The Senate’s powerful report demanding a royal commission-style inquiry to tackle Rupert Murdoch’s abuses of media power is an extraordinary document that many considered unthinkable only a year ago.
It is a rare example of political courage — the sort we should see every day but has been made possible only with the backing of more than 500,000 ordinary Australians and their relentless demonstration that the public is demanding action to protect our democracy.
For more than a year, a cross-party panel of senators has been weighing all the evidence for and against a royal commission. Against the background of a ferocious bullying campaign by the Murdoch empire, the senators considered more than 5000 written submissions and conducted five days of open hearings. They interviewed Murdoch’s top executives, award-winning journalists, former politicians, media industry experts, academics and others. I was one.
The senators’ 304-page report was scathing.
Media regulation in Australia is “weak, fragmented and inconsistent” with a patchwork of co-regulators, self-regulators and non-regulators responsible for enforcing standards that are frequently breached without consequence.
This has bred “corporate cultures” within large media companies — chiefly Murdoch’s News Corporation — that view themselves as beyond accountability for their actions, even when they spread deliberate disinformation.
The convergence of traditional media platforms — print, radio, television and online — into online platforms, including social media, and Murdoch’s rising influence across these domains has bolstered the case for a single platform-neutral regulator.
And the proper response is not more piecemeal reform but a judicial inquiry with the full powers of a royal commission. And this must be at arm’s length from the nation’s politicians who are, frankly, too vulnerable to Murdoch’s political manipulations. Several witnesses attested to this insidious influence as a major barrier to change.
I would expect this independent royal commission-style inquiry to examine every aspect of the media landscape — including the hurdles for smaller publishers, the state of public broadcasting, social media platforms and Murdoch monopoly which dominates our national conversations through its 70% domination of daily print readership.
Supporters of strong public broadcasting, including the ABC, should have confidence that a royal commission will investigate better funding models and enhanced protections for editorial independence. The fact that the Murdoch empire, which incessantly campaigns against supposed “left-wing” bias at the ABC and the “digital dystopia” of Facebook and Google, is willing to pass up the opportunity for a broad-based royal commission that would examine those claims speaks volumes. If Murdoch has nothing to hide from a judicial inquiry, he should have nothing to fear.
There is nothing in these recommendations that should surprise anyone. Australians know instinctively that it’s not right that we have the most concentrated media landscape in the democratic world. And they are sick to their back teeth with a public debate that is driven by the commercial objectives and ideological preoccupations of a 90-year-old American billionaire and his family.
What is most surprising to me is that the senators — including all Labor senators — demonstrated the courage to call out the problem and advance a solution. This would have been unthinkable to many only a year ago; it is a testament to the more than 500,000 Australians who signed the national petition for a royal commission last year, and the many more who have joined the campaign since then. I am grateful to each and every person who has raised their voice.
So what should happen now?
It would be unacceptable for Parliament to ignore the Senate’s detailed recommendations, including a judicial inquiry, a permanent trust to support new local news and journalism traineeships, and broadband upgrades to ensure fair access to digital media.
The Murdoch media is working overtime to discredit this report and pressure all political parties to throw it in the bin without even reading it. Some members of Parliament — particularly those who hold marginal seats, or whose political fortunes hinge on appeasing the Murdoch beast — will find themselves in the media firing line over the coming days.
If these recommendations are dismissed out of hand, it is not only an abrogation of responsibility to the Australian people but a show of disrespect to the senators who have poured a year of their life into producing this detailed report. They have scratched at the surface of Australia’s media diversity problem and decided, in good conscience, that there’s a lot more to investigate.
Murdoch’s cut-throat lobbying tactics can be intimidating. But thoughtful politicians should think carefully before siding with Andrew Bragg and Murdoch against their own colleagues and rank-and-file supporters who are now powering this movement.
The best way that Australians can achieve a royal commission is to continue to let the political class know that, if politicians have the courage to speak out, the Australian people will have their back. I’ve launched a community organisation, Australians for a Murdoch Royal Commission, to do just that and I’m delighted to have hired Sally Rugg as national director.
I’ve been a member of the Australian Labor Party for 40 years, and I’ve seen a lot of big debates in that time — economic policy, foreign affairs, marriage equality. Few campaigns start with widespread support political support on their first day, but the strongest ones are powered from the ground up.
Only by continuing to demonstrate widespread public support to rein in the Murdoch monopoly, and let diversity flourish, can we hope that public figures will gain the confidence to join the Senate committee majority in siding with the interests of our democracy.
The Murdoch empire in Australia needs to be broken up and fragmented. Too bad all major parties are gutless wonders on this issue.
See my submission!
Australia is in transition. Murdoch’s News Corp a formidable adversary. A MSM ‘Engine Room’. Allied to, with Corporation(s) ‘money’ and; an unaccountable, non-transparent right-wing Government. A Federal Govt that has not hesitated to strip both legal and democratic freedoms. Today’s ‘Rundle’ exposure of Australian Universities ‘Humanities’ entanglement clear evidence of a national transition to a more compliant, authoritarian Australian nation? Murdoch will throw everything to win upcoming Federal Election.
Rudd is correct: Public support is ‘the’ most powerful option available. Australian(s) need to begin ‘talking to, with, each other’.
You’re correct, but public support won’t be enough for the great problems of our time Tough union action got us pay and work place change in the 50s and 60s. Tough public and student agitation in the 60s and 70s got us out of Vietnam and conscription. The current calls for media changes will fall on politician’s deaf ears. Libs wont change it because why would they. Lab wont change it because they’re cowards. Greens can’t because they don’t agitate anymore (except through social media which does nothing).
Basically correct but don’t get caught up in generalisations. It wasn’t “Tough public and student agitation in the 60s and 70s got us out of Vietnam and conscription”. It was the death, suffering and injury of “non-Asian” combatant soldiers, specifically US and Australia. And it seemed to be all for nothing. It was the ineptness of the South Vietnamese and the fact that their governments were unstable, corrupt and as dictatorial as the communists we were fighting. It was the half heartedness of the servicemen of US and Australia that contributed to our withdrawal. Many army leaders didn’t want to go there. That’s the truth. Particularly with national servicemen. Parts of the US Army and Navy were in mutiny – open or covert. It was the soaring economic costs born by governments that dissuaded them from pursuing a seemingly unwinnable war. Victory was not won on the streets unfortunately because the US and Australia kept electing conservative governments. It was the conservative govts of Gorton and McMahon that withdrew all combat forces from the Indo-China. They still practised conscription which Gough to his credit abolished immediately on attaining office in 1972. Even then public polls showed a continued support for National Service (except for the unfortunate candidates or pool of candidates). Whitlam showed the courage that was lacking in the author of this article and made a quick decision that Rudd would have agonised about for years. Different times?? I don’t think so. It is in the minutiae that truth lies. There is a lot to be said for non-compliant government employees with a conscience and an ounce of decency which conservatives totally lack. Re: the News Limited scene – different story. BTW News Limited were horrible to Gough in 1975 in the same way as they were to Rudd in 2013 but Gough is much more dignified.
I think your points are valid MG, but I still think the whole anti Vietnam movement, from the regular peaceful marches to the not so peaceful marches, especially after Kent State, all fed into the demand for change. In these times of such obvious need for change in all sorts of areas from climate to housing to energy to mobility, we see almost no initiatives from either major parties. And almost zero overt demand from the younger generations who will ultimately have to deal with the mess we leave behind.
Perfectly put.
It is one of the comforting creation myths that the boomers tell themselves that the demos. did anything to end the war.
Once Nixon, yes – NIXON! – ended the draft the US streets emptied fairly smartly but the hostilities continued for 3 more years with the ‘volunteer army’.
Unfortunately the main ‘voluntary’ recruits took no heed of Muhammed Ali’s stance from a decade earlier – for which he lost his championsip title AND was sentenced to 5yrs prison, later quashed – when he said, “Ain’t no Vietcong ever called me n****er.”
Them’s was the days when one could speak one’s mind and bear the consequences – no madBot Offence Finders-General.
Ha! Thanks for the support but I hate to pour cold water on some things here. Muhammed Ali got that “Ain’t no Vietcong ever called me n****er.” from Malcolm X or some such. He never did come up with that himself. BTW when did Nixon end th draft? I thought it continued up till 1973 like ours.
One of his first actions after his 2nd term officially began in January 1973.
I recall Ali saying, on film so it may be in the current TV series, “I got nothing against the Vietcong.”
But Rupert before he moved to the right and then became a turncoat taking US citizenship moving even further right…
published on 4 December 1969 an editorial in the The Australian calling for the withdrawal of Australian and US troops from The Viet Nam Farrago.
fought attempted censorship by the then Coalition government and published articles concerning the My Lai Massacre.
The Viet Nam Farrago was a US military adventure under th GOP Eisenhower Administration started an early military adventure, The The Viet Nam Farrago in 1955 when Eisenhower deployed the Military Assistance Advisory Group to train the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. This marks the official beginning of US involvement, as recognised by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
By many accounts JFK was for getting out of the Farrago, but his successor LBJ did not follow the plan and so the US became further bogged down in the quagmire that spread throughout not just Vietnam., but also Cambodia and Laos.
Ming the Mendacious decided to march off lock step into that mess, just as The Lying Rodent© Senator G Brandis, marched off into not just one but both The Afghan Imbroglio and then The Iraq Fiasco, that which led to the Da’esh Disaster, whose fighters are now appearing in Afghanistan.
“Die Geschichte hat noch nie etwas anderes gelehrt, als dass die Menschen nichts aus ihr gelernt haben.”. Georg Frederich Hegel
History has never taught anything other than that people have learned nothing from it:
and even more apposite now…
“Er hat vergessen, hinzuzufügen: das eine Mal als Tragödie, das andere Mal als Farce.” Karl MarxHe, (Hegel,) forgot to add this: first as tragedy, second as farce:
And now Oberst-Gruppenführer Kartoffelkopf is talking up joining a war against China, what a farce that is!
A commission into News Corp is never going to happen under the current government, any more than a Federal ICAC. If the good citizens of Australia want to push this ball into the sunlight, they’re going to have to vote Morrison out. Somehow, a lot of rusted-on Liberal voters who know what’s going on with media influence will need to bite the bullet at the ballot box and put their ethics ahead of their dislike of the left.
…And I probably should have read Cam Wilson’s story before hitting the ‘Post Comment’.
Most of those rusted on Liberal voters firmly believe the drivel spouted by the various Newscorpse Media outlets!
So how did NZ and Canada spurn Australia’s most famous traitor, Murdoch? The damage to our democracy is obvious. Any incoming progressive leader could shut them down as the first item of business. I would.
Interesting – I was a supplier to the newspaper printers back in the day and indeed Murdoch was in NZ. But for some reason he pulled out – I think it was in that short time his finances were a bit shaky and he divested a few things. So Fairfax became dominant in NZ along with a couple of independents. I think Fairfax going to 9 has been the bigger problem in that now there is no moderate newspaper – all heavily right wing – except for a few courageous journalists who try to put an even perspective on things.
Is the NZ public broadcaster properly funded ? That would make a big difference. As a nation, they seem to be making a lot of sensible decisions (unlike us).
For all the talk/hope that netizens can obtain and pass on information via the flickering blue in their hands – less Crystal Bucket than shallow soy latte – there will soon be no substitute for portable, solar powered, random access, data storage units.
I always found the final forest scene of Fahrenheit 451 to be exhilarating and of great comfort.
Canada had Conrad Black until he ran afoul of the law and found himself in jail.
It was a US law – breach of contract in the non-competition clause after selling his US interests.
Still has his seat in the UK Lords – £300 per diem just to turn up.
Good to see something in the works. If it’s going to achieve even a modicum of success, we need to support it.
And, if nothing else – it’s a begging (the first ever AFAIK. Might get the ball rolling. If people don’t do something to get the ball rolling – we’re all stuffed (still waiting for S?mo to go for the “Lets make Australia great again”).
Here’s the link folks – let’s go getum :
https://murdochroyalcommission.org.au/
{And, if nothing else – it’s a beginning} – groan – damned auto correction.