Back in 2006

It was like the sun rising in the west. For over a decade, Rupert Murdoch had disputed the science of climate change. Then, at a Tokyo press conference last week, the conservative media mogul announced that he is now in favor of an international treaty to halt the progress of global warming. Immediately, pundits began to wonder what effect his conversion would have within News Corporation, his vast media empire.

Now, Murdoch is unpopular with many different people for many different reasons. Just last week, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann gave him the “Worst Person in the World” award. It was for another comment that Murdoch had made in Japan, about the United States’ 2,839 deaths in Iraq being “quite minute.” But most of the enmity for Murdoch comes from his well-documented reputation as an agenda pusher who breaks journalistic sacraments. In an article from October 16, former New York City mayor Ed Koch told the New Yorker’s John Cassidy that upon receiving news of an intended endorsement from the New York Post in 1977, he told Murdoch, “Rupert, you’ve just elected me.” Critics often accuse the News Corp. chairman of throwing his weight around like that. They accuse his editors of promoting his conservative political and economic agendas. It is no mystery - angry liberals do not even sue as much they used to.

So it was strange, and certainly conspicuous, when Murdoch began, not to turn exactly, but to bear left on a few issues. Cassidy’s 8,000-word feature was centered on a fundraiser that Murdoch held for Hillary Clinton at News Corp.’s Manhattan offices, which house the Post and Fox News. Both organizations had spent the better part of the 1990s lambasting the Clinton administration, and had opposed Hillary’s run for the Senate in 2000. Cassidy also reports that Murdoch has donated over half a million dollars to the Clinton Foundation’s Climate Initiative, and that he has declared his intention to make News Corp. a “carbon neutral” company. In Australia, the company’s native turf, The Sydney Morning Heraldwrote that, “The significance of Murdoch’s views is that, unlike almost all modern media proprietors, his views are the company’s views. If he is concerned about global warming, then newspapers in the U.S., Britain and Australia are, too.” Three days later, Murdoch’s announcement of his support for an agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol delivered more grist for the mill.

...

Mere days after Murdoch’s pro-treaty announcement in Tokyo, Australian Prime Minister John Howard declared that he too had changed his opinion. After years of standing closely by the Bush administration, playing down the threat of greenhouse gas emissions, and refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the PM now favors an international carbon trading system. A causal link between Murdoch’s change of heart and Howard’s new position is, of course, impossible to establish. But few could call it improbable. In media and in politics, the world will simply have to wait and see what the consequence of Murdoch’s mood swing will be, and whether or not it amounts to a genuine new direction for News Corp.

Read more:

https://archives.cjr.org/politics/murdoch_goes_green_and_his_emp.php

It is my unlearned opinion that Uncle Rupe was foxing... He wanted John Howard to be re-elected and the best way at the time was to give a bit of greenery to the masses — and make the shifty warmonger John Howard appear like a greenie. It did not work but the intent was there. In regard to Hillary's shot at the Presidency in 2008, Uncle Rupe would have sensed that the Republicans were on the nose by a million miles and John McCain was going to loose. He would prefer Hillary to Obama, thus he gave the Clinton Foundation some cash — not for favours, of course. Knowing that Hillary was a warmonger and a phoney on some issue such as global warming, he was prepared to support her once more against the rabble of idiots that presented themselves for the GOP side in 2016... Then Trump turned up. The rest is history as Donald Duck says...

See also:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/31847

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/31994

In the first significant check on the Trump administration’s “energy-first” agenda, a US judge has temporarily halted hundreds of drilling projects for failing to take climate change into account.

Drilling had been stalled on more than 300,000 acres of public land in Wyoming after it was ruled the Trump administration violated environmental laws by failing to consider greenhouse gas emissions. The federal judge has ordered the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages US public lands and issues leases to the energy industry, to redo its analysis.

The decision stems from an environmental lawsuit. WildEarth Guardians, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and the Western Environmental Law Center sued the BLM in 2016 for failing to calculate and limit the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from future oil and gas projects.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/20/judge-halts-drilling...

Read from top.

News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch has said “there are no climate change deniers around here I can assure you” after he was asked at the corporation’s AGM why his company gives them “so much airtime” in Australia.

Murdoch was speaking in New York on Wednesday when he received a question from a proxy for Australian activist shareholder Stephen Mayne.

Murdoch was asked about the company’s “stance on climate change”.

The questioner asked: “What do you believe is the global role of News Corp in the geopolitical climate? If you do believe in climate change, Mr Mayne is interested to hear why News Corp gives climate deniers like Andrew Bolt and Terry McCrann so much airtime in Australia?”

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/nov/21/news-corps-rupert-murdoch-...

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Read also:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/26452

Rupert Murdoch has told News Corp's shareholders that the company does not deny climate change during a 26-minute virtual annual general meeting on Thursday morning.

When asked why the board could not accommodate his younger son James' views, the executive chairman said: "We do not deny climate change. We’re not deniers.

"Our board is open to any discussions…James …claimed that our papers …covered the bushfires in Australia….without discussing climate change," Mr Murdoch said in his appearance which appeared to have technical difficulties while he was answering.

News Corp has faced heavy criticism over its coverage of climate change and Australia's devastating bushfires last summer, notably from James Murdoch who left the board on July 31 severing the last ties he had with his father's media empire. In January he sent an all-staff email criticising the company's coverage.

"My resignation is due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the company’s news outlets and certain other strategic decisions," he stated to the US Securities and Exchange Commission in a not-so-veiled reference to climate change.

Read more:

https://www.afr.com/companies/media-and-marketing/we-re-not-deniers-rupert-murdoch-on-climate-change-coverage-20201119-p56fy0

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Now if only Miranda could be nice to Greta...