‘New low’ for journalism? Why News Corp’s partisan campaign coverage is harmful to democracy
News Corp's lack of neutral election coverage in 2019 isn't a new thing for the publisher, but it has dealt a serious blow to both journalism and democracy, argues associate professor Johan Lidberg in this crossposting from The Conversation.
Remember the Daily Telegraph’s 2013 front page headline “Kick this mob out”? Although some could argue that Labor after the Rudd-Gillard years was in a deep mess and not fit to govern, such a headline was deeply partisan and far from neutral election campaign coverage.
The Guardian’s Roy Greenslade said at the time of News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch:
“There is not the slightest attempt to conceal his agenda. It is blatant, bold and belligerent. And it confirms yet again the way in which he links political interventions to his commercial desires.”
Fast-forward six years and little has changed in News Corp’s approach to covering the federal election campaign.
The similarities between Labor in 2013 and the Coalition in 2019 are uncanny. They have done the same number of replacements of sitting PMs (Labor 2010-2013: Rudd-Gillard-Rudd. Coalition 2015-2019: Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison). And both parties have suffered from disunity and division, although the Coalition is perhaps even more divided than Labor was in 2013 on core policy issues such as climate change.
And yet, we have seen no “Kick this mob out”-style headlines targeting the Coalition from News Corp Australia’s publications in this campaign. Instead, it’s been a steady drumbeat of one-sided, positive coverage (or convenient lack of scrutiny) of the Coalition’s candidates and policies, compared to a barrage of criticism of Labor and Bill Shorten.
News Corp’s campaign coverage so far confirms that growing partisanship in political reporting seem to have become increasingly entrenched in the organisation.
A case in point is The Daily Telegraph’s much-maligned front page story on Wednesday that implied Shorten hadn’t told the full story when describing his mother’s educational opportunities on Q&A earlier earlier in the week.
The article can only be described as an ultra-partisan hatchet job. Shorten called it a “new low”, while Kevin Rudd went so far as to compare News Corp with the People’s Daily newspaper in China on Twitter.
Surprise, surprise! The Murdoch media launch a front page full blown character attack on Shorten ten days out from Election Day. Fully coordinated with their coalition partners the Liberal Party. Today’s People’s Daily in Beijing is a more objective source of news. pic.twitter.com/HlA5dAVW1r
— Kevin Rudd (@MrKRudd) 8 May 2019
Interestingly, the Telegraph’s story on Shorten’s mother appears to have backfired, creating a huge social media moment – #myMum – devoted to people’s stories of their mothers.
But the article illustrates how damning it is for diversity and plurality when media ownership is as concentrated as it is in Australia, with News Corp being the dominant player by far. If the dominant outlet in such a media landscape decides to wholeheartedly back one side of politics, it will undoubtedly impact the tenor of a campaign and skew the information voters rely on to make up their minds.
It’s not good for a healthy democracy and a fair election campaign.
News Corp’s partisan climate coverage
Backing one side of politics is nothing new for News Corp. There is plenty of empirical research spanning decades documenting how Murdoch’s media empire has sought to influence politics in Australia, the UK and the US. One of the most comprehensive and damning studies is David McKnight’s Rupert Murdoch: An Investigation of Political Power, which is a devastating read illustrating how Murdoch has used partisan journalism for decades to gain political influence benefiting the media empire’s financial bottom line.
Indeed, this is what Labor claims is the driver behind News Corp’s scathing coverage of its policies in this campaign. Deputy leader Tanya Plibersek and assistant treasury spokesman Andrew Leigh tied the partisan coverage to Murdoch’s desire to protect “tax loopholes” in Australia by keeping Labor out of power.
One of the case studies in McKnight’s work is News Corp’s undermining of climate science and meaningful action on climate change. This can also be seen in its coverage of the current Australia election campaign.
In spite of polls showing growing support in Australia for action on climate change (59%) and renewables (84%), the environment is still treated as a second- or third-tier election topic by most media (with the notable exceptions of Crikey and the Guardian). This is particularly the case with outlets owned by News Corp.
When climate change has been covered by News Corp in the campaign, it’s predominately been done in an alarmist way to slam Labor’s policies. For example, The Australian reported a week ago that Shorten’s climate policies aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030 could cost the country A$264 billion – a figure based on modelling by a former government economist that Shorten dismissed as “propaganda.”
Though notable climate experts and academics also disputed the estimate, it was widely repeated across News Corp’s other outlets.
News Corp’s climate campaign#Climate #Misinform #Australiahttps://t.co/tdltNcp9cF pic.twitter.com/gLpKnbAO6x
— Fred Bentler (@Bentler) 6 May 2019
Meanwhile, News Corp has asked few critical questions about the Coalition’s much less ambitious climate plan. Most importantly, hardly any coverage has been offered by the large legacy media outlets (such as the ABC, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald) on seriously assessing the cost of inaction on climate change. (A study to track climate change coverage during the campaign is currently underway by myself and a colleague.)
Overall, the media coverage of climate change thus far can only be described as a failure (with a few exceptions). A failure of giving it enough prominence during debates, panel discussions and crucial press conferences. A failure of deeply scrutinising climate change policies from all parties.
The next generation has made it abundantly clear where it stands on the issue in school strikes and protests across the country. It’s time we all, including the media, start listening to them and give them a voice in the final week of election coverage.
Jonah Lidberg, Associate Profession, School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.
Spot on.
User ID not verified.
Where do you start on the insanity of an article that starts off quoting The Guardian?
The near entirety of the rest of the media varies from left (Nine) to far left (Guardian/ABC etc) and for some reason those on the left think those outlets are in the middle.
We live in an age where everyone to the right of Mao is considered a Nazi – this article is yet more proof.
User ID not verified.
Yeah…you lost me (and I think a few others) at ABC = far left
User ID not verified.
Anyone who takes time to read the Daily Tele story about Shorten’s mum would see it was actually a factual account of her achievements.
The issue was Shorten playing the victim using his mum’s apparent lack of career fulfillment — settling for teaching over the law — as a campaign explanation of his political motivation.
Labor demonizing News Ltd is exactly what Trump does to critics.
User ID not verified.
Claiming Channel 9 as left wing is outrageous, insanity is strong with this one.
User ID not verified.
Get outta here with that Brietbart nonsense! #neverheardofya
User ID not verified.
Mr Lidberg lives in a non-commercial world at Monash University. In the typically 45-55% two party preferred vote ranges since 1949, there are people who think one way, and some who think the other way. They should all have the right to listen to other side’s arguments. Obviously by asking that the “other side “ to shut up, Mr Lidberg supports the sort of media voices arrangements that exist in countries like Russia, China and Turkey.
Now I pay for Mr Lidberg’s salary, I pay the ABC/SBS salaries and the ton of assorted Government directly or indirectly supported media. I have to have this drivel of an article of personal prejudices produced from my wages and have no choice. With NEWS, which services commercially, I don’t have to buy a single product. I have the choice , and that’s something the Associate Professor wants to take away from me.
Its pretty obvious what the Daily Telegraph did. Bill stated a story, and the Daily Telegraph stated the correct story based upon what his mum did. Bill brought his Mum into the conversation, and the Daily Telegraph then correctly described her incredibly successful scaling of the heights. He can’t say she was hard done by because of gender , background or, as a result, any missed opportunities for he himself. Fake news was not the Telegraph story , but Bill’s.
User ID not verified.
Of course a leftist journalism professor would write this.
Re. climate change, there’s literally nothing of substance a country with a population of 25m people can do on a global level.
User ID not verified.
entirely agree – as if the Guardian’s politics (or the ABC or the Age/SMH etc) are any less partisan than News
User ID not verified.
Totally agree with the comments re the leftist agenda – which seems swept under the carpet and almost “normal” or middle ground.
Channel 7 News – extremely biased towards Labor with a news story the other day of a student demonstration (no doubt orchestrated by leftist teachers and co (a form of child abuse) and don’t start me on the ABC and Q&A – “tonight we have a panel of a Labor politician (Left), a Union rep (Left), a social activist (Left), an actor or media personality (Left) and a Liberal/National polly (Right) – ah yes, that looks balanced to us – now let the tax payer funded debate begin. When was the last time you ever saw the panel stacked to the right – the answer is never.
User ID not verified.
I think most of the media in Australia are biased and to the left politically speaking which is unfortunate and unhelpful for our democracy.
User ID not verified.
If you read the story about Shorten’s mum it’s actually accurate and positive. There is nothing negative. The issue is Shorten got caught being economical with the full story.
Attacking News Ltd is right out of the Tump playbook.
User ID not verified.
This has nothing to do with the left / the right and the culture wars, and everything do with corporate intervention into politics and the lack of transparent ethical journalism in Australia.
User ID not verified.
When the centre has shifted so far to the left, everything to the right seems far-right.
User ID not verified.
How’s Nine Rob?
User ID not verified.
Nonsense from start to finish. Starts with The Guardian as a reference point, meaning the most partisan Left leaning news source. Nowhere to go after that.
User ID not verified.
100%
User ID not verified.
“Now I pay for Mr Lidberg’s salary, I pay the ABC/SBS salaries and the ton of assorted Government directly or indirectly supported media.”
I know that’s not your only point, but I can’t let this slide. Your taxes pay for all sorts of things you don’t personally benefit from, Roger.
In fact, MY taxes pay for your family tax benefits, and your negative gearing, and for all your not-quite-honest income tax deductions.
One day, my taxes will pay for your pension. Do I get to be pissed off at the way you spend your pension, Roger?
User ID not verified.
Regardless of what the Guardian is, trying to deny the fact that Murdoch wants the Libs and uses his media to help make that happen is just plain daft.
User ID not verified.
The angry right-wing men in this comment section harping on about the bias at Fairfax and ABC is terrifying.
I am tired of everything being lumped into ‘rightist’ and ‘leftist’ categories. This poor guy, just for being an academic, is being branded a ‘leftist’, therefore his argument isn’t worth engaging with. What is this? East and West Germany? These words are a new device designed to skewer the population and drag us away from what’s actually important.
And what IS important is that giant news corporations are shamelessly churning out blatant propagana as though they were another political party. I think, ‘rightist’ and ‘leftist’ nonsense aside, we can all agree that that’s a frightening thing we shouldn’t allow?
User ID not verified.
Yeah, why is no one talking about that?
People are so quick to form a judgement without even reading the content they are bandwagoning for. Clickbait for the haters.
User ID not verified.
How many of these commentators are regulars?
Describing NineFax as left-wing is laughable
In no particular order, you can find columns in the SMH from the following “left-wing” contributors
Amanda Vanstone – Fmr Lib Minister
Christine Forster – Sister of Tony Abbott and Lib Councillor
Dave Sharma – Liberal Candidate for Wentworth
Matt Kean – NSW Lib Minister
Tony Abbott – Fmr Lib PM
User ID not verified.
The comments on this article are absurd. The idea that the ABC or Fairfax/9 is left wing is completely farsical!! Anyone who’s spent longer than 30 seconds reading/watching any of these media organisations would know that to be completely absurd. It also completely ignores the actual issues raised in the above article, specifically how media has become hyper partisan in the chase for $$$, and how media, specifically newscorp, is leveraging it’s power to rip off the tax payer & achieve its business/profit goals.
Whether other media organisations are leftwing, rightwing or whatever doesn’t really matter, it’s the use of power to screw over democracy that is the issue…
User ID not verified.
says the person blaming ‘angry right-wing men’
people with political leanings like yours always attempt to discredit the view by discrediting the person making the view
User ID not verified.
I wouldn’t have opened this one for comment personally.. I know not everyone is down with editor but I think during an election it has a role here. Doesn’t look too me like subbies and industry comments above
User ID not verified.
The petulance of the headline to this story can’t be over estimated. Shorten cut his mother’s success-story in half, leaving out the successful bit, in order to manipulate an audience into thinking she and he were hard done by. The Tele simply provided the other half of the story. She became a uni graduate, successful lawyer and barrister, enough to pay for him to go to Xavier College, and live in comfy middle class splendour. His deception had to be pointed out, and complaining about it is being just as deceptive as he was.
User ID not verified.
The irony of people claiming that the media is left wing. While the Guardian certainly leans that way, little else in the media is anything but centre to right wing.
But that’s the goal, always shout left bias if it’s to the left of you.
User ID not verified.
What we have now is a collapse of status. Once the newspapers in Australia were all relatively singular. Then Keating allowed a free for all and we ended up with News (70%) and Fairfax. Then the internet came along. In the process a generation of editors allowed the intrusion of increasing levels of commentary and opinion in news pages. Nowadays it’s common to hear reporters talking as though they are the decisive actors and people who need to be convinced (rather than people whose job is to ask questions and report stuff).
News clearly has been made even more assertive by the influence of the son of Rupert, who is clearly not as smart and a bit more ideological (whereas Rupert used his power to make money).
In general though the most egregious flaw is the overwhelming desire of reporters to express opinion – such that they often neglect to report the essential facts.
So our media is becoming less influential as it increasingly imposes its influence. People just ignore it, as I hope to see on Saturday.
User ID not verified.
if you don’t believe that the ABC is predominantly left wing then your judgement of what is left and right is way off
User ID not verified.
I like the way you think, Brian. You live in an electorate of roughly 100,000 voters. That electorate is one of 150 similarly sized electorates. There’s literally nothing of substance your vote can do on a national level. So you in particular shouldn’t vote.
User ID not verified.
I try not to trust my own judgement when data is available – even data that was commissioned by the Abbott government and published in The Australian!
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/audits-exonerate-abc-over-bias-claims/news-story/3ad4ba13a0751a74c2b417c13dcb52d6
User ID not verified.
From your view way on the right, everything looks left wing.
See below comment.
User ID not verified.
It is obviously very fashionable to hate on Australia’s most-read news publisher, and has been for some time now – especially from competing news outlets – but glass houses etc.
16/05 ‘The Guardian view on the Australian election’:
“We have always considered Guardian Australia readers capable of making their own voting decisions, but in 2019 we urge readers to heed the fact that Labor is the only party with a credible climate policy and a chance of forming government after Saturday.”
This isn’t from an opinion columnist. This is an editorial from the publisher.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/16/guardian-view-australian-election-vote-climate-emergency
User ID not verified.
Agreed, David. Most media people live within a 15km radius of the CBD and are unable to empathise with people who live outside the bubble (migrants, working-class, farmers).
And so rather than listening to non-media people, they’d rather tell them what to believe.
This goes for both “left wing” and “right wing media”.
User ID not verified.
@Duncan
If you believe that 9 is left and that The Guardian and The ABC are ‘far left’, I encourage you to brush up on your politics sir.
User ID not verified.
Many of the aggressive comments are from male names – just stating facts.
Trolls have infiltrated this post and the tactic is to create echo chambers. Take anyone of you out of your echo chambers and into a grown up, intelligent debate and most will fall over. (Just like Shapiro did in his recent interview with conservative Andrew Neil.). Frauds.
User ID not verified.
I’m stunned about the extreme ignorance being displayed in this comments stream.
Anyone who doesn’t understand that the Guardian is far left, closely followed by the ABC, then the Age, probably thinks The New Daily is a friendly, apolitical news service and that GetUp is a grassroots, non-partisan community organisation.
If this is you – you live in a bubble. Read the Australian, the News Ltd tabloids, the Spectator, Quadrant to get some balance in your life.
This myopia is a major difference between left and right-leaning peoples the world over – lefties claim to be centrist, and will decry the Murdoch press while denying the political bent of left-leaning media.
On the other hand, most conservative people will decry the left press while having absolutely no problem admitting that News Corp is right-leaning.
User ID not verified.
Jonah
You must be joking right? Have you watched the ABC lately? Where is your article on their far left bias?
Mike
User ID not verified.
All newspapers have editorials before an election saying which party they think should win. It is neither new nor unexpected. They do wrapups about which newspaper’s editorials support which political party.
User ID not verified.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/17/nt-news-breaks-ranks-as-only-news-corp-paper-to-endorse-bill-shorten
User ID not verified.
Everything is far left or far right if you don’t agree with it.
User ID not verified.
Back to the real vote,is our Kate going to win?
User ID not verified.