Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and union veteran Sharan Burrow have welcomed compulsory training for Sky News commentators after an Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) investigation found the network inaccurately reported on climate change.
The investigation, prompted by more than 80 complaints submitted to ACMA by former prime minister Kevin Rudd, found four episodes of Sky’s program Outsiders that aired in late 2021 fell afoul of the media regulator’s code of practice “around accuracy and clearly distinguishing” facts from commentary in the show’s coverage of climate change.
“The Murdoch media, from Fox in the US to Sky in Australia, have been systematically spreading lies and disinformation with terrible consequences for our democracies and in this case the climate,” Turnbull told Crikey in a statement on Thursday. Turnbull was recently tapped to co-chair the campaign for a royal commission into News Corp, taking over the role from Rudd.
“At long last they are being held to account.”
In a 44-page report released this week, ACMA determined that the Foxtel program, anchored by hosts Rowan Dean, Rita Panahi and James Morrow, had a “tendency” to broadcast “evidently credible” research overlaid with contrarian commentary that would make it difficult for a viewer to draw their own conclusions from the “material included”.
ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin said the program has “an obligation to its audience” to separate facts and commentary “clearly”, but failed to do so throughout “a number of its episodes”. The show, as a result, “did not present news content either accurately or fairly”, she said.
One example of a misleading presentation given by the regulator was a segment titled “Outsiders Weather and the Sceptics Ice-Age Watch”, which went to air on October 3 and cited ice core analysis sent to the show by an “Ice Age Watch fan” and purported to find that global temperature “drives carbon dioxide, not the other way around”.
Foxtel, in its submission to the regulator, argued that Outsiders is “not a news program”, and instead provides viewers with a “no holds barred” offering of commentary on politics and other “topical issues”.
In response to the regulator’s findings, Sky News outed former prime minister and US ambassador Kevin Rudd as the complainant responsible for setting the investigation in motion, when he served as chair of Australians for a Murdoch Royal Commission. In it, Sky said: “We are delighted Mr Rudd is apparently such a devoted viewer of Outsiders”.
Burrow, who was recently appointed co-chair of the campaign, said she and Turnbull look forward to picking up where Rudd left off, to keep Sky and its presenters “accountable”.
“This is a significant finding from ACMA about Sky’s false and inaccurate climate change coverage,” Burrows told Crikey in a statement.
“Sky will be required to report on the actions it has taken in response to the findings, including training for its staff.”
Foxtel will now have to undertake a review of the systems it has in place to “ensure that content sources from third-party providers”, such as Sky, are compliant with ACMA’s code. Foxtel will have four months to report back to the regulator on the outcome of its review, which could include “staff training” and other arrangements put in place to ensure future compliance.
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