Unquoting "Fair and Balanced"? Murdoch going green
Thu May 10, 2007 at 01:53:11 PM PDT
On 9 May 2007, News Corporation CEO Ruppert Murdoch gave a speech announcing a major initiative on Global Warming (oops, for him ... "climate change")
Climate change poses clear, catastrophic threats. We may not agree on the extent, but we certainly can't afford the risk of inaction.
We must transform the way we use energy,
Wow, it almost sounds like Murdoch is ready to start pitching in to Energize America.
But what does this mean? And, does this having meaning and require action from us?
Murdoch's speech is interesting, in many ways. He seems driven to this point by weather changes in Australia:
I grew up in Melbourne, Australia and the last few months and years have brought some changes there:
In Melbourne, 2006 was the 10th consecutive year with below average rainfall. And 2005 was the hottest year on record throughout Australia.
Australia is suffering its worst drought in 100 years
And, his bosses -- the advertisers -- are talking to him:
Our advertisers are asking us for ways to reach audiences on this issue.
FOX is developing a solutions-based campaign which will offer advertisers the opportunity to partner with us to engage the general public.
And, by audience (or market?) demands:
Our audiences-- hundreds of millions of people on five continents-- care about this issue. Three quarters of the American public believes climate change is a serious problem, and in many other countries, developed and developing, the numbers are even higher.
And as many companies have already learned, acting on this issue is simply good business.
And, well, some of that good business is internal:
Reducing our use of energy reduces costs.
Inviting our employees to be active on this issue helps us recruit and retain the world's best.
News Corporation plans to cut its carbon footprint (a modest) 20% over the next five years and to be carbon neutral by 2010 through carbon offsets. According to Murdoch,
When all of News Corporation becomes carbon neutral it will have the same impact as turning off the electricity in the city of London for five full days.
Even so, the more important part of this is the implications of the relationship with News Corporation's viewers and readers.
We're starting with our own carbon footprint. Not nothing. But much of what we're doing is already, or soon will be, little more than the standard way of doing business.
We can do something that's unique, different from just any other company. We can set an example, and we can reach our audiences. Our audience's carbon footprint is 10,000 times bigger than ours...
That's the carbon footprint we want to conquer.
The implication -- the equivalent of 50,000 days of London's electricity use? That is starting to get into meaningful territory. How does Murdoch put it?
We cannot do it with gimmicks. We need to reach them in a sustained way. To weave this issue into our content-- make it dramatic, make it vivid, even sometimes make it fun. We want to inspire people to change their behavior.
Despite all its other problems, Murdoch's media empire knows how to entertain. And, to be honest, many of the people that they currently reach are those I bet least likely to go out for Earth Day. What sort of impact?
Imagine if we succeed in inspiring our audiences to reduce their own impacts on climate change by just one percent. That would be like turning the State of California off for almost two months.
And, he raises this for Asia ... and ... well, boy this is sounding nice ...
But ... but ... but ... This is Rupert Murdoch ... What's the catch? What's the reality here?
As I questioned in Fox Going Green,
- Will Fox stop peddling junk science and featuring Skeptics?
- Will Fox no longer favor politicians who embrace skeptics?
- Will Fox challenge the Administration’s denial of Global Warming’s impacts and the need to take serious action?
- Will Fox execute a 180 on the politics it has been supporting since its inception?
DeSmogBlog had an excellent discussion yesterday entitled Will Fox News stop peddling "Junk Science?" (posted here at Dkos) highlighting just one of the many ways in which Fox News -- a flagship, we can say, of Murdoch's News Corporation -- provides a soap box for Global Warming skeptics and deniers.
Steve Milloy (aka. "The Junkman") is a regular Fox News columnist and tireless campaigner in the war against climate science. A quick read of Milloy's website and you will find the usual laundry list of long-held global warming denier arguments.
Milloy was at one point the director of an organization called the Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC), which by many is considered the grand-daddy of modern industry front groups. TASCC cut its teeth on the war against tobacco smoke and later expanded into other areas like global warming.
They've followed this up today with an ACTION ITEM, a petition to throw the Junk Science off Fox News.
Maybe ... just maybe ... if enough of us act, we can help take the quotation marks away from "Fair and Balanced" ...
So, take the action ... sign the petition to throw the Junk Science off Fox News ... let's make Rupert Murdoch makes his pledge not just Greenwashing, but reality.
Ask yourself: Are you doing your part?
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