Like A Rupert Scorned
For the last few years, the Murdochs have been attempting to engineer an Australian Fox News followership via their Sky content, which notoriously shifts from regular news in the daytime to shock-jock alt-reality at night. The domestic ratings are poor, but online it has extremist appeal, particularly in an American market always hungry for loud right-wing hate (about 30% of traffic in 2021), and with YouTube advertising bringing in revenue, the content is being more and more tailored - US conspiracist Alex Jones has shared Sky After Dark clips, and the hosts play up to that by feeding back Inforwars/QAnon buzzwords and concepts. According to The Guardian, by last year it had tallied more YouTube views than any Australian news outlet - something in the 500 million range. It's helped to spread enmity and conspiracies centring on Covid, race, women, education, sex, the environment, and any politics slightly more progressive than Atilla the Hun. Last year, a deal with Austereo saw thi...