Shameful anti-Labor media manipulations by Australia's national broadcaster are on the rise, Alan Austin reports.
JUST UNDER two months ago, former executive at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp Australia, Kim Williams, took over as chair of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Since then, ABC News has accelerated its use of News Corp tactics to undermine the Albanese Government.
Item #1: Inflation outcomes manipulated
Inflation reduction is one of the Government’s notable achievements. The Stats Bureau’s report last Wednesday that it’s down to 3.62% should have been celebrated. Inflation is now almost half the level Labor inherited – a full 4.2% below the 2022 peak – and well below averages in the OECD of 4.64% and the G20 of 21.7%.
One sneaky media trick to diminish a good economic outcome is to contrast it with magical, mythical “expectations” someone unnamed has previously imagined.
ABC News did this last Wednesday with the headline:
‘Annual inflation slows to 3.6 per cent as higher than expected price rise in March quarter rules out early rate cut hopes.’
Two negatives there for Labor in the one headline — inflation higher than 'expected' and hopes dashed for interest rate cuts, neither of which is sound reporting.
Item #2: Construction surge denied
Practitioners in the building industry, along with most economists, know construction has long been stronger under Labor than the Coalition:
This is because Labor puts a much higher priority on infrastructure and generates far better economic outcomes overall.
Last month’s Stats Bureau announcement that total construction in the December quarter last year was the highest since 2015 warranted mention. Naturally, the Murdoch press ignored this. So did ABC News.
Instead, both cherry-pick negative stories to distort the reality. Recent ABC headlines include:
- ‘Perth builder Collier Homes collapses amid Australia-wide pressure on home building industry’ [24 April 2024]
- ‘Builders selling their own homes to stay in business’ [12 April 2024]
- ‘Building industry still struggling’ [12 April 2024]
- ‘Fears housing crisis will deepen’ [4 April 2024]
- ‘Builders and construction firms continue to go bust’ [4 April 2024]
Item #3: Protecting the Coalition parties from scandal
In its lengthy report on the rape trial of former Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann on 5 April, ABC News made no mention of the Liberal Party or the Coalition. The 3,624-word article concealed the political party in whose workplace the offence occurred.
Similarly, on 15 April, a 1,645-word report on the Liberal Party staffer’s failed defamation case steadfastly refused to identify the party.
Last Wednesday’s 1,293-word news story on former Liberal Party minister Linda Reynolds noted that:
‘It was Senator Reynolds's couch in her Canberra parliamentary suite on which Bruce Lehrmann was found to have raped Ms Higgins, according to the judge...’
But no mention of Reynolds’ political party anywhere.
There are many more of these.
In contrast, a relatively minor scandal involving a donation to NSW Labor required a brief 472-word story. It identified Labor once in the headline and six times in the text.
A 951-word analysis of corruption allegations against former Victorian Premier Dan Andrews in 2022 named Labor once in the headline and nine times in the text.
Coverage of a 2021 dispute in the Northern Territory was headed:
‘NT Chief Minister "extremely angry" at exiled Labor colleagues in wake of Labor scandal.’
That story identified Labor twice in the headline and eight times in the text.
There are many more of these.
Item #4: Insiders advances Murdoch’s priorities
Insiders presenter David Speers, who worked for News Corp for nearly two decades, asserted on 14 April that:
“Comparatively Australia has high company tax rates – a disincentive, I suppose – to stay or set up in Australia."
That is not true. At 30%, Australia’s rate is the same as in Germany, Mexico, Costa Rico and elsewhere, and lower than in Japan, Brazil, Malta, Colombia, India and several other countries.
Corporate tax cuts favour the wealthy and almost always worsen the economy overall.
Item #5: Blatant falsehoods
Insiders on 24 March declared that “Kevin Rudd has copped a blistering serve from Donald Trump.”
It played the clip of Trump – a former U.S. President now criminal defendant – saying:
“He [former Labor Prime Minister Rudd] won’t be there long if that’s the case. I don’t know much about him. I heard he was a little bit nasty. I hear he’s not the brightest bulb."
Far from being a blistering attack, it was glaringly obvious Trump had no clue who Rudd was and was faking that he did after just being fed historic Rudd quotes out of context by the interviewer — Murdoch associate, Nigel Farage.
Item #6: Flimsy fact-check findings
In an attempt to pin something negative on Labor to redress the gross imbalance in proven falsehoods, the ABC fact check unit accused Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen last month of saying nuclear reactors in the USA took an average of 19 years to build.
The ABC found the claim, made in a casual aside, 'exaggerated' because the mean average was ‘197.8 months (16.5 years) and the median 221 months (18.4 years)’.
This is arguably the most trivial comment imaginable to condemn — with taxpayer resources applied to a 2,367-word analysis. Who cares whether it was 19 years or 18.4?
Item #7: Promoting Murdoch personnel
In the six Insiders programs since 6 March, 14 of the 24 appearances by paid commentators, including the presenter, have been current or former Murdoch employees. That’s a majority of 58%.
The Making News segment sourced its “news” from Murdoch outlets 18 times, including five segments from Sky News and eight from the Sunday Mail, implying falsely these are valid sources of information.
ABC charter violated
News Corp is not a legitimate news organisation. It masquerades as one in order to deceive its audiences into voting for parties that serve the interests of the mega-rich. It lies, fabricates and distorts routinely.
This has been proven in Australia, the UK and the USA by countless court judgments, defamation settlements, parliamentary inquiries, academic research, independent fact checks, press council adjudications, media investigations and others.
As long as it continues to operate in Australia, the nation will be all the poorer.
In mimicking its malicious practices, the ABC is failing abjectly to serve the nation.
Alan Austin is an Independent Australia columnist and freelance journalist. You can follow him on Twitter @alanaustin001.
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