Controversy is the business model of News Corp and recent events have shown it to be led by individuals who are masters at keeping the heat turned up to just under boiling point. ‘Media Watch’ on 18 October concentrated entirely on News Corporation in an attempt to try to understand the latest switch – Rupert Murdoch’s reported stance with regard to the issue of climate change – which has helped the ruling Liberal-National coalition adjust its own position as well as keeping managers actively involved in the public sphere.
This is their natural element and, rather than being fazed by controversy, they welcome it because it results in more clicks on stories and therefore more advertising dollars. As the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Paul Barry noted, furthermore, major advertisers like the NRMA and Coles have started to adjust their policies – and publicly air them – so it’s become incumbent on media executives to conform. As I pointed out in January, what’s more, global money managers are altering their practices in response to mounting evidence that the earth is approaching a tipping point.
Many people think that the tone of debate has gone south since Murdoch became globally influential, a switch that might date from the time when he took over Twentieth Century Fox, as it gave him the use of Fox News which, dominating the Right in the US public sphere, has an outsize international importance. This appeared on 24 August at 2.50pm. Ferguson and O’Brien have been current affairs journalists of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and they’re favoured by progressive elements in the community because of their reporting.
In Australia, Murdoch has been making his views felt for longer, but since our country has a small footprint compared the US, what happens Down Under normally stays Down Under.
With the increasing importance of the climate debate, many people are starting to get vocal about Murdoch. A BBC program and an ABC program both caused the patriarch to react. This appeared on 24 August at 2.13pm.
The following tweet appeared on 24 August at 2.55pm.
“Murdoch is one sick individual,” provocatively wrote one person (see tweet below, which appeared on 25 August at 8.38am) after a segment on the ABC’s ‘7.30’ program, which airs nightly for four days a week.
The ABC’s ‘4 Corners’ program provoked the broadcaster to prevent comments from appearing on its Facebook page. This appeared on 25 August at 9.34am.
The sentiment in parts of the community had never been higher (see below tweet, which appeared on 26 August at 8.52am). The link between the Liberal-National coalition (which makes conservative governments in Australia) is often pointed out by people who make themselves visible online. Unkind and rhetorically robust expressions are used to characterise Murdoch papers as publications that unthinkingly supports the ruling Coalition (the LNP is in government currently).
But perhaps the heat had gotten a bit strong (see below, which appeared on 27 August at 1.01pm).
The following tweet appeared on 29 August at 10.30am.
The toilet trope was popular (see below tweet, which appeared at 8.47am on 5 September).
People had started to question the dominance of News Corp in the country (below tweet appeared on 1 September at 6.47am).
Then the tide seemed to turn. The following tweet appeared in my feed on 6 September at 6.45am.
Rowan Dean is a Sky News commentator and this tweet would turn out to be prescient as a sharp awareness of the top-down nature of the editorial governance at News Corp (as seen in the following tweet, which appeared on 6 September at 7.39am) added to a sense of outrage generated by the company’s approach to a topic of universal interest.
Other media outlets took notice, the following headline appearing on the Sydney Morning Herald’s (SMH) front page on the morning of 6 September.
Two days later the same newspaper was underscoring the importance that advertisers were allocating to the switch.
Even the New York Times was taking note (this tweet appeared at 6.04am on 7 September).
SMH editorials were soon appearing, this one on the evening of 11 September.
For some, the change in editorial policy was too little too late. This appeared on 25 September at 8.55am.
Others conflated the SMH with News Corp. This appeared at 10.23am on 1 October.
Murdoch’s competitors, like Ketan Joshi, were unrepentantly negative regardless of the old man’s change of heart. This appeared at 7.28am on 11 October.
The ghosts of past leaders animated other people on Twitter. This appeared on 13 October at 3.44pm.
The company is now in step with the New South Wales government (see SMH headline below, which appeared early on the morning of 13 October).
Nevertheless, things promise to remain rocky. This appeared on the SMH website early on the morning of 17 September.
As Paul Barry noted in his piece, Sky News is still allowing its commentators to remain prominent in attempting to debunk the consensus on climate change. What seems inevitable is that controversy will continue to surround Rupert Murdoch. I think he likes it!
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