News Ltd v the Rudd government … V for vendetta
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At least two things are clear from the shenanigans of the last fortnight. One is that News Ltd is pursuing a vendetta against the Rudd Government. The other is that the Rudd Government is exploiting that vendetta to avoid scrutiny and reinforce the Prime Minister’s popularity. Out the editorials came on the weekend,one, two, three, News Ltd mastheads justifying themselves in the wake of the faked email affair. Glenn “Tony and Tony” Milne wasn’t far behind yesterday. The obvious prompt was ongoing criticism of News Ltd from by the Prime Minister and Julia Gillard. A more inside-the-beltway prompt might have been Laura Tingle’s revelation in her “Canberra Observed” column last Friday that the PM’s office had been briefing journalists that the email was not genuine well before News Ltd’s deadline on 19 June. Tingle’s column was a rocket aimed directly at News Ltd’s defence of its dodgying-up of the Andrew Charlton-Godwin Grech email on 20 June: that the Prime Minister didn’t emerge to declare the email couldn’t be found until 7.30pm the evening before, so the first editions of News Ltd titles, including a graphic dressed up as an actual email exchange between Charlton and Grech, were appropriate given the evidence available. Instead, Tingle suggested it may have been payback because the Prime Minister’s Office had declined to put News Ltd journalists “on the drip” for stories. Steve Lewis, who wrote the articles concerned, rejected the charge, without specifically addressing it, in his account on the weekend. But whether the early editions on 20 June were a conspiracy or cock-up, it’s hard to avoid the impression that News Ltd is gunning hard for the Government. Delineating this from the normal partisanship of the company’s publications can be difficult. For example, economics editor Michael Stutchbury was given the front page of the Features section of The Weekend Australian to criticise the Government, but since Stutchbury finds it impossible to give the Government any credit for its economic performance, that’s nothing new. But Kevin Rudd — and we’ll get to him in a moment — has also been assailing News Ltd over its campaign against the education component of his stimulus package, and he is on strong ground. As we’ve pointed out previously, The Australian and other News Ltd newspapers have been flailing away on this issue to little effect for weeks, making unfounded claims and twisting the views of public figures to bolster their case. Yesterday the campaign appeared to go further, with Greg Callaghan saying that in trying to ban school league tables, the NSW Liberals were “lining up with Labor’s federal Education Minister Julia Gillard, who has declared she wants publication of the tables banned in all states”. Gillard has declared no such thing. She doesn’t support “simplistic league tables” — in fact everyone is in furious agreement that they don’t support simplistic league tables — but she is a strong advocate of releasing comparative performance data and, for that matter, allowing the media to do whatever it wants with it. Now, let’s be honest — all of this has little significance or interest beyond the Press Gallery. The only “take-out” most voters have from these issues is that Malcolm Turnbull tried to use a fake email, the Government is splurging a lot of money on new classrooms and halls at the local school, and Kevin wasn’t as funny as Sacha Baron Cohen on Rove. But the Prime Minister isn’t inclined to let it go through to the keeper. In fact, to persist with the cricket metaphor, he’s chasing the bowler with his bat raised. Now, every question relating faintly to probity issues prompts another shellacking of News Ltd. Rudd is clearly confident of a couple of things — that News Ltd isn’t exactly regarded as the fountain of truth amongst voters, and that journalists aren’t rated much higher than politicians in terms of credibility. It’s also the height of hypocrisy from Rudd. More than any previous Prime Minister, media and information management is a central part of the his political armoury. He and his advisers have a carefully-crafted strategy to maintain the PM’s image. Every statement on the public record from the Prime Minister has been carefully-prepared for maximum political effect. His attacks on News Ltd are all part of the strategy. Gerard Henderson tackled the issue today and suggests Rudd wants to be loved and is over-sensitive. Maybe. But I suggest a more plausible explanation is that every interaction of Rudd with the media is based on an agenda of control. |
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32 Comments
where have you people been? of course newscrap is despised and distrusted - and for every good reason. why else do you think Rudd is attacking them? he has everything to gain and newscrap has everything to lose. and it’s all their own fault. the public will love rudd for this.
Today I cancelled my subscription to the weekday Australian, after being a regular since Day 1. The biassed reporting and interpretation has become too much to justify continued support. Dennis Shanahan is probably the worst of the bunch, but there are many others, not sufficiently offset by people like George Megalogenis, who tells it like it is. I’ll keep getting the Weekend Australian in order to keep in touch with what the extreme right wing of politics is saying, given my belief that you need to be exposed to all opinions. Mind you, I don’t know where I can get a left wing opinion from, in today’s media.
Surprise was expressed that Rudd declared war on News. But when the editorial policy is so clearly to mount a vendetta, he has nothing to lose.
The same could be said of the SMH and NSW Labor. Sure, the government seems to be a basket case, but it must get some things right. We will never hear about them from the Herald.
The result is that on these matters, I personally hardly believe a word I read.
(I felt a bit the same way with Crikey on Costello. I lack balance about Costello — didn’t like him either — but was not as far gone as Crikey.)
Talk about your vendettas.. if Crikey hasn’t got one against News I’d be astounded…have a look back through the Crikey file of the past 3 years, the sheer number of anti News articles is incredible……be nice to see a little balance on Crikey’s side as well I’d reckon…and by the way
Mr.Squid…despised and mistrusted…are you serious? They sell about 1.5 million papers a day, son…according to you there’s a lot of silly people out there who possibly don’t agree with your point of view?
Crikeys Bernard Kean should understand that its paid subscribers have pretty good s$hit filters. It flows from that that Crikey should try to do what its founder Stephan Mayne did report / expose leading edge information and let its subscribers do what we will with it!. I have provided Newscrap with very instructive photos on the subject of Piles Creek only to witness them being buried. It is sad but Crikey is becoming what its founder set up to combat subservant paid informers!
Edward James UMINA CBD 0243419140
i buy the oz as one of my four daily papers. that doesn’t mean it isn’t a gutter rag. i watch channel 10 occasionally, and that doesn’t mean it isn’t the sleaziest channel on FTA. I occasionally listen to Neil Mitchell, and that doesn’t mean that he isn’t a typical shock-jock jerk.
my local blog is jam-packed with posts about our local murdoch paper, and they all make the same points: this organisation doesn’t know how to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. it is a blight on decent intelligent society.
the murdoch gutter press is why journalists are held in lower regard than politicians, used car salesmen and lawyers (in that order).
it is why blogs like this are prospering.
That’s funny,
Bernard Keane complaining about vendetta’s and lack of balance given his body of work at Crikey.
Talk about your black kettles and pots.
Mr Squid, as soon as someone opens up with “a blight on decent intelligent society” it give me pause to wonder, if I disagree with you, then I’m not placed in the decent society that you obviously bung yourself in?
Anyway, the blogs of which you’re so passionate about, they’re obviously impartial and always truthful I take it? Doubt it…blogs are opinion pieces often with inflammatory language such as gutter rag and sleaziest channel, not dissimilar to what you used above..makes me think that maybe you’re out to provoke comment, so well done. If you’re not then, well you have an extremely strong opinion, rightly or wrongly…blogs are perhaps the place for you, with a few of your like minded friends, you can all whinge together
If buying the Oz pains you so, perhaps you need to re-think your strategy.
by the way what are the four daily papers you get each day?
By the way, good point James
Laura Tingle hit the mark when she said the Oz has become more vindictive and outlandish. Something has happened there over the last 18 months or so, maybe the word has come down from the Sun King himself. I have got the Australian since 1993- as the West Australian got too much. One can put up with the Oz’s conservative bias- it’s quite open about that- but recently the share of its content that is given over to right wing opinion has grown and its tone is increasingly strident as it pushes its agenda (get Rudd, climate change is not happening).
Rudd and Labor are playing the same game with their political opponents that Howard and the Coalition played with the left when the Coalition was in government: Provoke opponent to outrage over confections that either, are storms in teacups, or, which blow up in the face of the opponent, with the effect of making the opponents look like fools to the middle ground. The difference this time around is that the News Ltd hacks are on the receiving end of this treatment and the constituency that the PM believes he has to keep onside has changed.
If there were doubts before last weekend News Limited has a political bent there aren’t any now. The intriguing bit is how Murdoch’s editors and executives co-ordinated the blitz. Was there a head office editorial meeting with an interstate hook-up or did they circulate a pro-forma opinion piece to each masthead which would explain the thematic nature of their stories and editorials. “Mr Rudd’s media office has a reputation for slippery weasel words and outright falsehoods; journalists take what Mr Rudd’s office says with a shaker of salt and the same man’s press officers….routinely demand most questions be emailed so they can parse them like a legal document”. Working for News Limited must be like working for an MP – you have to buy a ticket in a party matching your employer’s colours.
So where are the traditional labor policies relating to concentration of media ownership?
Why do we tolerate the intolerable (read indigestible ideologically driven bullshit) simply because the elephant cannot be named? Or discussed. Or even mentioned in any papoer for longer than I can remember. WTF? And whyTF?
It really pisses me off that this huge pachaderm just mills about trampling the daisies and causing the traffic to veer around it but nobody seems interested in SHOOTING THE F’N THING.
Why has this whole crisis unfolded? Because we allow two massively powerful corporate entities to control 80% of our mass media market and so provide a platform for ideology and interest to run the news agenda.
Does anyone really doubt that if News were interested in reporting fact rather than peddling their interest and arguing a case that this whole thing would never have occurred? I mean come on!!!!
Do we really want a society where the PM’s office and News are in a negotiation over what the ‘truth’ is.
The fact that Rudd feels he is in a position to publicly attack the credibility of News Ltd means private polling must be showing large swathes of the public are finally becoming aware of News Ltd’s political agenda and lack of impartiality when reporting the news. I would go as far as suggesting that apart from the most rusted-on Liberal voters, most people now assume that ANY negative story about the government coming from News Ltd outlets is either a beat-up or an outright lie. The fake email stuff was the perfect example that has now confirmed all our suspicions.
Hopefully, as public awareness continues to grow, the government will gain enough support to introduce legislation to reduce the concentration of media ownership in this country, therefore devolving News Ltd. It would have my 100% support provided it allows many alternate voices.
spot on anthony. i would suggest, however, that most people now assume that ANY newscrap story is an outright lie.
unless you know yourself that something newscrap says is true, then it must be regarded as an untruth until independently proved otherwise.
the beauty of rudd’s position is that it will almost certainly spur newscrap even further into the dark depths inhabited by the likes of pearson, dolt, albrechtsen, milne and the two shanahans.
and to a direct point, we might start getting some answers, such as what was its real role in helping to concoct the email scandal.
@Ken Benson:
“Talk about your vendettas.. if Crikey hasn’t got one against News I’d be astounded… be nice to see a little balance on Crikey’s side as well I’d reckon…”
Why? If there isn’t a balance, why artificially create one? It would be inaccurate and irresponsible to start running articles for the sole reason of “balance”.
Ken, Edward, James et al - which of our mainstream media is politically left? News Limited or Fairfax?
FACT: Just after the Libs launch their “debt” truck Labor launches its “Australia has the lowest debt level of any major economy” truck.
FACT: Labors inability to think for themselves is laughable.
FACT: Rudd is the best thing that happened to Labor ever.
FACT: Crikey sucks…
I bought the Oz more or less for entertainment value leading up to the last federal election. Never seen Rupert do that before. News hacking on the left…surely not…
Please accept my apologies for my previous post.
I really do empathise with the left. It must be hard for you.
You thought in Rudd you got Hilary Clinton, but in truth you got Paris Hilton.
Joel the only thing that sucks around here is your mouth as it envelopes the bulbous organ of absolute fertiliser being spread by the likes of you and your Liberal ilk.Today the liar, dishonest, smirking, user of human beings Turnbull set out on a campaign of deceit and fear, supported by Sky News (who incidently have finally gone public that their CEO is that same CEO of News Ltd) he who proudly justifies the likes of Milne, Bolt, Akerman, Shanahan, Albrechtsen etc etc whose existance as proud, professional journalists should be a state of joyfull celebration for us mere mortals. If written bullshit was a popular for sale commodity, News Ltd and Sky would be beside themselves in expounding it.
Again today Sky news gave the fat useless liar and twister of truth, Hockey 15 mins to expound his doctrine of make believe. Never once answering a question with a yes or no. Of course the pathetic interviewing by the lame brain Kieran Gilbert a pathetic excuse for a journalist, who wouldnt know a decent searching question if it kicked him in the below regions, let Hockey entirely off the hook, an unbaited hook at that.
So its not just the news Ltd word journalists who are stacking up against Rudd, the verbal lot are at it as well. They want a war, I have a sneeky feeling who will wear the victors crown, and you know who that is Joel dont you and it gets right under your thick skin. Hey doo doo brain, you support the discredited Turnbull and his mates, they are your type and it suits you…..DAMN I FEEL BETTER FOR THAT.
I trust neither of the major news providers, just as much as I trust neither of the two major political parties.
You may call me a political extremist, but there really is too much centralisation of power here in Australia. Not to mention too many levels of Government.
Much like I think there needs to be a breakup of the media conglomerates here, I think the same needs to be considered for political parties - for too long legitimate concerns have been ignored. Very little actually gets done in Parliament these days (or it seems that way, anyway) except for shouting matches, which, while quite enjoyable, defeats the purpose.
On the other hand, with the current effective centralisation of power, maybe that’s a good thing…
The idealogues, people with a well-thought-out political agenda, work as unelected members of the media.
The elected politicians, who used to work from some basis of ideology (public ownership of resources, a free rein for capitalists, whatever) now spend all their energy responding to whatever the media decides is the agenda (and maybe a bit of input from focus groups and their mates).
For me, I’d love to see a few rabid socialists in the Labor Party again, along withsome good old fashioned conservative widow-and-orphan frighteners in the Liberal Party.
(reposting from today’s Crikey Daily Mail Comments:)
Michael James writes: Re. “News Ltd v the Rudd government … V for vendetta” (yesterday, item 3). Rudd’s attacks on News Ltd may be the pot calling the kettle black but Bernard Keane is forgetting that all this may have been more for the benefit of his home constituency. It happened last week when Rudd and Gillard were up north for the “Cabinet in Logan” thing.
The overt bias of The Australian may be amusing to you Mexicans south of the border but up here it is not a joke. It was perhaps significant that Rudd made his aggressive remarks about the Courier Mail’s coverage in response to a Utegate question from Madonna King on her ABC 612 morning show. Ms King happens to be the wife of the editor of the Courier Mail, and also a regular Courier Mail columnist. Oh yes, in Brisbane we not only have the “choice” in print journalism between The Oz, Courier Mail and mX but we have even more Murdoch from “our” ABC.
To be fair, Ms King does seem to reasonably balance her various professional and personal overlaps, at least on the face of things. But as far as media monopolies goes things have actually got worse since the Bjelke-Peterson years!
V may be for Vendetta but in this town dial M for Murdoch.
I try to practice my principles but of course fail miserably and consequently am a hypocrite. However, all those bloggers complaining about News Ltd (as I do) but still buying their rags: STOP! You have the choice. This is almost the only thing that has a hope of changing things and you can do your bit. Ever since returning from decades o/s I quickly decided not to financially support Murdoch rags, especially the totally obscene monopoly that exists in Brisbane (in my earlier post I forgot to list Brisbane News the weekly freebie, also News Ltd. of course). Of course it is now easy to do that because one can still access it on the web if compelled (though I have also largely succeeded in disciplining myself not to read Planet Janet or Bolt — him especially, never. I rely on Rundle to do heroic duty and plow through their tedious garbage — I trust he gets paid well.) Of course the Courier Mail has a grip on Brisbane but I now “borrow” the Real Estate section from my local cafe on Saturdays (the only section with “real” information and being a property-obsessed boomer). Unfortunately my correct behaviour has not been rewarded by Fairfax which continues to do all the wrong things and decline. The small politics and media status (along with you whingeing bloggers who continue to buy The Australian!) are just two more things that will probably drive me back o/s — with fat property profits with any luck!
Hi Michael: it’s not necessarily that easy. Like you I live in a city where there is the 1 inadequate newspaper- in our case not owned by News. I want to read national news in a newspaper, the Australian does that for me but as per my earlier post it’s getting a bit tiresome of late as its becomes more strident. I am on the cusp perhaps of swapping over to the AFR , but much of its content doesn’t interest me very much. P.s A ‘whingeing blogger’?, or simply making comment.?
Good wrap of the weekend threads there I thought. Quite a compelling pattern to be sure.
I wonder about people generally wising up to News Corp bias. Not convinced. And in any case the SMH runs Henderson and Costello so what do you call that? Sydney Institute won’t reveal it’s donors, and last I heard Costello is a founder of the HR Nichols society.
As soon as the Victorian bushfires happened Fairfax dropped it’s ecopages like a hot spud too. So much for conviction.
Interesting what you say about Laura Tingle picking up that the Govt were trashing the provenance of the fake email before 19th of June. Does that mean they had a role in a Karl Rove style ‘self smear’ blowback strategy? A sting? Mmm.
But what I think more so is that Dame Elizabeth can’t live forever and just about then the days of The Australian will be very quickly realised, harvesting the position so to speak. Talent or no talent, it’s called web advertising.
DJPL and Michael James, could not have said it better. Iam from outer brisbane and have not bought any LTD News papers for years and only read Crikey and New Matilda etc etc and the free local papers. One of them is the Jimboomba Times, dont know who owns it ,but its all anti-Labor and have a local councilor(Barrister) in Logan who is a Liberal/Nat lover and was caught using council time and resources to raise money for the Liberal party. Guest who gets good press coverage and when she gets bad press, guess what, a volley of supporters and a Barrister friend and leaflet droper checks up on the electoral roll and has mentioned law suits? I say go in hard Labor and stop rupert and his gang of liars.
Decided to watch Kieran Gilbert on Sky News PM edition tonight wow has he been got at by his CEO or what? His guests were The Australians Jennifer Hewett and Financial Reviews, the blonde ice berg herself Laura Tingle, she who a smile would crack the facade. There’s a couple of side saddle riders with both feet fimly in the Libs corner. But better was to come Gilberts other guest was the pride of the red stocking set Lord Downer, he the pompous one. Bloody hell its pay back time and Gilbert conducted the most slack, boring, non descript uninteresting attempt at an interview that would have him booted from a reputable News organisation. Yep, News Ltd boss has told the troops to get up the Government alright. What a shame there is no talent to fire the cannons, or in news Ltd and Sky, the pop guns. Incidently Gilbert should familiarise himself with the below average jounalists best friend, a dictionary. He had trouble understanding words the PM used in a speech in Germany. After playing the Interview he asked the snakey Hewitt what the words meant, she actually knew and spat back the interpretation. Gilbert of course was attempting to play the funny boy, but badly. What a useless excuse for a jurno he is but par for the course in Sky. So what did the aged former Minister Downer have to say? Absolutely sweet fanny adams. What a pathetic 25mins of sham, making out as a political current affairs programme. Nothing changes in the News Ltd stable, oh except do as Grandad Ruperts flunkies tell you children. Doesn’t matter if its made up, hearsay, imagination, as long as you attack the Govt go for it. They just do not learn. 2007 taught them nothing. I do not see any kinks in the Rudd/Gillard armour and News Ltd and Sky are not up to denting it.
Bernard, your last minute jump to brand Rudd a hypocrite on this topic has got me stumped. If, as has been quite clear, News Limited and Aunty( by just running with pretty much any swill the former has served up) have become an extension of the opposition attack machine, as you document, why wouldn’t the government attempt to cut through to the public in another manner?
Too bad they have engaged in the tactics that have obviously pissed off the media as a whole. The tears of Jon Faine and Barry Cassidy, as examples, give me cause to laugh rather than sympathise.
I think your vendetta hype is overdone. The very few attacks that Gillard and Rudd tried on have largely been filtered through the News limited sieve of opinion piece and editorial. Their initial quite reasonable response to the utegate bucketing was hardly reported by any media.
JAMESMMOYLAN. Perhaps we do need a society where the PM’s office is in negotiation with at least one paper over what truth is. Because the way things are right now with his Fullness, Rupert Murdoch, owning the majority of the newspapers in Oz, it gives his employees-Andrew Bolt et al-the chance to soak the reading public in a vast cauldron of lies, vitriol, bloody-mindedness, and hideous deception; and the complete liberty to manufacture it at will.
Whatever anyone wants to call this solecism of sludge, Democracy it ain’t.
Yeah, what venise said sounds about right…although i would add that if you are buying any of the print media offered by murdoch and seriously believe any single thing his media empire disgorges, you should begin by explaining how you’ve come across the money to feed your disturbing habit in the first place.