Courtesy of Get Up:
This election campaign, News Corp has used the front pages of its tabloids to launch aggressive political campaigns against one side of politics, while failing to scrutinise the other.
That's why we created this ad. We want to call News Corp's campaign out for what it it: biased crap. We want to show there is a movement of Australians who aren't going to stand idly by while one man tries to tell an entire nation how to vote.
Together, GetUp members raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to make a massive ad buy, standing up to News Corp on millions of TV screens across the country.
So why aren't you seeing the ad on tv?
Turns out, not everyone is as keen to stand up to a billionaire media mogul as we are.
After GetUp members chipped in money to put this on air we immediately made bookings.
Channel 10 said outright on the phone that they wouldn't run the ad because it criticises another media outlet. Lachlan Murdoch is on the company's board. We're sure the two are totally unrelated.
Channel 7 refused the ad because "the creative execution was considered distasteful and potentially offensive to our audience, so we have decided to make a stand." So noble. We created a new version of the ad with the 'offensive' bits blurred out. They didn't respond.
Channel 9 at least approved the ad, and ran it for four days. In fact, 615,800 people have already seen it on 9 across Brisbane. On Monday, they pulled the ad, and blamed it on a "coding error," saying it never should have run. Whoopsadaisey.
That's all three of Australia's major commercial networks banding together to suppress media criticism. What's more, it's happening in an election period where Australians ought to have the freedom to express their opinions and to criticise and speak truth to power.
You know if Murdoch ever gets enough power he will do the same thing here. Luckily for us he only has a few newspapers and Fox News, while in Australia he owns between 23% to 33% of the newspapers.
So I feel a certain amount of solidarity with my Australian neighbors when it comes to Murdoch and Newscorp.
murdoch almost put Rmoney into the President's chair, so we must remain vigilant here, too.
ReplyDeletemurdoch is a very evil person
Agreed! Guess I'll have to go and find out who Murdoch is supporting in Australia. OzMud has a great post on PM Rudd (see link to left) that is very impressive. A politician who keeps an open mind on questions of the day and who schools a pastor on biblical meanings. Rudd is man who has progressed and who thinks for himself, thus couldn't be in Murdoch's graces!
DeleteYes! That is an awesome video of the Aussie PM. Would love to hear more people in politics be this articulate. Even to me, a content atheist, his Christian beliefs hold merit.
DeleteMurdoch is dangerous. Can't we send him back where he came from? And his lieutenant, Ailes, is just as bad. I was hopeful the whole English wiretapping scandal would take him down, but no. We can only hope that he gets cocky, keeps running liars 24/7 on his network, and people stop listening.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jesse. We need this broadcast far and wide. (I put it on my Facebook page when I found it here.) I agree with Anon 6:43. Murdoch is very evil.
ReplyDeleteDidn't Murdock just attempt to buy out another newspaper on the west coast? I seem to remember some court rulings on whether he'd be allowed to purchase the companies or not due to the laws against media consolidation (which have been weakened considerably).
ReplyDeleteApparently Murdoch and the Koch brothers were interested in the Tribune Company newspapers: the LA Times and, of course, the Chicago Tribune: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/business/2013/03/koch-brothers-tribune/63013/
DeleteThe Koch brothers backed off from making a deal just a couple of weeks ago, saying "the purchase wouldn't be 'economically viable.' " (meaning the Trib newspapers' finance reports didn't look good).
As far as keeping Murdoch busy not interfering with USA politics or enlarging his media empire is concerned, there's always the possibility of another spy scandal, this time maybe involving Murdoch's wife: http://tribune.com.pk/story/600180/australian-tycoon-to-sue-murdoch-claims-wife-chinese-spy/
As for Murdoch somehow preventing the above mentioned ad from appearing on TV, this report says otherwise, as of yesterday (from the screen grab): http://www.yasstribune.com.au/story/1756490/help-thwart-rupert-news-corp-websites-run-anti-murdoch-ad/?cs=1302
And THAT'S why it used to be illegal here (in the USA) for one person/entity to own ALL of the news media.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's ALSO why we USED to have The Fairness Doctrine, but that's gone now. Thank Ronald Reagan and Roger Ailes for that.
Any student of history can tell how dangerous this is.
Speaking of Robert Murdock and Fox News, here is their latest goal. Let school children go hungry to teach them and their parents a lesson.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/09/05/a_fox_news_commentator_calls_forcing_kids_to_skip_lunch_a_teaching_moment.html
Murdoch is an asshole. So are all the media outlet people who produce biased crap. They of all people should understand how important real journalism is.
ReplyDeleteHe is NOT a US Millionaire, or whatever. I refuse to acknowledge him.
ReplyDeleteHe's Australian. You have to own him as much as we do. :(
The old fossil is so old I'm wondering if he's taking HGH, or getting daily transfusions of blood from prepubescent boys, or getting stem cell injections from sacrificed fetuses.
ReplyDeleteAnd another thing: when the old fossil finally is claimed by Satan, will Lachlan Murdoch be even worse?
I'm willing to bet that ad will get as much or more viewing on the internet than it would on Australian TV.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to agree. Like many Get Up statements,, this is a bit of a stretch. Ads have had very little effect on people's voting intentions, however much their creators might wish otherwise. It's election day here, the most advertising has been from that idiot Clive Palmer who can afford to waste millions on a ludicrously hopeless cause.
ReplyDelete