Murdoch's Law

When a politician quotes a Murdoch newspaper or Murdoch himself, they lose the argument - especially in relation to climate change and/or the economy:

Here are three examples from one day alone in Parliament.

From House of Representatives hansard [3/6/09]:

Warren Truss, Leader of the Nationals and member for Wide Bay:

"But, for those who still have doubts that we should be taking action to combat climate change, let me remind you that we all take out insurance policies, even though we hope we will never need them. In the words of Rupert Murdoch, ‘the planet deserves the benefit of the doubt’."

Kay Hull, Chief Nationals Whip and member for Riverina:

"As Rupert Murdoch has suggested, Australia’s emphasis should be on practical solutions. He said:

'The ultimate solution is not to punish the Australian economy by imposing standards that the rest of the world will never meet.'"

Joanna Gash, member for Gilmore:

"Rupert Murdoch suggested that Australia’s emphasis should be on practical solutions. He said:

'The ultimate solution is not to punish the Australian economy by imposing standards that the rest of the world will never meet. It’s to take the lead in developing real alternatives to solve the problem by offering clean, cheap energy to meet the growing demand.'"

Half the coalition were quoting Professor Ian Plimer to support their "deny" positions, the other half were quoting Murdoch to push the "delay" position.

Keep an eye on your local representative.

If Murdoch told them to stick their head in the oven they would.