News Corp Greenwashed Its Papers Today But Published Climate Change Misinformation Last Week

Happy Monday to Rupert Murdoch, who has woken up and finally decided to admit that climate change exists by launching News Corp Australia’s Time Is Now campaign. But if you think this means the media giant has deleted its climate denial BS, or even stopped posting said BS, think again.

In partnership with the Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub, the Time Is Now content series will finally start to address how climate change will impact Australia by 2050. The irony of the campaign being approximately 10 years late to the climate change conversation is not lost on me.

After years of elevating the voices of climate change deniers and promoting fossil fuels, the Murdoch press has decided to do a total 180 by greenwashing a “Mission Zero: Putting Australia First” initiative all over the front pages of today’s papers — of which Murdoch owns approximately 65 per cent.

It’s worth noting that News Corp’s “green” initiative focuses on hydrogen power — which has been backed by mining magnates like Andrew Twiggy Forrest — rather than solar or wind.

But considering it has taken decades for the Murdoch media empire to even acknowledge the threat of climate change, let’s not criticise the smaller details. Instead, we must address the fact that News Corp Australia has published dozens of climate change articles today, pointing the finger at some of the biggest carbon emitters in Australia, but has failed to acknowledge its own responsibility in the crisis.

For starters, News Corp’s national masthead — The Australian — is noticeably absent from the campaign. This is particularly interesting considering The Australian was complicit in spreading harmful misinformation regarding climate change amid the 2019 bushfire crisis.

Not to mention, some of the biggest names on the News Corp Australia payroll have repeatedly spewed blatant misinformation regarding climate change — and still continue to do so. It was only last year that Alan Jones asserted that “the politicians who are driving Australia to reach “net-zero” emissions by 2050 need to wake up and start listening to the scientists telling the truth about CO2,” while notorious climate change denier Peta Credlin claimed “truth is the first casualty” in “any debate around climate change.”

It’s also worth noting that the above claims, as well as countless other false claims — including this doozy from Andrew Bolt as recently as last week — are all still live on News Corp Australia’s websites. So, while Rupert Murdoch paints the front pages of today’s paper a caring shade of green, his pockets continue to be lined by profits from the continual spread of climate change-denial and misinformation.

Even Murdoch’s own son, James, called out the company’s “ongoing denial among the news outlets in Australia, given obvious evidence to the contrary” before he ultimately decided to resign from the board in July 2020 — citing “disagreements over certain editorial content.”

All this net-zero talk is cheap when the likes of Peta Credlin and Andrew Bolt are still being given huge platforms to spread complete and utter misinformation regarding the same topics Murdoch media now claims to care about.