What’s the issue?
TV, newspapers, radio and the internet are how we learn about the world. We form our opinions on social issues, and decide who to vote for based on these sources. That gives media owners an awful lot of responsibility and power.
If they were tempted to misuse that power, media moguls could focus more on the issues they cared about. They could make their preferred political candidate look good, and the other look shoddy, or encourage politicians to pass laws for them, in exchange for positive media coverage.
That’s exactly why democratic countries shy away from media monopolies. Competing sources of news keep each other honest, and give the audience choice, so that no single voice or opinion can dominate a country. The Australian constitution states that we must have many media sources in order to protect our democracy – and yet, Australia ranks 41st in the world for media diversity.
How many independent media owners does that ranking equate to? Three: Rupert Murdoch, James Packer, and Kerry Stokes. All three are billionaire businessmen who are conservative in their politics.
The Murdoch empire:
Australian-born Rupert Murdoch has become an American citizen. He owns News Corp, the largest media empire on the planet, which covers Australia, America, the UK, and is even making inroads into Asia.
He owns 175 newspapers, 100 cable TV channels, 40 television stations, 40 book publications, nine satellite TV networks and one movie studio with a total audience of 4.7 billion people – that’s three-quarters of the world.
Some of his well known media outlets include Fox, Channel Ten,
The Daily Telegraph, and
The Australian. He owns at least one newspaper in every state and territory. Murdoch also bought Myspace for advertising purposes.
The Packer empire:
Kerry Packer was known for his love of sport and gambling, and for conservative politics. Kerry Packer passed away in December 2005, leaving the Fairfax Media Limited empire to his son James. Packer owns newspapers in every Australian state and territory as well as in New Zealand.
Well known outlets include Channel Nine,
The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and Southern Star Television productions. The Packers also own many radio stations across the country including Sydney’s 2UE, Magic 1248 in Melbourne, and 4BH in Brisbane.
James Packer is a friend of Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch’s son. The two millionaire sons went into business together and built OneTel, a telecommunications company which went bankrupt. Since then, James has started to move away from the media business and onto casinos. Luckily Lachlan has been there to buy up the left over pieces of the Packer empire.
The growing Stokes empire:
Although he technically controls the smallest empire, Kerry Stokes has made huge advancements since the death of Kerry Packer. In addition to owning West Australian Newspaper Holdings, Channel Seven and Yahoo, Stokes now has a 100 million dollar investment in Channel Nine.
Power corrupts:
It has been suggested by a number of sources that Murdoch and Packer have used their media empires to influence democratic processes by promoting favoured politicians and pressuring governments to pass certain laws.
The Times claimed in Packer’s obituary that he tightly controlled the stories that Channel Nine ran, and used them to keep Liberal Prime Minister Robert Menzies in power from 1956 to 1972. Menzies knighted Packer for “services to journalism” in 1959.
Packer then befriended Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke, and was supposedly given special treatment by his government when it came to the creation of media and tax laws. When Packer was suspected of involvement in organised crime by a royal commission in 1984, he was supported by Hawke and cleared of the charges by his Governor General, Lionel Bowen.
Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating claimed that Packer turned against him after he refused to pass more relaxed cross-media laws in 1991. Keating has also suggested that Packer’s biased media coverage cost him the election in 1996.
Murdoch’s media outlets across the world report from a strictly conservative angle. He makes no secret of his support for the American Republican party. Fox News got into trouble in 2004 for their deliberate spin of the War in Iraq. The program reported that there were fewer Americans dead and more progress being made than was accurate. Bill O Reilly, the Fox anchor man, had to apologise when no weapons of mass destruction were found. ‘Well, my analysis was wrong and I'm sorry,’ O'Reilly said in February 2004.
Murdoch claims he stays out of Australian politics; however, his media support benefited Howard’s government. In 2006, the Howard government tried to change cross-media laws to give media owners like Murdoch the freedom to buy multiple broadcasting rights, but the changes failed to pass in the Senate.
In 2007, Murdoch switched his support to Prime Minister Rudd. So far, Rudd’s government has no formal media policies.
What laws protect us?
TV: No one owner can control two channels for the same geographical area. In total, no-one can control broadcasting that reaches more than 75 per cent of Australians.
Radio: As in TV, a radio channel owner can only control one frequency per area. There are also limits to how much broadcasting they can own in total.
Cross Media: One person cannot own more than one kind of media outlet in any area. For example, you cannot own a TV channel and a newspaper at the same time if they provide news to the same place.
Where can I get non-commercial news?
Every week in Australia 13 million people watch the ABC, and 7 million watch SBS. ABC and SBS are publicly-owned channels which means their news is often more balanced. However, even non-commercial sources of news can have bias. Before you accept anything you read or see, you should think about who’s paying for the news to be told and why.
How do I know this?
Parliamentary Library of Australia website, ‘Media Ownership Regulation in Australia’ http://www.aph.gov.au/library/intguide/SP/Media_Regulation.html , viewed 16 September 2008.
Newscorp website, ‘Newspapers and Information Services – Rupert Murdoch’
www.newscorp.com/operations/newspapers.html, viewed 15 September 2008.
Outfoxed website, ‘Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism’
www.outfoxed.org viewed 16 September 2008.
Fairfax Media Limited website,
www.fxj.com.au , viewed 16 September 2008.
Courier Mail News website, ‘Seven buys a $100m slice of Nine’
www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,20797,24003424-3122,00.html?from=public_rss, viewed 15 September 2008.
The New York Times website, ‘Kerry Packer: the Times obituary’
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article782793.ece, viewed October 9 2008.
ABC online website, Media Report transcript of ‘The Feud between the Packers and Paul Keating’
www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/1999/57566.html, viewed October 8 2008.
Shiel F, ‘A mogul's deduction on tax’
www.theage.com.au/articles/2005/12/27/1135445573348.html, viewed October 8 2008.
CBS news online, ‘Bill O'Reilly's Iraq Mea Culpa: Fox News Anchor Sorry He Believed WMD Claims About Iraq’
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/02/11/politics/main599684.shtml, viewed October 9 2008.
