October 27, 2024

StW: Seven News boss rails against 'evil forces' summoned by Meta and co as lobbying intensifies

25 minutes

Welcome to Start the Week, our Monday scene-setter for the week ahead.

In today’s audio-led edition, Seven West Media and News Corp lobby for government help on funding; households make the switch to ad-funded tiers, and we look ahead to the final upfront events of the year.

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Fighting disinformation by funding news: Media bosses stop up the rhetoric; Ad-supported TV back in vogue

After last week’s softener from the Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society, Australia’s big media players are moving into lobbying overdrive. Seven will argue this week that the giant digital platforms are a force for evil; while News Corp’s boss is arguing that the little end of town cannot be the solution.

Instead, Seven and News Corp are lobbying for the government to support the not-too-big, not-too-small Goldilocks solution of companies like, well, Seven and News Corp.

As the Australian reports, the editor-in-chief of Seven West Media, Anthony De Ceglie, will tomorrow use a Melbourne Press Club speech to attack the platforms including Elon Musk’s X, and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, saying:

“Elon Musk doesn’t care about the truth. In fact, he revels in peddling lies and boasts about using his bin fire of a site to influence the US election.

“Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg is seemingly happy for Meta to profit off the page impressions that child sex offenders create when they routinely use his site to prey on their next victim.

“Against these evil forces — and calling them that is not an exaggeration — there is only one true antidote. The news. The truth. The fourth estate.”

De Ceglie will also champion the idea of a tax break for producing news and current affairs content.

And News Corp’s executive chairman Michael Miller argues in The Australian today that the government should try to force Meta to go on supporting the big media players it did deals with three years ago:

“The government is at risk of abandoning the engine rooms of Australian news, which is where the bulk of the jobs are and where the bulk of important Australian stories are told,” he said.

“The parliament’s primary focus should be those deals Meta has walked away from.

As well as discussing De Ceglie and Miller’s arguments, today’s edition of Start the Week examines new numbers from Kantar which suggest a big jump in household penetration of ad-supported streaming services - up from 10% of homes to 25% in just a year; and looks across the agenda of media events over the next couple of weeks.