Our black summer has lent credence to the notion that News Corp’s very worst effect is its carriage of climate change denialism in the observance of ideological pluralism. Wrong. Far from it. None of its journalism is more ordinary than that which so readily savages any putative obstacle to its commercial interests. And nowhere is that craven genre more baldly practised than in its coverage of sports broadcast rights.

Holt Street’s newest victims are Rugby Australia and Foxtel’s competitor in the auction for rugby union’s next set of rights, Optus.