{"id":799291,"date":"2026-07-14T08:02:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T08:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/799291\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T08:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T08:02:16","slug":"malcolm-turnbull-urges-australians-to-ignore-rupert-murdochs-media-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/799291\/","title":{"rendered":"Malcolm Turnbull urges Australians to ignore Rupert Murdoch\u2019s media empire"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has launched a scathing attack on Rupert Murdoch and his global media empire, suggesting their local media titles should be treated \u201clike the drunk that you see late on a Saturday night, raving and screaming and raging at the moon\u201d.<\/p>\n

Turnbull is a long-time Murdoch critic<\/a>, but dialled up his rhetoric in a recording obtained by this masthead that also takes aim at the ABC\u2019s and the Labor and Liberal parties\u2019 approach to handling News Corp outlets including Sky News, The Australian, Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun.<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has dialled up his criticism of News Corp.Sam Mooy<\/p>\n

Speaking at the launch event for a new book on the media empire Murdoch has built over seven decades, the former politician critiqued the 95-year-old\u2019s legacy and urged the audience to \u201cevict\u201d him from living \u201crent-free\u201d in the heads of the nation\u2019s politics, media and public life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy any Labor government ever takes any notice of what Murdoch says is utterly beyond me,\u201d Turnbull says in the recording from June 30, in which he argues that swing voters do not consume News Corp media.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has shown a softer approach to Murdoch and News Corp compared with that of his predecessors. He is a regular attendee at News Corp events, including\u00a0Lachlan Murdoch\u2019s private Christmas party in 2024<\/a>, Sky News\u2019 studio launch earlier this year and The Australian\u2019s 60th birthday event two years ago. News Corp has claimed that one of the Labor government\u2019s flagship policies, the under-16 social media ban<\/a>, was sparked by one of its campaigns.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Rupert<\/a><\/p>\n

Turnbull called for Australian institutions to ignore News Corp.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a sense, we\u2019ve got to start treating the rantings on the Murdoch media, particularly Sky News after dark, the way you treat the drunk that you see late on a Saturday night, raving and screaming and raging at the moon outside a pub,\u201d Turnbull said. \u201cYou know? Oh, OK, right, just carefully step by them, hopefully he doesn\u2019t vomit on you or something, and that\u2019s basically \u2013 you\u2019ve got to basically ignore it.\u201d<\/p>\n

His comments were delivered at a private launch event for Getting Murdoched, a book written by Andrew Dodd and Matthew Ricketson, two academics and former News Corp journalists who accuse the company of intimidating critics. A News Corp spokesman declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Turnbull also singled out Murdoch\u2019s personal legacy. \u201cHe was the single most influential voice in promoting Britain\u2019s withdrawal from Europe, Brexit. What a great thing that turned out to be!\u201d Turnbull said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then, of course, we have Donald Trump. So Trump, Brexit and climate denial \u2013 those are the great achievements. That\u2019s what all of this power has been achieved to do, and intimidating people along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

As prime minister from 2015 to 2018, Turnbull has a personal history with Murdoch and News Corp, and has become a prominent critic of the company since leaving politics. He has claimed he learnt Murdoch was trying to oust him in 2018 from billionaire mining and media magnate Kerry Stokes, an allegation Turnbull once again repeated in the speech.<\/p>\n

After Kevin Rudd was appointed Australian ambassador<\/a> to the United States in 2023, Turnbull took over as the lead figure<\/a> in the push for a royal commission into the Murdoch media empire, which received more than 500,000 signatures.<\/p>\n

During an interview with Sky News Australia in 2024<\/a>, Murdoch called Turnbull \u201cnuts\u201d and \u201cparanoid\u201d in response.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t like the fact that we supported Tony Abbott versus him. That\u2019s all,\u201d Murdoch said in the interview with his television network\u2019s boss, Paul Whittaker.<\/p>\n

Turnbull said that News Corp had created its own \u201cpolarised echo chamber\u201d within Australian politics, which it was now using to \u201csuck the Liberal Party down, destroying it in the process\u201d.<\/p>\n

When approached for a response to Turnbull\u2019s address to the book launch, a spokesperson for Murdoch declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Former<\/a><\/p>\n

Since leaving parliament, Turnbull has repeatedly broken with the Liberal Party, including describing Opposition Leader Angus Taylor as the \u201cbest qualified idiot\u201d many people had met<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the recording, Turnbull said he had urged the ABC to ignore News Corp during his time as communications minister between 2013 and 2015, but said the fact it still paid attention to The Australian was \u201ccrazy\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHello? They are the opposition. They hate you. They want to kill you,\u201d he said. \u201cDoes one football team take advice from their opponents? No, they\u2019re the enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n

News Corp titles regularly criticise the public broadcaster. In May, ABC chair Kim Williams said<\/a> articles in The Australian about the ABC\u2019s coverage of Israel were \u201cdivisive\u201d and \u201cinflammatory\u201d. Williams, a former News Corp Australia chief executive, has taken a firmer tone towards News Corp compared with his predecessor, Ita Buttrose.<\/p>\n

Turnbull, who declined to add to his remarks when contacted by this masthead, urged the audience to evict Murdoch and his empire from living \u201crent-free in our heads\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re narrow casting to an angry minority, and their goals are simply the accumulation and exercise of power, the more unbridled and unchecked, the better,\u201d he said at the book launch.<\/p>\n

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"CalumCalum Jaspan<\/a> is a media writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Melbourne. Reach him securely on Signal @calumjaspan.10Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-799291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799291","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=799291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}