{"id":596993,"date":"2026-04-10T02:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T02:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/596993\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T02:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T02:45:08","slug":"andrew-bolt-swims-against-news-corp-tide-on-ben-roberts-smith-prosecution-amanda-meade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/596993\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Bolt swims against News Corp tide on Ben Roberts-Smith prosecution | Amanda Meade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Occasionally the Murdoch commentator Andrew Bolt defies the party line. In 2021 he said News Corp Australia\u2019s editorial campaign for net zero emissions by 2050 was \u201crubbish\u201d and \u201cglobal warming propaganda\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This week Bolt stuck his neck out in support of the war crimes prosecution of Ben Roberts-Smith, in a marked departure from News Corp\u2019s approach since 2018, when the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald published a series of stories<\/a> alleging the Victoria Cross recipient had committed murder and other war crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a simple question for the people angrily defending Ben Roberts-Smith, claiming a war hero is being persecuted by woke civilians judging soldiers in battle from the comfort of their sofas,\u201d Bolt wrote in his Herald Sun column<\/a>. \u201cDo you think Australian soldiers should be allowed to shoot unarmed prisoners?\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Bolt\u2019s Herald Sun column in support of the war crimes prosecution of Ben Roberts-Smith was also posted on the publication\u2019s Instagram. Photograph: Herald Sun\/InstagramAndrew Bolt\u2019s Herald Sun column about Ben Roberts-Smith trial from Friday April 9, 2026. Photograph: Herald Sun<\/p>\n

Reporters Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters have had to contend with multiple attacks on their journalism in News Corp pages.<\/p>\n

In 2018 Roberts-Smith hired a PR firm and the investigative reporter Ross Coulthart as a consultant, and the Weekend Australian gave him a favourable sit-down interview, accompanied by photos of Roberts-Smith with his then wife Emma.<\/p>\n

The former soldier claimed in a front-page story run by the national broadsheet that the stories were \u201cdemonstrably false\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cNine has accused me of murder,\u201d he said. \u201cFrankly, it is time for their journalists to put up their evidence or admit they have none.\u201d<\/p>\n

As recently as May last year McKenzie was subjected to accusations on Sky News Australia that he had been \u201ccaught on secret tapes\u201d acting unethically. Roberts-Smith\u2019s application to reopen the appeal over the recording was rejected<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In his 2023 book Flawed Hero: Truth, Lies and War Crimes, Masters wrote: \u201cI do not buy The Australian. It makes me sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ex-News Corp journos reveal company tactics<\/p>\n

Masters is one of the case studies in a new book from journalism academics Andrew Dodd and Matthew Ricketson, Getting Murdoched, published by Hardie Grant Books in June.<\/p>\n

Dodd is a professor of journalism at the University of Melbourne and Ricketson is a professor of communication at Deakin University.<\/p>\n

The book analyses the way Rupert Murdoch\u2019s media operates in the company\u2019s major markets \u2013 the US, the UK and Australia.<\/p>\n

The former reporters, who have both worked for News Corp, reveal the tactics the company\u2019s publications use in a series of interviews with climate scientists, women\u2019s rights advocates, Muslims, progressive politicians and others who have been the subject of relentless News Corp reporting.<\/p>\n

Journalists Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters give a statement outside the federal court, in Sydney, in June 2023. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts\/AAP<\/p>\n

In addition to Masters, who reveals the personal cost of attacks on his work, there are interviews with the Indigenous professor Larissa Behrendt, the journalism academic and Sydney Morning Herald columnist Jenna Price, the writer Benjamin Law, Jewish lawyer Sarah Schwartz, academic and author Clive Hamilton, the former young Queensland Australian of the year Yassmin Abdel-Magied and the former SBS journalist Scott McIntyre.<\/p>\n

Journalists who are putting together a television feature sometimes make a spectacle of themselves at press conferences so they can include the exchange in their story. <\/p>\n

Perhaps this was the tactic behind a bizarre and cringeworthy back and forth on Wednesday between the agitated 7News Spotlight reporter Liam Bartlett and the energy minister, Chris Bowen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bowen was giving a regular press conference about the fuel crisis caused by the war in Iran, when Bartlett was invited to ask a question.<\/p>\n

Liam Bartlett listens to the minister for energy, Chris Bowen, speak during a press conference. Photograph: Lukas Coch\/AAP<\/p>\n

The former 60 Minutes journalist asked: \u201cMinister, if this war in Iran has shown us nothing else, hasn\u2019t it proved once and for all that your obsession with renewables will only lead us down the track to another energy crisis?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowen: \u201cThat\u2019s a pretty loaded \u2026 that\u2019s a comment, not a question.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, it\u2019s a question,\u201d responded Bartlett. Bowen answered the question before moving on to other journalists.<\/p>\n

But Bartlett \u2013 who a decade ago spent two years working for oil company Shell as its global head of TV \u2013 wasn\u2019t done, interjecting several times, at one point to ask if Bowen would \u201cput the flag up and say, listen, I\u2019ll resign?\u201d <\/p>\n

When Bowen moved on to other reporters, Bartlett attempted to mock the minister saying: \u201cYou\u2019ve taken one question. That\u2019s very brave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowen asked Bartlett to show respect for other journalists in the room, but Bartlett kept going, asserting the government had \u201cspent billions of dollars we haven\u2019t got on questionable green infrastructure, tying us to China, not worrying about where the minerals come from\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bartlett asked if it was clear that Bowen\u2019s \u201crenewables transition policy, will not alter one iota despite what this war has shown us with the failure of your energy policy?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowen replied: \u201cI\u2019m not sure how you could assert, Liam, that the war in Iran is the fault of Australian renewable energy. I really don\u2019t understand that logic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bartlett had earlier complained he had been sending questions to the minister \u2013 \u201c13 emails\u201d \u2013 since 24 January, which, he said, were \u201copen and honest questions about your renewables obsession\u201d. <\/p>\n

But it seemed the outlet got the moment of drama it was looking for. A snippet of the \u201cfiery exchange\u201d was used on 7NEWS socials<\/a> to trail a \u201cmajor investigation\u201d to be screened on 19 April.<\/p>\n

Seven did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Former Nine and Sky News broadcaster Erin Molan is now a rightwing commentator with her own YouTube channel, the Erin Molan Show. She was briefly the host of a show called 69 Minutes<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n

\u2018Unwilling to be silenced or sidelined\u2019: Erin Molan. Photograph: Mick Tsikas\/AAP<\/p>\n

But now we can reveal she has branched out internationally and become a presenter on PragerU<\/a>, which styles itself as a university but is in fact a conservative content generator.<\/p>\n

Molan\u2019s bio on the site reads: \u201cUnwilling to be silenced or sidelined for her views, Molan left mainstream media to forge her own independent path \u2013 championing free speech, online safety, and protecting women\u2019s sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

PragerU\u2019s goal is to \u201cattract young people to its ideology\u201d, the Guardian reported this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Molan\u2019s videos include \u201cThe Threat of Mass Immigration to Western Culture\u201d and \u201cWhy Won\u2019t More Muslim Voices Speak Out against Extremism?\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Graham Readfearn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Occasionally the Murdoch commentator Andrew Bolt defies the party line. In 2021 he said News Corp Australia\u2019s editorial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-596993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}