Category Archives: News Corporation

Peter Gleeson leaves News Corp’s Courier-Mail and Sky News after multiple instances of plagiarism

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In one case the Courier-Mail columnist and Sky News presenter filled almost half a column with the unattributed reporting of a regional ABC journalist

The Sky News presenter and Courier-Mail columnist Peter Gleeson has left News Corp after multiple instances of plagiarism were uncovered.

The Courier-Mail announced his fate on Thursday, and it did not pull any punches: “In a personal note to The Courier-Mail editor Chris Jones today Mr Gleeson said: ‘I apologise for breaching News Corp’s Code of Conduct and instances where I have not met the standards required’.

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Murdoch press turns on Donald Trump in favour of ‘DeFuture’ Ron DeSantis

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Rightwing media empire looks for new Republican protege after poor showing in midterm elections

Rupert Murdoch has reportedly warned Donald Trump his media empire will not back any attempt to return to the White House, as former supporters turn to the youthful Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

After the Republican party’s disappointing performance in the US midterm elections, in particular the poor showing by candidates backed by Trump, Murdoch’s rightwing media empire appears to be seeking a clean break from the former president’s damaged reputation and perceived waning political power.

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Daniel Andrews pledges veterans card while Matthew Guy offers stamp duty savings for first home buyers

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Premier says more to come on cost-of-living measures and asks ‘what is the point’ of News Corp story on his 2021 fall

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has pledged $37m to introduce a veterans card if re-elected later this month, while the opposition leader, Matthew Guy, offered stamp duty savings for first home buyers.

The Victorian veterans card, to be rolled out from mid-2023, would entitle the state’s 90,000 veterans to a $100 discount on the registration of one vehicle, as well as free trailer and caravan registration and free fishing and boating licences. Veterans would be entitled to free public transport on Anzac Day and Remembrance Day.

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Tylenol murders: daughter tells of toll of unsolved killings, 40 years on

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Seven people died in 1982 after taking painkillers from bottle someone – police do not know who – had slipped cyanide pills into

Forty years after the infamous Tylenol murders killed her father and two other close relatives, a Wisconsin woman refuses to take the popular pain pills.

Kasia Janus also always verifies products are properly sealed before she buys anything at stores, she said in a recently published series of interviews with CNN that described the gut-wrenching legacy left behind for her by the unsolved Tylenol killings, which made tampering with medications as well as other consumer goods a federal crime but remain unsolved.

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Steve Price’s article claiming ‘minority’ white male status prompts press council complaints

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News Corp columnist framed himself as among a minority of white men who could no longer voice their opinion

Australia’s press watchdog has received multiple complaints about a widely condemned News Corp column by Steve Price in which he complained he was among a white “minority”, a claim that flies in the face of evidence on media diversity.

The Herald Sun ran Price’s column over a full page on Saturday, allowing him to bemoan the inclusion of “coloured or Asian people” in television advertising, among other things.

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Rupert Murdoch’s flagship Australian newspaper deletes story on sex life of British royal

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The Australian’s online youth section, The Oz, published salacious gossip about a royal based on an unverified online rumour site

It is known as the most conservative newspaper in Australia but on Friday Rupert Murdoch’s national masthead ventured into the surprising territory of highly salacious and unsubstantiated gossip about the British royal family.

Minutes after the Guardian asked the editor-in-chief of the Australian, Christopher Dore, to comment on why the unusual article purportedly about a royal’s sex life had been published, it was taken down.

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Sir Ringo Starr among those wishing Sir Paul McCartney a happy 80th birthday

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Ex-Beatle turned 80 on Saturday, days after a brief US tour which saw him joined on stage by Bruce Springsteen

Sir Ringo Starr, Bruce Springsteen and Ronnie Wood were among stars who have been wishing Sir Paul McCartney a happy 80th birthday.

The ex-Beatle turned 80 on Saturday, days after finishing a brief US tour. The milestone comes the weekend before McCartney becomes Glastonbury’s oldest solo headliner, when he takes to the Pyramid stage on Saturday.

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Salt spat highlights Canadian national park’s troubling history

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Park agency’s order to stop harvesting salts for commercial gain has angered Indigenous community

For years, Melissa Daniels has been travelling to the vast wilds of northern Alberta to harvest naturally occurring salts on lands her ancestors once hunted and fished. She blends the salt with wildflowers from the woods and sells it in small batches.

But Canada’s national park agency recently ordered her to stop, in a move that has angered her community and highlighted the park’s troubling history.

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There is ‘no one News Corp view’ on election, head of company’s Australian arm tells staff

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News Corp Australasia executive chairman issues all-staff memo, with scrutiny on election coverage likely to increase

Rupert Murdoch’s Australian lieutenant has told News Corp journalists there is “no one News Corp view” about the election and that individual editors are free to decide which party to endorse.

Executive chairman of News Corp Australasia, Michael Miller, said it was important to remember that “electorate issues in Surry Hills differ greatly to those in Broken Hill” and that audiences “expect us to interrogate all parties and all sides”.

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The Australian’s coverage of Zachary Rolfe verdict condemned as ‘a national disgrace’

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News Corp paper published multiple negative stories about Kumanjayi Walker and body camera footage from night he was killed

Several high-profile Indigenous journalists have condemned the Australian newspaper’s coverage as unethical, victim-blaming and insensitive following the acquittal of Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe in relation to the shooting death of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker.

A jury acquitted Rolfe of murder and related charges on Friday over the 2019 shooting of Walker in Yuendumu. The court heard Walker was shot three times, with Rolfe arguing he acted to protect his and his partner’s safety.

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Piers Morgan parties with Sky News Australia mates after massive Murdoch payday | Weekly Beast

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Former Good Morning Britain host, who quit after a spectacular meltdown over Meghan Markle, strikes gold with News Corp. Plus: Hot Albo returns

Piers Morgan’s global talkshow is weeks away from launching but the British commentator was already handing out voting advice when he jetted in for Sky News Australia’s 25th anniversary party at the Sydney Opera House.

“Australians will want to elect the leader who they believe will move most swiftly to restore all freedom rights lost during the crisis, and who will be strong on national security,” Morgan said after arriving on Lachlan Murdoch’s private jet to celebrate with new colleagues including Peta Credlin, Chris Kenny and Rita Panahi.

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Queen wants Camilla to be Queen Consort when Charles becomes king

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Monarch expresses ‘sincere wish’ in candid message marking 70th anniversary of her accession

The Queen has expressed her “sincere wish” that the Duchess of Cornwall becomes Queen Consort when Charles becomes king.

In a candid message marking the 70th anniversary of her accession, the monarch made clear her desire, unambiguously paving the way for Queen Camilla.

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Woman who survived Auschwitz and Sarajevo siege dies aged 97

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Greta Ferušić Weinfeld survived both the Nazi death camp and the nearly four-year siege during the Bosnian war

A woman who survived both the Auschwitz death camp and the Sarajevo siege in the 1990s has died, according to representatives of Bosnia’s Jewish community.

Greta Ferušić Weinfeld died on Monday aged 97.

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Malcolm Turnbull on Murdoch, lies and the climate crisis: ‘The same forces that enabled Trump are at work in Australia’

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Systematic partisan lying and misinformation from the media, both mainstream and social, has done enormous damage to liberal democracies, the former PM writes

The United States has suffered the largest number of Covid-19 deaths: about 600,000 at the time of writing. The same political and media players who deny the reality of global warming also denied and politicised the Covid-19 virus.

To his credit, Donald Trump poured billions into Operation Warp Speed, which assisted the development of vaccines in a timeframe that matched the program’s ambitious title. But he also downplayed the gravity of Covid-19, then peddled quack therapies and mocked cities that mandated social distancing and mask wearing.

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News Corp Australia won’t muzzle commentators as it ramps up climate coverage

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Newspapers to cover ‘all views’ and ‘not just the popular ones’, indicating the Murdoch empire may continue its pattern of climate science denial

News Corp Australia has confirmed it will ramp up its company-wide coverage of climate change next month but says its stable of commentators won’t be “muzzled”.

The executive chairman of News Corp Australasia, Michael Miller, says the mastheads will cover “all views” and “not just the popular ones”, indicating the Murdoch empire may continue its pattern of climate science denial and ridicule towards climate action.

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George Pell: news organisations fined more than $1m over reporting of sexual abuse verdict

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Victoria’s supreme court fines the Age $450,000 and News Corp more than $400,000 for contempt of court over coverage of cardinal’s initial conviction

A dozen of Australia’s largest media organisations have been fined more than $1m for contempt of court over their coverage of Cardinal George Pell’s sexual abuse conviction.

On Friday the Victorian supreme court justice John Dixon ruled the 12 organisations had “usurped” the role of the court by breaching a suppression order on Pell’s now-quashed conviction for child sexual abuse.

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Red faces in Rome as street plaque misspells ex-president’s name

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President Sergio Mattarella forced to abandon dedication after officials noticed mistake on stone plaque

The Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, was forced to abandon a ceremony dedicating a road in Rome to one of his predecessors, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, after officials noticed the name on the stone plaque was misspelled.

Instead of “Azeglio”, the street marker said “Azelio”. Mattarella had already turned up to the event on Tuesday, alongside members of Ciampi’s family and the mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, before the embarrassing mistake was noticed, with the lettering showing up clearly through the translucent cloth covering the plaque.

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News Corp exclusive on Chinese ‘bioweapons’ based on discredited 2015 book of conspiracy theories

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Report in the Australian newspaper promoting Sharri Markson’s book on origins of Covid criticised as misleading and alarmist by China analysts

The Australian’s exclusive about a “chilling” document produced by Chinese military scientists is based on a discredited 2015 book containing conspiracy theories about biological warfare which is freely available on the internet.

Written by the paper’s investigations writer, Sharri Markson, the report last Saturday said Chinese military scientists “discussed the weaponisation of Sars coronaviruses five years before the Covid-19 pandemic” and predicted a third world war would be fought with biological weapons.

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Facebook over-enforced Australia news ban, admits Nick Clegg

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Communications chief defends reversed ban, saying it is unfair to force tech firms to pay for news content

Facebook “erred on the side of over-enforcement” in removing links to hundreds of non-media organisations in Australia, Nick Clegg has admitted, in a blogpost defending the social media company’s short-lived news ban there.

The former UK deputy prime minister, now Facebook’s vice-president of global affairs and communications, said the tech firm had been “forced into [the] position” of blocking content designated as news after the Australian government refused to back down over plans to require it to negotiate with news publishers for payment for content.

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Google and Facebook: the landmark Australian law that will make them pay for news content

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Despite protestations from both companies, the Australian parliament is set to pass legislation it says is needed to boost public interest journalism

The Australian parliament is poised to pass a landmark media law that would make Google and Facebook pay news publishers for displaying their content.

The Australian law is separate to a deal Facebook made to pay mainstream UK news outlets millions of pounds a year to license their articles, but has a similar motivation.

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