“Sky News from Rupert Murdoch’s Media Empire Reprimanded for Inaccurate Climate Reporting, says Australian Regulator”

The Australian media regulator has reprimanded the broadcaster Sky News from Rupert Murdoch’s media empire for its climate reporting. Australia’s Communications and Media Authority said the Australian sister station of Murdoch’s US news channel Fox News has repeatedly broadcast inaccurate accounts of climate change and unfair assessments of the subject.

Specifically, it is about the Sunday program “Outsiders”, in which three conservative commentators comment on the news of the week. The supervisory authority investigated 80 complaints against the format’s climate reporting. They included information about the ice in Antarctica, heat pumps in Great Britain, the Great Barrier Reef off Australia and Japanese temperature data.

The show has “an obligation to its audience to clearly separate fact from commentary,” said media regulator Nerida O’Loughlin. “On a number of ‘Outsiders’ episodes, she has failed to do so and has not reported news content accurately or fairly.”

Sky News acknowledged the mistakes in a statement, but emphasized that the complaints were made by former Labor Prime Minister and now Australia’s Ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd.

He had launched a campaign in the past to challenge the powerful media mogul Murdoch’s ownership of media in Australia. Murdoch’s empire includes several Australian newspapers that have long supported Conservative politicians and causes.

Sky News also stressed in the statement that most of Ruddd’s 80 complaints had been dismissed. “Outsiders” is a “commentary and discussion program that, as the name suggests, illuminates alternative perspectives on current events”.