Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has accused the Murdoch media empire of assisting terrorists, pushing propaganda and acting as Australia’s most powerful political party through selective coverage. Speaking at the Senate inquiry into media diversity in Australia this morning, Turnbull stressed News Corp must be held accountable for the impact its coverage has had on Australia’s democracy.
A report released today, commissioned by left-leaning advocacy group GetUp, found the Murdoch press owns a 59% share of the metropolitan and national print media markets by readership. Australia has one of the highest levels of media concentration in the world. News Corp apparently plans to expand its reach in the country, applying to register Fox News International with the Australian trademark register to potentially make Fox News shows available on a streaming service.
‘It’s propaganda’
Turnbull said the rise of the internet and social media, and its effect on traditional media’s advertising base, has led people to seek out opinions that fit into their worldview.
“The internet has enabled people to narrowcast and build very substantial commercial businesses on a relatively narrow part of the audience,” he said. “Increasingly we are drowning in lies … There is now a market for crazy.”
Turnbull said while news organisations had always had biases, they reported news factually and presented a wide range of opinions. News Corp, he said, does not hold itself to traditional journalistic standards due to its business model of appealing to audiences who like extreme political views.
“It’s not news anymore, it’s propaganda and it has a purpose, and that is to pursue their agenda,” he said.
A political party with zero accountability
Turnbull pointed to the January siege at the US Capitol to show how Murdoch’s monopoly was a “threat to our democracy” with limited accountability.
“The most powerful political actor in Australia is not the Liberal Party or the National Party or the Labor Party. It is News Corp. And it is utterly unaccountable. It is controlled by an American family and their interests are no longer, if they ever were, coextensive with our own,” he said.
“News Corp has evolved from being a traditional news organisation or journalistic organisation to one that is essentially like a political party. It’s a party with only one member … nobody is holding them to account.”
Divisiveness and terrorism
News Corp seeks to divide Australia, Turnbull said, through inciting animosity toward minorities. Coverage of Muslims, he said, was “doing the work of the terrorists”.
“What terrorists say to a young Muslim is [Australians] hate you. They don’t want you, you’re not one of them. You could never be in Australia. That’s the message,” he said.
Turnbull said this divisiveness sought to undermine faith in democratic institutions and was exactly what Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to do with his operations. News Corp, he said, has acted “like a mafia gang” in pursuing vendettas against politicians.
On women, Turnbull said News Corp was replicating the “deep misogyny” seen in the right-wing political ecosystem. “Has there ever been a male politician whose body shape has been commented on the way Gillard was?” he asked.
Does Turnbull have a solution?
Turnbull pointed to a number of ways to bolster media diversity including supporting philanthropic interests, investing in smaller organisations, supporting news sources including the AAP (which received a $5 million government lifeline last year) and supporting the ABC — though he added the editorial standards of the ABC should be improved.
The former PM stressed he doesn’t have a single-line solution but said, “We’re just going to have to stop media proprietors exercising [their] power without responsibility”.
He also said the news media bargaining code with Google and Facebook was a mistake, and Australia would have been better off having a digital services or digital advertising tax.
The broad-ranging inquiry was established by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young last November following former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s petition for a royal commission into the influence of News Corp that gathered more than half a million signatures. The inquiry previously heard that the shrinking media landscape, online disinformation, government secrecy and overwhelmingly white newsrooms were threatening media diversity.
Crikey editor-in-chief Peter Fray is scheduled to speak at the inquiry later today.
Shame on you, Crikey, for parroting News Ltd’s “lies and propaganda” by calling GetUp a “Labor-funded organization.
“left-leaning advocacy group GetUp”
Fixed already, it seems.
It’ll never be fixed in the email I’m reading though. If Get Up need a copy for their libel action.
Getup doesn’t receive donations from any registered political party. However, it has received donations from unions and the Labor Council (of trade unions); those donations pale beside the small donations of individual supporters. Implicating the Labor Party is something one expects from the Murdoch swamp, but that is exactly what is implied here. I expect accuracy rather than loose political swipes from paid-for Crikey.
Has the article been amended? i can’t find that quote, i can only find “left-leaning advocacy group GetUp” in the second paragraph.
“A report released today, commissioned by Labor-funded organisation GetUp, found the Murdoch press owns a 59% share of the metropolitan and national…” on the original email version.
thanks klewso – looks like they edited that out in the later version! 🙂
It’s on my email version – and, frankly, it is not good enough. I pay for accuracy and facts, as well as opinions.
Murdoch slops.
On mine it’s left-leaning.
It makes you wonder what sources Crikey uses for background information.
If the number of articles on, and references to, the subject in Crikey’s articles are any indication, they do seem to be voracious readers of Newscorpse.
Not really, look at the number of exMoloch hacks now in the bunker, from the editor dowwnnnn.
At 8:10pm “Labor” still appears on my online edition. I suggest Amber refers to the repeated, and I stress repeated, findings of the Australian Electoral Commission that GetUp is independent.
And that the editor have stern words with her about basic journalistic research.
“left-leaning advocacy group GetUp” may be a slight improvement on “Labor-funded organisation GetUp“, but it is still judgemental “reporting”.
Why does a wish for un-biassed news media make one “left-leaning”?
The operative definitions of “leftist”:
You need to do better Crikey.
Geoff – They used to do better.
I am hoping they will now describe the LNP as the extremist leaning right wing political party. Balance. All that…..
I wonder if Murdoch sold out to another interest – Chinese , Russian, Iranian, Trump etc whether our politicians would see some light and take some action. Having one company with major media control is a not good for democracy in this country. Even worse when that company is resident in another country.
Let’s be very clear. This is the very definition of “Foreign Interference” that is not in our “National Interest”.
It’s news to me that GetUp is a ‘Labor funded organisation’ Can you offer some proof of that?
I agree. I subscribe monthly to GetUp! and I have never belonged to any political party.
Yep, me too.
And me.
And me.
I donate to getUp causes.
I also give a small monthly donation to GetUp
It’s hard to disagree. Murdoch interests have too greater influence on media. As does Stokes in WA and thru Seven. It’s a joke and should be stamped on by government.