Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp Australia to Ease Climate Change Denial

SYDNEY, Australia — After years of casting suspicion on climate change and attacking politicians who favor corrective action, media outlets in Rupert Murdoch’s homeland of Australia are planning an editorial campaign next month advocating a carbon-neutral future.

Depending on its context, the project, announced Monday by executives at Mr Murdoch’s News Corp, could be a breakthrough that provides political protection for Australia’s conservative government to end its refusal to set ambitious emissions targets. If it continues, it could put pressure on Fox News and other Murdoch-owned broadcasters that are hostile to climate science in the United States and Britain.

But critics, including scientists at News Corp’s climate war, have warned that the effort may be little more than window dressing that leaves decades of damage intact.

“Paint me with suspicion,” said Michael E. Mann, director of the Earth Systems Science Center at Pennsylvania State University. “Until Rupert Murdoch and News Corp stop the attack dogs at Fox News and The Wall Street Journal who continue to support climate change disinformation on a daily basis, these are hollow promises that should be seen as a desperate ploy to improve the public image of a leading climate villain. . ”

As outlined by News Corp executives, the project will include features and editorials from the company’s influential newspapers, along with 24-hour news channel Sky News. They will discover a way to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, a target set by dozens of countries. Scientific studies The demonstration is crucial to avoiding some of the most disastrous effects of global warming.

News Corp executives in Australia have said little publicly about their plans. previously reported By Sydney Morning Herald. A spokesperson for News Corp and Rupert Murdoch did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

On Monday, Sky News CEO Paul Whittaker appeared in the Australian Senate to answer questions at a public hearing about media misinformation. He downplayed the reported change in climate change priorities.

“I wouldn’t describe it as a campaign,” he said. “I would describe it as an exploration of very complex topics for Sky News.”

Sky tends to be the most extreme of News Corp’s properties. on YouTube last month suspended The conservative news channel is out for a week for violating the platform’s coronavirus misinformation policy. Two years ago, one of the hosts labeled climate change A “dishonest and dangerous cult” “driven by unscrupulous and sinister interests”.

The editorial project has been widely discussed over the past few weeks, often with a sense of relief, in most of the company’s papers, where strict journalism sided with relentless ideology in articles that don’t usually carry an “opinion” label.

A senior newspaper employee, who requested anonymity because News Corp was not allowed to describe its internal decision-making process, said the editorial effort reflected a growing awareness that the company was taking a stronger stance on climate change.

He said the project had been in development for months, various political and business figures had been given advance notice, and the turn to endorse net-zero emissions was a sign that surprising conservative allies were putting at risk.

Coordinated campaigns are not uncommon for News Corp, Australia’s dominant provider of business news, with newspapers in major cities and regional areas. A few outlets are currently pushing for rapid uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine.

In the case of global warming, the campaign will launch just before a new round of international climate talks in Scotland.

The timing evoked both hope and cynicism among them. Critics of News Corp’s climate coverage.

“If true, it could provide a critical boost to the momentum needed for the Glasgow summit this November,” said climate scientist Joëlle Gergis of the Australian National University.

Richie Merzian, director of the climate and energy program at the Australian Institute, a progressive research organization, said News Corp should call for urgent action to reduce emissions.

“Really, they go from an F to a D student here,” he said. “The real risk is that News Corp is moving from denying climate change to delaying climate action with unresolved and inexplicable long-term goals. Net zero by 2050 is virtually useless if it is not implemented, has no short-term goals and a commitment to stop opening new coal mines and new gas fields.”

Professor Mann, whose book “The New Climate War” has taken a close look at polluters, politicians and media outlets opposing climate action, whom he calls “inactions”, said News Corp may have simply noticed this denial in the face of increasingly harsh conditions. climate events, especially the horrific 2019-20 bushfires in Australia, were no longer defensible.

“They have turned to other tactics – delay, distraction, diversion, division, etc. – in their efforts to preserve the fossil fuel status quo,” he said via email. “Focusing on the 2050 target thirty years away throws the box so far that it is largely pointless. It allows cynics to resort to the promise of new technology (carbon capture, geoengineering, etc.) as a crutch to continue burning fossil fuels as usual for decades to come.”

Malcolm Turnbull, a former Australian prime minister who was frequently attacked by News Corp and ousted in an intra-party dispute over climate policy in 2018, also warned that News Corp has a long history that a few weeks of news cannot erase.

He said News Corp’s new commitment should only be believed if the company’s journalists and editors stop beating supporters of climate action and stop protecting conservative members of Parliament who resist climate policy.

“The climate-denying right-wing populist section of the coalition is very influential and its foundation is News Corp media,” Turnbull said in an interview. “That’s where they live and thrive. If there is a change there, it will be important.”

However, he added, “I’m not going to give them credit for something they haven’t done yet.”

Yan Zhuang contributed news from Melbourne, Australia.