
Quarterly Essay 43: Bad News
Murdoch's Australian and the Shaping of The Nation
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $19.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Robert Manne
-
By:
-
Robert Manne
About this listen
This year has seen unprecedented scrutiny of Rupert Murdoch’s empire in Britain. But what about in Australia, where he owns 70 per cent of the press? In Bad News, Robert Manne investigates Murdoch’s lead political voice here, the Australian newspaper, and how it shapes debate.
Since 2002, under the editorship of Chris Mitchell, the Australian has come to see itself as judge, jury and would-be executioner of leaders and policies. Is this a dangerous case of power without responsibility? In a series of devastating case studies, Manne examines the paper’s campaigns against the Rudd government and more recently the Greens, its climate change coverage and its ruthless pursuit of its enemies and critics. Manne also considers the standards of the paper and its influence more generally. This brilliant essay is part deep analysis and part vivid portrait of what happens when a newspaper goes rogue.
©2011 Robert Manne (P)2011 Bolinda Publishing Pty LtdListeners also enjoyed...
-
In Denial
- The Stolen Generations and the Right
- By: Robert Manne
- Narrated by: Peter Byrne
- Length: 4 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this national best seller, Robert Mane attacks the right-wing campaign against the "Bringing Them Home" report that revealed how thousands of Aborigines had been taken from their parents. What was the role of Paddy McGuinness as editor of Quadrant? How reliable was the evidence that led newspaper columnists from Piers Akerman in the Sydney Daily Telegraph to Andrew Bolt in the Melbourne Herald Sun to deny the gravity of the injustice done?
By: Robert Manne
-
Ship of Fools
- By: Tucker Carlson
- Narrated by: Tucker Carlson
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The host of Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson Tonight offers a blistering critique of the new American ruling class, the elites of both parties, who have taken over the ship of state, leaving the rest of us, the citizen-passengers, to wonder: How do we put the country back on course?
-
-
Read if you want to hear about how ridiculous the ruling elite are
- By Sadie K on 03-02-19
By: Tucker Carlson
-
The Case for Trump
- By: Victor Davis Hanson
- Narrated by: David Lertham
- Length: 20 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Case for Trump, award-winning historian and political commentator Victor Davis Hanson explains how a celebrity businessman with no political or military experience triumphed over 16 well-qualified Republican rivals, a Democrat with a quarter-billion-dollar war chest, and a hostile media and Washington establishment to become president of the US—and an extremely successful president.
-
-
Fascinating!!
- By Wayne on 03-07-19
-
The Strange Death of Europe
- Immigration, Identity, Islam
- By: Douglas Murray
- Narrated by: Robert Davies
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Strange Death of Europe is a highly personal account of a continent and culture caught in the act of suicide. Declining birth rates, mass immigration, and cultivated self-distrust and self-hatred have come together to make Europeans unable to argue for themselves and incapable of resisting their own comprehensive alteration as a society and an eventual end.
-
-
Fear-mongering
- By Kat Cat on 01-22-19
By: Douglas Murray
-
Woke, Inc.
- Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam
- By: Vivek Ramaswamy
- Narrated by: Vivek Ramaswamy
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There’s a new invisible force at work in our economic and cultural lives. It affects every advertisement we see and every product we buy, from our morning coffee to a new pair of shoes. “Stakeholder capitalism” makes rosy promises of a better, more diverse, environmentally friendly world, but in reality, this ideology, championed by America’s business and political leaders, robs us of our money, our voice, and our identity.
-
-
Must read of 2021
- By chris boutte on 08-22-21
By: Vivek Ramaswamy
-
The Road to Unfreedom
- Russia, Europe, America
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the end of the Cold War, the victory of liberal democracy was thought to be absolute. Observers declared the end of history, confident in a peaceful, globalized future. But we now know this to be premature. Authoritarianism first returned in Russia, as Putin developed a political system dedicated solely to the consolidation and exercise of power. In the last six years, it has creeped from east to west as nationalism inflames Europe, abetted by Russian propaganda and cyberwarfare.
-
-
A Key Understanding of Modern Politics
- By Richard Keohane on 04-08-18
By: Timothy Snyder
-
In Denial
- The Stolen Generations and the Right
- By: Robert Manne
- Narrated by: Peter Byrne
- Length: 4 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this national best seller, Robert Mane attacks the right-wing campaign against the "Bringing Them Home" report that revealed how thousands of Aborigines had been taken from their parents. What was the role of Paddy McGuinness as editor of Quadrant? How reliable was the evidence that led newspaper columnists from Piers Akerman in the Sydney Daily Telegraph to Andrew Bolt in the Melbourne Herald Sun to deny the gravity of the injustice done?
By: Robert Manne
-
Ship of Fools
- By: Tucker Carlson
- Narrated by: Tucker Carlson
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The host of Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson Tonight offers a blistering critique of the new American ruling class, the elites of both parties, who have taken over the ship of state, leaving the rest of us, the citizen-passengers, to wonder: How do we put the country back on course?
-
-
Read if you want to hear about how ridiculous the ruling elite are
- By Sadie K on 03-02-19
By: Tucker Carlson
-
The Case for Trump
- By: Victor Davis Hanson
- Narrated by: David Lertham
- Length: 20 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Case for Trump, award-winning historian and political commentator Victor Davis Hanson explains how a celebrity businessman with no political or military experience triumphed over 16 well-qualified Republican rivals, a Democrat with a quarter-billion-dollar war chest, and a hostile media and Washington establishment to become president of the US—and an extremely successful president.
-
-
Fascinating!!
- By Wayne on 03-07-19
-
The Strange Death of Europe
- Immigration, Identity, Islam
- By: Douglas Murray
- Narrated by: Robert Davies
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Strange Death of Europe is a highly personal account of a continent and culture caught in the act of suicide. Declining birth rates, mass immigration, and cultivated self-distrust and self-hatred have come together to make Europeans unable to argue for themselves and incapable of resisting their own comprehensive alteration as a society and an eventual end.
-
-
Fear-mongering
- By Kat Cat on 01-22-19
By: Douglas Murray
-
Woke, Inc.
- Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam
- By: Vivek Ramaswamy
- Narrated by: Vivek Ramaswamy
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There’s a new invisible force at work in our economic and cultural lives. It affects every advertisement we see and every product we buy, from our morning coffee to a new pair of shoes. “Stakeholder capitalism” makes rosy promises of a better, more diverse, environmentally friendly world, but in reality, this ideology, championed by America’s business and political leaders, robs us of our money, our voice, and our identity.
-
-
Must read of 2021
- By chris boutte on 08-22-21
By: Vivek Ramaswamy
-
The Road to Unfreedom
- Russia, Europe, America
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the end of the Cold War, the victory of liberal democracy was thought to be absolute. Observers declared the end of history, confident in a peaceful, globalized future. But we now know this to be premature. Authoritarianism first returned in Russia, as Putin developed a political system dedicated solely to the consolidation and exercise of power. In the last six years, it has creeped from east to west as nationalism inflames Europe, abetted by Russian propaganda and cyberwarfare.
-
-
A Key Understanding of Modern Politics
- By Richard Keohane on 04-08-18
By: Timothy Snyder
-
The Bet
- Paul Ehrlich, Julian Simon, and Our Gamble over Earth's Future
- By: Paul Sabin
- Narrated by: Anthony Haden Salerno
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1980, the iconoclastic economist Julian Simon challenged celebrity biologist Paul Ehrlich to a bet. Their wager on the future prices of five metals captured the public’s imagination as a test of coming prosperity or doom. Ehrlich, author of the landmark book The Population Bomb, predicted that rising populations would cause overconsumption, resource scarcity, and famine—with apocalyptic consequences for humanity.
-
-
Why can't we even discuss Global Overpopulaion???
- By Leslie deGraffenried on 10-19-15
By: Paul Sabin
-
The Cameron Delusion
- Updated Edition of 'The Broken Compass'
- By: Peter Hitchens
- Narrated by: Peter Hitchens
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The struggle between the main political parties has been reduced to an unpopularity contest, in which voters hold their noses and sigh as they trudge to the polls. Peter Hitchens explains how and why British politics has sunk to this dreary level - the takeover of the parties and the media by conventional left-wing dogmas which then call themselves 'the centre ground'. The Tory party under David Cameron has become a pale-blue twin of New Labour, offering change without alteration.
-
-
Peter and his brother are both in their own ways,
- By Jarred Hess on 06-10-18
By: Peter Hitchens
-
The Assault on Reason
- Our Information Ecosystem, from the Age of Print to the Age of Trump - 2017 Edition
- By: Al Gore
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is a visionary analysis of how the politics of fear, secrecy, cronyism, and blind faith have combined with the public sphere's degradation to create an environment dangerously hostile to reason. Never has there been a worse time for us to lose the capacity to face the reality of our long-term challenges, from national security to the economy, from issues of health and social welfare to the environment. As The Assault on Reason explains, we have precious little time to waste.
-
-
A few good nuggets
- By R. Hilton on 05-26-07
By: Al Gore
-
The Crusader
- Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism
- By: Paul Kengor
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
God and Ronald Reagan made presidential historian Paul Kengor's name as one of the premier chroniclers of the life and career of the 40th president. With The Crusader, Kengor returns with the one book about Reagan that has not been written: the story of his lifelong crusade against communism and of his dogged and ultimately triumphant effort to overthrow the Soviet Union.
-
-
Whether you like Reagan or not....
- By Daryl on 10-20-13
By: Paul Kengor
-
Red Hot Lies
- How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed
- By: Christopher Horner
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of the New York Times best-selling Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming (and Environmentalism) comes Red Hot Lies, an exposé of the hypocrisy, deceit, and outright lies of the global warming alarmists and the compliant media that supports them. Did you know that most scientists are global-warming skeptics? Or that environmental alarmists have knowingly promoted false and exaggerated data on global warming?
-
-
OUTSTANDING BOOK
- By Don Coleman on 01-03-09
-
The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium
- By: Martin Gurri
- Narrated by: Tony Messano
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Originally published in 2014, this updated edition of The Revolt of the Public includes an extensive analysis of Donald Trump's improbable rise to the presidency and the electoral triumphs of Brexit and concludes with a speculative look forward, pondering whether the current elite class can bring about a reformation of the democratic process and whether new organizing principles, adapted to a digital world, can arise out of the present political turbulence.
-
-
New forces break things, but can't replace them
- By Philo on 06-25-19
By: Martin Gurri
-
Reappraisals
- Reflections on the Forgotten 20th Century
- By: Tony Judt
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 16 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The accelerating changes of the past generation have been accompanied by a similarly accelerated amnesia. The 20th century has become "history" at an unprecedented rate. The world of 2007 was so utterly unlike that of even 1987, much less any earlier time, that we have lost touch with our immediate past even before we have begun to make sense of it - and the results are proving calamitous.
-
-
Superb. Insightful essays, Performance to match
- By Louis on 05-02-12
By: Tony Judt
-
The Death of Truth
- Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump
- By: Michiko Kakutani
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 3 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We live in a time when the very idea of objective truth is mocked and discounted by the occupants of the White House. Discredited conspiracy theories and ideologies have resurfaced, proven science is once more up for debate, and Russian propaganda floods our screens. The wisdom of the crowd has usurped research and expertise, and we are each left clinging to the beliefs that best confirm our biases.
-
-
Prescient Account of the Mechanics of Tyranny
- By Brian Price on 07-27-18
By: Michiko Kakutani
-
When the Facts Change
- Essays, 1995-2010
- By: Tony Judt
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In When the Facts Change, Tony Judt's widow and fellow historian Jennifer Homans has assembled an essential collection of the most important and influential pieces written in the last 15 years of Judt's life, the years in which he found his voice in the public sphere. Included are seminal essays on the full range of Judt's concerns, including Europe as an idea and in reality, before 1989 and thereafter; Israel, the Holocaust and the Jews; American hyperpower and the world after 9/11.
-
-
Essential
- By Herman Utik on 09-19-16
By: Tony Judt
-
The War on Science
- Who's Waging It, Why It Matters, What We Can Do About It
- By: Shawn Lawrence Otto
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 20 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In every issue of modern society - from climate change to vaccinations, transportation to technology, health care to defense - we are in the midst of an unprecedented expansion of scientific progress and a simultaneous expansion of danger. At the very time we need them most, scientists and the idea of objective knowledge are being bombarded by a vast, well-funded, three-part war on science: the identity politics war on science, the ideological war on science, and the industrial war on science.
-
-
couldn’t be timelier
- By Midwestbonsai on 02-06-17
-
48 Liberal Lies About American History
- (That You Probably Learned in School)
- By: Larry Schweikart
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The problem isn’t that liberal authors present their opinions or interpretations of history from an obvious left-wing bias. Students learn, for example, that the Founding Fathers were elitists who drafted the Constitution in order to protect their own economic interests; that Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation only because he needed black soldiers; that racist groups such as the KKK represented our society in the early twentieth century.
-
-
amazingly accurate...
- By Anthony on 01-23-16
By: Larry Schweikart
-
Conscience of a Conservative
- A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle
- By: Jeff Flake
- Narrated by: Milton Jeffers, Jeff Flake - preface
- Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a bold act of conscience, Republican Senator Jeff Flake takes his party to task for embracing nationalism, populism, xenophobia, and the anomalous Trump presidency. The book is an urgent call for a return to bedrock conservative principle and a cry to once again put country before party.
-
-
Liberal Gives Flake 5 Stars
- By TNN on 08-04-17
By: Jeff Flake