</h2>
<p>What News Corp does matters, because it has extensive influence in Australia’s media market.</p>
<p>The company’s newspaper, radio, pay TV and online news portfolio gives it <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-14/fact-file-rupert-murdoch-media-reach-in-australia/100056660">significant audience reach</a> and huge political sway. In April, former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/utterly-unaccountable-turnbull-labels-news-corp-the-most-powerful-political-actor-in-australia-20210412-p57idq.html">labelled</a> the Murdoch media “the most powerful political actor in Australia”. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1381437037342031874"}"></div></p>
<p>Most people derive their understanding of climate change <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20200623102230-mqb46/">from the media</a>. So News Corp’s audience reach (which included <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-14/fact-file-rupert-murdoch-media-reach-in-australia/100056660">about 100</a> print and digital mastheads as of early 2021) has given it extensive influence over Australians’ knowledge of and opinions about climate change, profoundly shaping public debate.</p>
<p>Murdoch media outlets have denied the science of climate change and ridiculed climate action for more than a decade. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/30/one-third-of-australias-media-coverage-rejects-climate-science-study-finds">2013 study</a> by the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism found climate denialist views in a third of Australian media coverage of climate change, and pointed to News Corp outlets as the key reason for this. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-wars-carbon-taxes-and-toppled-leaders-the-30-year-history-of-australias-climate-response-in-brief-169545">Climate wars, carbon taxes and toppled leaders: the 30-year history of Australia’s climate response, in brief</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>News Corp’s commentators have <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/the-age-cries-for-warming-alarmists-it-should--hold-to-account/news-story/02a77e6c8a907e08ea2cb66555afc2f3">described</a> those arguing for climate action as “alarmists” and “<a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/climate-scientists-taking-cues-from-greta-thunberg/video/25c13b73c34cfbf20a297caeb7534c28">loons</a>”, who are <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-bolt/andrew-bolt-global-warming-hysteria-overlooks-practicalities/news-story/0c0a079ef1d64c831d851fc33cc80ac8">prone</a> to “warming hysteria”. They have also <a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/andrew-bolt/the-global-warming-cult-is-getting-very-dangerous-bolt/video/ede99bc9e744990251378becd1c17594">said</a> climate concern is a “cult of the elite” <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/dear-abc-maybe-i-just-follow-the-evidence-not-orders/news-story/e6b0839a6652f49234599568cae34483">and</a> the “effects of global warming have so far proved largely benign”. </p>
<p>Despite this, in 2019, Murdoch <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/nov/21/news-corps-rupert-murdoch-says-there-are-no-climate-change-deniers-around-here">declared</a> there were “no climate change deniers” in his company.</p>
<h2>Signs of a mood shift</h2>
<p>This pivot on climate change was not entirely unexpected. </p>
<p>The company had been signalling a mood shift since early 2020, in the wake of its controversial reporting on the Black Summer bushfires, which saw it accused of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jan/04/the-australian-murdoch-owned-newspaper-accused-of-downplaying-bushfires-in-favour-of-picnic-races">downplaying</a> the fires and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/feb/16/bushfire-article-in-the-australian-that-fuelled-misinformation-cleared-by-press-council">fuelling misinformation</a> about the cause.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="James Murdoch" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426845/original/file-20211018-13-qldm2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426845/original/file-20211018-13-qldm2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426845/original/file-20211018-13-qldm2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426845/original/file-20211018-13-qldm2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426845/original/file-20211018-13-qldm2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426845/original/file-20211018-13-qldm2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426845/original/file-20211018-13-qldm2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">James Murdoch, pictured in 2015, has become a vocal critic of News Corp’s approach to climate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sang Tan/AP/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At that time, Rupert Murdoch’s son James expressed his concerns about the “<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/james-murdoch-blasts-news-corp-s-ongoing-climate-change-denial/99380967-f22b-43f7-b2ce-49d1c09f46f5">ongoing denial</a>” of climate change at News Corp in the face of “obvious evidence to the contrary”. </p>
<p>He subsequently resigned his position on the company’s board. Early last month, the Nine newspapers <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/rupert-murdoch-newspapers-24-hour-news-channel-to-champion-net-zero-emissions-20210905-p58oyx.html">flagged</a> an imminent change of stance on climate at News Corp, noting, “Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire has faced growing international condemnation and pressure from advertisers over its editorial stance on climate change”.</p>
<h2>The fine print</h2>
<p>Despite the gloss of missionzero2050 (the newspapers <a href="https://www.themercury.com.au/technology/environment/mission-zero-putting-australia-on-a-path-to-a-net-zero-future/news-story/83f521bfd9d592ab6defdab7d3b81ce8">say</a> they are only focusing on “positive stories” about creating “a clean future while having fun and feeling good at the same time”), a deeper analysis shows the campaign has some quite specific agendas, signalling its climate epiphany may be limited.</p>
<p>In the stories that make up the campaign, it is still rolling out business-as-usual narratives like: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>defending Australia’s emissions as small compared to other countries, especially China (therefore suggesting we do not need to take drastic action)</p></li>
<li><p>framing renewables as an unreliable source of energy (so not an adequate replacement for fossil fuels)</p></li>
<li><p>promoting Australia’s coal as cleaner than other countries’ (some of it may be, but the International Energy Agency says the world must <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/01/world-kick-coal-habit-start-green-recovery-iea-fatih-birol">start quitting coal now</a> to stay within safer global warming limits)</p></li>
<li><p>promoting gas as having half the emissions of coal (burning gas does emit less carbon dioxide, but its extraction also causes <a href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/gas-driving-massive-increase-in-fugitive-emissions/?atb=DSA01b&gclid=CjwKCAjwk6-LBhBZEiwAOUUDp7HjbvkQdWrhucIg7iSdxrY8vLdRkknnMLfCTpJNftPaZY-ptbPDDRoCPjMQAvD_BwE">fugitive emissions</a> of methane, a gas that’s about <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/scientists-concerned-by-record-high-global-methane-emissions">30 times more powerful</a> as a heat-trapping greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide over 100 years)</p></li>
<li><p>advocating carbon capture and storage (which is not yet a proven way to <a href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/what-is-carbon-capture-and-storage/">reduce emissions </a>from burning fossil fuels)</p></li>
<li><p>criticising a carbon pollution price (<a href="https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/explainers/what-is-a-carbon-price-and-why-do-we-need-one/">economists widely agree</a> this is the single most effective way to encourage polluters to reduce greenhouse gas emissons).</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/economists-back-carbon-price-say-benefits-of-net-zero-outweigh-costs-169939">Economists back carbon price, say benefits of net-zero outweigh costs</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Surprisingly, the campaign is making a big effort to <a href="https://www.themercury.com.au/technology/environment/australian-miners-awu-back-nuclear-power-to-achieve-net-zero/news-story/d55b3b1a97e392c0b5095234c7477af6">spruik nuclear power</a>. It states: “our aversion to nuclear energy defies logic” and advocates strongly for an Australian nuclear industry for “national security” purposes as well as energy. </p>
<p>Overall, the missionzero2050 agenda seems to be set on supporting new and existing extractive industries and Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s “<a href="https://theconversation.com/malcolm-turnbull-condemns-scott-morrisons-gas-gas-gas-song-as-a-fantasy-146705">gas-led recovery</a>”. </p>
<p>Strangely, the campaign also <a href="https://media.news.com.au/multimedia/2021/NED-4717-Mission-Zero-special-report/Mission-Zero-booklet4.pdf">emphasises</a> “putting Australia first” – although efforts to deal with climate change must be inherently globally focused.</p>
<h2>Loud silences</h2>
<p>What’s most perverse, perhaps, about missionzero2050 are the things it does not say or acknowledge. There has been no mention of News Corp’s years of intentionally undermining decarbonisation and helping to topple Australian leaders who advocated for climate action.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1447653982978158592"}"></div></p>
<p>Oddly, News Corp has not muzzled its high-profile commentators. Columnist Andrew Bolt was quick to make it known that he thought the campaign was “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/oct/13/news-corps-andrew-bolt-says-his-companys-climate-campaign-is-rubbish">rubbish</a>”. </p>
<p>Nor has it aligned its advertising with the missionzero2050 message. For example, last Wednesday, the Herald Sun ran a half-page ad placed by the climate “sceptical” <a href="https://www.desmog.com/climate-study-group/">Climate Study Group</a> about the “great climate change furphy,” discrediting climate science and advocating for more coal and nuclear power.</p>
<h2>What might it mean?</h2>
<p>The timing of the campaign, just as Morrison <a href="https://theconversation.com/joyce-says-nationals-dont-want-bigger-2030-climate-target-as-party-room-frets-about-regional-protections-170085">negotiates</a> with the Nationals ahead of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-cop26-and-why-does-the-fate-of-earth-and-australias-prosperity-depend-on-it-169648">COP26 climate conference</a>, is likely to be no coincidence. It seems designed to provide cover for a potential shift on the part of the Coalition towards a mid-century net zero declaration. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/barnaby-joyce-has-refused-to-support-doubling-australias-2030-emissions-reduction-targets-but-we-could-get-there-so-cheaply-and-easily-169932">Barnaby Joyce has refused to support doubling Australia's 2030 emissions reduction targets – but we could get there so cheaply and easily</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Morrison is also under intense pressure from other world leaders <a href="https://theconversation.com/spot-the-difference-as-world-leaders-rose-to-the-occasion-at-the-biden-climate-summit-morrison-faltered-159295">to lift his ambitions on climate</a>. He’ll be expected to bring new plans for emissions cuts to the table in Glasgow.</p>
<p>Some commentators have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/12/news-corps-turnaround-on-climate-is-a-greenwash">labelled</a> the Murdoch pivot “greenwashing”. Others have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/rupert-murdoch-climate-change-news-outlets-australia-policy-change-2021-9">called</a> it a “desperate ploy to rehabilitate the public image of a leading climate villain”.</p>
<p>However perplexing the Murdoch papers’ climate U-turn may seem, at least Morrison will know Australia’s “most powerful political actor” is not likely to campaign against any 2050 net zero declaration. </p>
<p>Given News Corp’s power to subvert the national narrative on climate, that’s important if we want to see the action that’s so long overdue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169733/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabi Mocatta is co-lead of Deakin University's Climate Change Communication and Narratives Network. She is also vice-president of the Board of the International Environmental Communication Association.</span></em></p>The Murdoch tabloids have just embarked on a bold new climate campaign, despite previously describing those who want action as ‘loons’.Gabi Mocatta, Research Fellow in Climate Change Communication, Climate Futures Program, University of Tasmania, and Lecturer in Communication - Journalism, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1621732021-06-04T08:39:15Z2021-06-04T08:39:15ZWhy have media outlets been fined more than $1 million for their Pell reporting?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404440/original/file-20210604-19-1gsdzmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=80%2C72%2C5311%2C3370&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cardinal George Pell preparing to make a statement at the Vatican in 2017.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gregoria Borgia/AP/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In February, Australian media companies <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/media-companies-plead-guilty-to-breaching-suppression-order-in-pell-stories-20210201-p56yh3.html">pleaded guilty</a> to contempt of court over their reporting of Cardinal George Pell’s conviction on sexual abuse charges.</p>
<p>On Friday, the Victorian Supreme Court <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jun/04/cardinal-george-pell-news-organisations-contempt-court-fined-more-than-1m-over-reporting-of-sexual-abuse-verdict">handed out more than A$1 million</a> in fines against 12 media organisations. </p>
<p>The most heavily hit were the The Age ($450,000) and news.com.au ($400,000). Other high-profile programs, such as the Today Show also copped fines ($30,000). These heavy fines were meted out despite the fact that the media companies had apologised to the court and had even agreed to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/10/george-pell-contempt-hearing-news-companies-to-pay-cost-of-prosecution">pay the prosecution’s legal costs</a>.</p>
<p>There are many ways the law restricts media freedom in Australia, including laws regarding <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-defamation-suits-in-australia-are-so-ubiquitous-and-difficult-to-defend-for-media-organisations-157143">defamation</a>. But contempt of court, seen here by the media’s breaching of a suppression order, is one of the more <a href="https://www.minterellison.com/articles/vlrc-contempt-of-court-report-implications-for-the-media">controversial mechanisms</a>. It is, however, a limitation the courts impose regularly, and take very seriously.</p>
<h2>How did this start?</h2>
<p>Back in December 2018, the court placed a suppression order on the Pell conviction when he was initially found guilty by a jury (his conviction was <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-george-pell-won-in-the-high-court-on-a-legal-technicality-133156">quashed in April 2020</a>).</p>
<p>At the time, various media outlets referred to a trial of great importance and, by implication, a guilty verdict that would have been of great interest to the public.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-jury-may-be-out-on-the-jury-system-after-george-pells-successful-appeal-135814">The jury may be out on the jury system after George Pell's successful appeal</a>
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<p>The implicit, not explicit, nature of the reporting raises an important point. No Australian media company actually named Pell, but some directed their audiences to international online stories. The Herald Sun published a white headline “CENSORED” across a black front page, thereby piquing Victorians’ interest in seeking out international media reports and internet commentary. </p>
<p>As the paper reported,</p>
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<p>The world is reading a very important story that is relevant to Victorians.</p>
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<p>The point is had any member of the public wanted to find out what the media were talking about, they could have done so.</p>
<h2>Why did the court issue the order?</h2>
<p>So why was there a suppression order on the conviction? </p>
<p>This was to try and ensure a fair trial. At the time of the guilty verdict in December 2018, Pell was also facing a second trial over different charges related to similar alleged conduct. Ultimately, as it happened, the second trial did not proceed after charges against Pell were dropped in February 2019. But the possibility of a second trial was alive at the time of the first trial guilty verdict.</p>
<p>There is a principle in law that a jury must decide guilt or innocence on the basis of the evidence before them, and not to allow other evidence (for example, a conviction for a similar crime) to taint their deliberations. </p>
<p>So it was important a jury in that second trial (had it gone ahead) could not know of the first conviction. Otherwise, it would be breaking the rule against using “<a href="https://www.lexisnexis.co.uk/legal/guidance/witness-evidence-similar-facts-evidence">similar fact evidence</a>”.</p>
<h2>The rules are clear</h2>
<p>Suppression orders are a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2018/dec/14/suppression-orders-australia-why-you-cant-read-what-you-may-want-to">significant limitation</a> on the freedom of the press to report what happens in our criminal courts, but they exist to guarantee that people who come before the courts get a fair trial.</p>
<p>Contempt of court is a serious offence and can result in jail time. Indeed, journalists have been jailed in the past for similar indiscretions. However, no action was ultimately pursued against individuals here. The court determined the appropriate penalty was for fines to be imposed on media organisations. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-a-fair-trial-could-be-at-risk-suppression-is-the-order-of-the-day-109181">When a fair trial could be at risk, suppression is the order of the day</a>
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<p>In contempt matters, the amount of any fine is open-ended and, in this case, we see very heavy penalties. This is because Justice John Dixon took a dim view of what he surmised were the motives of the media corporations. </p>
<p>He said <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-04/george-pell-trial-leads-to-contempt-of-court-fine-for-news-media/100190944">The Age and news.com.au articles</a> especially</p>
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<p>constituted a blatant and wilful defiance of the court’s authority […] each took a deliberate risk by intentionally advancing a collateral attack on the role of suppression orders in Victoria’s criminal justice system.</p>
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<p>In <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jun/04/cardinal-george-pell-news-organisations-contempt-court-fined-more-than-1m-over-reporting-of-sexual-abuse-verdict">his view</a> the “timing” of the media apology – made contemporaneously with the contempt guilty plea – “did not demonstrate any significant degree of remorse and contrition.” </p>
<p>The judge added media companies had not only usurped the function of the court, but had taken it “upon themselves” to decide “where the balance ought to lie” between the cardinal’s right to a fair trial and the public’s right to know about it.</p>
<p>While people might debate the politics and huge public interest in the Pell case, the law is clear — that balance is a matter for the courts and the courts alone to determine.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162173/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rick Sarre is affiliated with the SA Council for Civil Liberties </span></em></p>There is a clear legal reason why publications including The Age and news.com.au have copped hefty penalties.Rick Sarre, Emeritus Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1611702021-05-20T19:54:14Z2021-05-20T19:54:14ZAlarmist reporting on COVID-19 will only heighten people’s anxieties and drive vaccine hesitancy<p>From an ethics perspective, it has been a bad couple of weeks for media coverage of COVID-19.</p>
<p>First, there was a highly questionable <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/chinese-military-scientists-discussed-weaponising-sars-coronaviruses/news-story/850ae2d2e2681549cb9d21162c52d4c0">story</a> in The Australian about China allegedly weaponising coronavirus, with the headline “‘Virus warfare’ in China files” splashed across the front page.</p>
<p>The author of the article, Sharri Markson, claims a document written by Chinese scientists and Chinese public health officials in 2015 discussed the weaponisation of a SARS coronavirus.</p>
<p>According to the article, the document was headed “The Unnatural Origin of SARS and New Species of Man-Made Viruses as Genetic Bioweapons”.</p>
<p>Markson reported the US State Department had obtained the document in the course of investigating the origin of COVID-19. In her article and others that followed, there was talk of a third world war in which biological weapons would be deployed.</p>
<p>However, Chengxin Pan, an associate professor at Deakin University, offered a different explanation for the document’s origins. He said in a tweet the document Markson cited was in fact a book, the contents of which could be found on the internet or at a Chinese online bookstore.</p>
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<p>Dominic Meagher, an economist at the Lowy Institute with an extensive China background, tweeted the book was </p>
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<p>pretty clearly an idiotic conspiracy theory about how the US and Japan had introduced SARS to China.</p>
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<p>The ABC program Media Watch raised these questions and more about the article’s credibility.</p>
<p>Markson has replied that the Chinese Foreign Ministry and Global Times newspaper viewed the document as legitimate and not a conspiracy theory. She said while none of the critics quoted by Media Watch were bioweapons experts, she had interviewed multiple high-level specialists in biological weapons compliance.</p>
<p>The ethical problems here are twofold. First, there are clearly questions about the provenance of the document. Was the document uncovered by a US State Department investigation or is it a book available for public sale?</p>
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<p>It is a basic fact that colours the entire article, and the questions are not resolved by Markson’s response.</p>
<p>Second, the way the story is framed as revealing Chinese weaponising of biological material is highly alarmist. This generates further public anxiety about COVID-19 and adds to the climate of Sinophobia in Australia. The justification for doing so is, on the available evidence, highly questionable.</p>
<p>In a pandemic or any other emergency, the first ethical duty of the media is to report accurately and soberly, and specifically not to induce unjustified anxiety or panic.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/before-coronavirus-china-was-falsely-blamed-for-spreading-smallpox-racism-played-a-role-then-too-137884">Before coronavirus, China was falsely blamed for spreading smallpox. Racism played a role then, too</a>
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<h2>Naming and shaming</h2>
<p>In another major ethical lapse, the Australian Financial Review <a href="https://www.afr.com/street-talk/apollo-global-md-contracts-covid-19-in-sydney-20210509-p57qaq">ran a story</a> that named and shamed a Sydney man who had tested positive for the virus. To make it worse, the newspaper put his photo on the front page.</p>
<p>This was wrong and irresponsible for several reasons.</p>
<p>The man had visited several barbecue shops across Sydney while unknowingly positive. When this became known as part of the media’s general contact-tracing publicity, he was dubbed “Barbecue Man” by the Sydney media.</p>
<p>So he was already a figure of fun when the Financial Review identified him. Its excuse for naming him? He was a financial analyst doing due diligence on the Barbecues Galore chain. The AFR’s editor-in-chief, Michael Stutchbury, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/may/10/nsw-health-minister-condemns-media-for-naming-sydney-barbecue-man-at-centre-of-covid-outbreak">claimed</a> this meant it was in the public interest to identify him as carrying COVID.</p>
<p>That is absolute drivel. There is no rational connection between the man’s health and the health of the barbecue business.</p>
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<p>Other media, including the Daily Mail and news.com, jumped on the bandwagon and named him, too. Both outlets even ran a <a href="https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/tom-pizzey-identified-as-sydneys-bbq-man-and-it-explains-everything/news-story/18279a67132014b6a99f3a9da64c5193">photo grabbed from Facebook</a> of the man and his wife. No moral compass whatever.</p>
<p>If the media go on doing this, it will discourage people from coming forward for testing. Who wants to see themselves plastered over the front page and given names like Barbecue Man? That is where the irresponsibility lies.</p>
<p>The Age was guilty of something similar a couple of months ago when it <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/living-for-the-weekend-infected-hotel-quarantine-worker-s-busy-itinerary-20210204-p56zk0.html">published a map</a> of the weekend movements of a young man who was unwittingly COVID-positive and wrote an article holding him up to ridicule.</p>
<p>This kind of media behaviour is mediaeval: like putting people in the stocks and chucking rotten tomatoes at them. And it is a gross breach of privacy. A person’s health is among the most private classes of information that exists. To breach it for the sake of a cheap laugh is indefensible.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-ebb-and-flow-of-covid-19-vaccine-support-what-social-media-tells-us-about-australians-and-the-jab-157874">The ebb and flow of COVID-19 vaccine support: what social media tells us about Australians and the jab</a>
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<h2>Avoiding misleading information</h2>
<p>These weren’t the only problematic reports. On May 13, the Australian Press Council <a href="https://www.presscouncil.org.au/document-search/adj-1797/">found</a> a subhead in the Herald Sun saying “Six People Died During Pfizer Trial” was misleading because it implied the vaccine caused the deaths, when in fact the deaths were not related to the vaccine. </p>
<p>Four of the six deceased had been given a placebo during the trial, and the other two deaths were not related to the vaccine.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1394810694965420035"}"></div></p>
<p>The Herald Sun defended the subhead on the basis the story said the US Food and Drug Administration had been told about these deaths because they occurred during the period of the trial.</p>
<p>That is materially different from implying – as the headline clearly did – that the vaccine caused the deaths.</p>
<p>The press council said that newspapers needed to take more than usual care to avoid misleading the public in the midst of a pandemic. And by failing to do so, the Herald Sun had breached two of the council’s principles — one concerning accuracy and the other concerning fairness and balance.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/just-the-facts-or-more-detail-to-battle-vaccine-hesitancy-the-messaging-has-to-be-just-right-155953">Just the facts, or more detail? To battle vaccine hesitancy, the messaging has to be just right</a>
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<p>In an atmosphere where there is already a <a href="https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/growing-number-of-australians-say-they-will-never">degree of resistance</a> to being vaccinated, the Herald Sun subhead was clearly a beat-up with the potential to harm the public interest.</p>
<p>So, in the space of a couple of weeks elements of the print media have sought to capitalise without justification on public anxieties about China and the safety of COVID vaccines, and have pilloried an innocent man while at the same time committing a gross breach of his personal privacy.</p>
<p>In an age when the public must rely increasingly on the mass media for reliable and responsible information — since social media has shown itself to be unreliable and irresponsible — these newspapers have abrogated their first duty to the public.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161170/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In a pandemic or any other emergency, the first ethical duty of the media is to report accurately and soberly, and specifically not to induce unjustified anxiety or panic.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1554682021-02-18T01:43:17Z2021-02-18T01:43:17ZWhy Google is now funnelling millions into media outlets, as Facebook pulls news for Australia<p>Over the past few days, Google has been inking multimillion-dollar deals to pay media companies for news content that will appear on <a href="https://blog.google/products/news/google-news-showcase-launches-australia/">Google News Showcase</a>. </p>
<p>Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is the latest <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/feb/17/news-corp-agrees-deal-with-google-over-payments-for-journalism">beneficiary of</a> a partnership with the tech giant. It will <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/17/google-and-news-corp-strike-deal-as-australia-pushes-platforms-to-pay-for-news.html">receive</a> significant payments over three years, a share of ad revenue, and inclusion in the development of a subscription platform. </p>
<p>The agreements are commercial-in-confidence, so numbers are speculative. But Google will reportedly pay <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2021/02/15/seven-google-news-showcase-deal/">Seven West Media A$30 million dollars per year</a>, while Nine is thought to have secured <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/google-nine-agree-commercial-terms-for-news-content-20210217-p5736c.html">A$30 million dollars annually</a> across five years. </p>
<p>The timing of these deals raises questions. The long-contested News Media Bargaining Code, which aims to get Google and Facebook to pay for news, is set to be introduced into federal parliament. The tech giants have been vocal critics of the code, arguing they have no obligation to pay media companies for Australian news <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/crackdown-on-platform-tax-avoidance-to-fund-public-interest-reporting-20210208-p570jt.html">that appears on their platforms</a>. </p>
<p>While Facebook has simply <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/18/facebook-to-restrict-australian-users-sharing-news-content">pulled all news content</a> for its Australian users, and all Australia news from the rest of the world, Google instead is handing out millions to local publishers. Why?</p>
<h2>Searching for a solution</h2>
<p>The bottom line is Google is desperate to avoid paying for news that appears in Google Search, which Treasurer Josh Frydenberg <a href="https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/josh-frydenberg-2018/transcripts/press-conference-parliament-house-canberra-13">initially planned</a> to make them do. </p>
<p>Google believes this would <a href="https://about.google/google-in-australia/an-open-letter/">strike at the core</a> of its business model. It maintains search engines are supposed to index the web passively, collect whatever is available, and present the results to users. </p>
<p>Paying news outlets for content on Search would mean giving them special treatment above all other businesses and creators whose web pages also appear in search results. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/googles-and-facebooks-loud-appeal-to-users-over-the-news-media-bargaining-code-shows-a-lack-of-political-power-154379">Google's and Facebook’s loud appeal to users over the news media bargaining code shows a lack of political power</a>
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<p>The Morrison government originally ignored these complaints. However, according to a <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/google-nine-agree-commercial-terms-for-news-content-20210217-p5736c.html">Sydney Morning Herald report</a>, Frydenberg could be willing to hold off on designating Google Search under the code for as long as deals are being made.</p>
<p>According to the report, Google is playing ball and offering deals that are:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… worth the same, or a similar amount, to what a company would have received for appearance of content in Google search.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But we still don’t know the end result. Frydenberg has the power to designate, at any time, which Google products are subject to the code. Google Search could be included at a later date if the amount of money handed over is deemed insufficient. </p>
<h2>The future of the bargaining code</h2>
<p>Both the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (<a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/publications/digital-platforms-inquiry-final-report">which initially proposed the code</a>) and the federal government both likely see these deals as a positive outcome.</p>
<p>This is because the code was essentially meant to bring the platforms to the negotiation table. Facebook and Google had <a href="https://www.facebook.com/formedia/blog/facebook-partners-with-australian-news-publishers-to-fund-news-shows-on-facebook-watch">given money to certain news outlets in the past</a> – in an ad hoc way, but with no intention of setting a <a href="https://theconversation.com/platform-regulation-in-australia-is-just-the-start-facebook-and-google-are-fighting-a-global-battle-145748">global precedent</a> to pay for all news content produced across a country. </p>
<p>The trick the ACCC and the government employed was to introduce legislation that would force platforms to pay for news. A key element of this reform was the use of “final offer” arbitration. </p>
<p>With this, if a deal can’t be struck between Google and a media company, both will have to present their offers and defer the final decision to an arbiter. This arbiter would then be able to adjust the figures if neither offer was in the public interest. </p>
<p>Businesses are desperate to avoid speculative costs linked to arbitration schemes. They want certainty. Google had a good reason to start making deals, especially if it means potentially only paying for news content that appears on Google News Showcase and not Search.</p>
<p>This doesn’t mean the News Media Bargaining Code won’t be used (Google has only started making deals), but it would be a surprise if Google planned to end up in arbitration. </p>
<p>The recent developments have underlined the curious role of the bargaining code: it’s meant to operate as a legislative threat so arbitration only happens when platforms and news outlets can’t agree. If Google keeps handing out money, this is unlikely to happen. </p>
<h2>What it means for journalism</h2>
<p>These deals will likely give Australian journalism a long-awaited financial boost. Unlike the occasional partnership in the past, media businesses can now bank on a form of sustained revenue stream from Google.</p>
<p>The challenge now will be to ensure this new revenue funds public interest journalism, which is really the only benefit the average Australian can receive. The government has indicated there will be a review after one year to ensure <a href="https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/josh-frydenberg-2018/media-releases/news-media-and-digital-platforms-mandatory-bargaining">the code is working as intended</a>. </p>
<p>Also, the deals are being struck with major media companies that have significant bargaining power. While the code <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/legislation/ems/r6652_ems_2fe103c0-0f60-480b-b878-1c8e96cf51d2/upload_pdf/JC000725.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf">enables</a> smaller outlets to bargain collectively, or accept a standard offer, it remains to be seen if Google will be as generous to regional publishers.</p>
<p>Adding to that, Australian news media have lost <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/publications/digital-platforms-inquiry-final-report">large amounts of advertising revenue</a> over the past three decades — a space in which Google and Facebook continue to <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Digital%20Advertising%20Services%20Inquiry%20-%20Interim%20report.pdf">dominate</a>. </p>
<p>They may also have to plan for less revenue overall if Facebook sticks to its guns, decides to stay away from the negotiating table and keeps Australian news content banned on its platform.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/google-news-favours-mainstream-media-even-if-it-pays-for-australian-content-will-local-outlets-fall-further-behind-146565">Google News favours mainstream media. Even if it pays for Australian content, will local outlets fall further behind?</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155468/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Meese receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>The timing of Google’s deals raises questions, coming just as the News Media Bargaining Code is set to be introduced into federal parliament.James Meese, Research fellow, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1499862020-11-18T18:54:59Z2020-11-18T18:54:59ZThere’s a big problem with the Murdoch media no one is talking about — how it treats women leaders<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369933/original/file-20201118-15-nhiwpz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ben McKay/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has long dominated the Australian media landscape, wielding great <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mitchell_Hobbs/publication/269710349_'Kick_this_mob_out'_The_Murdoch_media_and_the_Australian_Labor_Government_2007_to_2013/links/5494b4230cf20f487d2c4715.pdf">political and cultural influence</a>. </p>
<p>Former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/petition_list?id=EN1938">record-breaking petition</a> calling for a royal commission into Australian media ownership has once again put this issue in the spotlight. It has gained more than <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-09/media-diversity-petition-started-by-kevin-rudd-lodged-parliament/12863982">500,000 signatures</a> and led to a <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/senate-votes-to-hold-media-diversity-inquiry-after-record-breaking-murdoch-petition">Senate inquiry</a> into media diversity. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/paper-chase-why-kevin-rudds-call-for-a-royal-commission-into-news-corp-may-lead-nowhere-147996">Paper chase: why Kevin Rudd's call for a royal commission into News Corp may lead nowhere</a>
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<p>Rudd has described News Corp as a “<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/cancer-on-our-democracy-kevin-rudd-calls-for-inquiry-into-murdoch-media-dominance">cancer on democracy</a>”, while fellow former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has labelled it “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/nov/10/qa-malcolm-turnbull-clashes-with-news-corps-paul-kelly-over-climate-coverage">pure propaganda</a>,” and slammed its “campaign on climate denial”. Labor’s Julia Gillard, has also made <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/media-and-marketing/julia-gillard-blasts-biased-murdoch-news-corp-20141028-11ctmj">similar claims</a>. </p>
<p>However, these discussions fail to consider how the Murdoch press is particularly hostile towards women politicians.</p>
<h2>How does the Murdoch press represent women?</h2>
<p>While <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/media-gender-stereotypes-worse-for-gillard-than-for-thatcher/11996326">studying media representations</a> of women in politics, I’ve noticed a stark difference in Murdoch press coverage of men and women leaders.</p>
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<img alt="Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard leaving a press conference at Parliament House." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369927/original/file-20201118-17-i2f244.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369927/original/file-20201118-17-i2f244.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369927/original/file-20201118-17-i2f244.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369927/original/file-20201118-17-i2f244.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369927/original/file-20201118-17-i2f244.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369927/original/file-20201118-17-i2f244.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369927/original/file-20201118-17-i2f244.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">There is a difference in the way male and female leaders are represented in News Corp papers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span>
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<p>My research, recently published in <a href="https://t.co/0OdPkrP4NL?amp=1">Feminist Media Studies</a>, compared Australian media portrayals of Gillard’s prime ministerial rise with that of Helen Clark’s in New Zealand. Both leaders experienced a sexist focus on their gender, appearance and personal lives. But it was far more frequent and intense for Gillard. </p>
<p>My research suggests two key explanations for this contrast: the different political contexts they operated in, and the dominating influence of the Murdoch press in Australia versus its absence in New Zealand. </p>
<p>As Rudd has argued, the Murdoch press is hyper-partisan and ideologically driven, “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/how-much-influence-does-the-murdoch-media-have-in-australia-20201015-p565dk.html">blending editorial opinion with news reporting</a>”. News Corp is also known to reward Murdoch’s allies, while <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/sep/20/very-australian-coup-murdoch-turnbull-political-death-news-corps">damaging his enemies</a>. </p>
<p>Yet this has notably gendered ramifications. Murdoch’s conservative morality, traditionalist values, and opposition to left-wing movements appear constantly in his newspapers, making them uniquely hostile to women. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/courting-the-chameleon-how-the-us-election-reveals-rupert-murdochs-political-colours-149910">Courting the chameleon: how the US election reveals Rupert Murdoch's political colours</a>
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<p>Gillard did not simply threaten the political status quo as Australia’s first woman prime minister. As an unmarried, child-free, atheist woman from the left of the ALP, she also threatened Murdoch’s conservative ideology. His newspaper therefore portrayed Gillard in a highly gendered — even misogynistic — manner <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10361146.2017.1374347">intended to undermine</a> her. This was evident in the criticisms of her fashion choices, such as a headline condemning her “technicolour screamcoat” in The Daily Telegraph.</p>
<h2>Things have not changed since Gillard’s days</h2>
<p>Though it’s been ten years since Gillard became prime minister, not much has changed. News Corp papers continue to attack women in politics, especially if they are from the left. </p>
<p>Queensland Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is another seasoned veteran of News Corps’ sexist coverage. This includes the Sunshine Coast Daily’s 2019 <a href="https://theconversation.com/queensland-paper-backtracks-after-using-violent-imagery-to-depict-annastacia-palaszczuk-117501">front page image</a>, which featured Palaszczuk in crosshairs with the headline, “Anna, you’re next”. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1130361877316263936"}"></div></p>
<p>More recently, <a href="https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/is-palaszczuk-now-punishing-sydneysiders-over-a-personal-gripe-she-has-with-gladys/news-story/658631747c9158d544f637076cbbcac1">The Courier Mail</a> labelled her dealings with Liberal NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian over border closures, “schoolgirl behaviour”. </p>
<p>Even Liberal women aren’t immune from sexist coverage. Julie Bishop, the Coalition’s former foreign affairs minister, was likened to the power-hungry “Lady Macbeth” by <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/nation/to-be-or-not-to-be-julie-lady-macbeth-bishop-is-the-voters-pick/news-story/3a7fad34421e5d4d325a23d7f3512ae3">The Australian</a> for her 2018 leadership tilt. She was also <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/opinion/libs-would-never-have-looked-to-starstruck-bishop/news-story/fa44f51f9aa63cbf36743fac9996d102">ridiculed</a> by the same paper for calling out the Liberal party’s sexist bullying culture.</p>
<p>Berejiklian has also endured sexist reportage, particularly during the recent scandal over her relationship with disgraced former NSW MP Daryl Maguire. One <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/premier-gladys-berejiklians-wedding-fantasy-defies-laws-of-blokespeak/news-story/10ada392f2091ec28b114395c1efe87b">Daily Telegraph</a> article waxed lyrical about her supposed “wedding fantasy”, a “feminine albeit old-fashioned thing to do” which, they argued, might have kept a workaholic like Berejiiklian “sane”. </p>
<p>However, the News Corp’s partisan bias towards the Coalition is also evident in these stories. Rather than holding Berejiklian to account, the Murdoch press largely ran <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/why-berejiklian-should-stand-firm-in-this-sad-icac-affair/news-story/140cd04fd2b5a57a287bd991612535c0">sympathetic stories</a> about the premier’s behaviour. This starkly contrasts with the onslaught of sexist coverage Gillard received during the <a href="https://theconversation.com/awu-scandal-says-more-about-the-medias-ethics-than-the-pms-11035">AWU affair</a>, which haunted her for the rest of her term in office.</p>
<h2>International leaders also under attack</h2>
<p>Australian women aren’t the only targets. The <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/16/jacindamania-set-to-return-jacinda-ardern-as-new-zealand-pm">globally popular</a> New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has frequently borne the brunt of biased News Corp coverage. </p>
<p>In the lead up to the 2020 New Zealand election, columnist Greg Sheridan argued Ardern doesn’t live up to the hype, <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/jacinda-ardern-goes-global-but-kiwis-pay-the-price/news-story/97286e9e9a8ec08d1dd40dddfcd573d6">claiming</a> in The Australian,</p>
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<p>part of the international Jacindamania comes from the fact she is a young left-wing woman who gave birth in office and took maternity leave.</p>
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<p>Sheridan also labelled her government’s COVID-19 response and progressive style of politics as “inherently authoritarian” that also “enjoys bossing people around”. </p>
<p>When Ardern won the election in a historic landslide, The Australian <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/danger-across-the-ditch-as-incompetent-leader-ardern-wins-office/news-story/6dfed9819cbe1334602cbc240dfe1b7f">responded with a piece</a> describing her as “grossly incompetent” and “the worst person to lead New Zealand through this economic turbulence”. </p>
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<p>Notably, the clear bias here drew criticism from the <a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/10/disgraceful-australian-columnist-slammed-for-calling-jacinda-ardern-grossly-incompetent.html">New Zealand press</a>. </p>
<p>In August, Johannes Leak’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-australians-racist-kamala-harris-cartoon-shows-why-diversity-in-newsrooms-matters-144503">cartoon</a> in The Australian, also received <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/17/business/media/murdoch-racism-kamala-harris.html">international condemnation</a> for its misogynistic and racist depiction of vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris. </p>
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<h2>Don’t forget gender</h2>
<p>It is clear the Murdoch press has a “woman problem”. </p>
<p>This poses a real obstacle for women in politics, especially those who oppose Murdoch’s conservative ideology. But it also broadcasts a message about women’s roles and place in society more generally — that no matter how privileged or powerful a woman might be, it’s nearly impossible to escape sexist commentary and the objectifying male gaze.</p>
<p>This is why it is so essential to hold the Murdoch press to account in a specifically gendered light.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149986/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Blair Williams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There is a renewed discussion about the role of News Corp in Australia. But so far, this is ignoring how the Murdoch press is particularly hostile towards female politicians.Blair Williams, Associate Lecturer, School of Political Science and International Relations, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1499102020-11-15T18:53:35Z2020-11-15T18:53:35ZCourting the chameleon: how the US election reveals Rupert Murdoch’s political colours<p>Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential election raises a perennial question about what Rupert Murdoch does when the candidate he has opposed wins.</p>
<p>Answer: He adapts and he waits. Electoral cycles last three, four or five years. Murdoch has been wielding power for five decades.</p>
<p>Murdoch is a chameleon. It is true that when political and business conditions are favourable he glows brightly in blood-red conservatism. But when, as now, conditions are uncertain, the colour dims and takes on a more complex hue.</p>
<p>The voices and front pages of the empire become more diverse. It gets harder to exactly pin down where the emperor himself stands. He deflects awkward questions by saying he defers to his editors, or he claims to have retired and says he will speak to the heir, his son Lachlan.</p>
<p>These are the first steps in a shadowy repositioning, and we have seen it happen time without number.</p>
<p>Reactionary ideology is important to Murdoch, but not as important as making money.</p>
<p>Money not only keeps the shareholders happy, it provides the means by which he can subsidise his unprofitable or barely profitable newspapers because they are crucial to the way he wields power.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/paper-chase-why-kevin-rudds-call-for-a-royal-commission-into-news-corp-may-lead-nowhere-147996">Paper chase: why Kevin Rudd's call for a royal commission into News Corp may lead nowhere</a>
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<p>So the priority when a disfavoured candidate or party wins is to do nothing to antagonise the new regime and instead proffer a small olive branch. Last Sunday’s New York Post banner headline – “It’s Joe Time” – was a classic of the genre.</p>
<p>Over on Fox News, he remained quiet when the Fox “decision desk” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/04/us/politics/trump-fox-news-arizona.html">called the crucial state of Arizona for Biden</a>, absorbing pressure and entreaties from Trump’s people to intervene.</p>
<p>All of a sudden, the chorus of pro-Trump voices on Fox became a discordant racket. Some, like Sean Hannity, amplified Trump’s claims of electoral fraud. Others, like Neil Cavuto, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/10/whoa-fox-news-cuts-off-kayleigh-mcenany-for-votes-spiel">cut off Trump’s press secretary</a> for making the same claims.</p>
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<p>The New York Post, which ran a highly questionable story against Hunter Biden in the last week of the campaign, was suddenly dismissing Trump’s claims as baseless and urging him to accept the result.</p>
<p>Conflict, confusion and contradiction are part of the strategy. Murdoch allows it to unfold. It sends a signal to the Biden White House: we can live with you.</p>
<p>The strategy was helped along on November 13 when Trump sent out a tweet saying the daytime ratings on Fox News had collapsed because they had forgotten what made them successful – the “Golden Goose” – an immortal self-description if ever there was one.</p>
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<p>There was a similar pattern to the Murdoch strategy in Australia in 2007 when it looked certain that Labor under Kevin Rudd would end the long reign of John Howard.</p>
<p>In his book <a href="https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/rupert-murdoch_a-reassessment/">Rupert Murdoch: A Reassessment</a>, Rodney Tiffen recounted that, while Murdoch did not want to be backing the losing side, it was difficult for his editors to persuade him to back Rudd.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/book-review-rupert-murdoch-a-reassessment-24418">Book review: Rupert Murdoch – A Reassessment</a>
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<p>In the end, some of Murdoch’s papers, including The Australian, backed Rudd, while others, including Melbourne’s Herald Sun, were allowed to back the Coalition.</p>
<p>The endorsements were pallid, nothing like the full-throated propaganda characteristic of the Murdoch papers when they are unified behind a conservative cause. The chameleon had turned into a blur of pale reds and blues.</p>
<p>Then in 2018, when it looked as if Labor might beat Malcolm Turnbull’s Coalition in 2019, Murdoch once again showed how the business pragmatist triumphs over the ideologue.</p>
<p>According to Turnbull in his autobiography, <a href="https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/publishing/bookfinder/book/a-bigger-picture-by-malcolm-turnbull/9781743795637">A Bigger Picture</a>, Murdoch told the West Australian media mogul Kerry Stokes: “Three years of Labor wouldn’t be too bad.”</p>
<p>He prefers it when the Labor side is led by moderates who are amenable to business: Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, Britain’s Tony Blair. But, even then, his endorsements tend to be muted, nothing like “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/05/daily-telegraph-election-australia">Kick this mob out</a>” on the front page of Sydney’s Daily Telegraph when he opposed Labor in 2013.</p>
<p>In Britain, Murdoch has employed the same tactics. Although his mass-circulation Sun supported Labour in 1997, 2001 and 2005, he allowed the prestigious Sunday Times to support the Conservatives.</p>
<p>But when it comes to endorsing the conservative side of politics, there is no pussyfooting around.</p>
<p>When he turned on Labour after Gordon Brown had succeeded Blair as prime minister, he unleashed the full Murdoch treatment.</p>
<p>Just as Brown was about to deliver his speech to Labour’s annual conference in September 2009, The Sun declared Murdoch’s abandonment of Labour with the banner headline “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/sep/29/the-sun-labours-lost-it">Labour’s lost it</a>”.</p>
<p>From then until the 2010 election, Murdoch’s ruthless campaign in support of David Cameron’s Conservative Party was carried by all his papers, The Sun in the vanguard with headlines such as “Brown toast”.</p>
<p>At elections, Murdoch has two priorities.</p>
<p>One is always to try to ensure the new regime, whatever its political colour, does not implement regulatory change that will disadvantage the business.</p>
<p>The second is to be on the winning side. This is important to the maintenance of the belief – at least in the minds of politicians – that he is a kingmaker.</p>
<p>When it is clear the progressive side of politics is in the ascendant, the chameleon can start changing colours early and might even complete a transformation before election day.</p>
<p>When it is not a sure thing, however, the skin-deep transformation has to begin when the results come in.</p>
<p>That is what is on display in the US now.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149910/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Murdoch has become very adept at changing colours to suit changing political landscapes – and the US election is yet another example of that.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1479962020-10-13T05:01:29Z2020-10-13T05:01:29ZPaper chase: why Kevin Rudd’s call for a royal commission into News Corp may lead nowhere<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363081/original/file-20201013-17-1borure.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Glenn Hunt/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kevin Rudd’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/oct/11/kevin-rudd-petition-royal-commission-news-corp-media-domination-australia">petition to parliament</a> for a royal commission into the dominance of the Murdoch media in Australia is entitled to be seen as more than an embittered ex-politician’s desire for revenge.</p>
<p>The fact is that in the three mature English-speaking democracies where Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has a dominant presence – the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia – politics are deeply polarised and conducted with a toxicity and dishonesty that is harmful to the public good.</p>
<p>There are differences in degree, of course. Australia has not elected a reactionary extremist such as US President Donald Trump, nor found itself riven with political divisions of the kind shown up by the Brexit referendum. Neither has Australian political discourse descended to the depths of racism that have scarred politics in those two countries. </p>
<p>Australia has not seen its national leader equivocate over white supremacy, <a href="https://www.politifact.com/article/2019/apr/26/context-trumps-very-fine-people-both-sides-remarks/">as Trump</a> did after the Charlottesville protests of 2017. It has not seen a political campaign poster about immigration modelled on a Nazi poster on the same subject, as the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/16/nigel-farage-defends-ukip-breaking-point-poster-queue-of-migrants">produced during the Brexit referendum</a> campaign.</p>
<p>Yet there is one fundamental similarity among the three countries that reflects the anti-democratic influence of the Murdoch media: in each country, political leaders see Murdoch as a decisive factor in electoral success.</p>
<p>He controls about two-thirds of Australia’s capital city daily newspaper circulation, owns The Times, The Sunday Times and mass-circulation The Sun in England, and Fox News, the most-watched cable TV service in the US.</p>
<p>A procession of Australian prime ministers or would-be prime ministers from Bob Hawke onwards, including Rudd, have openly and publicly paid court to Murdoch, on occasion travelling to the other side of the world to do so.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363082/original/file-20201013-21-14i5mj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363082/original/file-20201013-21-14i5mj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363082/original/file-20201013-21-14i5mj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363082/original/file-20201013-21-14i5mj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363082/original/file-20201013-21-14i5mj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363082/original/file-20201013-21-14i5mj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363082/original/file-20201013-21-14i5mj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Successive leaders have paid court to Rupert Murdoch, including Kevin Rudd when he was prime minister.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
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<p>In the UK, Tony Blair travelled <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/murdochs-courtship-of-blair-finally-pays-off-1144087.html">all the way to Hayman Island</a> to obtain Murdoch’s blessing in the lead-up to the 1997 election. He obtained the blessing and won the election.</p>
<p>In episode three of the recent television documentary, <a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/show/rise-of-the-murdoch-dynasty?gclid=CjwKCAjw_Y_8BRBiEiwA5MCBJsLseKz0ans_OVVbDlowATUE6keqWrZgUmF4lkmHq1-QX3ZIn1yqCRoCaZkQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds">The Murdoch Dynasty</a>, Nigel Farage, who led UKIP in the Brexit referendum, said Murdoch’s support was crucial to the success of the “Leave” campaign.</p>
<p>In the same documentary, a Trump campaign insider from 2016 said Murdoch’s Fox News was indispensable to Trump’s success in that year’s US presidential election.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/james-murdochs-resignation-is-the-result-of-news-corps-increasing-shift-to-the-right-not-just-on-climate-143799">James Murdoch's resignation is the result of News Corp's increasing shift to the right – not just on climate</a>
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<p>The benefit of a royal commission would be to lay bare the nature of the interactions between the elected politicians and the unelected Rupert Murdoch.</p>
<p>Details of the supplications, threats, deals, promises, attitudes and motives that are the stuff of these interactions would shed extraordinarily valuable light on a highly influential aspect of the way Australia’s democracy works.</p>
<p>It would enable the public to assess just how extensive Murdoch’s influence is, and what effect it has on public policy and electoral outcomes.</p>
<p>It’s highly improbable it would lead to greater diversity in media ownership. If it created a public clamour loud enough to make politicians think there were votes in it, then it might be possible one of the main parties would adopt media diversity as policy, and propose ways to achieve it.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363100/original/file-20201013-15-1aoyevf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363100/original/file-20201013-15-1aoyevf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363100/original/file-20201013-15-1aoyevf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363100/original/file-20201013-15-1aoyevf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363100/original/file-20201013-15-1aoyevf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363100/original/file-20201013-15-1aoyevf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363100/original/file-20201013-15-1aoyevf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">News Corporation’s support was vital to the ‘Leave’ campaign in the Brexit vote.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/EPA/Neil Hall</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>However, history tells us this is extremely unlikely.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Commission_on_the_Press">royal commission in England in 1947-49</a> dodged the issue; <a href="https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C9116">another in 1961-62</a> resulted in significant mergers being referred to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. However, this was circumvented by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1981, when <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/apr/28/how-margaret-thatcher-and-rupert-murdoch-made-secret-deal">she pushed through Murdoch’s acquisition</a> of The Times and The Sunday Times.</p>
<p>In Australia, both main parties have been complicit in creating the present state of affairs.</p>
<p>The Hawke-Keating government <a href="https://cosmiccauldronbooks.com.au/p/media-mates-carving-up-australias-media-paul-chadwick/">created the conditions</a> that allowed Murdoch to take over the Herald and Weekly Times group, giving him Melbourne’s Herald Sun and daily newspaper monopolies in Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart.</p>
<p>The Turnbull government made the situation worse in 2017 by <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-14/media-law-changes-bill-passes-senate/8946864">abolishing rules</a> about cross-ownership, market dominance and audience reach.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-media-reform-in-australia-has-been-so-hard-to-achieve-77392">Why media reform in Australia has been so hard to achieve</a>
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<p>For another thing, the Australian public has shown an astonishing complacency and lack of interest in the health of the media. This has remained the case even as media freedom has been directly assaulted by a <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-raids-on-australian-media-present-a-clear-threat-to-democracy-118334">succession of laws since 2001</a> that criminalise journalism in the name of national security.</p>
<p>Perhaps the rush to sign the Rudd petition, which is credited with causing the parliamentary website to crash, indicates a change of attitude, or it might just be clicktivism.</p>
<p>Finally, Australian parliaments have shown little interest in, and less appetite for, fixing the problem.</p>
<p>In 1980, the Victorian government of Rupert Hamer established <a href="https://researchdata.edu.au/general-records/152910">a committee of inquiry</a> under the chairmanship of Sir John Norris, a retired Supreme Court judge, into the ownership and control of newspapers in Victoria.</p>
<p>The Norris report was presented in September 1981. It recommended an independent statutory authority be established to scrutinise proposed newspaper acquisitions, to ensure undue concentration of ownership would not result.</p>
<p>It aroused indignant opposition from the newspaper companies and went nowhere.</p>
<p>In 1992, the federal House of Representatives established a <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Representatives_Committees?url=reports/1992/1992_pp53report.htm">Select Committee on the Print Media</a> to examine many of the same issues. It produced a report called <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/house_of_representatives_committees?url=reports/1992/1992_pp53report.htm">News and Fair Facts</a>, a laboured pun on “Fairfax”. It too disappeared without trace.</p>
<p>Even if Rudd gets his royal commission, its report risks going the same way, unless it probes deeply enough to tell us something important about the way Australian democracy works.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147996/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There have been regular calls and inquiries into media ownership in Australia. But despite the howls of outrage, there has bene little political appetite to do anything about it.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1465652020-09-22T02:42:01Z2020-09-22T02:42:01ZGoogle News favours mainstream media. Even if it pays for Australian content, will local outlets fall further behind?<p>Google’s role in delivering audiences to news outlets has been under scrutiny of late. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/digital-platforms/draft-news-media-bargaining-code">initiative</a> to redirect advertising revenue from Google and Facebook to news publishers has led to threats of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-facebook-really-pulls-news-from-its-australian-sites-well-have-a-much-less-compelling-product-145380">news boycott</a> by both companies. </p>
<p>Australia’s news media businesses have faced revenue loss and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jun/09/news-corp-cuts-more-jobs-this-time-at-its-metropolitan-newspapers">job</a> <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-30/job-losses-coronavirus-australia-covid-19/12401232">cuts</a> for some time now, blaming Google and Facebook for poaching advertising revenue. </p>
<p>But rather than share revenue with the publishers whose content they feature, it seems the tech behemoths would rather remove Australian news content from their platforms altogether. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-world-first-australia-plans-to-force-facebook-and-google-to-pay-for-news-but-abc-and-sbs-miss-out-143740">In a world first, Australia plans to force Facebook and Google to pay for news (but ABC and SBS miss out)</a>
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<p>Into this <a href="https://theconversation.com/googles-open-letter-is-trying-to-scare-australians-the-company-simply-doesnt-want-to-pay-for-news-144573">heated debate</a> arrives a new study of Google News search recommendations in the US. The research, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-00954-0">published today in Nature Human Behaviour</a>, examines Google News search results across more than 3,000 US counties – evaluating the balance between local and national news outlets in search results on a wide range of topics. </p>
<p>The findings show Google News generally privileges national news outlets over local ones, especially for topics of national interest. This makes it even more difficult for local outlets to compete with their larger national counterparts – but shifting the balance between the two isn’t easy.</p>
<h2>A handful of winners</h2>
<p>In one sense, the research findings merely show Google News is working as advertised: it points readers interested in major issues to leading national outlets. Larger, better-funded media businesses are likely to have more in-depth coverage than local publishers.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Google News will feature more local content when users search for issues with a local angle. And while the study didn’t cover Australia, it probably works similarly here, too.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the research found the three most prominent national US outlets account for about one-sixth of all search results. This echoes <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563218303650">research published last year</a>, which also documented Google News featuring a very narrow range of leading news outlets. </p>
<p>The authors of that study worried this “highly concentrated” set of results was “empowering a handful of prominent outlets and marginalising others”, rather than offering a comprehensive range of perspectives on the news.</p>
<h2>The ‘filter bubble’ argument</h2>
<p>The two studies mentioned above offer a powerful argument against the persistent (but unsubstantiated) idea that search engines and social media place us in “<a href="http://theconversation.com/the-myth-of-the-echo-chamber-92544">filter bubbles</a>”. </p>
<p>This is the idea that the information we encounter online depends on our personal identities, ideologies and geographical location. If the filter bubbles hypothesis were true, it would indeed threaten to deepen social divides.</p>
<p>But an increasing number of <a href="https://www.blm.de/files/pdf2/bericht-datenspende---wer-sieht-was-auf-google.pdf">timely</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2017.1338145">studies</a> suggest something different: if there is a filter bubble, we’re all in it together. </p>
<p>In other words, when different users search for news on Google, they likely see the same results from the same handful of media outlets – regardless of who and where they are.</p>
<h2>Tweaking the results</h2>
<p>From this perspective, the uniformity and predominantly national focus of Google News results may even be welcome, as it ensures searchers of all backgrounds have access to a shared stock of information. </p>
<p>At the same time, however, Google’s channelling of users towards major national news outlets affects their local competitors’ ability to generate advertising revenue. The rich (in readership) get richer (from advertising), while outlets featured less in search results struggle.</p>
<p>In a market already suffering from substantial pandemic-induced downturns, this undermines smaller outlets’ ability to survive in the long term. “News deserts” (areas without local news outlets) are growing rapidly in the <a href="https://www.usnewsdeserts.com/">US</a> and <a href="https://anmp.piji.com.au/">in Australia</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/local-news-sources-are-closing-across-australia-we-are-tracking-the-devastation-and-some-reasons-for-hope-139756">Local news sources are closing across Australia. We are tracking the devastation (and some reasons for hope)</a>
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<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-525" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/525/a19e65efd484188bedc6b9f9703ad2d61a4e0fbf/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Policy makers might be tempted to arrest this decline by forcing Google News to provide more links to local rather than national news outlets. But even if Google agreed to this, it would come at a cost. </p>
<p>Major national outlets are prominent because local outlets simply can’t provide the same comprehensive coverage of non-local issues. Instead, they draw on wire services and syndicated content. </p>
<p>Making Google feature more content from local outlets would direct more revenue towards those news organisations, but could also reduce the quality and diversity of news provided to users. They might end up only seeing local adaptations of content from a small number of wire services.</p>
<p>While this approach might save some local news outlets, it would undermine citizens’ understanding of the world around them.</p>
<h2>The lion and the mouse</h2>
<p>The Australian initiative to make Google (and Facebook) pay for the news they show on their sites could be seen as a more sensible alternative. </p>
<p>Revenue generated from the <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/digital-platforms/draft-news-media-bargaining-code">news media bargaining code</a> could be used to increase the strength and diversity of the domestic news industry, enabling smaller outlets to provide a better range of content for Google News to feature.</p>
<p>But even if Google was willing to share advertising revenue, the devil lies in the detail. If that money was distributed based on current Google News recommendation patterns, major news outlets would receive the lion’s share. Local news organisations would still miss out – along with the ABC and SBS, <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-world-first-australia-plans-to-force-facebook-and-google-to-pay-for-news-but-abc-and-sbs-miss-out-143740">which are not included</a> in the ACCC’s proposal. </p>
<p>So it would be good news for News Corp and Nine Entertainment, but not so much for everyone else.</p>
<p>To rebuild Australia’s local news industry, the industry heavyweights would have to give up some of their own hard-fought share of the money. But you don’t need to consult Google to work out how likely that is.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/platform-regulation-in-australia-is-just-the-start-facebook-and-google-are-fighting-a-global-battle-145748">Platform regulation in Australia is just the start. Facebook and Google are fighting a global battle</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146565/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Axel Bruns receives funding from the Australian Research Council through Discovery projects Journalism beyond the Crisis: Emerging Forms, Practices and Uses and Evaluating the Challenge of 'Fake News' and Other Malinformation, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. He is a member of the expert research panel of the Public Interest Journalism Initiative (PIJI).</span></em></p>Research shows Google News results often prioritise mainstream media over smaller news businesses. It’s a double-edged sword. While local outlets suffer, it’s actually better for readers.Axel Bruns, Professor, Creative Industries, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1446662020-08-19T20:15:20Z2020-08-19T20:15:20ZThe government’s regional media bailout doesn’t go far enough — here are reforms we really need<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353530/original/file-20200819-24815-9jssnz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After Australia’s two big local newspaper companies, Australian Community Media (ACM) and News Corporation, <a href="https://theconversation.com/another-savage-blow-to-regional-media-spells-disaster-for-the-communities-they-serve-139559">shut down</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/local-newspapers-are-an-essential-service-they-deserve-a-government-rescue-package-too-135323">scores</a> of rural newspapers as part of their COVID-19 cost-saving strategies, there were heartwarming stories of retrenched journalists and volunteers stepping in to fill the gaps.</p>
<p>From <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/apr/16/coronavirus-closed-a-broken-hill-newspaper-but-the-community-fought-to-save-it">Broken Hill</a> and <a href="http://thecityjournal.net/media/braidwood-residents-not-letting-local-papers-go-down-without-a-fight/">Braidwood</a> in NSW to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-03/from-america-to-establishing-a-new-naracoorte-newspaper/12197882">Naracoorte</a> in South Australia, these new media outfits were buoyed by public encouragement. </p>
<p>There was further cause for optimism when the federal government announced two initiatives to breathe life back into Australian journalism – a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-01/can-a-50m-regional-news-fund-save-community-media-coverage/12392236">$50 million fund</a> to support regional news media and a <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/digital-platforms/draft-news-media-bargaining-code">draft mandatory bargaining code</a> that will force tech giants Google and Facebook into negotiations with news providers to share their advertising revenue.</p>
<p>While both government initiatives are worthy responses and a commendable mission for the future of public interest journalism, they miss the mark for many small independent newspapers and new media start-ups. And the optimistic mood in parts of the bush is starting to sour.</p>
<h2>Only certain regional media need apply</h2>
<p>There are a couple of significant hurdles to qualify for assistance under the $50 million <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/what-we-do/television/relief-australian-media-during-covid-19">public interest news gathering</a> initiative — the funds can only be accessed by news organisations that have served their communities for a minimum of 12 months and have a history of delivering public interest journalism. </p>
<p>A large chunk of these funds reportedly <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-01/can-a-50m-regional-news-fund-save-community-media-coverage/12392236">went to big media conglomerates</a>, such as ACM, Southern Cross Austereo and Seven West Media to support their regional operations. The federal government has not made the full list of recipients publicly available.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/another-savage-blow-to-regional-media-spells-disaster-for-the-communities-they-serve-139559">Another savage blow to regional media spells disaster for the communities they serve</a>
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<p>The draft mandatory bargaining code, meanwhile, requires potential beneficiaries to have a <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/digital-platforms/draft-news-media-bargaining-code">minimum revenue stream of $150,000</a>. </p>
<p>This clause eliminates many news outlets serving small towns and cities across the nation. If journalists in rural Australia can generate enough money to pay themselves a weekly salary and serve the needs of a small community, they are doing well. And they certainly could do with any additional revenue to support their cause. </p>
<p>Big business (like News Corp and ACM) is often the first, and the most savvy, when it comes to advocating for public money.</p>
<p>But with so much talk of subsidies for news providers and a desire to put a leash on social media, there are few checks and balances in place to assess which news outlets are most deserving of a government handout and whether they are adequately serving the needs of their local communities.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353579/original/file-20200819-42861-13biwa3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353579/original/file-20200819-42861-13biwa3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353579/original/file-20200819-42861-13biwa3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353579/original/file-20200819-42861-13biwa3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353579/original/file-20200819-42861-13biwa3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353579/original/file-20200819-42861-13biwa3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353579/original/file-20200819-42861-13biwa3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Australian Community Media executive chairman Antony Catalano.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>New media ventures shut out of funding</h2>
<p>In Naracoorte, Michael Waite, a former business executive, garnered national media attention when he <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-03/from-america-to-establishing-a-new-naracoorte-newspaper/12197882">started a new newspaper</a> in his hometown, called <a href="https://www.naracoortenews.com/">The News</a>.</p>
<p>His foray into the newspaper business came after ACM pulled the pin on its 140-year-old paper, the Naracoorte Herald, at the onset of the pandemic.</p>
<p>Waite, whose mother had once managed the Herald, could not bear to see his town without a news outlet, so he started his own. For the past couple of months, he’s established a unique commercial business model with a small profit margin and he tells me it works. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353578/original/file-20200819-25043-tgcroh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353578/original/file-20200819-25043-tgcroh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353578/original/file-20200819-25043-tgcroh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353578/original/file-20200819-25043-tgcroh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353578/original/file-20200819-25043-tgcroh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353578/original/file-20200819-25043-tgcroh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353578/original/file-20200819-25043-tgcroh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Michael Waite founded The News after Naracoorte’s long-time newspaper suspended publishing in April.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But when ACM received a funding boost as part of the government’s $50 million package, it resumed its operations in Naracoorte. On the one hand, it’s a triumph for news diversity. A tiny town with 5,000 people served by two newspapers. Sounds like a win-win for democracy.</p>
<p>But Waite was not eligible for the funding as the new kid on the block, nor can he qualify for the draft mandatory bargaining code. </p>
<p>He’s not the only start-up unlikely to be eligible for the funds. In Yass, NSW, where another ACM paper, <a href="https://www.yasstribune.com.au/about-us/">the Tribune</a>, closed its doors this year, local journalist Andrew Hennell also <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-01/can-a-50m-regional-news-fund-save-community-media-coverage/12392236">found himself shut out</a> of the government funding to support his plan to start a weekly paper.</p>
<p>ACM has since resumed operations in Yass after the $50 million funding was announced.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/local-newspapers-are-an-essential-service-they-deserve-a-government-rescue-package-too-135323">Local newspapers are an 'essential service'. They deserve a government rescue package, too</a>
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<h2>Disparity in local government advertising</h2>
<p>Local, state and national levels of government have long supported local newspapers through advertising – in fact, they have often been required by law to do so.</p>
<p>This funding stream has indirectly supported local newspapers for more than a century, but increasingly local governments are shying away from advertising in newspapers in search of a better deal, such as on Facebook or through free publicity on their own websites. These websites are often run by public relations professionals whose job it is to spruik rather than scrutinise council matters.</p>
<p>In the case of Naracoorte, Waite tells me the local council is continuing to advertise with the Herald, but not with him. After lobbying national politicians about his plight, he says he suddenly received a request from the local MP to advertise in his newspaper until the end of the year.</p>
<p>This highlights how power and politics can affect the very future of the industry the government is desperately trying to preserve in the interest of safeguarding our democracy.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/digital-only-local-newspapers-will-struggle-to-serve-the-communities-that-need-them-most-139649">Digital-only local newspapers will struggle to serve the communities that need them most</a>
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<h2>What needs to happen to support regional journalism</h2>
<p>There are more ways we could be supporting regional media to ensure we are supporting news outlets that best serve the interests of their communities. Here are a few things that should be immediately enacted.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>A review of government advertising legislation, practices and policies to ensure a level playing field.</p></li>
<li><p>A lowering of the revenue threshold in the draft mandatory code to $75,000, especially for those outlets serving populations of below 100,000 people.</p></li>
<li><p>A new fund to support start-ups that did not qualify for the public interest journalism grants, and stronger aid for independent newspapers that serve as the primary source of local news for their towns and cities. This could mean the difference between fertilising new media growth across rural and regional Australia or creating an information drought.</p></li>
<li><p>The public release of all news outlets benefiting from government public interest journalism initiatives and the methodology for determining the value of allocations among recipients. We should also have a public assessment of how money is spent.</p></li>
<li><p>As a bare minimum requirement, local new outlets that receive any form of government funding should be required to independently cover council meetings (not run rewrites of press releases).</p></li>
<li><p>A national body to help regulate and disseminate government grants — and to assess quality measures for local journalism — is also essential. This would also help to ensure public money is being spent where it is needed most.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>News media are supposed to be the watchdogs that hold power to account. But in these times, it’s important we watch the watchdogs and their relationships to political revenue streams. Communities are depending on it.</p>
<p><em>The author would like to thank Michael Waite and Professor Lisa Waller at RMIT University for their input to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144666/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristy Hess has received funding during the past decade from the Australian Research Council, Country Press Australia, the Edward Wilson Trust and Victoria Law Foundation for various projects examining the role and place of regional media in society.</span></em></p>Small newspapers and new start-ups face significant barriers to receiving government grant money and a share of ad revenue from Google and Facebook, making their survival less than assured.Kristy Hess, Associate Professor (Communication), Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1445732020-08-18T04:21:43Z2020-08-18T04:21:43ZGoogle’s ‘open letter’ is trying to scare Australians. The company simply doesn’t want to pay for news<p>If you went to use Google yesterday, you may have been met with a pop-up, warning that the tech giant’s functionality was “at risk” from new Australian government regulation.</p>
<p>Google Australia’s managing director, Mel Silva, wrote an <a href="https://about.google/intl/ALL_au/google-in-australia/an-open-letter/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=hpp&utm_campaign=middleslot-p2">open letter</a> in response to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/digital-platforms/news-media-bargaining-code">News Media Bargaining Code</a>, which would require Google (and Facebook) to negotiate “fair payment” for Australian news content published on their services. </p>
<p>The letter, pinned to the Google homepage, claims the code would force Google “to provide you with a dramatically worse Google Search and YouTube”. The ACCC has already <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/aug/17/google-open-letter-australia-news-media-bargaining-code-free-services-risk-contains-misinformation-accc-says">labelled</a> several of the letter’s statements as “misinformation”.</p>
<p>It seems Google isn’t keen to set a global precedent by paying Australian news outlets for their content. Google claims the ACCC’s proposed code is disastrous, for a variety of reasons. </p>
<p>Its letter is part of a campaign designed to scare Australian web users. Don’t fall for it. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353110/original/file-20200817-22-x2in1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353110/original/file-20200817-22-x2in1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=324&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353110/original/file-20200817-22-x2in1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=324&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353110/original/file-20200817-22-x2in1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=324&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353110/original/file-20200817-22-x2in1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353110/original/file-20200817-22-x2in1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353110/original/file-20200817-22-x2in1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hordes of people took to social media to express dismay and confusion about the unexpected prompt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Google’s claims don’t stack up</h2>
<p>First, Google is objecting to a specific part of the legislation designed to stop it downranking (or refusing to list) news content if Google has to pay for it. </p>
<p>This is precisely how Google <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/google-delays-local-licensing-deal-prepares-for-accc-fight-20200816-p55m58.html">responded</a> when similar legislation was introduced <a href="https://www.wired.com/2014/12/google-news-shutdown-spain-empty-victory-publishers/">in Spain</a>. Google changed its search results and even <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2014/12/11/7375733/google-news-spain-shutdown">shut some outlets out</a> completely to avoid paying for news content.</p>
<p>The ACCC is heading that off at the pass. The legislation states if Google intends to change the search ranking of a news organisation, for example by downranking that outlet’s stories in Google’s search results, it must give the organisation 28 days’ notice of this change. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-world-first-australia-plans-to-force-facebook-and-google-to-pay-for-news-but-abc-and-sbs-miss-out-143740">In a world first, Australia plans to force Facebook and Google to pay for news (but ABC and SBS miss out)</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The open letter claims this is unfair and would help news outlets “artificially inflate their ranking over everyone else”. </p>
<p>When asked how this was this case, a Google spokesperson told The Conversation the code would require the company to “give all news media businesses advance notice of algorithm changes and explain how they can minimise the effects”. </p>
<p>They said this provision would “seriously damage” Google’s products and user experience and impact its ability to provide users the most relevant results.</p>
<p>However, this claim doesn’t bear logical scrutiny. Notifying a news company of its impending downranking would not give it an unfair advantage, as no other types of content providers would be targeted for demotion anyway.</p>
<p>It would simply warn the outlet if Google was about to drop them down in search results, or boot them off altogether. The 28 days’ notice requirement is an insurance policy in case Google retaliates by deciding to simply downrank media outlets demanding payment for content. That’s why Google hates it.</p>
<p>It’s tempting to conclude that Google is simply trying to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting">gaslight</a> its users by sowing doubt about the wisdom of the new regulations – because it doesn’t want to pay.</p>
<h2>Actively misleading users</h2>
<p>Google’s open letter went on to claim Australians might experience data privacy violations if it’s forced to hand advertising data over to “big news businesses”. </p>
<p>Setting aside for a minute the fact that Google is trying to play the “little guy” here, which is laughable, let’s first look at why this is also a falsehood.</p>
<p>The proposed code states Google would have to share data collected about users’ <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Exposure%20Draft%20Bill%20-%20TREASURY%20LAWS%20AMENDENT%20%28NEWS%20MEDIA%20AND%20DIGITAL%20PLATFORMS%20MANDATORY%20BARGAINING%20CODE%29%20BILL%202020.pdf">engagement with news content</a> with news media outlets. For example, this would include details about the specific articles a user has clicked on from that outlet, or how long they were reading it for. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-accc-is-suing-google-for-misleading-millions-but-calling-it-out-is-easier-than-fixing-it-143447">The ACCC is suing Google for misleading millions. But calling it out is easier than fixing it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This is exactly the kind of data media outlets (including The Conversation) already collect from readers on their own platforms. Yet Google’s letter claims “there’s no way of knowing if any data handed over would be protected, or how it might be used by news media businesses”. </p>
<p>This is pretty rich coming from one of the world’s most <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/28/all-the-data-facebook-google-has-on-you-privacy">data</a> <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolemartin1/2019/03/11/how-much-does-google-really-know-about-you-a-lot/#55be338a7f5d">hungry</a> companies, and one of its most prolific <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/04/technology/google-youtube-fine-ftc.html">privacy</a> <a href="https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/google-lawsuit-chrome-browser-illegal-privacy-violations-1234624216/">violators</a>. </p>
<p>In a further statement to The Conversation, Google’s spokesperson added: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The code requires Google to tell news media businesses what user data we collect, what data we supply to them and ‘how the registered news business corporation can gain access to’ that data which we don’t supply to them … This goes beyond the current level of data sharing between Google and news publishers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But Google itself has oceans of information about its users’ searches, habits and preferences. In fact, the ACCC is currently <a href="https://www.cmo.com.au/article/681644/accc-launches-fresh-legal-challenge-against-google-consumer-data-practices-advertising/">pursuing Google</a> over alleged privacy violations in a separate lawsuit.</p>
<h2>Google is not the underdog here</h2>
<p>Finally, Google’s open letter ends with the veiled threat its free services may be “at risk” if the proposed ACCC code becomes law.</p>
<p>Google’s spokesperson told The Conversation that Google “did not intend to charge users for [its] free services”. </p>
<p>“What we did say is that Search and YouTube, both of which are free services, are at risk in Australia,” they said. </p>
<p>Google is now a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/technology/google-trillion-dollar-market-cap.html">trillion-dollar</a> <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/google-parent-alphabet-joins-1-trillion-in-market-value-for-first-time-2020-01-16">company</a>. Its parent company Alphabet earned <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/3/21121207/youtube-google-alphabet-earnings-revenue-first-time-reveal-q4-2019">US$46 billion</a> in worldwide advertising revenue in 2019’s last quarter alone. </p>
<p>Google claiming its free services for Australians are “at risk” if it has to return a tiny fraction to the companies that actually provide news content – well, I’m sceptical of all the claims in the letter, but this one takes the cake.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1295185365297324033"}"></div></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144573/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Belinda Barnet does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The letter is part of a campaign running across Google’s platforms, designed to gaslight Australian users. Don’t fall for it.Belinda Barnet, Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1445032020-08-14T06:48:36Z2020-08-14T06:48:36ZThe Australian’s racist Kamala Harris cartoon shows why diversity in newsrooms matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352878/original/file-20200814-24-1jn28cg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=586%2C64%2C3320%2C2379&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Carolyn Kaster/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A Johannes Leak cartoon published in The Australian today, in which US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is depicted calling his vice-presidential running mate Kamala Harris a “little brown girl”, has drawn widespread condemnation.</p>
<p>Several Australian politicians, including former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, have described the cartoon as racist, as have a suite of journalists and media observers (ex-Labor leader Mark Latham <a href="https://twitter.com/RealMarkLatham/status/1294120750010359809">said</a> he loved it).</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1294078231197310976"}"></div></p>
<p>I am firmly in the camp that thinks this is a racist and sexist cartoon. As a journalism lecturer with an ongoing <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-media-has-been-too-white-for-too-long-this-is-how-to-bring-more-diversity-to-newsrooms-141602">interest</a> in the diversity of Australian media, I think today’s outrage shows there is still much work ahead in making newsrooms less overwhelmingly white.</p>
<h2>Context matters</h2>
<p>My own view is this cartoon should never have been published, and it has no place in Australian media. I’m glad to see Australian politicians and public figures coming forward and saying it’s unacceptable.</p>
<p>The Australian’s editor-in-chief, Chris Dore, told Guardian Australia that Leak’s cartoon “was quoting Biden’s words” from a tweet the US politician issued this week about young girls drawing inspiration from Harris.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1293654742820777984"}"></div></p>
<p>“When Johannes used those words, expressed in a tweet by Biden yesterday, he was highlighting Biden’s language and apparent attitudes, not his own,” Dore told Guardian Australia. “The intention of the commentary in the cartoon was to ridicule racism, not perpetuate it.”</p>
<p>I think Dore’s explanation is unconvincing. Biden’s tweet is clearly referring to girls who look up to Harris. It’s a massive sidestep to say Biden is talking down to his recent vice-presidential pick. The contexts are totally different.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1294102251804344325"}"></div></p>
<p>I cannot imagine The Australian published today’s cartoon without knowing it would provoke outrage - and that this outrage would delight parts of their audience. Part of the delight is in the outrage it provokes. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-media-has-been-too-white-for-too-long-this-is-how-to-bring-more-diversity-to-newsrooms-141602">Australia's media has been too white for too long. This is how to bring more diversity to newsrooms</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Australia looks backward</h2>
<p>It’s hardly the first time, either, that a racist cartoon published in our mainstream media makes us look backward and out of step as a country.</p>
<p>Think back to the embarrassing episode of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-10-08/hey-hey-red-faced-over-blackface-skit/1094878">blackface on Hey Hey It’s Saturday in 2009</a>, or <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-white-mans-burden-bill-leak-and-telling-the-truth-about-aboriginal-lives-63524">Johannes Leak’s father Bill’s cartoons in the past</a>, and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-herald-suns-serena-williams-cartoon-draws-on-a-long-and-damaging-history-of-racist-caricature-102982">Herald Sun’s widely condemned Mark Knight cartoon depiction of Serena Williams in 2018</a>. (It should be noted, the Press Council ruled the latter “non-racist” and Knight defended it - unconvincingly - by saying he had “absolutely no knowledge” of the Jim Crow-era cartoons of African-Americans.) </p>
<p>These examples show the work of making sure Australian newsrooms are diverse is ongoing. </p>
<p>There’s still so much room for improvement when it comes to editorial decisions, reporting and making sure we have a range of stories told about who we are as a country. That hasn’t been done well so far in Australia and cannot be done well while the media is largely dominated by white men. </p>
<p>As I wrote in an earlier Conversation <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-media-has-been-too-white-for-too-long-this-is-how-to-bring-more-diversity-to-newsrooms-141602">article</a>, despite a <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/education/face-facts-cultural-diversity">quarter</a> of Australians being born overseas and nearly half having at least one parent who was born overseas, our media organisations remain blindingly white.</p>
<p>A 2016 PriceWaterhouseCoopers <a href="https://www.pwc.com.au/press-room/2016/media-outlook-jun16.html">report</a> found 82.7% of Australia’s media workers speak just one language, and speak only English at home. There’s a high prevalence of media workers in the inner Sydney suburbs, it found, concluding that a lack of diversity – in ethnicity, gender and age – is holding back industry growth.</p>
<p>Unless these trends are addressed, we will continue to see work like Leak’s cartoon making it through the gate.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-herald-suns-serena-williams-cartoon-draws-on-a-long-and-damaging-history-of-racist-caricature-102982">The Herald Sun's Serena Williams cartoon draws on a long and damaging history of racist caricature</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A long history</h2>
<p>There’s a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-herald-suns-serena-williams-cartoon-draws-on-a-long-and-damaging-history-of-racist-caricature-102982">long history</a> of racist cartoons in Australian media. What’s different is the response. Today’s cartoon has blown up on Twitter — and yes, I realise it is a place closely watched by Australian politicians and media people but largely ignored by most Australians — but at least the online outcry allows some kind of accountability. </p>
<p>In the past, the media could publish racist cartoons without being called to account. These days, the pushback is manifesting in real time.</p>
<p>Should we all have just shaken our heads and ignored it? I don’t think so. Once something like that is published, the horse has bolted and you have to respond. I think collectively ignoring a racist cartoon won’t remove its prominence or significance. </p>
<p>We are forced to revisit this debate every time a racist cartoon or article is published, or a racist comment put to air. I hope that by revisiting it forcefully enough and by making these points enough times, the conversation moves forward and we can make some progress. I also hope racist cartoons are never published in Australia’s mainstream media again. But I won’t be holding my breath. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/racist-reporting-still-rife-in-australian-media-88957">Racist reporting still rife in Australian media</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144503/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janak Rogers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Unless we address the lack of diversity in newsrooms, we will continue to see work like Leak’s cartoon making it through the gate.Janak Rogers, Associate Lecturer, Broadcast Journalism, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1437992020-08-02T09:50:07Z2020-08-02T09:50:07ZJames Murdoch’s resignation is the result of News Corp’s increasing shift to the right – not just on climate<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350699/original/file-20200802-16-9r8mhx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In happier times: Lachlan, Rupert and James Murdoch at Rupert's marriage to Jerry Hall in 2016.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>James Murdoch is not the most obvious candidate for editorial heroism. His route to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/james-murdoch-resigns-from-news-corp-board-20200801-p55hir.html">resigning from the News Corp board</a> because of “disagreements over certain editorial content” has been circuitous and colourful.</p>
<p>James’s first major managerial role in his father’s media empire was to run the Star satellite services and News Corp’s Asian operations in Hong Kong from 2000 to 2003. He had mixed commercial success in this period, which is best remembered for his determination to gain access to the Chinese market by currying favour with the government. </p>
<p>He accused Western media of painting a falsely negative portrayal of China through their focus on controversial issues such as human rights and Taiwan. In 2001, he <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-mar-23-fi-41576-story.html">advised Hong Kong’s democracy movement</a> to “accept the reality of life under a strong-willed absolutist government”. In one of his dealings with China, <a href="https://theconversation.com/china-proves-immune-to-murdoch-style-regime-change-21744">he agreed</a> that Murdoch’s cable channels around the world would take China’s propaganda channel CCTV9.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/china-proves-immune-to-murdoch-style-regime-change-21744">China proves immune to Murdoch-style regime change</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In 2003, he was promoted to run BSkyB in London, where he lived for the best part of the next decade, and where he successfully expanded Murdoch’s satellite services.</p>
<p>He gained early notoriety with a <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/0937_mactaggart.pdf">confrontational speech</a> at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. Here he celebrated the digital age and the dynamism of the market, and equated people who still believed in regulation with “creationists”. There was no doubt about his primary target: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>To let the state enjoy a near monopoly of information is to guarantee manipulation and distortion.</p>
<p>Yet we have a system in which state-sponsored media – the BBC in particular – grow ever more dominant. That process has to be reversed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It takes a particularly agile propagandist to find the Beijing regime so benign and the BBC so sinister.</p>
<p>James’s main aim at the time was to effect a total takeover of BSkyB, raising News Corp’s current share of 40% to 100%. The importance of BSkyB to the Murdoch empire was demonstrated by James’s boldest and most ruthless action. In 2006, the newly formed Virgin Media group was <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/itv-shares-rocket-as-virgin-media-owner-liberty-global-buys-481m-bskyb-stake-9611675.html">negotiating a merger</a> with ITV. The new group’s cable operations would have the potential to provide tougher competition for BSkyB’s satellite service.</p>
<p>Overnight, James swooped, buying 17.9% of ITV for a cost of GBP 940 million. This made News Corp ITV’s biggest shareholder and messed up the intended deal. </p>
<p>News’s move was always likely to be deemed illegal, but by the time this was finally <a href="https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/rupert-murdoch_a-reassessment/">decided nearly four years later</a>, the challenge was dead. News lost GBP 340 million pounds on its forced sale of ITV shares, but no doubt Rupert and James thought this had been a good investment to protect BSkyB’s market share. </p>
<p>After the 2010 election of the Cameron government in the UK, BSkyB looked to be within reach, but James was increasingly impatient with any procedural obstacle or criticism of the attempt. His mentality at the time was on show in an incident in the lead up to the election. The Independent newspaper ran <a href="https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/independent-launches-election-themed-campaign/998380">a series of advertisements</a> proclaiming its independence and urging its readers to consider their vote. One such ad ran “Rupert Murdoch won’t decide this election, you will”. </p>
<p>James’s response was bizarre. He and Rebekah Brooks <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/apr/24/james-murdoch-rebekah-brooks-simon-kelner-independen">arrived unannounced at the paper</a>, and James yelled at the editor, Simon Kelner, in front of bemused journalists that he was a “fucking fuckwit”, among other things.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="AAP/AP/Sang Tan" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350711/original/file-20200802-17-6n7buo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350711/original/file-20200802-17-6n7buo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350711/original/file-20200802-17-6n7buo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350711/original/file-20200802-17-6n7buo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350711/original/file-20200802-17-6n7buo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350711/original/file-20200802-17-6n7buo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350711/original/file-20200802-17-6n7buo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">James Murdoch with Rebekah Brooks in 2011.</span>
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<h2>Phone hacking scandal</h2>
<p>James’s hopes for BSkyB were about to be washed away by a scandal, which did him and the company enormous damage. After the outstanding investigative efforts of Nick Davies, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/jul/04/milly-dowler-voicemail-hacked-news-of-world">the Guardian published</a> that Murdoch’s News of the World had hacked the phone of a kidnap victim Milly Dowler. This not only created immediate outrage but opened the door for many further revelations about the illegal methods and invasions of privacy by the tabloids to follow. Parliamentary hearings, court cases, and eventually the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/leveson-inquiry-report-into-the-culture-practices-and-ethics-of-the-press">Leveson inquiry</a> all put the company’s illegal and unethical practices into public view. </p>
<p>At first the arrogance of the Murdoch camp was undented. In private, chief editorial executive Rebekah Brooks said the story <a href="http://www.abramis.co.uk/books/bookdetails.php?id=999999556">was going to end</a> with Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger on his knees begging for mercy.</p>
<p>James, as News Corp’s senior executive in Britain when the scandal broke, found his own actions under scrutiny. His denials, prevarications and lack of remorse did not help the company’s cause. His appearances before the parliamentary committees were disastrous. At the end of his testimony, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-politics-15673551/tom-watson-labels-james-murdoch-mafia-boss">Labour member Tom Watson said</a></p>
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<p>Mr Murdoch, you must be the first mafia boss in history who didn’t know he was running a criminal enterprise. </p>
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<h2>Climate change denial</h2>
<p>James left London for New York and his promised promotion in the company. But his reputation was in tatters, even with other members of the family. His public persona at this time consisted of neo-liberal politics and corporate ruthlessness, with his actions untroubled by ethical considerations.</p>
<p>Yet, now, this corporate and family loyalist has resigned from his last official position with the company. James has long seen the urgency of combating global warming. As early as 2006, largely at his urging, Rupert also embraced the issue. Rupert soon retreated from the cause, but James’s commitment continued. </p>
<p>Rupert’s conversion had surprisingly little impact on the company’s journalism. Its upper editorial echelons contained a large number of climate denialists, and Rupert seems to have never made any effort to change their views.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/naming-and-shaming-two-young-women-shows-the-only-enemies-of-the-state-are-the-media-143685">Naming and shaming two young women shows the only 'enemies of the state' are the media</a>
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<p>In addition, James’s wife, Kathryn, is by the rather special standards of the Murdoch family, a liberal and a progressive. She has been involved in several environmental organisations, and James and Kathryn have donated to several Democratic candidates, including <a href="https://www.newsbreak.com/news/1601633308747/james-murdoch-wife-give-123-million-to-biden-campaign">most recently</a> the presidential campaign of Joe Biden.</p>
<p>James made a rare public criticism of the company last Australian summer. He <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/james-murdoch-breaks-ranks-over-climate-change-denial-20200115-p53rie.html">accused News Corp</a> of promoting climate denialism during its coverage of the Australian bushfires.</p>
<h2>Out of step</h2>
<p>However the key events are probably in America. At the same time that James and Kathryn have been edging left, the Murdoch organisation has been moving ever further to the right. The commercial success and political impact of Fox News have doubtless shaped Rupert’s thinking and the whole company’s journalism has become more Foxified. </p>
<p>There has rarely if ever been an alliance of president and media company like that of Trump with Fox News. He is their chief publicist and they an uncritical avenue for his views, especially to his base. So far, it has probably worked out well for both.</p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-irreverence-to-irrelevance-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-bad-tempered-tabloids-113656">From irreverence to irrelevance: the rise and fall of the bad-tempered tabloids</a>
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<p>However, the dangers are acute, especially as Trump’s popularity wanes. Moreover, an erratic president such as Trump poses problems for the credibility of those who seek to embrace his every twist and turn.</p>
<p>This year’s pandemic, economic and racial problems have given a new urgency to these issues. Over the past six months, there have been more than <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/us-coronavirus-deaths-top-150-000-nearly-a-quarter-of-the-world-s-total-20200730-p55grd.html">double the fatalities</a> Americans suffered in over 12 years in the Vietnam War. It is hard to remember any leadership failure approaching Trump’s catastrophe on COVID-19. Some early studies suggested Trump’s denialism, echoed by Fox, meant their viewers had more false beliefs about the pandemic than Americans who consumed mainstream media. </p>
<p>After <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-trump-stands-by-charlottesville-remarks-rise-of-white-nationalist-violence-becomes-an-issue-in-2020-presidential-race/2019/04/28/83aaf1ca-69c0-11e9-a66d-a82d3f3d96d5_story.html">Trump’s comments</a> after a white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, James <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-18/fox-ceo-donates-1-million-to-adl-in-trump-protest-nyt-reports">donated $1 million</a> to the Anti-Defamation League.</p>
<p>James has taken a principled stance, but it is also pragmatic. Since the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/mar/20/disney-seals-71bn-deal-for-21st-century-fox-as-it-prepares-to-take-on-netflix">sale of the bulk</a> of Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox assets to Disney (of which James was chief executive), there is no future role for him in the corporation.</p>
<p>By also resigning from the News Corp Board, he will be freer to express his own views, and perhaps have the chance to watch from a distance as Trump is defeated and Fox heads into decline together in the coming months.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143799/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rodney Tiffen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It is more likely the Trump administration, and the cosy relationship it has with Murdoch’s Fox news, on top of differences on climate change, that was the last straw for James.Rodney Tiffen, Emeritus Professor, Department of Government and International Relations, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.