Scott Morrison and the government have made sure the old media companies have profited financially in a major way under the coalition government and that largely explains why old media companies are keen to keep Morrison and the coalition in power. By rights Scott Morrison should have no chance at the federal election, which is what the polls say, but if the old media keep on reporting in a biased manner like that have the last 2 days Morrison might scrape over the line.
Given we have the most corrupt government in recent history, and possibly ever, the media focus should be on that. But the old media bias has been on show the last 2 of days, which are the first 2 days of the 6-week election campaign when all the old media have led with the story of whether or not Anthony Albanese knew the interest rates and cash rates.
A prime example of Morrison and the government loading up the old media is the estimated $200 million that Google and Facebook have been forced to pay old Australian media companies News Corp, Nine Entertainment and Seven West Media and others via the News Media Bargaining Code. The exact amount will likely never be known.
It was reported regarding Seven West Media:
Modelling by the analysts allocates to Seven West media, following this week’s deal announcement, $63 million from both the platforms. That’s $54 million in fees from Google and $9 million from Facebook next financial year starting July 1. (Click here to read more)
Add that to the $47 million Seven West Media received from Jobkeeper (Click here to read more) and you have one media company that has profited over $100 million over the last couple of years from the Scott Morrison government. Add that to Seven’s parent company the Seven Group and it’s associated companies then the major shareholders Kerry Stokes and his son Ryan Stokes have probably made between $100 million and $200 million just from Jobkeeper.
They are huge dollars even for billionaires, so it is no wonder the Stokes’ want Scott Morrison to stay in power. Of course, Jobkeeper is fraud and theft from taxpayers but that doesn’t worry the Stokes’ or Morrison but it should worry voters.
Other media companies such as News Corp have done just as well if not better than Seven from the Morrison government. While over at Nine its Chairman Peter Costello has his hand in a few government pies, such as the submarine deal, thanks to to his good mate Scott Morrison.
Small publishers have been left out of the News Media Bargaining Code and went on strike for one day in March by not publishing news stories for that day. The Conversation reported:
You might have noticed on Tuesday this week 30 media outlets did not publish any news articles as part of a coordinated protest. A group of mid-sized publishers took this action because Facebook and Google have refused to pay for their work under the News Media Bargaining Code, a new law introduced last year to force the tech giants to pay for public interest journalism.
Deals made under the law are shrouded in secrecy, but we know that so far millions of dollars have been directed to big media players such as News Corp, Seven, Nine, ACM, The Guardian and the ABC. This has been good for journalism and has created many new reporting jobs.
But a perverse outcome is the law helps the biggest media players while shutting out smaller and not-for-profit companies. Not ideal in a country that already has a huge problem with highly concentrated media ownership.
The tech giants are betting no one will care enough about the little guys to kick up a fuss. But under the new laws the Government can force Facebook and Google to come to the table through a process called “designation”, and that’s what the publishers are lobbying for. (Click here to read more)
I published the below video on YouTube giving an overview of this article:
It’s really only a few of the small independent media journalists and companies that can be trusted to report without fear of favour as the larger ones were compromised long ago by their owner’s financial greed. This has been magnified even further in recent times because of the abuse of Jobkeeper and the News Media Bargaining Code which has allowed the large old media companies to gain a financial advantage with the small media companies being left out.
If Scott Morrison was to win the federal election due on the 21st of May 2022, then the old media companies and their owner will have to take ownership of it.
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Categories: Channel 7, Kerry Stokes, Nine Entertainment, Rupert Murdoch, Seven West Media
Sadly Media can make or break. Media has more power than most.
Murdochs rein is Short Lived, owing to the Fact he hasnt Long on this planet. Hes A Clone Of The Walking Ded ,** Nancy Pelosi. ** Its A Race Between Him Or Me. Keep Up The Good Work.
Our system is so so broken!! It does not matter whom you vote for, we have the same system as America, the results will be what they want. I do not mean the Government either. There is what they call shadow government!! Black rock etc; We are only allowed to see what they want us to see, and that is so we are all dumb ed down. KCA you do a fabulous job, and since I have no idea what the media say, as I do not listen, as they are also controlled. I agree about Murdoch!! but we have a few here in Australia too.
Murdoch should never have been allowed to have so much control in this country….thanks Paul Keating! NZ won’t allow him there. Bias also coming from the others so really there is not much out there that isn’t controlled by the few. The sooner we have a Royal Commission into media in this country the better….but who is going to initiate it? LNP in bed with them too much…..nothing to see here! The way things are going it will be hard for Labor to win this election with most of the media pro Morrison…and we know how much they can have on an outcome!!! Thank goodness for independent and online media outlets including Twitter!
As for Murdoch not being around much longer don’t forget that his mother lived to 103!
Don’t forget that he has a son, Lachlan, who will replace him as heir and is more conservative than his father
Sorry, IMHO,” better the devil you know “, but I will vote independent with the hope that a lot of voters, sick of the corruption, lies & the “mates” system, will do the same. The only way we can control the corruption is have more independents in our parliaments. Here’s hoping !
With any luck the populace will wake up with this election and make real changes by electing independent candidates. Let’s see a return of how the Australian political system should be run – like the 1st Commonwealth Parliament; all independents working collaboratively for the betterment of the country! Not for the betterment of themselves, snouts need to be removed from the trough before we all sink into the quagmire of party political hacks.
Australia should be one of the most affluent countries in the world, the natural wealth we have available to us is enormous but, due to years of inept governments, we wallow down the scale of successful nations.
Wake up Australia – this is what we really need to be “WOKE” about; the future success of our great nation – get rid of party hacks, vote ‘Independent’ and make a change.
Just one question . Why are we paying companies such as MurMuck media for articles that are behind a paywall .???? is this double dipping .
How did you find out about the terrible gifting of tens of millions of Jobkeeper funds to profitable companies. Oh that’s right you found out through main stream media reporting.
So how much did News Corp and Seven West Media’s parent company, Seven Group, get? That’s right, the old media won’t report it.