Bad News: Murdoch's Australian and the Shaping of the Nation

This year has seen unprecedented scrutiny of Rupert Murdoch’s empire in Britain. But what about in Australia, where he owns 70 per cent of the press? In Bad News, Robert Manne investigates Murdoch’s lead political voice here, the Australian newspaper, and how it shapes debate.

Since 2002, under the editorship of Chris Mitchell, the Australian has come to see itself as judge, jury and would-be executioner of leaders and policies. Is this a dangerous case of power without responsibility? In a series of devastating case studies, Manne examines the paper’s campaigns against the Rudd government and more recently the Greens, its climate change coverage and its ruthless pursuit of its enemies and critics. Manne also considers the standards of the paper and its influence more generally. This brilliant essay is part deep analysis and part vivid portrait of what happens when a newspaper goes rogue.

“The Australian sees itself not as a mere newspaper, but as a player in the game of national politics, calling upon the vast resources of the Murdoch empire and the millions of words it has available to it to try to make and unmake governments.” – Robert Manne, Bad News Correspondence

This issue also contains correspondence relating to the previous issue QE42 Fair Share by Judith Brett. Correspondence relating to QE43 Bad News will appear in the next issue.

Robert Manne is professor of politics at La Trobe University and a regular commentator with the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and ABC radio and television. His most recent books include Making Trouble: Essays Against the New Australian Complacency, Goodbye to All That?: On the Failure of Neo-liberalism and the Urgency of Change, Left, Right, Left: Political Essays 1977–2005, Dear Mr Rudd: Ideas for a Better Australia (ed.) and W.E.H. Stanner: The Dreaming and Other Essays (ed.)