Murdoch’s far-right Sky News is working overtime to show how they sow disinformation into public debate. This article is probably the best example yet of why we need a #MurdochRoyalCommission. It is packed full of carefully selected facts that add up to one big lie.
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Sky’s dodgy article is based on a new report by Canberra University which analyses diversity, trust and political in Australia’s media. And Sky News completely misconstrues the report’s findings.
For example, this article says Sky News is “smack bang on the line for centrist views”. Bullshit. Here’s where the report puts the Sky News channel, way off to the lunar right. No mention of this in Sky’s article.
This terrifies me: Morrison is de-funding the ABC & that’s clears a path for Sky News to replace it in regional Australia. The risk of replicating America’s Fox News phenomenon in Australia is crystal clear. abc.net.au/news/2021-06-2…
The University of Canberra study explicitly indicates that Sky News viewers in Australia lean even farther to the right than viewers of Murdoch’s Fox News!
SkyNews outrageously claims @ConversationEDU – an academic website – attracts “the most ideologically radical extremists in the country”. Have they forgotten how thousands of SkyNews viewers cheered at news of a young woman being shot in the head? theguardian.com/media/2021/may…
SkyNews claims regional Australians enjoy “infinite media diversity” because they can read “obscure blogs about candle-making”. Complete rubbish. Tell that to the 112 communities where Murdoch closed their local newspapers, sacking reporters last year. bbc.com/news/business-…
Murdoch’s abuses of power are beyond doubt. Just ask Rupert's son, James Murdoch, who spent decades in the family business. He says Murdoch “hides agendas”, “legitimises disinformation” and “sows doubt to obscure fact” in public debates like climate change smh.com.au/business/compa…
If Murdoch’s cheer-squad in politics want to know why 500,000+ Australians signed up for a #MurdochRoyalCommission, they need look no further than how this article misrepresents the facts to conceal Murdoch’s influence and his rejection of fact. Join us at MurdochRC.com
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If you watch nothing else today about Australia's COVID lockdown, watch this.
Despite Murdoch's relentless attacks, QLD lifts the lid on Morrison's bungled vaccine rollout & national quarantine crisis. Why has Murdoch deliberately understated these crises?
A thread.
Premier Palaszczuk reveals National Cabinet never approved AstraZeneca for under-40s. Neither did the independent experts panel, ATAGI. Nor did Australian doctors, the Australian Medical Association.
Why is Morrison pushing young people to take AstraZeneca? QLD Health Minister says they have 8 DAYS of Pfizer left & have been denied requests for more. Murdoch is wrong to blame state govts for slow rollout. The truth is there's a Pfizer shortage.
There's so much lacking in Morrison's latest policy backflip: a quarantine station in the middle of Brisbane. I barely know where to start. After his failures on quarantine, this smells like a political fix aided and abetted by Murdoch's #CourierFail.
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Morrison has made an unmitigated mess of quarantine, evidenced by the thousands of Aussies still trapped overseas. He promised they'd all be home by last Christmas. Many (including me) called on Morrison to consider regional defence bases for quarantine. He has repeatedly refused
While Albo & Labor Premiers campaigned for national quarantine, Morrison's Liberals scoffed & criticised. They rejected a concrete QLD proposal for Toowoomba, outside Brisbane. Rostered staff could stay on-site to prevent constant interaction between them and the community.
Murdoch's NewsCorp can't get its story straight on public apologies. When an ABC Radio host mistakenly names Murdoch as a donor to the far-right IPA,it's newsworthy. But when SkyNews spreads lies to viewers (that #MurdochRoyalCommission petition was "data harvesting") not a peep!
Here's the apology Murdoch’s Peta Credlin would like Australians to forget.
Event 1) Murdoch's SkyNews posted a short, factual clip from its morning news broadcast, lasting only 40 seconds. It reported on UK activist, Sasha Johnson, who is in intensive care after being shot in the head.
This is a dead-set lie by Murdoch’s CEO, Michael Miller, telling senators that I “proactively approached” them to write an article on China last Saturday. Nothing in that statement is true.
Here are the facts... THREAD /1
On February 5, the US magazine @ForeignAffairs published a lengthy essay I had written entitled “Short of War: How to Keep US-Chinese Confrontation from Ending in Calamity”. You can read it here: foreignaffairs.com/articles/unite… /2
On February 9, I sent the essay to literally hundreds of folks in the global policy community for their thoughts & feedback. One of them was Alan Howe, a journalist I’ve known for many years, who’s now at The Australian. We don’t agree on everything but I do value his opinion. /3
The Morrison Government pretends that it cares about the mismanagement of public money, but everywhere you turn you see them splurging on waste and pet projects while cutting services for those in need. Let me share one recent personal experience.
15 months ago, in Sept 2019, I wrote to the Morrison Govt to ask about the new Foreign Influence Transparency Register, which is designed to catch foreign agents trying to influence our politics. It affects everyone, but the rules are tighter for former ministers, as they should.
I have been a supporter of this Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme (FITS) legislation from the beginning, because it's important to keep tabs on actual agents of foreign government influence who are trying to affect Australian politics. It's a good and worthy objective.