Rupert Murdoch’s Labor Murder
Politics and Controversy; the two words go hand in hand, and due to the recent election political cat-fights continue to swamp our media channels nation-wide. Holding most of the Australian newspaper market share is Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. Since the election, and given the results, particular controversy has surrounded News Corp and the constant Liberal bias of the company’s publications. If it weren’t for News Corp’s market dominance, this would be a non-issue, but with front page headlines reading “Kick this mob out”, referring to Labor and “Australia needs Tony” advocating Liberal, it’s hard to argue that News Corp journalists didn’t have an agenda this election.
Owned by Rupert Murdoch, News Corp Australia titles account for more than 59% of the sales of all daily newspapers, with 17.3 million papers sold per week. These publications are widely distributed, circulated, and read with competitors falling behind by a considerable margin. Newspapers are considered among one of the most trustworthy media sources for information. Studies by The Newspaper Works found that national and large metro newspapers in particular provide readers with a world view and are seen as the authority on the big picture issues. Given the pure saturation of News Corp papers in Australia, Rupert Murdoch has considerable influence over public opinion, the conversations that take place and the issues that are debated. When it comes to this year’s election, the ABC’s Media Watch analysed one week’s worth of political coverage in Mr Murdoch’s Daily Telegraph. This analysis found that of the 80 election stories printed, half were considered negative to Labor but none negative to the Coalition.
Rupert, himself, made no secret of his political views, posting on his Twitter feed “Aust election public sick of public sector workers and phony welfare scroungers sucking life out of economy. Other nations follow in time”, and “Australians just sick of Gillard’-Rudd incompetence”.
These comments, alongside the overwhelming Liberal bias exposed by the ABC’s Media Watch arouse suspicion that Rupert Murdoch’s personal beliefs have influence over what is published nationwide. While responses to this notion have seen comments that Rupert Murdoch’s editors practice editorial independence, previous cases of this behaviour do not do News Corp journalists any favours. For example as British Labor MP, Tom Watson noted, in 2003 “all 175 of his newspapers supported the invasion of Iraq. Are you telling me that all 175 of his editors independently reached the same decision?”. Based on these numbers, it appears as though Australians have been disserviced by News Corp journalists and consequently, a trusted media source.
This isn’t the first time that News Corp publications have clearly and consistently backed one political party over another — and won. In the 1992 UK election, The Sun claimed victory on behalf of the unexpected Conservative party win, with the front page reading “It’s the Sun Wot Won It”. This was following a decade long campaign to diminish Labor party. It is not illegal for a newspaper to back one political party, with the Press Council stating that newspapers have the right to hold a political opinion and favour particular candidates. However, the Press Council further states that “a paper’s editorial viewpoints and its advocacy of them must be kept separate from its news columns”. When such biased material is used as front page material and weave throughout articles, it can often prove difficult in distinguishing opinion pieces from subjective journalism.
Despite News Corp’s political bias, political attitudes are often deeply rooted and multiple factors can contribute to someone’s preferences. Being someone who went into this election with no strong political preference, I personally found social media helpful in deconstructing party policies. Facebook, in particular was used as a vehicle for political campaigning not only by politicians themselves, but by my family and friends. Here they posting posted about policies that effect my generation such as university fees, the National Broadband Network, pay rates and the job market, and it was here that I learned more extensively about issues that may not have been covered so intensively in the media.
Overall, for those who were in limbo of voting, perhaps News Corp publications played a role in how they viewed the two separate leaders and their parties. Many swinging voters make their minds up very late in the campaign, so editorial endorsements may result in marginal influence on the late deciders. However, while I cannot make the grand sweeping statement that News Corp won the election for the Coalition, what I can state, is that backing one political party so fiercely (and essentially alienating 50% of Australian readers) is not without its consequences.
