Protesters outside of News Corp’s Come Together event in Sydney urged advertisers inside to stop spending with the Rupert Murdoch company because of its divisive news coverage.
Come Together is the media outlet’s annual showcase aimed at wooing advertisers. During the event, which is still running in Sydney before starting in Melbourne next week, 24 new initiatives were revealed.
Get Up! and journalist Alex McKinnon organised the protest to include speakers Greens senator senator Mehreen Faruqi, NSW MP David Shoebridge, Imam Hadi and and Get Up! national director Paul Oosting.
The group called out News Corp commentators such as Andrew Bolt and Miranda Devine.
As well as advertisers, the group also urged journalists and producers to take more responsibility in how they cover race and politics, a conversation that’s picked up particularly since the Christchurch attack.
“Stoking hatred against racial and religious minorities is at the core of businesses like News Corp, they will not give up their profits and their status for something so trivial as the lives as safety of the people they target,” McKinnnon said.
Protesters outside the Come Together event in the International Convention Centre
He referenced a 2017, a year-long study by the OnePath Network, a Muslim production studio based in Sydney, which found that 2,891 articles in The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun and The Adelaide Advertiser, all News Corp-owned, “referred to Islam and Muslims alongside words like violence extremism, terrorism or radicalism”.
It also found that 152 front pages featured Islam in some negative capacity.
“We are here to say that any company or advertising agency dealing with News Corp and any media organisation that profits off hatred; the hate you fund is the hate you spread,” McKinnon said.
A protester outside the event
Also speaking to the group, and by-passers stopping to hear, was federal Greens senator Faruqi.
“News Corp is the flag-bearer of the dog whistling and racism that has fostered the toxic climate of hate, division and Islamophobia” Faruqi said.
“To the advertisers who are gathered here today, you need to know that you’re path to profit is built on News Corp’s platform of hate.
“Pull your ads, do not fund this platform of hate. If Murdoch and other platforms don’t listen to our pain they will listen to the sounds of your wallet walking away.”
AdNews has approached News Corp for comment.
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