"Readers led to believe a short-on-facts advertorial exhorting government to let companies extract more gas is straight news coverage"
"The big news on Monday morning was that the story splashed across the front of News Corp’s biggest-selling tabloid newspapers wasn’t news at all. It was an advertorial paid for by a fossil fuel industry. Not that readers glancing at page one of the Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, Courier-Mail or Adelaide Advertiser were let in on this secret.
Instead, they were sold a lie – that the story was straight news coverage, in some cases described as an “exclusive” or a “special report”, on how (in the words of the Courier-Mail) Australia must “step on the gas” as it was the “only way to avoid higher bills, blackouts”.
Only readers who flicked inside to an identical double-page spread run across the News Corp stable on the importance of gas were let in on the truth – that it was an advertising feature “proudly sponsored” by the gas infrastructure business APA Group and the gas companies Tamboran, Santos and Jemena. Those who read the main piece online saw no disclosure at all."
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