Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch controlled News Corp and Fox News are well known for being propaganda businesses masquerading as news businesses but having that in effect said by Lachlan Murdoch and 2 of his former journalists has a lot more power than others saying it.

In the below article and videos you will see Lachlan Murdoch on video talking about how he controls “the positioning and the messaging” of the news at News Corp and Fox.

You will also read what former News Corp journalist at The Australian, Rick Morton, said about News Corp in 2019 which ended his career at the company within days.

There is also video of former News Corp journalist at The Australian, Anthony Klan talking about how News Corp manipulate the media and readers. What is interesting is that Anthony Klan is using the same News Corp strategy now in a financial fraud scam trying to control the narrative, and profit from, his reporting on the NACC / Robodebt scandal.

With the federal election coming up it is worth having a look at not only how News Corp operate but also how they influence new media, independent journalists and social media.

We often read and hear about News Corp infiltrating and influencing the ABC and other media. But the News Corp culture and tactics is also infiltrating independent media and will continue to do so given thousands of journalists were trained by Murdoch’s News Corp.

So, it is up to us to be aware of News Corp’s expanding influence and deal with it when need be.

Lachlan Murdoch – He is the executive chairman of Nova Entertainment, chairman of News Corp, executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation.

In 2023, he was listed 33rd on the list of Australia’s wealthiest people, with his wealth estimated at A$3.35 billion (US$2.1 billion).

As of September 2024, the Murdoch family is involved in a court case in the US in which Lachlan’s brother James, his sister Elisabeth and half-sister Prudence are challenging their father’s bid to amend the family trust to ensure that Lachlan retains control of News Corp and Fox Corp. (Click here to read more)

In January 2023 I published an article titled “Lachlan Murdoch’s big mouth set to cost Rupert Murdoch, Fox and himself $billion in the Dominion defamation case” which has a video of Lachlan Murdoch being interviewed at the New York Times Deal Book Conference in November 2018. I said in the article in relation to the video:

One of Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch’s defences from any personal liability in the court cases is that in their management roles, they do not tell journalists what to say.

But in the below video, Lachlan Murdoch says that he “works closely with the managers of those newsrooms and it’s important they get the positioning and the messaging right”. Those “managers” would be the editors who work directly with the journalists overseeing what the journalists write.

So, Lachlan by his own admission is only one step away from directly telling the journalists what to write.

Lachlan also says he works closely with the managers of the Newspapers. So why doesn’t Lachlan leave it to the managers of the newspapers to work closely with the editors? Why does Lachlan override the managers of the newspapers and give direct instructions to the editors?

It’s because Lachlan and Rupert want to give direct instructions on what is and isn’t written or said because they are running a propaganda business masquerading as a news business.

That is proven by Lachlan’s line where he says, “and it’s important they get the positioning and the messaging right”. A news business reports the news, so they don’t need to worry about “positioning” and “getting the message right”.

Lachlan then says, “we don’t always get it right”. Well, they would get it right if they focused on reporting the news and not worrying about the “positioning” and “getting the message right” for Rupert and Lachlan’s propaganda.

In the video one person asking a question points out that Lachlan Murdoch told the audience he is left-leaning which is a blatant lie. Lachlan is not left or right, he is a criminal who says anything to make a dollar.

Lachlan says at the end of the video we have to get along and be more tolerant of others yet it’s Lachlan and his father Rupert who sell and promote hate and division via their media.

Like most criminals, Lachlan Murdoch is not overly bright, he just has a lot of money which gives him access to a lot of advisors and speech writers so in public he generally doesn’t seem as stupid as he really is. (Click here to read more)

The video below is Lachlan Murdoch being interviewed at the New York Times Deal Book Conference in November 2018. I published the video on the 28th of January 2023. (Click here to watch the below video on the Kangaroo Court of Australia YouTube channel)

Rick Morton – Former News Corp journalist at The Australian

Rick Morton’s career at News Corp ended after he gave a talk on the 8th of May 2019 to journalism students at the University of Technology, Sydney. The talk was published as a podcast by UTS. (Click here to listen to the podcast)

The Guardian reported on the 10th of May 2019:

News Corp journalist has gone on the record with critical remarks about his own paper, the Australian, saying “the craziness has been dialled up” in recent months.

The paper’s social affairs writer, Rick Morton, told journalism students at the University of Technology, Sydney, that senior writers know what the editorial line is and write stories to fit.

Asked whether the Murdoch paper’s journalists were uncomfortable with the Australian barracking for the Coalition in the election, Morton said they were “more uncomfortable certainly now than at any time I’ve been there in the past seven years”.

“There is a real mood that something has gone wrong,” “People will tell you going back a decade it used to be a very great paper, and in many ways it still is, but some of the craziness has been dialled up.

“We know what the empire is, we know what the papers do, but something has changed in the last six months. I don’t know what it is. Death rattles or loss of relevance? And journos pretty much spend all day talking about it.”

Morton said editors did not give explicit instructions, but senior writers wrote within accepted parameters or found stories that were so good the paper had to run them despite their slant.

“We kind of know what the editorial line is at the paper,” he said. “The people at the top know what it is and there are key staff … who are old enough and ugly enough to deal with the awful truth that occasionally there is a line that will come out of [news] conference.

“It’s not always a Murdoch line; it’s just that Murdoch hires editors who are very much like him.”

Morton said orders did not come from Murdoch directly except when he was in Australia, and then “he will tell you what interests him”.

“If you’re senior you will know what the line is roughly and you will file stuff that fits; everyone else is just left alone to their own devices.

Reporters were often confronted with their copy being changed and inaccurate headlines on their stories, he said.

“Often times the headline bears no resemblance to the story filed,” he said.

“I’ve seen it happen to other journos who wake up in the morning and their copy is changed. Or the headline is screaming with something they didn’t write.”

Morton said front page stories were spiked if they didn’t fit the “tone” of the paper’s election coverage.

“It’s a constant battle, it doesn’t happen as often as people think it does but it does happen.

“It is a moral quandary that I have wrestled with for the entire seven years I’ve been at the Oz.

“Am I lending credibility to a horrible machine? I don’t know? Does my journalism change things in people’s lives for the better? That I do know.” (Click here to read more)

The AFR reported the 18th of May 2019 was the last time The Australian published any articles by Rick Moreton which was a week after the UTS talk.

Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch obviously have glass jaws and can’t handle the truth.

Rick Morton now works at The Saturday Paper and I wrote about him having a fallout with another journalist, over ethics, in an article titled “Robodebt crook Renee Leon organises free promotion and defence from her friend Chris Wallace in The Saturday Paper” published on the 26th of September 2024. (Click here to read the article)

Anthony Klan – Former News Corp journalist at The Australian

I published an article about Klan on the 12th of September 2024 titled “Independent journalists Anthony Klan, Michelle Fahy and Elizabeth Minter running a scam with their dodgy reporting on the NACC / Robodebt scandal”. (Click here to read the article)

In the article I accused Anthony Klan of suppressing key evidence of the NACC / Robodebt cover-up from his audience so he could try to control the narrative of the story to make it look like he was the hero journalist exposing the key evidence. I also accused Klan of reporting lies and stealing content from me and likely others.

As you will see in the below video Klan says News Corp uses “suppressing information from the public” as a strategy which Klan has also been doing recently.

The 12th of September article on Klan’s corruption and lies and my ongoing investigation into his handiwork led to this article.

Anthony Klan worked for News Corp for 14 years or 15 years (he uses both as per below) from 2005 to 2019 and tweeted on the 10th of June 2019 that he had resigned from News Corp’s The Australian the previous month which is about the same time Rick Morton left The Australian.

Klan said in the message regarding his resignation from News Corp, “Hi all, a month ago I resigned from The Australian after 15 years. I had, and have, serious misgivings about the direction that is now being taken. Australia faces unprecedented external threats. To do otherwise, I felt, would be treasonous.” (Click here to see on Twitter)

Klan also tweeted on the 24 May 2024 the below message: (Click here to see on Twitter)

Five years after leaving News Corp’s The Australian Anthony Klan said in the above message he “adored” his 14 years there.

What did he adore? The lying to the public? The deceiving the public? The undermining of democracy? Being in “the pocket of the lobbyists of the minerals, the mining, the gas and of the big banks”?

In 2019, when Anthony Klan left News Corp, he said it was because it “would be treasonous” to stay and he had “serious misgivings about the direction that is now being taken”. But now he is saying he “adored” being there.

Most liars don’t have good memories and forget what previous lies they told. Why Klan left News Corp is something we will probably never know, but it certainly wasn’t because of ethical reasons.

The below video is from an interview Anthony Klan did on Aljazeera TV in 2020.

Klan says in the above video:

“When I started at the organisation I believed it was 90% ideology at least, but now I’ve come to the opinion it’s 10% ideology and the rest of it is money and vested interests,”

Klan also says News Corp are “suppressing information from the public” and is “incredibly in the pocket of the lobbyists of the minerals, the mining, the gas and of the big banks”.

Anthony Klan’s lies an deception

Anthony Klan spent 15 years lying and deceiving the public and “suppressing information from the public” on behalf of News Corp yet he wants us to believe, “When I started at the organisation I believed it was 90% ideology at least, but now I’ve come to the opinion it’s 10% ideology and the rest of it is money and vested interests”

Klan also says News Corp is “incredibly in the pocket of the lobbyists of the minerals, the mining, the gas and of the big banks”. But it has been like that for decades and certainly for the whole 15 years Klan worked at News Corp.

News Corp was the same in the 1970s

The Guardian reported in May 2019

After the dismissal of Gough Whitlam’s Labor government in 1975, the Australian’s journalists went on strike during the subsequent election campaign over what they saw as the newspaper’s biased coverage. (Click here to read more)

Kevin Rudd’s 2010 super profits mining tax cost him the Prime Ministership and the loudest critic was News Corp who were, and still are, getting paid $millions by the mining companies for adverting. But apparently Anthony Klan didn’t notice that.

Why didn’t Anthony Klan say in 2010 or 2011 that News Corp was “incredibly in the pocket of the lobbyists of the minerals, the mining, the gas and of the big banks”?

Because Anthony Klan was also “in the pocket of the lobbyists of the minerals, the mining, the gas and of the big banks” via his weekly paycheque from News Corp.

And Anthony Klan stayed in their pockets for another 8 years after the mining companies, with the help of News Corp, got rid of Rudd.

So no, Anthony Klan is not a whistleblower on News Corp corruption. Klan is a long-term crook, who left News Corp for an unknown reason, who is now trying to cleanse his reputation by ratting on his fellow crooks at News Corp.

But Anthony Klan has already been caught out recently trying to use the News Corp business tactics, he learnt and used at News Corp for 15 years, in his own small media business.

News Corp’s influence on independent media and journalists

Anthony Klan isn’t the first and won’t be the last journalist to leave News Corp and continue with a life of crime and corruption.

There are and will be many other ex News Corp journalists and journalists from other media companies who will claim to be independent journalists but will lie and deceive, just as much as the Murdochs do, as they try to build their profile and small media business. So keep an eye out.

I never came up with the phrase the Murdoch’s are running a “propaganda operation masquerading as a news service“. University of Melbourne academic Denis Muller used the phrase in an article for The Conversation which means even University students are now learning about what News Corp really is.

I could say a lot more but the Murdoch’s and News Corp’s influence on independent media and journalists will grow and needs to be reported on a regular basis to try to keep it in check. So, I will save further comment for another article in the future.

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