David McKnight

A change in the climate? The journalism of opinion at News Corporation

In 2007 the global media company News Corporation announced that it would become ‘carbon neutral’ and generally endorsed scientific warnings about global warming. Its CEO, Rupert Murdoch, signaled not only that the media group held a corporate view toward the issue of climate change but that its editorial coverage would henceforth change. This article examines the period before this change of direction. From 1997 to 2007 newspapers and television stations owned by News Corporation, based on their editorials, columnists and commentators, largely denied the science of climate change and dismissed those who were concerned about it. While the intensity of commentary and editorials about climate change varied between media outlets owned by News Corporation in the USA, Britain and Australia, its corporate view framed the issue as one of political correctness rather than science. Scientific knowledge was portrayed as an orthodoxy and its own stance, and that of ‘climate sceptics’ as one of courageous dissent.

A World Hungry for a New Philosophy: Rupert Murdoch and the rise of Neo-Liberalism

This paper outlines the high level of interest that News Corporations Chief Executive Officer, Rupert Murdoch, has always had in politics. It details his trajectory on the political spectrum, arguing that while his position has changed, one consistent theme has been libertarianism. It examines the political stance of News Corporations Australian flagship newspaper and argues that it helped forge a neo-liberal consensus in the late 1970s both within conservative political circles and within the Australian public.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation: A Media Institution with A Mission

Two recent events in the United States have focussed attention on the political influence of the giant media group News Corporation and its chief executive officer, Rupert Murdoch. In the aftermath of the 2008 election of Barack Obama as president of the United States, the cable channel Fox News, now appears to be openly mobilising conservative opposition to the new Democrat administration. After the purchase by News Corporation of the Wall Street Journal in 2007, that newspaper is now directing a major challenge to the New York Times, which is at least partly motivated by Rupert Murdoch’s frequently expressed political view that the Times’ belief in journalistic objectivity was a pretence to conceal the promotion of ‘left leaning perspectives.’ Such events are merely the latest experiences of a long history of News Corporation attempting (and succeeding) to exercise political influence in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. They also raise questions about the precise nature of the political beliefs of Rupert Murdoch and the political influence that he and News Corporation are said to exert. Within the significant popular and scholarly literature based on the activities of News Corporation, the theme of political power is prominent. This article seeks to examine two of the claims usually made in these accounts. First, that the media power exercised by Murdoch and News Corporation typically takes the form of support for (or opposition to) a particular party at elections or of particular decisions of a government. In these instances reference is frequently made to the relationship between Rupert Murdoch and the Reagan, Thatcher and Blair governments. Second, that the overriding objective of this exercise of political media power is largely to advance the business interests of News Corporation.

Public Contest through the Popular Media: The Mining Industry's Advertising War against the Australian Labor Government

This article explores the ‘mining tax ad war of 2010’, which contributed to the removal of a first-term Labor prime minister and shaped Australias Minerals Resource Rent Tax. In particular, it examines the uses, ethics and consequences of advocacy advertising, which is an under-explored aspect of communication power. The article identifies advocacy advertising as an increasingly prevalent technique used by corporations and lobby groups to influence public policy in Australia. In conclusion, the article focuses on the regulatory environment for such campaigns and the areas of future research that might help to safeguard democratic practices. 本文讨论了2010年的矿税广告战，该战把第一任期的工党领袖拉下了马，并造就了澳大利亚矿产资源租赁税。作者特别分析了广告宣传作为一种没太被研究的通讯权力的用途、伦理和结果。本文指出广告宣传日益成为公司和游说集团用以影响澳大利亚公共政策的流行工具。作者最后集中讨论了这类竞争的管制环境，以及有助于保护民主实践的未来研究领域。

Henry Mayer Lecture 2012: The market populism of Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdochs News Corporation is the most powerful media organisation in the world. Murdochs commercial success is obvious, but less well understood is his successful pursuit of political goals, using his news media. Murdoch himself is probably the most influential Australian of all time. He says the recent News of the World hacking scandal went ‘went against everything [he stands] for’. But how true is this? He sees himself as an anti-establishment rebel, yet his influence in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States makes him part of a global elite. He has become one of the key promoters of neo-liberal ideology of small government and deregulation over the past 30 years. The basis of his philosophy was expressed by one of his former editors, David Montgomery, who said ‘Rupert has contempt for the rules. Contempt even for governments.’ Murdoch is also a devotee of the neo-conservative wing of the US Republican Party. The possibility of exercising power through ownership of the news media has been little studied in recent years, but Murdochs role in English-speaking countries over the last 30 years shows that perhaps we need to look again at such media theories.

Western Intelligence and SEATO's War on Subversion, 1956–63

Between 1955 and 1963 Western intelligence agencies regularly met in Thailand under the auspices of the SEATO defence pact. The proceedings of the Committee of Security Experts (CSE) demonstrate a number of internal tensions within Western intelligence and between them and Asian security bodies. A study of the CSE also demonstrates the difficulty in employing counter-subversion strategies when they impinge on democratic rights. The multilateral CSE largely failed in its stated objectives while SEATO was increasingly by-passed by the United States, which pursued a more unilateral course culminating in the Vietnam War.

The Rudd Labor government and the limitations of spin

This article explores the news management practices of the first Rudd government (2007–2010) and the extent to which they were responsible for both the government’s initial success and its later decline and the subsequent replacement as Prime Minister of Kevin Rudd. Based on confidential interviews with 15 media advisers who worked for ministers in the first Rudd government, the article draws conclusions about the nature of the ‘permanent campaign’ and the double-edged nature of spin.

‘You’re all a bunch of pinkos’: Rupert Murdoch and the politics of HarperCollins

News Corporation is one of the most closely studied international media conglomerates, headed by the world’s most famous media proprietor. Yet, despite its prominence in the academic literature, little attention has been paid to the company’s book publishing operations. This article seeks to rectify this oversight. It investigates some of the more controversial book deals made by HarperCollins, outlining a partisan publishing pattern that conforms to Murdoch’s proclivity for conservative politics.

Partisan Improprieties: Ministerial Control and Australia's Security Agencies, 1962–72

Partisan behaviour and abuses by intelligence and security agencies have often been attributed to the fact that agencies have become ‘out of control’ or ‘rogue elephants’. But a detailed empirical study of the politicization of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) over ten years shows that the agency was not ‘out of control’ but very much under the control of its minister. The partisan use of security information arose from directives issued through the ‘democratic’ control exercised by a government. On the basis of this study, prevention of abuses by tighter governmental control is unlikely to work. A combination of government control, autonomy of the agency and independent scrutiny by an inspector-general is more likely to succeed.

The Rise of the Spin Doctor: From Personal Briefings to News Management

This article contextualises the rise of political spin in Australian politics and discusses its meaning and implications. It examines the largely unmediated relationship between political leaders and journalists that existed until the 1970s. It locates the foundational period in the growth of professionalised public relations in the Fraser and Hawke governments and suggests that an assertive new style of journalism played a role in its birth. It debates some of the literature on spin, and suggests that spin is a permanent fixture and that journalists need to devise creative responses to it rather than simply denounce it.