News Corp might end democracy

Wishful observers are claiming that Murdoch’s reign is over. His three clowns—Trump, Morrison and Johnson—have been removed from office after causing deep damage to their institutions and countries.

Despite News Corp's crushing size and vitriolic output, its machine could no longer keep them in power. Many commentators claim this is proof that News Corp’s dominance has been permanently broken, replaced by grassroots organising on the internet. Unfortunately, they could not be more wrong.

In recent years, Murdoch’s companies fuelled the election of the worst leaders that America, Australia, and the United Kingdom have ever seen. The scale of machinery needed to fool the public into voting for such unequipped men is mind-blowing.

During the same period, the British public was convinced to vote for the Brexit disaster. Americans were radicalised by Fox News and similar propagandists until they stormed the Capitol Building with spears, knives and nooses, seeking to harm elected officials and stop the peaceful transfer of power.

In Australia, fierce media campaigns by News Corp and likeminded extremists have seen climate action stall for over a decade, life-saving health measures attacked during the COVID-19 pandemic, and transgender rights become a new battleground for right-wing zealots.

News Corp’s attempts to bring down popular Labor leaders and independents have sharpened in recent years. The ferocity, venom, and manufactured nature of these attacks have caused widespread anger and division in the community.

These crusades against Daniel Andrews, Annastacia Palaszczuk, Mark McGowan, Anthony Albanese, and Monique Ryan, among others, all failed to stop their election. Yet News Corp’s prolonged hysteria played significant roles in the defeats of Kevin Rudd, Bill Shorten, Hillary Clinton, and more. Extremists such as Pauline Hanson and George Christensen are electorally viable with the ongoing support of media networks such as Sky News.

It would be a mistake to see recent events as a tipping point in the battle between communities and corporate media in western democracies. News Corp’s inability to foist Trump, Morrison and Johnson back onto their countries is solely due to the shocking lack of talent and sheer toxicity of each man. Murdoch’s influence isn’t gone. His companies helped to elect all three of them. The take-away lesson is that even Murdoch and News Corp couldn’t convince enough people to choose Trump, Morrison, and Johnson for a second term.

We must remember that all three won barnstorming election victories in recent years. Once in office, they were given fierce News Corp support while they weakened systems of government and avoided accountability.

With that in mind, it would be wrong to focus solely on the removal of these three leaders. Institutions have been savagely attacked and weakened in each country. Boards have been stacked, right-wing apparatchiks appointed to powerful executive positions, and courts have been compromised by overtly political appointments.

In Australia and the United Kingdom, the media has veered towards monoculture in the past five years. Previously reputable outlets have drifted noticeably right, veering towards News Corp’s positions and right-wing values. At the same time public broadcasters have been attacked, infiltrated, and compromised.

The ABC and BBC have swung sharply to the right, with the BBC further down the right-wing tabloid road than the ABC. The BBC has Photoshopped Jeremy Corbyn in front of the the Kremlin, platformed offensive anti-trans activists, and employed Conservative Party figures in its most powerful positions. Tory donor and right-wing think-tanker Richard Sharp is the BBC chairman, while the BBC’s Director General Tim Davie stood twice as a Conservative Party candidate and served as Deputy Chair of his local Conservative Party branch.

Here in Australia, a similar pattern of right-wing appointments to the ABC executive has been underway over recent years. Former News Corp staff, Institute of Public Affairs identities, and Liberal Party fundraisers have all been appointed to the ABC Board and executive roles.

At the same time, the ABC has replaced robust, fearless journalists such as Barrie Cassidy, Kerry O’Brien and Emma Alberici with obsequious platformers such as David Speers, Patricia Karvelas and Greg Jennett. The ABC’s lurch to the right is best summarised by the election night coverage when Leigh Sales asked Tanya Plibersek, a senior member of the Labor Party which had just won government, where it had all gone wrong for them.

This exchange was discussed widely on social media after the election, with Leigh Sales and other journalists rightly criticised for their inability to acknowledge Labor’s success. However, in the following months, as Labor formed government and a record number of independents journeyed to parliament, the nebulous concept of a greatly weakened News Corp has taken hold. The thinking goes that the LNP was decimated, so Murdoch’s power has been broken. It is demonstrably wrong.

In 1992, political theorist Francis Fukuyama famously declared that history had ended. Humanity had reached its final form with liberal democracy, Fukuyama claimed. There would be no further tumult.

Of course, we now know how ridiculous Fukuyama’s claim was, how fragile democracy actually is, and instead of standing still, the health of our governments have declined in the years since his statement. Australia has fallen in global corruption and press freedom rankings. Inequality has reached record levels. Society has become more divided. Under the LNP, Australia slid backwards. Similar declines took place in America and the United Kingdom.

Worryingly, News Corp fiercely supported the governments that caused this damage, division, and decline. Through its Fox News and Sky News outlets, News Corp became even more protective of these governments as they divided their citizens. It appeared that News Corp was actively trying to accelerate and deepen these trends.

The most concerning sign of News Corp’s apparent willingness to damage western democracies came after Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election.

In the aftermath of Biden’s win, Fox News supported Trump’s big lie, that the election had been rigged and stolen. Top Fox News hosts railed daily about voting machine tampering, voter fraud, and many other equally false, paranoid fantasies. This continued for months.

Fox is now being sued for $1.6 billion by a voting machine company, Dominion, over hours of claims that Dominion voting machines flipped votes from Trump to Biden, among other incorrect accusations. It is important to remember that Fox News is the most watched TV network in America. This was not Alex Jones ranting on a murky website. This was Rupert Murdoch’s flagship TV station pumping toxic lies into American minds for months on end.

This disgraceful period, the worst of any television network in western history, culminated in the January 6 coup attempt in Washington, where many brainwashed terrorists chanted the same lies that had been broadcast on Fox News as they stormed the Capitol Building. Fox News is now engaged in a campaign to deflect, deny, and minimise the severity of the coup attempt on January 6.

While Trump, his enablers, and the Republican Party are being investigated for their roles in the attack, News Corp and Rupert Murdoch have escaped almost all scrutiny. This must change. Their role must be fully investigated and punished if warranted.

Today, Fox News has tempered its support for Donald Trump. It has moved on to a new generation of extreme right-wing politicians. Ron De Santis is being primed for a 2024 presidential run. The Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v Wade are being celebrated on the channel. This is predictable when Murdoch himself once said, “I think everyone is against abortion.” Such an incorrect statement—the majority of Americans support legal abortion—would be offensive and ignorant coming from anyone, but when it is the belief of the most powerful media magnate in western history, the scale of the News Corp problem is clear.

Stepping back and surveying the scene from a distance, conservatism appears to have reached its end point. In recent years it has devolved into a more disordered, populist version of itself. Conservatism is being replaced by regressivism. Adherents no longer wish for things to remain the same. They want to return to a long-gone, irrecoverable past. Often they seek a state that never actually existed. Of course, this is impossible. It is this impossibility that causes such irrational anger and has seen right-wing radicalisation and violence rise across the western world.

There is obviously cause for concern. But putting all that aside, Trump, Morrison, and Johnson are gone. All three will be remembered harshly by history. The same fate awaits 91-year-old Murdoch. For now, his chosen politicians have been removed from power in America, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

He will learn from these failures. News Corp will adapt and refine its model of control. The next round of Murdoch-backed politicians will be less repugnant. More competent. Think of Dominic Perrottet as an updated model of Scott Morrison, and Ron De Santis as an updated model of Donald Trump. They are less polarising. Their agenda isn’t as obvious. Core tasks are actually completed so the shadow work can continue in the shadows.

There is no doubt that News Corp will bounce back. It is the most powerful political organisation in human history. Murdoch has lost many elections before. He has successfully ingratiated himself with almost all western governments since he inherited his first newspaper in 1952. This has relied on both the carrot and the stick; positive coverage for compliant governments and crushingly negative attacks on leaders who dare to ignore News Corp’s wishes.

A uniquely hands-on approach has characterised Murdoch’s operations. As a result, when he was buying the London Times in 1981, he was ordered to promise the British government in writing that he would not interfere with the reporting of articles or the hiring and firing of editors. Tellingly, in 2007, when asked what gives him the most pleasure in his business, Murdoch instantly replied, “Being involved with the editor of a paper in a day-to-day campaign…trying to influence people.”

Daily involvement has been a core feature of Murdoch’s media ownership. This will not end now that Trump, Morrison, and Johnson have been removed from office. The symbiotic relationship between right-wing politicians and News Corp will continue unabated. Even the death of Rupert Murdoch will not end the cycle. Reports suggest that his son, Lachlan, the empire’s heir apparent, is even more right-wing.

Still, there is cause for hope. The democracies of America, Australia, and the United Kingdom have survived their largest stress tests since the Second World War. America has been damaged worst, but all three must repair, strengthen, and protect against similar attacks in the future. Accepted norms have been trampled by the most destructive leader in each country’s history.

Defenders of democracy must get to work. New online communication networks must be strengthened, continue to grow, and intertwine. New laws must also be passed. Recent years have revealed that many political safeguards were actually unenforceable traditions which relied on polite adherence. Every hole must be patched and every tear must be sewn shut. New penalties must be created for political misbehaviour. Media diversity must be improved. Stronger laws are required to reduce the concentration of media ownership. Monopolies must be dismantled.

In the meantime, News Corp will continue to support right-wing politicians who are becoming more extreme in their beliefs and goals. Open disdain for democracy is increasingly acceptable among the right. The Murdoch machine, the most powerful media empire the west has ever seen, will continue to gnash its teeth, stoke division, and support right-wing populists. Underestimating Murdoch’s capabilities would be a grave mistake. But the public now has a more detailed roadmap and a clear destination. Protecting our democracies is not an impossible task.

Reports of News Corp’s death are greatly exaggerated. Thankfully, rumours of democracy’s end are equally misguided.