The reasons for Labor's increased public hostility towards News Corp reflect both long-held truths about politics and the realities of the modern media landscape. They also vary depending on who you ask
"Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel," advised the writer Mark Twain.
"It's just become fairly apparent that they are acting as a propaganda arm of the government," says one senior Labor source. "We know that they are going to do everything they can to help the other side stay in power." Today, party strategists are confident they can get away with thumbing their noses at publications suffering from declining circulation and relevance. Social media offers politicians a way of bypassing the filter and accountability of traditional media outlets.
It was in Brisbane that Shorten addressed a gathering of News Corp editors earlier this year. The meeting was said to be cordial with perhaps a hint of irritation from Shorten about some of the treatment of his party. "It’s certainly not a considered strategy on our behalf to become more polemical or more strident one way or the other," he says. "That’s not really what drives us. What drives us is to cover the stories and the issues that matter to readers."
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