When News Corp frames the story, too many journalists stop asking whether the frame is true and democracy pays the price, writes DrVictoria Fielding.

WHEN I TELL PEOPLE aboutmy research, which argues thatNews Corpuses the faade of news and commentary to campaign for conservative political causes, they usually say: Well, thats obvious. Even thePM openly criticises News Corpfor campaigning against Labor hand-in-glove with the Liberals and Nationals.

Since everyone knows News Corp is not only biased towards the Right, but is in practice the propaganda wing of the Liberal and National parties, it begs the question why the rest of the media dont work a little harder to resist joining the Murdoch anti-Labor, anti-progressives, anti-anything-not-right-wing pile on.

In a paper I recently published with my colleagues from theMurdoch Referendum Accountability Projectin the journalJournalism and Media, we argue that during theVoice Referendum, News Corp deliberately set an agenda that framed the Voice as divisive and that the rest of the mainstream media including the ABC dutifully followed the same script.

In this study, we used the case study of News Corps clear and obvious activism in its aggressive (and misrepresentative) criticism of ProfessorMarcia Langton. If you recall, in the final months of the Voice Referendum, Langton was recorded at a university event saying that the No campaign was using racist and stupid tactics.The Australianimmediately jumped on the story,misrepresenting Langtons comments, claiming Langton called Novoters racist and stupid. She did not.

Recent programs have confirmed ABC News is increasingly under the control of pro-Coalition activists.

The Australian quietly updated its incorrect assertions without apology (which didnt stop former Opposition LeaderPeter Duttoncontinuing the misrepresentation, because of course he did), while at the same time News Corp collectively went full-blown attack-dog on Langton, characterising her criticism as unfair to the No campaign and No voters.

It doesnt take a genius to see what News Corp was doing here. Throughout the referendum, they worked as Albanese says hand in glove with the No campaign, particularly to cultivate the idea that the Voice was divisive. Langton was framed as evidence of this divisiveness.

Note that it is a right-wing tradition always to characterise allegations of racism against Indigenous people and other non-White racial minorities as worse than being actually racist. Indeed, many in the No campaign, including their News Corp media arm, claimed the Voice was racist towards White Australians.

This deflection of criticism is two-pronged. It diverts any scrutiny of whether racism is actually occurring (of course it did, it was front and centre during the whole Referendum campaign why do you think the Referendum was needed in the first place?). It also puts the person who is making the accusation in the villain frame and characterises those accused of being racist as victims. This is a potent form ofweaponised victimhood, a rhetorical strategy central to right-wing movements the world over.

So, we know what News Corp was doing here. That is obvious. But what is just as frustrating is as we found inthis researchthe fact that the rest of the media also fell in behind News Corp in treating Langtons comments about racism like they were controversial for the Yes campaign and, in turn, the Labor Government.

The Labor Government was then challenged to account for Langtons statements.

For instance, thisThe Australian piecestarts with the paragraph:

We argue in our paper that the collective media framing of Langton as controversial and problematic for the Yes campaign through her accusations of racism had an important influence on the referendum debate.

Murdoch media is to face scrutiny as Australians for a Murdoch Royal Commission (AFMRC) works with leading researchers to monitor News Corp's Voice Referendum coverage.

It is important to note that outside of News Corp, the medias framing of Langton was less aggressive, less prolific and less critical, but nonetheless, apart from a single outlier byAnnabel Crabb at the ABC, it collectively accepted the premise that Langtons comments were indeed controversial. More importantly, the media collectively accepted News Corps notion that there was no racism that required scrutiny in the No campaign and thus, no legitimacy in Langtons accusations.

Lo and behold, no journalists sought to investigate the validity of Langtons accusations, nor did they investigate how racism was emboldened during this dark period in Australias history and continues to be emboldened through the No campaigns victory.

What this meant was that News Corp set the fire and the rest of the media poured oil on it to reinforce the No campaigns scot-free claims that Langton was wrong to call out racism and that the only racism that existed in the referendum campaign was racism against White people.

We characterise this process as an Agenda Feedback Wheel. As part of News Corps conservative advocacy against the Voice, it used its media power to deliberately build an agenda that was passively adopted by the rest of the media. Through this collective scandal-making media coverage, the political agenda and, in turn, the public agenda sided against the Voice at a crucial time in the Referendum campaign.

Once you understand how this Agenda Feedback Wheel works, you can recognise it everywhere. Whether it be during the COVID pandemic whenNews Corp set an agenda framingVictorian PremierDan Andrewsas Dictator Dan but Liberal NSW PremierGladys Berejikliangot no such scrutiny, or more recently when News Corp politicised the abhorrentBondi terrorist attackas the fault of Albaneses government, journalists outside of News Corp need to be more resistant to adopting News Corps framing as their own.

News Corp presents one view an extreme right-wing view that represents the interests of a tiny elite few in Australia. There are, of course, other views that have just as much right to be heard and given fair and reasonable treatment by journalists to ensure that the right-wing view does not dominate.

Journalists who dont bother to seek those other views out and dont scrutinise right-wing views are abusing their media power just as badly as News Corp is.

DrVictoria Fieldingis an Independent Australia columnist. You can follow her on Threads@drvicfieldingor [email protected].

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