CommBank uses ad to attack ‘false’ story as News Ltd apologises to CEO Ralph Norris
Commonwealth Bank has taken the unusual step of taking out full page advertisements accusing News Ltd papers of falsely creating the impression that CEO Ralph Norris did not care about the pressures faced by mortgage holders.
It followed a front page story in The Daily Telegraph in Sydney last Tuesday featuring a photograph of Norris with the headline “You can bank on losing homes”.
In the article, the paper said Norris had conceded that the bank’s now infamous 0.45% interest rate on Melbourne Cup day “will cost some of his customers their homes”. The article also appeared in other News Ltd papers across the country and online.
It contributed to an already hostile public atmosphere towards the bank which saw at least one Syndey branch vandalised with grafitti and another having its ATM set on fire in the two days that followed the story.
The ads – attributed to Norris – ran in Fairfax newspapers on Saturday. There is also a version on the Commonwealth Bank website saying:
“I would like to correct the misconception created by The Daily Telegraph, Melbourne Herald Sun, Brisbane Courier Mail, The Adelaide Advertiser and The Hobart Mercury on Tuesday 9th November that I believe “it is better to see a few foreclosures than have an economy hamstrung by a low profit banking system”.
“This is completely untrue. I did not say this.
“The Daily Telegraph, Melbourne Herald Sun, Brisbane Courier Mail, The Adelaide Advertiser and The Hobart Mercury have falsely created the impression that I am indifferent to the current difficulties faced by some Australian families. This could not be further from the truth.
“The fact is that over the last 2 years we have assisted thousands of Australian families to remain in their homes.
“The Commonwealth Bank has a history of supporting Australian families for nearly 100 years and an excellent assistance programme available to our customers who may be experiencing financial difficulty.”
Yesterday, News Ltd published an apology accepting that two unrelated comments by Norris had been linked in the article. It said: “One statement linked two themes that arose during the interview – the health of the banking system and the possibility of foreclosures. The Daily Telegraph accepts that Sir Ralph Norris did not join these two themes in one attributable statement.”
Meanwhile, a second organisation has also taken out an ad in response to a News Ltd story. Today’s Sunday Telegraph features a half page ad from Sydney Water headlined “the facts”, which was a response to a story last week about the water desalination process. The paper also returned to the topic with a further double page spread devoted to the issue today.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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News Ltd apologies to Ralph.
I am still waiting for Ralph to apologise to me.
I wish I could take out full page ads attacking Ralph for ripping me of.
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Great revenue strategy for News Ltd. Perhaps they could offer a “facts package” ?? giving folks an opportunity to buy space to correct the BS and spin. Would be weird if the only factual material was ads. Hang on….
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you reap what you sow!
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Whilst I understand the pressures of owning a home and wincing when the rates go up people seem to forget that banks are actually businesses… they are not owned by the government so are not the ‘people’s’ bank. They are in business to make money (which obviously they are doing)… The Greens have gone on a rant saying they want to pass a legislation that stops the banks from putting rates up… can they also do that then for petrol costs, rental costs, electricity costs etc etc…
I know this really has nothing to do with the ad that was taken out, but just had to say my bit..
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Even if he didn’t say it . . .
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Gee Ralph, how are you going to find the money to pay for those full page ads across all News Ltd papers, times being so tough in the banking game ‘n’ all?
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The only 2 people who cared about this was the rep at Fairfax who got the extra money and the one at News ltd who didnt. Not one consumer would give a shit about the editorial misrepresentation (which was negligible) in the face of how much more a month they are going to be paying on their mortgage.
Its like being bashed in the face with a baseball bat and the guy doing it getting upset because someone said he was a bad guy. You dont give a sh1t
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Three uses of the first person pronoun….. It’s not about you, Ralph.
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uhhh Claire, apart from the misuse of market power issue, the banks are more heavily subsidised by the taxpayer than nearly any business you’d care to mention. Apart from being propped up by the govt guarantee on deposits and term funding, they regularly access a liquidity window with the RBA – an incredible and highly valuable privilege that no other financial institution enjoys. Because they are an essential service granted a unique relationship with the central bank, our banks are far more the property of ‘the people’ that those people themselves probably realise…
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@ stephen dolan, great point! This could be the saviour for print media!
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@ Sven – yep that is fair enough then…
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@riarn News ltd got the revenue too
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@ Lamb Chops, sorry i only saw this “The ads – attributed to Norris – ran in Fairfax newspapers on Saturday. There is also a version on the Commonwealth Bank website saying:”
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In this article The Daily Paragraph is incorrectly referred to as a news paper. It is actually a sports paper. lol.
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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Concerned about the banks obviously.
Also concerned about the state of the press and the loose way they report and connect stories.
Credibility is at stake here. It only confuses the matter at hand regarding the banks.
Press – get your act together and stop creating stories – it doesn’t help with the issues, it just helps sell papers.
Maybe it is the newspapers that don’t care!?
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Spot on Claire. It sucks that it can happen, but they’re just a (big) business trying to make a (big) buck(s).
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@Claire’s mate, now – thanks, lets just hope you agree with further posts of mine, would hate for you to have to change your author name to No Longer Claire’s Mate, now… 🙂
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@ Claire’s mate, now – Thanks.. Just hope you agree with other posts of mine, would hate you to have to change your authors name to No longer Claire’s mate …lol
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In early 1987 Murdoch purchased Queensland Press, publishers of the ‘Courier-Mail’. Murdoch’s family company (Cruden Investments) borrowed A$600 million from the Commonwealth Bank to buy Queensland Press. When the Commonwealth Bank demanded repayment, Queensland Press borrowed money to secretly buy a parcel of Cruden’s Newscorp shares at a 40% premium. As Bruce Page, and other writers such as Neil Chenoweth have previously stated: Murdoch had taken over Queensland Press by using Queensland Press’s own resources.
You’d think he would be more grateful to CommBank!
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@claire & @claire’s mate now – do you both work for banks?
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@ Anonymous – no mate, I actually work in publishing and no not for a newspaper. As for my new friend I can’t say..
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Anyone else think CBA threatened to ad spend (after their full page ‘facts’ ad) unless News Ltd revise their story?
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Wouldn’t be at all surprised – many large advertisers do this sort of thing.
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oh, this is just an @claire love-in! BAH!
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