Bowing to the political and commercial pressures, Rupert Murdoch’s media enterprise in Australia has been instructed by the business tycoon to ‘stop promoting climate change denial and campaign the target of net-zero emissions instead, reported news. The media outlets are set to begin an editorial campaign next month to achieve a carbon-neutral future for the country.
The executives at Mr. Murdoch’s News Corp stated that the project would be a significant one and would also help influence the conservative government in Australia to set more ambitious targets concerning the climate.
If the project extends to a bigger scale it could also exert its influence upon Fox News and other Murdoch-owned outlets in the USA and Britain, which have been equally “hostile to climate science,” wrote The New York Times.
However, scientists and other targets of News Corp for decades for promoting climate catastrophe warned that this small step might not mean anything and have been asserted because of pressure.
Michael E. Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University said, “Color me skeptical. Until Rupert Murdoch and News Corp call off their attack dogs at Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, who continue to promote climate change disinformation on a daily basis, these are hollow promises that should be viewed as a desperate ploy to rehabilitate the public image of a leading climate villain.”
The company will start its campaign on October 17 and will run it for two weeks. It will advocate for a carbon net-zero target to be reached by 2050. The agenda is mostly expected to focus heavily on jobs in a decarbonized economy, particularly blue-collar industries such as mining, resources, and agriculture.
Details of the campaign have been kept confidential however multiple sources familiar with the issue say that it will be made public by news.com.au columnist and former Studio 10 host, Joe Hildebrand, reported The Sydney Morning Herald.
News Corp Australia’s executive chairman, Michael Miller said at the time he understood Townsend’s concerns but did not agree with them.
“News Corp does not deny climate change or the gravity of its threat. However, we – as is the traditional role of a publisher – do report a variety of views and opinions on this issue,” Miller said.
Murdoch’s son James Murdoch quit the News Corp board last year after publicly denouncing the “ongoing denial” of the climate crisis in his father’s news outlets.
News Corp sources said that this new agenda has been launched because the readers are increasingly supporting the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions following Australia’s deadly bushfires, made worse by climate change. Hence, they have made this shift in alliance with the reader’s viewpoint.
A survey conducted for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age found that the majority of Australians want the federal government to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050.
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