14 August 2019

Rick Morton, formerly of The Australian, says his old newspaper’s aggressive right-wing campaigns feed extremist groups: “Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp titles, particularly The Australian, offered wall-to-wall coverage of themes and subjects, including the ‘genocide’ of white South African farmers and the queer anti-bullying program Safe Schools, which would go on to spur extremist right-wing groups. No one is arguing these media outlets directed any of these horrific attacks. But according to new research, they did incubate an environment in which hate speech could flourish. In the end, those ‘respectable’ debates provided fuel and gave permission.” The national newspaper has identified transgender kids as its new target, with a new category dedicated to spewing bile against them: “The new page is technically titled ‘gender issues’, suggesting a broader remit, but … all but one of the 18 articles currently listed on the page are about transgender people. Shockingly, the majority are not flattering to trans people.” The articles push a lot of nonsense, including promoting the views of Rethink Identity Medicine Ethics, which appears to be an astroturf group.