The 80/20 View: In the middle of a campaign celebrating facts and truth, why is The Age giving Clive Palmer its front page?
In his regular column for Mumbrella, media analyst Ben Shepherd discusses the curious placement of UAP advertising amid COVID restrictions.
I’m a fan of the latest campaign from BMF for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald (part of Nine Entertainment Co). It speaks to the end of ‘Closed Minds’, and promotes the fact-based journalism of the mastheads writers and contributors. ‘Minds Wide Open’, according to Kristen Turner who heads up subscriptions, is about “assert(ing) our role in provoking the conversations Australia needs to progress, beyond the relentless news cycle.”
In the middle of country wide lockdowns and huge political division it’s a pretty timely message. As we race towards vaccination and see unprecedented political and societal debate around everything from mask wearing to the brand of a vaccine, newspapers and the news media have a huge responsibility to report honestly and factually. What we read and see in these media outlets matters.
Which is why, as a loyal The Age reader, I was puzzled to see that the masthead had taken advertising for Clive Palmer today (the ad also appeared on front cover of News Corp’s The Australian today).
