Transcripts For ALJAZ The Listening Post 2020 Ep 32 20240712

Murdoch was allowed to get the. Answer because you know youve got to. Talk or you cant tell. A lot. Of. Hello im richard disparate and youre watching a special edition of the listening post this week we examine Rupert Murdoch one of the worlds biggest media empires and its coverage of coke at 90 were focusing on the 2 countries where murdochs Companies News corp and fox corp are most heavily invested and at their most influential astray and the United States on the american side fox news is reporting on the coronavirus has been politically partisan inaccurate to the point of being a legitimate danger to the health of its viewers sky news astray as well as newspapers like the australian use a similar formula as fox whether its this pandemic or coverage of Climate Change a parade of right wing commentators reflecting the channels politics and dismissing the science if thats what it takes a stray idea is also where 2 former Prime Ministers are now saying its time to bring murdoch Media Outlets theyre under control later in this program ill speak with one of them Malcolm Turnbull but 1st the listening posts flow phillips on the murdoch factor in covert 1000 coverage stateside and down on. The editor in the Daily Telegraph really joins us live just another night on fox news and one of americas highest. Rated political talk shows Tucker Carlson tonight except show a pint viewers would have seen in this segment how Rupert Murdochs news outlets even those located in different parts of the world can work hand in hand to further a common agenda different for various types of car by china carlsons guest beaming in from sydney is Shari Markson Political Editor of the murdoch own Daily Telegraph she also hosts a program on his news channel sky News Australia on may 2nd moxon broke exclusive story based on a leaked intelligence dossier from what she called concerned western governments the dossier suggested the coronavirus may have been created in a lab in the chinese city of leeds where the very 1st cases of covert 19 were detected off the stories 1st on the Daily Telegraph its 2nd star sky News Australia paper path back on track west. Africa i guess china. The current. 3rd stop the us and fox news because its a multinational effort i think to be hard to dismiss as a portable dark cross pollination between Media Outlets in the same organization is common if theres merit to the story but the dossier they called a bombshell turned out to be a dud Fact Checkers concluded it amounted to nothing more than the results of the beautified google said. Your piece is a blow against clients are grateful that you wrote it and they are as for those concerned western governments from all indications the story was leaked to the Daily Telegraph by the Us State Department its an amazing piece of journalism that you turned out and im ashamed that no one in America Murdochs press has done that over the years on occasion where they will take information in the Australian Press and then recycled it back into the American News mainstream allow. I am not to hang the hat of an American News outlet on it elements of the Murdoch Press in australia have really focused enough on the narrative that really began out of us that the virus has escaped from the glue hand lab the most vociferously has been the commentators on sky and. Deceptions of the Chinese Communist regime running the same sort of linus weve seen from pompei aisle and charm him self that youre china has a lot of questions to answer and i think there has been some attempts by the us to sway a strike firmly into the critics of china and of course news corp publications pine important part in that. The us and australia are by far and away the 2 biggest branches of Rupert Murdochs media empire in the land of his birth murdoch and his media conglomerate news corp are in sight of monopoly he owns the countrys only National Paper the australian cities Daily Telegraph dozens of regional outlets and sky News Australia murdochs outsized influence makes him a defacto kingmaker in australian Politics News corp is notorious for using its outlets to lobby hard against politicians or policy. In the us murdochs adopted her fox news is the most visible and most profitable of his American Home he and his eldest son laughlin the heir apparent also controlled the wall street journal and the New York Post d and theres no one size fits all murdoch news template only us murdoch follows kind of a high low formula that you see emulated in australia the highs represented in some ways by the wall street journal which has done very. It had reporting intensive reporting about all the elements involving this crisis and then you have fox news as well as the New York Post and theyve taken a more alarmist a more conflict generating kind of approach to covering. News outlets used to criticism they have thick skins but the backlash theyve been getting for that coronavirus coverage is on another level. April 3rd 2020 an open letter to fox Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch and Fox Corporation c. E. O. Lock. In is a journalism professor at Columbia University in new york in april alarmed by what folks was saying about the virus getting in the next into the mud ups and he was not alone 186 of his media clearly signed on to the misinformation that reaches the fox news audience is again for the Public Health inexcusable and fox news has violated elementary canons of journalism in so doing it has contributed to the spread of the grave endemic urgently there in the name of both Good Journalism and Public Health we call upon you to help protect the lives of all americans including your elderly viewers by ensuring that the information you deliver is based on science and the times ive read helding a number of conversations with friends and colleagues about the toxic role played by fox news in our general Political Landscape but in particular about the coronavirus what theyre scaring the women how out of people and i i see it again as like oh whats bludgeon trump with this new coax hannity channeled. Trump delivered frequently at a time when the coronavirus could have been stopped much earlier than it was. To the effect that the pandemic was a democratic. Side of the disease with. A chronic virus and no one should be that afraid cancer garbage. We asked fox news for comment on the kooris of criticism around its coverage they referred us to multiple. Reports illustrating the basic prime time news program aimed at emphasizing the severity of an emerging outbreak since mid january including the breaking news that we visited places would escalate. Across the. Response wasnt a surprise the hilo formularies of play within fox news too while many segments do provide straight reporting its the opinion mongers that like to play fast and loose with the facts and new sensationalism to go viral for instance that clip fox news referred to it has 13000 views on facebook i couldnt even find it on the previous day however sean hannity had an exclusive interview with president trying to trump downplayed this verity of the virus calling it a corona flu with 0 pushback from sean Hannity Interview almost 400000 views on facebook and 1700000 on you choose. The criticism over fox news is covert coverage does continue to matter but it seems the network has little to worry about. President. In australia its a different story leading the calls to bring murdoch and news corp under control the 2 former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and kevin rudd while in office both tried to appease murdoch but since being ousted which they partly blame on negative coverage in the Murdoch Press theyve gone public on the perils of news corps influence kevin rudd has written an op ed during the pandemic on the companys proton anti china agenda and last year he described the murdoch media as a cancerous growth on australias democracy. And former news corp reporters are also speaking out Anthony Klann spent 15 years on the inside at the australian he quit last year citing serious misgivings over the papers editorial direction and so bernie political agenda. News corp is always held on to a narrative. Being contrary which is something tracked me in the 1st place to the organization but when that used as a mask for pushing vested interests its an entirely different story never seen anything like this the last evening or basically all the worst excesses that have been around for years but magnified and undone need to perform a promise to kevin rudd. Not a little bit but i believe but if you have a major gratian thats suppressing information from the public so that the public informed decisions then hes right it has become an answer and the problem for a strategy though is that we just have so few voices that various takeovers of bait allowed to happen anymore its a relatively small market and now were reaping much of sudden we do have some countervailing forces like we have a very well funded public broadcaster but basically news corp because of its rates to so many c. D. s that National News the main 24 hour news channel. It has extraordinary class politics. In the us folks news has also seen the departure of journalists who say the network has gone too far called hamline was one of the fox news is the 1st time he joined when the channel launched in 1906 which wraps up his campaign day in delaware then the South Carolina his beat was politics he had an inside view of the channel lurching further and further to the right. In 2017 after the election of donald trump coming quick there still is a difference between the journalists and the opinion hosts of fox whats changed is the total just parity there are way more opinion makers than there are News Reporters on the fox reports the president through its opinion host we watched president tom daylight as it were to take this nation for so frightening the rebel want to talk price of physical. And spiritual strength after 911. 00 and ultimately the iraq war thats when things began to get much more nationalistic on fox much more red white and blue and ultimately where things began to kind of go off the rails with news versus opinion but there are very good journalists who work at fox and very good people who work there that is not the point of fox the point of fox is not to do Good Journalism the point of fox is to put on a lively and Entertaining Program that either appeals to people pleasure palate or creates nothings id in them to keep them watching. Other events. That murdochs Media Outlets have loaned be that ideological odds with liberal politicians and journalists who lean to the latter more telling than that however is the adversarial relationship that they now have science before turning their focus on took over 19 of the models. As were aggressively fighting the prevailing narrative of the science on Climate Change the best analogy that we have for foxs coverage particularly coverage of chronic virus pandemic is in some ways Climate Change where you would have fox privilege essential unproven unsubstantiated in marginal assertions and elevated them to the equal of the consensus of the vast majority of the Scientific Community Climate Trends that were experiencing are natural which isnt to say there arent scientific disputes and isnt to say also that our knowledge doesnt evolve in a shift and change its almost to portray scientific and medical knowledge as though its the same as political debate the news corp publications have been the last best unit of climate denialism in a strain then i would say were giving equal time to both sides but even as the science has advanced to the point where its really hard to find a scientist who says Climate Change doesnt exist theyve continued with a lot of coverage that casts doubt on Climate Change there is such a thing as just plain worth when i started at the organization i believe that was 90 percent ideology at least. But now ive come to the opinion its 10 percent ideology the rest of its money and its that interest you see credibly in the pockets of the of the lobbyists of the minerals of the morning and the gas and all the big banks these corporations response to Climate Change and coronavirus one of the biggest threats of edge interaction is extraordinarily similar it was sort of an oil its not happening talking of excuses i was just amazed. A little debate to be had to ogle what the skies and fox news of the world are doing the murder we put on a lot. Of their own no that opinion. Even. Misguided money. When i give lectures to kids in college who are talking about going to Journalism School i say what do you think my product. And they say oh the truth oh the news whats relevant whats really important global going and as far as my bosses were concerned my product was your eyeballs when i got a coke of marshaling on one of the things that people dont understand is that everything theyre watching right now people are making money. Really comes out of my mouth is going to leave somebody to watch a t. V. To watch something on it or an ad on their handheld or this is commerce thats what its about. The extent to which the murdochs actually believe the sometimes. And occasionally dangerous content that papuans protonix something the family keeps to sound the Business Model no mystery whether the news channels are beaming at if only your opinions count more than fact profits trump the truth even during a pandemic. Analyzing the journalism produced by murdoch Media Outlets is straightforward understanding what motivates the man at the top is more complicated Rupert Murdoch seldom speaks to the press we know that he holds conservative views demands and gets access to political leaders however ideology does not always explain his actions or his agenda one man who knows murdoch better than most is a former Prime Minister of australia now comparable turnbull has dealt with murdoch over the decades 1st as a journalist covering murdochs rise in the us then as a politician when according to turnbull Rupert Murdoch led an insurgency in the press to oust him from the Prime Ministers office if murdoch turned on Turnbull Turnbull has since returned the favor its all documented in his new memoir. Bigger picture Malcolm Turnbull joins me now to discuss all of that and more mr turnbull thanks for joining us here at the listening post today great to be with you richard you havent always d been a critic of Rupert Murdoch have you and in fact you write about interviewing murdoch back in the 1970 s. When you were a journalist based in new york city and you wrote that you couldnt help but admire murdoch did you get that story wrong back in the day i dont think so he was the key was young he was progressive politically liberal with a small ill in those days and he was taking on the established Newspaper Media world around the blood there was a lot to admire that over the years murdochs media have reflected a very different set of political priorities hes made outlets the biggest amplifies in the English Speaking world anyway of Climate Change denial of cosi latched on to bricks it was a great supporter of brics it and and of course a an enormous supporter and enabler of donald trump you also wrote that the one thing the murdochs prize above all else is power so is the murdoch agenda with trump bracks that Climate Change not the coronavirus more about power than it is about ideology well power is an aphrodisiac. And people particularly people in the media pursue it for a science psych. They want to have politicians who will defer to them by them and that is that thats what turns them off sometimes there is a political or ideological purpose attached to it but theyve all found power and influence an attractive thing an alluring thing in and of itself but influence to water aint. I mean this is this is the bizarre thing all of that power all of that an enormous megaphone but really is this the murdoch legacy bricks that Climate Change deniers. And donald trump but those 3 great political agendas to be seen as triumphs i wouldnt of salt i dont think history will judge them to be so in any of it speaking of political agendas part of the reason that murdochs Media Outlets went after you is that you as Prime Minister you are advocating as coordinated approach to deal with Climate Change why is it that murdoch feel so strongly about this issue in particular the answer to that is that there is bain that this Toxic Alliance between right wing populist politics right wing populist media which is its big biggest enabler an amplifier and then of course youve got the vested interest of the fossil fuel lobby throughout my time as Prime Minister and indeed before that there was strong opposition to my leadership from new school murdoch himself admitted to me in a conversation in my last week as Prime Minister he admitted that his most senior editorial executive in australia Paul Whitaker was part of the campaign to remove me it didnt flood but in particularly with the commentators particularly with the television network. The it was relentless youre not the only former Prime Minister of australia speaking out against Rupert Murdoch these days your predecessor kevin rudd whos from the other side of the political aisle has been equally vocal recently can you tell me why is this happening and why is it happening now. The Murdoch Press runs now as i political operation its effectively a Political Party it is ruthlessly partisan. It builds up and supports its friends it doesnt hold them to account at all at all and it is relentless in its attacks on. Their political rivals or opponents a few decades ago you could say that this newspaper lent that way that newspaper lent that way but they all tried to a greater or lesser extent to buy to do a you know an effective job of news reporting. That thats been thrown out of the window these are now vehicles for opinion and political propaganda and what roger says about them is essentially the same observation that any fair minded objective observer of this trial in media saying would say as well youre speaking out against Rupert Murdoch now but that didnt happen while you were in office certainly not with these kinds of terms i guess my question mr turnbull is will we ever see a sitting astray in Prime Minister offering this type of criticism of Rupert Murdoch or is there just too much fear of the consequences i i think that taking on the murdoch media would be you know for a Prime Minister or a premier. Would be very very challenging but theres an old saying that you shouldnt pick fights with people who buying by the barrel in politics youve got to deal with all of these interests and picking a fight with the largest Media Company in the country is probably not going to be very smart. Rupert murdoch was clearly allowed to grow too powerful and his media machine continues to have a huge influence on astray in politics will anyone ever be able to bring this media empire under control or is it too late for that to happen Rupert Murdoch is entitle to be as boston does partisan as he likes i mean its a free country but one thing that you are increasingly seeing is advertises just walking away from. Broadcasters and newspapers that are too extreme that there is a shock jock in sydney alan johnson is still being broadcast on murdochs. Channel sky news but he was a had a big Radio Audience on a Radio Network belonging to another proprietor and the one by one advertiser started walking away because of pressure from the public who were offended by the relentless Climate Change to knowledge them but the to kill a massage. But something could have been done by previous governments to limit concentration and that hasnt happened kevin rudd is now talking about a Royal Commission and investigative exercise led by government to assess the impact of the murdoch media empire in a strain is that the direction the should go in look i i mean not persuaded that a Royal Commission into the press would be. Particularly useful well particularly effective you know at the end of the day. Maybe outlets arent awful to be bossed if they choose now ill just make this point however about concentration. The reason murdoch has 70 plus percent of the strident metropolitan newspaper silos is because in 997. 00 i live a government allowed moved up to bother her old weekly times and that was a very controversial takeover that should not have been allowed a debt was thats what created that extraordinary concentration and australians have been living with the consequences ever since well have to leave it there Malcolm Turnbull thanks for joining us today Rupert Murdoch is not a young man he cant go on forever his eldest son laughlin is waiting in the wings with political views that are described as even more conservative and contrarian than his fathers one final telling note back in march when fox news and sky astray were still playing down the dangers of covert 19 murdoch cancelled his 89th Birthday Party he was afraid he would catch the virus Rupert Murdoch is comfortable with his journalists questioning the science when it makes sense for his business not when it comes to his own health he doesnt practice what his news channels preach he just profits from it if only his viewers and his readers were as well informed youve been watching a special edition of our program on the murdoch media empire well see you next time here at the listening post. Play an Important Role texting you would ringback. Hello im Maryam Namazie in london quick look at the headlines this hour one policeman has died and dozens of been wounded in beirut during clashes between demonstrators and Security Forces thousands of it out on the streets of lebanons capital voicing their firy off to choose days devastating Explosion Police fired tear gas and live ammunition as some protesters threw stones and others stormed a number of government ministries the offices of the association of lebanese finds also trashed. Residents are angry that theyve been left to pick up the pieces of the shattered homes and neighborhoods that are saying that the state has been noticeably absent in Recovery Efforts as Prime Minister is calling for early elections saying its the only way out of the crisis. Conclusion as mckillop when you know we we cannot face these problems unless we have early elections to elect a new politicians and a new parliament we need a new political elite and a new parliament we need to Work Together to overcome the stiffing period we know and i know the people have questions about the catastrophe and how the government plans to handle it the catastrophe is way bigger than anyone could imagine the impact my stay forever. In our headlines the number of people have died of covert 19 in brazil has passed 100000 according to a prison in media and Media Consortium see only only the 2nd country to reach that tragic milestone after the United States activists of marked the moment with a striking event on rios famous copacabana beach they set out 100 black crosses released and released a 1000 red balloons one for every 100 people who have