The following is an extract from Bernard Keane’s new book Lies and Falsehoods: The Morrison Government and the New Culture of Deceit.
Fox News is the most successful outlet in the long history of far-right media in the US, succeeding right-wing radio, which emerged in the 1980s. Previous radical turns by the Republicans had occurred without its support: the “Republican Revolution” of 1994, after all, was two years before Fox News commenced. But there is solid evidence that Fox News drives viewers further to the right.
A 2017 study in the American Economic Review by Gregory J Martin and Ali Yurukoglu examining the impact of Fox News from 2000 to 2008 found a clear link between its viewership and increases in support for Republicans; an earlier University of California, Berkeley study from 2006 by Stefano DellaVigna and Ethan Kaplan showed a significant effect of the introduction of Fox News on the vote share in presidential elections between 1996 and 2000.
Fox News had long relied on similar themes and rhetorical techniques to those that would eventually characterise Donald Trump, and which were also prevalent in the UK Brexit debate. Fox has always been unapologetically anti-intellectual and anti-expert. Right-wing pundit Glenn Beck’s phrase “when will we start listening to our own guts, and to common sense?” is a foundational concept for the network, which celebrates the taste and wisdom of ordinary Americans, and their intellectual capacity as well.
In contrast, other claims to wisdom or knowledge — from experts, academics or other forms of elites — are regarded with scepticism or even as an illegitimate bid for power. At the heart of the Fox News perspective on the world is a commitment to its audience — representing the ‘real America’ — against a malignant elite, no matter what facts or evidence the latter can marshal.
In Australia, News Corp’s Sky News — which, amazingly, was even more extreme than Fox News in its coverage of the 2020 US election — continues to expand its reach through regional broadcasting and online distribution, and has provided extensive support for conspiracy theorists and anti-lockdown activists over the course of the pandemic, often echoing the Trump outpourings about the “hoax” and overstated nature of the pandemic.
While Scott Morrison hasn’t come anywhere near Trump’s level of lying, the Australian media did not perform well in challenging his falsehoods and lies in the first two years of his prime ministership. This improved in 2021 as more journalists — including some working for the Coalition-aligned News Corp — have expressed scepticism and even criticism during media conferences, especially on gender issues. As the vaccine rollout fell apart, Morrison’s claims faced greater scrutiny and his tendency to respond to policy problems by delivering PR announcements drew more coverage.
There are, to be fair, some impediments to journalists more actively holding Morrison to account. The standard press conference format is not conducive to challenging lies. That’s because it is a contest between journalists competing for questions, journalists rarely following up other journalists’ questions, and politicians picking and choosing what they answer and when they end it.
And to label the prime minister a liar, for many journalists and editors, is to risk their access to the government. Confidential access to senior ministers and staff is a resource that political parties use judiciously to maximise political benefit, sometimes to the benefit of the party, but often to the benefit of the individual providing it. A journalist who is perceived to have stepped out of line can be punished by not having calls returned, by getting the silent treatment, by falling off media distribution lists, by not getting invited to the kind of events where information is exchanged.
That’s part of the reason why too much of the journalism from the Canberra press gallery is characterised by a bland centrism that refuses to criticise one side without carefully calibrating criticism of the other. Call out one side too much, even if it’s justified, and your access will be revoked. It’s also why so few outlets have been willing to talk openly about Scott Morrison’s regular lying.
However, many parliamentary journalists don’t seem to believe that exposing political lies and deceit is a core part of their job. For them, what the PM says is important because of its political tactics, not because of its truth. When Scott Morrison asserts that Labor doesn’t support another round of extensions to surveillance laws, this is of interest to the mainstream media because it shows Morrison cannily “wedging” Labor on national security by portraying it as “soft on terror”. Not because it’s a blatant lie uttered by the leader of the nation. That is a subject seemingly beyond the remit of political journalists.
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If all the journos took rotten tomatoes and eggs along, and used them when they spotted a lie, pollies would be more careful. To hell with access. Without journos, pollies are stricken dumb. It’s the journos who perpetuate the system by rewarding the pollies. Boo hiss.
If all the journalists decided before hand to do their JOBS and follow up questions that were refused, then devious and obstructive politicians would have nowhere to turn. They love the attention so could NOT ban (not that they should be allowed to anyway) all and any journalists from any press conference.
Moloch’s power has destroyed any possibility of journalistic solidarity in integrity, there would always be a sneak or toady eager to breach any agreement for access to the teat.
No, that’s not true. These people are trained to deflect questions they don’t like or can’t answer. They know that any journalist only has limited time for an interview or to ask questions at a press conference and they can just deflect until that time is up. Furthermore, most of them no longer care that everyone knows they are lying.
Up until earlier this year I worked for an organisation which was headed by a pathological liar. It was absolutely gobsmacking how she got away with it. Whilst I have met out and out liars in positions of power before, she was one out of the box. If you fronted her with the lie, she would just move on to the next thing and she would never, ever acknowledge that you had said anything, or written anything that proved what she said was a lie. If she couldn’t do that, she just attacked, and accused whoever was challenging her of doing the most absurd things until you just had to walk away to maintain your sanity.
I honestly think this is the way of the world now. There was an article the other day about Boris Johnson and his lies and how he gets away with it, and basically he just does the same thing as my old boss. It is really, really hard to deal with. These people lie with impunity and just move on to the next thing.
I watched Monica Lewinsky’s documentary called 15 Minutes of Shame, and something that was said in that really hit home. Jon Ronson said that the issue with the over use of public shaming is that some transgressors are becoming impervious to shame. I think that’s probably true. I honestly do not know what you can do when someone like Boris Johnson or Scott Morrison or Donald Trump or my former boss is called out on their lies, is publicly shown to be a liar, and they just shrug it off and move on to the next thing. I find it astounding, and I am finding that more and more people seem to operate like that.
It feels great to have access to power. Even if it costs your integrity. Thank God for the ABC and other independent media. However it still feels like trying to empty the ocean with a spoon
Agree. If there were a party called ‘4 Corners’ i’d vote for it.
I’d settle for 3 Corners, rather than the linear pair which barely can make a simple, basic line, much less a straight one.
Interesting this: ‘“when will we start listening to our own guts, and to common sense?” from Glenn Beck.
This represents radical right libertarian ideology, supported by deep pocketed donors, ‘owning’ the GOP to avoid regulatory constraints aka environmental regulation, science, taxes, government. Ditto Brexit with Leave campaigner Gove advising voters not to listen to ‘experts’. Both cases is about targeting less educated and/or older while trying to nullify the already less important, but more educated and liberal, younger voter.
Further, according to DeSmog UK, there is evidence of the same i.e. links between those promoting climate science denial and now Covid, with astroturfed ‘grass roots’ freedom protests also following the same radical right themes demanding ‘freedom for a, b, c etc.’
It also represents stepping off the road of logic and science and spin emotive catchphrases to get the masses attention, works for religions, advertising, anyone who is prepared to forego integrity. But then all you folk know that.