Lets see :
AAP - Australian Associated Press is owned by four Australian news organisations.
Fairfax and News Ltd both own 45%
Is on the Associated Press board
Rupert Murdoch joins Associated Press board
Newscorp assets in Australia look like this (below the fold)
With such a relatively small population of 22 Million people versus the 300 million in the US where Newscorp has its Fox empire, the organization has an overwhelming, almost dictatorial hold over public opinion in Australia. Yahoo gets its feeds as do many online outlets from AAP.
Newscorp in Australia
These are the Australian Newspapers Rupert Murdoch owns:
Australias total population - 20,848,760
The Australian (Nationwide) - Readership 449,000
Queensland - Population 4,228,290
Community Media Group (16 QLD & NSW suburban/regional titles)
Cumberland-Courier Newspapers (26 suburban/commuter titles)
The Courier-Mail (Queensland) Readership 614,000
The Sunday Mail (Queensland) Readership 1,473,000
The Cairns Post (Cairns, Queensland)
The Gold Coast Bulletin (Gold Coast, Queensland)
The Townsville Bulletin (Townsville, Queensland)
Quest Newspapers (19 suburban Brisbane, QLD titles)
The Tablelands Advertiser (Atherton Tablelands and the Far North, Queensland)
New South Wales Population - 6,926,990
The Daily Telegraph (New South Wales) Readership 1,158,000
The Sunday Telgraph (New South Wales) Readership 1,758,000
Victoria - Population 5,246,079
Herald Sun (Victoria) Readership Readership - 1,467,000
Sunday Herald Sun (Victoria) Readership - 1,532,000
The Weekly Times (Victoria)
Leader Newspapers (30 suburban Melbourne, VIC titles)
MX (Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane CBD)
The Geelong Advertiser (Geelong, Victoria)
South Australia - Population 1,591,930
The Advertiser (South Australia) Readership - 542,000
The Sunday Mail (South Australia) Readership - 739,000
Messenger Newspapers (11 suburban Adelaide, SA titles)
Western Australia - Population 2,130,797
The Sunday Times (Western Australia) Readership - 840,000
Tasmania - Population 495,772
The Mercury (Tasmania) Readership 128,000
The Sunday Tasmanian (Tasmania) Readership 142,000
Northern Territory - Population 217,559
Northern Territory News (Northern Territory)
The Sunday Territorian (Northern Territory)
Readership statistics for these papers
Newscorp and by voting rights, Rupert Murdoch's almost complete domination of the press and public opinion in Australia is overwhelming. And he is very smart with the target markets he pursues.
The Australian, a National broadsheet designed for the political savvy. The Courier Mail, Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph, Advertiser, Mercury are filled with general interest stories and elevate sports reporting to a very high level of importance. These papers have a high distribution amongst the working class. I should know, as they were pretty much the only paper I would read as a construction worker or tradesperson.
The Weekly Times is a national paper which is specifically written for the agricultural or farming community.
All of the provincial and local newspapers are just to complete the saturation and dominance within the Australian market place.
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Yesterday Kevin Rudd, Australia's Prime Minister, like many world leaders before him, made an impassioned plea over an issue which we all have to take seriously if we have a hope to see the end of the 21st century, in climate change.
There was a diary written by MooingChoir detailing how Mr Rudd had called out the leaders of politics around the world, specifically the denialist attitude of many in US politics.
Smack! Australian Prime Minister calls out US Republican Climate Deniers
The truth is this is hard, because the climate change skeptics, the climate change deniers, the opponents of climate change action are active in every country.
They are a minority. They are powerful. And invariably they are driven by vested interests.
Powerful enough to so far block domestic legislation in Australia, powerful enough to so far slow down the passage of legislation through the US Congress. And ultimately – by limiting the ambition of national climate change commitments – they are powerful enough to threaten a deal on global climate change both in Copenhagen and beyond.
Today Mr Murdoch, guaranteed a news cycle through sheer force of numbers of his media machine, decided to make a number of 'observations' singling out Mr Rudd for multiple criticism.
Rudd too sensitive to criticism: Murdoch
Media magnate Rupert Murdoch says Kevin Rudd is too sensitive to media criticism and is more interested in strutting the world stage than running Australia.
"He doesn't like criticism," Mr Murdoch told Sky News.
"He expresses his complaints more vociferously and faster."
"He's different in that he's more ambitious to lead the world than to lead Australia," he told Sky News, but quickly added that the comment may be a "little unfair" though "there's some truth in it".
Mr Murdoch said it was ridiculous for Australia to think it could lead the world in tackling climate change.
"I don't believe that Australia trying to be first in the world with cap and trade ... is going to have any influence on the rest of the world," he said.
So the owner of news interests which saturate multiple markets decides that he should 'dictate' terms in response to the Prime Minister of Australia. He takes a number of cheap shots inferring our Prime Minister has some sort of ambitions to be a world leader, weighs in on a specific policy which the opposition party has been twisting themselves into pretzels over to avoid even discussing in Australian parliament.
This is a blatant abuse of the power of the press Mr Murdoch. Timed specifically to rebut Mr Rudd, an elected official of the Australian government. That's right, Australians went to the polls and democratically elected this man to do what he believes is the right thing for Australia.
Specifically, dealing with the implications of climate change was one of those policies Mr Rudd was elected on.
When you say he is being sensitive that your media empire is abusing the public trust, I say he has a point which you have just demonstrated perfectly.
One last question, when did you actually put yourself on the firing line and run for elected office so you could see whether or not your concepts and ideas of how the world should work could be tested?
Because you have not ever actually put yourself out there, how about you leave the debate to the actual leaders of Australian parliament to worry about and get on with running what you claim is only a 'News' business, not a propaganda outlet?
Update: Timed to co-incide with the Sunday morning newspapers in Australia, it seems Newscorp has decided to interview Australia's former Prime Minister, the one Kevin Rudd defeated, who is supposedly no longer in politics.
However this is not entirely accurate as it seems that Mr Howard, despite having been his own man as PM for 11 years, is now working closely with Mr Murdoch to disrupt the administrations of both Barack Obama and Kevin Rudd.
October 6/7
McChrystal speaks out about Afghanistan
Australia's ex-Prime Minister weighs in
Send more troops or lose the war: Howard
Remember that John Howard was backed for 11 years by Rupert Murdoch and remained Australias Prime Minister for all that time.
Amazingly, immediately following this timed commentary what is John Howards Reward?
News Limitednewspapers have reported Mr Howard has been contacted by Gold Coast Titans chief executive Michael Searle, and asked to be chairman of an independent commission to run the NRL.
The NRL, Australias National Rugby League, is aNewscorp backedorganisation.
In the interview in the Sunday papers, Mr Howard has joined in the chorus attacking Mr Rudd over issues which have been inflated by the Murdoch machine.
John Howard takes revenge on Kevin Rudd
FORMER prime minister John Howard has launched an extraordinary attack on Kevin Rudd, accusing him of running a wasteful do-nothing government and mishandling the asylum seeker issue.
In his first extensive interview since he left political life two years ago, Mr Howard criticised the Rudd Government over its emphasis on symbolism and high-level spending.
I'd stop the boats: Howard
FORMER Prime Minister John Howard has branded Kevin Rudd as head of a "do-nothing'' government that has wasted the nation's savings and bungled asylum-seeker policy.
Really, this does not appear to be a coincidence as both these articles are from Murdoch's News organization.