News Corp opponents team up to fight ‘cancer on democracy’ | Weekly beast

Malcolm Turnbull zooms in to join Kevin Rudd and Sally Rugg at launch of Australians for a Murdoch Royal Commission

Malcolm Turnbull was a surprise guest at the launch of Australians for a Murdoch Royal Commission on Thursday night, popping up at the end to join Kevin Rudd and a fellow campaigner, Sally Rugg, as they told supporters News Corp Australia was a “cancer on democracy”.

“The Murdoch media has done extraordinary damage to the countries in which it is most influential, including Australia, obviously, and the United States,” Turnbull said from London after initially leaving himself on mute. “I mean, the way in which they have held up action to address global warming is bad enough. You know, they literally will deny the things that they said last week.”

But it was Andrew Bolt who kicked off proceedings, arguing that Rugg doesn’t want a more diverse media at all. “She’s actually pulling your leg because she in fact means she wants it to be less diverse. No Bolt for a start, no [Alan] Jones, maybe no Murdoch.” Bolt’s contribution was via a video from his Sky News show this week which targeted the nascent lobby group before its launch. Rugg played a Bolt clip to show what they were up against.

We've launched @Murdoch_RC — Australians for a Murdoch Royal Commission. No doubt, Murdoch will engage his usual gambit of 'culture war' & 'cancel culture' against enemies of the monopoly. Let 'em come. K #MurdochRoyalCommission pic.twitter.com/Jb2FymJynH

— Kevin Rudd (@MrKRudd) October 28, 2021

According to Bolt “there is no Murdoch media monopoly, in fact, the media is more diverse than ever”, which is an argument put by Murdoch executives in evidence before the media diversity inquiry.

“You’ve virtually got a coalition arrangement between the Murdoch party and the Liberal National party and that is cancerous for democracy,” Rudd told supporters, adding that Murdoch “almost single-handedly enabled Trump to come to power in the United States” via Fox News.

The lobby group has been formed on the back of Rudd’s petition calling for a royal commission into the Murdoch media, which reached a historic high of more than half a million signatures a year ago.

It has seed funding from Vic Trades Hall for Rugg’s salary for three months and is calling for donations from the public.

Rugg told Weekly Beast earlier that she was “really frightened” to take on the role “because I know that they [News Corp] will come at me and try to destroy my reputation and intimidate me into silence”.

Tributes for Russell Woolf

There has been an outpouring of grief for the much-loved ABC Perth breakfast presenter Russell “Rusty” Woolf, who died in his sleep this week aged 56.

The Western Australian premier, Mark McGowan, said many people in the state admired and loved the broadcaster.

“He was a very, very amusing, upbeat, uplifting person who made our lives better,” McGowan said.

Woolf “inspired people to be the best versions of themselves”, one listener wrote of the broadcaster who had presented the drive program and was the weather presenter on the WA news between 2007 and 2011. “His balanced and considered views on topical areas left you with a lighter heart and mind. Thanks Russell our loss is the angels gain.”

I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of local media legend, Russell Woolf.

Most recently, Russell was the host of @abcperth's Breakfast program, but he had a long and storied career in Western Australian journalism.

— Mark McGowan (@MarkMcGowanMP) October 26, 2021

“Perth will be crying for a long time,” another listener wrote. “Deepest sympathy to all who loved Rusty.”

Vale Russell Woolf. ❤️

We lost a beloved friend and colleague today. Our hearts go out to his family.

Thanks for all your messages of support and love. We have felt your arms around us today. 💓

Today Perth cried for Russell. Tonight the heavens opened. 😭💗

RIP Rusty. pic.twitter.com/deQilRv6XK

— ABC Perth (@abcperth) October 26, 2021

Woolf is survived by his wife, Kylie, and young daughter, Bronte.

The Australian’s bold plans

The Australian is planning to launch a youth section of the newspaper, aptly named The Oz. Unconfirmed reports say it will be online only and will have a strong social media presence.

News Corp is advertising for a senior digital designer and social media staff for an “energetic startup” and is offering the “opportunity to design the brand from scratch”, according to ads on seek.com.au.

There are few clues to what content is planned but the ad says the design style is “bold and refined”. It is certainly a bold idea to attract a young audience to what is traditionally seen as a brand for old white men.

“Drive the audience development of a new publication within the News Corp family, targeting a young audience through a strong social strategy,” the job ad says.

We asked the editor-in-chief, Christopher Dore, for comment but he didn’t reply.

Gutwein hires former Mercury editor

Tasmania’s Liberal premier, Peter Gutwein, has announced that he has hired Jenna Cairney, the former editor of Murdoch’s Mercury newspaper, as his director of communications, media and public relations.

“Jenna joins the Tasmanian government from her role as editor of the Mercury, a position she has held since January 2020 as the first female to take the helm,” Gutwein said on Thursday. “Before that, she edited the Townsville Bulletin, Sunshine Coast Daily and Grafton Daily Examiner – the first female to do so at each of those organisations.”

Leunig doesn’t like Mondays

The Age editor, Gay Alcorn, has finally given Michael Leunig’s Monday editorial cartoons the flick, although he does retain his Saturday spot in the lifestyle section. Nine Entertainment will continue to distribute his 2022 calendar, which has been a popular annual feature of the former Fairfax papers for more than a decade.

We reported this month that pressure was building on the Age to dump the 76-year-old after he compared mandatory vaccination to the massacre in Tiananmen Square – just the latest in a series of problematic submissions that were spiked by Alcorn.

Leunig posted his anti-mandatory vaccination drawing on Instagram, leading to confusion about whether it had been published in the Nine papers (it was not).

In recent years (he started cartooning in 1969) Leunig has offended large sections of the population, notably parents who use childcare or vaccinate their children, and mothers who use mobile phones and Instagram.

ABC’s budget blues

Remember when the communications minister, Paul Fletcher, dismissed allegations of ABC budget cuts at a press conference with the prime minister?

If you look at the numbers in the budget papers, the ABC’s funding is rising,” Fletcher said last year. “It’s all laid out in the budget papers.”

ABC Fact Check ruled that Fletcher’s statement was misleading because it was based on dollar figures rather than “real funding”, which takes into account inflation. The broadcaster’s managing director, David Anderson, has consistently argued that the Coalition’s $84m budget reduction announced in 2018 translated to a cut.

The ABC now reports it made cuts to staff and services of $53.2m in the 2020-21 financial year and reinvested $15.2m into content “to ensure the ABC continues to meet the needs of our audience in a changing media environment”.

We have reported that the ABC lost $783m in funding since the Coalition came to power in 2014 but the downward trend started well before that, according to new figures in the report.

“The 2021-22 operational revenue from government of $881 million represents a decrease in real funding of $397m or 31.1% since 1985-86 as depicted in the chart ‘ABC Operational Revenue from Government’.”

Max Stahl remembered

The former Timor-Leste president Xanana Gusmão has described the journalist Max Stahl, whose footage of the Dili massacre in 1991 shone a light on Indonesian atrocities in Timor-Leste, as a hero of the nation and an inspiration.

Stahl, who was born Christopher Wenner in Britain in 1954, died in a Brisbane hospital on Thursday from throat cancer.

The European Union🇪🇺deeply regrets the death of the British-Timorese journalist Max Stahl, who courageously showed the world the atrocities experienced by the Timorese people, paving the way for #TimorLeste's🇹🇱fight for independence.
Condolences to the bereaved family.📷#CAMSTL pic.twitter.com/vp5YEsY7LJ

— European Union Timor-Leste (@EU_TimorLeste) October 28, 2021

Gusmão wrote to Stahl’s widow, Ingrid Bucens, and their four children that they should be proud of Stahl as he had “exposed injustices and told stories the world needed to hear”.

“As the plight of our people was becoming more desperate and our situation more hidden from the world, Max exposed the oppression and the brutality of the Indonesian occupation,” Gusmão wrote in a letter posted on Jose Ramos Horta’s Facebook page. “His footage from the Santa Cruz massacre, which was taken at great personal risk, was shown across the globe and became a turning point in our resistance struggle.”

Tonight on @SBSNews we pay tribute to a legendary film maker. Gutted to learn of his death. Vale Max #Stahl #timor pic.twitter.com/VEhxRj4bWT

— brian thomson (@brianthomsontv) October 28, 2021

Of his fearless act Stahl once said: “Fearing immediate death at the hands of the militia and military once the UN had gone, hundreds of refugees in the compound fled to a steep rocky hill behind a cover of darkness … I joined them with a small infrared-capable DV camera.”

Contributor

Amanda Meade

The GuardianTramp

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