NewsCorp Will Change Its Mind About Climate Change For One Fortnight, And One Fortnight Only
The 14 day pro-climate campaign should be taken with a grain of salt.
After years of spewing climate change misinformation, NewsCorp Australia has apparently had a change of heart. For a limited time only, the media and publishing conglomerate will start pushing for the world’s leading economies to meet net zero emissions by 2050 — a pivot that should be taken with a grain of salt.
Their two-week campaign next month will nudge Australia towards a carbon-neutral economy ahead of the UN’s climate change conference in November, despite NewsCorp having attacked multiple Federal government efforts to act on climate change since 2007, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
“It will be a centrist, pro-business approach to climate action,” analyst and reporter Ketan Joshi predicted about NewsCorp’s move.
“It’ll champion controversial technologies like CCS and fossil hydrogen. It’ll highlight personal responsibility: tree planting, recycling and electric vehicle purchases. It will not propose or argue in favour of any new policies; at least none that might reduce the burning of fossil fuels.”
The editorial focus is expected to be on jobs in the post-fossil fuel world, and won’t feature in The Australian at all. It’s unclear whether the other mastheads and Sky News will maintain their stance on the topic after the fortnight is done and dusted.
Insiders who spoke to the SMH said their “executives and editors have changed based on what the readers believe and want”. NewsCorp’s head honchos temporarily seeing the light might also help them be less demonised in the eyes of Gen Z and millennials — aka future potential consumers.
A report last year found that after Australia’s Black Summer bushfires, nearly half of all climate coverage across NewsCorp publications had cast doubt on or completely rejected climate science.
Just last month, over 20 scientists signed an open letter about NewsCorp, urging its publications to stop its “inaccurate” and “misleading” reports about the environment and climate change. “It is dangerous to attack published research and globally respected scientists, without sound scientific evidence,” the letter read.
Photo Credit: Mehreen Faruqi