Murdoch Newspapers Fall For Fake Email

I have little to add to this example of another attempt by Rupert Murdoch’s factory of falsehoods to fabricate stories designed to either advance his interests or harm those of his adversaries.

In this case Murdoch’s newspapers in Australia hyped a suspicious email that cast Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as a corrupt politician. This was intended to benefit the conservative opposition leader, Malcolm Turnbull. [Note: In Australia, Turnbull’s Liberal Party is farther to the right than Rudd’s Labor Party]

The same day [Murdoch-owned] News Limited published its story in the two thirds of newspapers it owns in Australia, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called for an Australian Federal Police investigation to examine the authenticity of the email.

By Monday the AFP had established the email was a forgery. Turnbull came under pressure throughout this week for relying on a fake email, and promoting it. The whole matter was a hoax and even members of Turnbull’s own party criticised his naivety.

Nowhere was there any criticism of the Murdoch newspapers for not authenticating the email before engaging in a mass publication of its content. It seems News was taken in, hook, line and sinker, and did far more to promote what turned out to be a fake email than Turnbull.

This journalistic atrocity comes on the heels of a fake scandal publicized by Murdoch’s papers a couple of months ago. In that affair, a nude photo allegedly of a candidate for senate was published. The candidate, Pauline Hanson, offered ample evidence that the photo could not have been of her, but the papers would not retract the story.

Typical. Anyone who thinks that this isn’t going on here in the U.S. is terminally naive.

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