LAST WEEK, News Corp’s newspapers The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Courier Mail and The Adelaide Advertiser caused controversy by publishing front page “exclusives” and “special reports” alleging that more gas is needed to avoid electricity blackouts in the future.
If readers turned the page and read the fine print, they would learn that this so-called “news” was actually not news. It was an advertorial (a fancy word for an advertisement), paid for by – you guessed it – the fossil fuel industry.
I used to think like you. I almost completed a journalism degree in Australia— so I’m well aware of the role and necessity of the fourth estate. Having seen years of the awful effects of Murdoch’s propaganda rags on my country’s culture and government, I think media should be subject to certain laws.
For example, News Limited’s news media companies only serve propaganda for fossil fuel magnates. It’s not news. They have never and will never do their job as the fourth estate, because they are propaganda for those in power, nothing more and nothing less.
Yes, free political expression should be protected and is important for the function of democracy. So it not conflating literal propaganda with news.