News Corp CEO Robert Thomson raises concerns at Senate inquiry into media diversity in Australia

News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson tells inquiry a ‘more sophisticated debate’ is needed to address the unchecked reach of tech giants.

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young with News Corp chief executive officer Robert Thomson as he appeared via video link at a media diversity public hearing at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Gary Ramage/NCA NewsWire.

News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson has warned of the dangers of “digital disruption” in the media landscape, and expressed concern about the unchecked power, reach, and influence of the tech giants across the globe.

Appearing via videolink before a Senate inquiry into media diversity in Australia, Mr Thomson said he welcomed the opportunity to “have a more sophisticated debate about the impact of social media and the potency of digital platforms”.

The News Corp chief said the issue of media diversity was “profound”, and argued that while there was now “indisputably” a greater variety of potential news sources both in Australia and overseas, there had been a shift “in power, influence and profitability from the creators of news content to the distributors of news content”.

Asked by Senator Kim Carr whether the big tech platforms are, in fact, “publishers”, Mr Thomson said they should be considered thus.

“They are … they publish information,” he said.

“But one of the distinctions is that if people have a complaint about an article — and there needs to be accountability with a newspaper — there are so many routes by which we can be held accountable.

“We clearly make mistakes and we should be accountable for mistakes. Unfortunately, that’s not yet the case for the big digital players.”

In his opening statement to the hearing, Mr Thomson said: “Proliferation is not the issue, and yet publications are struggling to survive even as their audiences and potential audiences have grown exponentially.

“That is why the Australian Media Code is so crucial and has served as inspiration to countries around the world.”

News Corp and several other major media organisations reached payment-for-content deals with Google and Facebook in Australia earlier this year, after the media bargaining code legislation was passed earlier this year.

Mr Thomson countered Senator Carr’s assertion that the limited diversity of views in the media on certain issues — such as climate change — warranted concern, “given the level of media concentration within this country”.

Mr Thomson: “Senator, there is increasing diversity in Australia. Clearly so. You’ve got the rise of the Guardian, the BBC, The Daily Mail, The New York Times online.

“The issue is not diversity, it’s consistency — the new big digital players are not subject to the laws that are imposed on traditional media.”

News Corp’s Robert Thomson via video link at the media diversity public hearing. Picture: Gary Ramage / NCA NewsWire

Mr Thomson described the digital ecosystem as “dysfunctional”.

“While there is undoubted diversity, there is not yet sustainability even in new media,” he said.

“Ten smart women and men could launch a news website in Birmingham, England, or Birmingham, Alabama and no matter how clever, how canny, they would be doomed because content is not properly valued and the digital ad market lacks transparency.

“Secondly, the impact of so-called social media on sensibility, on personality has to be challenged. The most brilliant software engineers in the world are making products more compelling, more compulsive, leveraging human instinct, harvesting our insecurities and our children’s insecurities.

“The puissance of Artificial Intelligence is real and that influence is growing.”

Mr Thomson went on to air his concerns about the creeping, worldwide push for the censorship of views that deviate from a particular narrative.

“Across News Corp, across the globe, there are contrasting concepts, diverging views, a contest of ideas,” he said.

“It should be of concern that the contest of ideas is not cherished by all, and that a movement to silence, to censor views, to shame and to ostracise has gained momentum in much of the world.

“We should all be wary of a seemingly insatiable quest for indignation, on right and left, a holier-than-thou theology that demonises deviation.”

On the matter of News Corp’s coverage of environmental issues, Mr Thomson said: “On the environment it is worth stressing that, corporately, we have pursued a policy consistent with Rupert Murdoch’s statement in 2006 that ‘the planet deserves the benefit of the doubt’.

“We were the first large media company in the US to commit to science-based targets for carbon reduction — from 2016 to 2020, they were cut by 30 per cent and further reductions are well advanced,” he said.

“In 2011, we created what was one of the largest industrial solar projects in the United States at our Dow Jones print centre in New Jersey. HarperCollins announced this week that it would be carbon neutral next year and that is not just from buying carbon offsets.

“You will no doubt have noticed the campaign ahead of the Glasgow summit by many of our papers in Australia — to be clear, the initiative came from the local editors.”

Responding to a question from Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young about that campaign, Mr Thomson said: “Obviously, Glasgow is a time to concentrate minds and thinking. That’s what our local editors have done in Australia, not dictated by me or anyone else.

“There was a meeting of the local editors. They have collectively agreed that ahead of Glasgow, they wanted to make an editorial statement.”

Mr Thomson said he briefly discussed the Glasgow summit with Prime Minister Scott Morrison when they met in New York in September, but the topic of News Corp’s climate coverage did not arise.

Mr Thomson was the fourth News Corp executive to appear at the inquiry.

Despite a wide-ranging brief to consider media diversity and the impact of online news on Australia’s media landscape, the inquiry has yet to hear from many other large media organisations.