Murdoch's News Corp. "contempt" for rules.

As reported in InDaily 6.3.2012 www.indaily.com.au/

The corporate culture of Murdoch’s News Corporation is a based on contempt for rules and contempt for governments, a new Australian assessment of Murdoch says.

David McKnight, in his book “Rupert Murdoch: An investigation of political power”, says the culture bred the recent UK phone hacking scandal.

“[The] scandal came about because Murdoch, in the words of one of his editors, has contempt for the rules and contempt for government,” says McKnight, a Senior Research Fellow at the Journalism and Media Research Centre at the University of NSW.

The book tracks Murdoch’s influence, from his support for Reagan and Thatcher to his attacks on Barack Obama and the Rudd and Gillard governments in Australia.

“His politics are those of the US Republican Right and have been ever since he fell in love with Ronald Reagan, McKnight says.

“His philosophy is one of small government and deregulation – yet on the other hand he has openly supported the two US presidents most responsible for blowing out the public debt.

McKnight says News Corp has a secretive corporate culture and cites as evidence private political seminars for editors, sponsorship of think-tanks, support for neo-conservative military adventures like Iraq, and editorial campaigns to attempt to discredit climate science.

“His newspapers have become the main outlet for climate denial in Australia.

“While he once briefly accepted the science of climate change, in a recent speech he indicated his own thought that climate change “has a lot more to do with the activities of the sun”, which is a standard denialist position.”

McKnight, also an associate researcher at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation [CCI], is the author of three books on contemporary politics, recent Australian history and international espionage.