Rupert Murdoch is marrying a climate hawk

CREDIT: JORDAN STRAUSS/INVISION/AP

Climate Progress

CREDIT: JORDAN STRAUSS/INVISION/AP
CREDIT: JORDAN STRAUSS/INVISION/AP

So I don’t normally cover engagement notices. But on Tuesday, climate activist Jerry Hall and climate super-denier Rupert Murdoch announced their impending nuptials in one of his many newspapers.

CREDIT: THE TIMES
CREDIT: THE TIMES

This is one of the most unusual couplings since James Carville and Mary Matalin or Lyle Lovett and Julia Roberts or James Inhofe and Barbara Boxer. OK, I made up that last one, but still.

rolling-stone-climate-killersI mean, we have the actress and model who had four children with the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger (and who has argued “climate change is the biggest threat the world has ever seen”) getting engaged to the man Rolling Stone magazine labeled “The Disinformer” in a 2010 story naming the “The Climate Killers: 17 polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb the climate catastrophe.”

Rolling Stone said Murdoch and his NewsCorp empire, which includes Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, “have become the nation’s leading source of disinformation about climate change.” Not sure that does justice to the man whose media empire is also Australia’s leading source of climate disinformation and one of the top sources of disinformation in England. A 2014 survey of public opinions on climate change in 20 countries found the top three countries with the most climate denial were, in order, the United States, Great Britain and Australia. Quelle coïncidence!

Age hasn’t softened the 84-year-old Murdoch. Quite the reverse. In 2007, Murdoch told his employees at NewsCorp and Fox, “Climate change poses clear, catastrophic threats. We may not agree on the extent, but we certainly can’t afford the risk of inaction.” And in 2009, Jack Bauer became the first-ever “carbon-neutral torturer” as I reported at the time, when Fox’s “24” became the first TV production to go carbon neutral.

Not that any of this affected the fire hydrant of disinformation that is Fox News, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, or most of NewsCorp’s media outlets around the world. As for what Murdoch himself believes, last February, he tweeted that winter ice in the North Atlantic somehow undercut the theory of global warming:

Seriously. In a July 2014 interview, Murdoch said climate change should be treated with “much scepticism” and “We shouldn’t be building windmills and all that rubbish.”

And in August, he tweeted:

That should all make for interesting dinner conversations with his alarmist bride to be, who told reporters in 2009, “All the experts say governments need to act now if we’re going to have any chance of saving our children from catastrophe.”

Thanksgivings should be even more fun, since Murdoch’s son James Murdoch and his wife Kathryn are sustainability advocates, with Kathryn in particular having worked for both the Environmental Defense Fund and Clinton Climate Initiative. Indeed, while Rupert remains executive chairman of the (disinforming) print outlets, James has been running 21st-Century Fox since August — and quite differently. In December, 21st-Century Fox signed the White House Climate Pledge, joining some 150 other U.S. companies who “have committed to demonstrate their support for action on climate change and to voice support for a strong outcome to the COP21 Paris climate negotiations.”

I’d like to recommend to Rupert’s entire family this ThinkProgress post from November: “How To Talk To Your Climate Denier Uncle This Thanksgiving.”

Source: Climate Progress. Reproduced with permission.

Comments

9 responses to “Rupert Murdoch is marrying a climate hawk”

  1. Rob G Avatar
    Rob G

    I wonder what kind of $$$ she will get when he is finally lay to rest. It is an amusing thought to see all that wealth pumped into climate mitigation efforts. She would become a historical hero should it ever unfold this way….

    1. john Avatar
      john

      Rob there is no way the lady will see one cent more than a few million as his assets are all in trusts.
      And not paying any tax.
      Just how this pair work is a mystery.

      1. Rob G Avatar
        Rob G

        We can live in hope. Should he completely lose his marbles he might unwittingly sign some will papers he said he’d never sign.

  2. Chris Fraser Avatar
    Chris Fraser

    Jerry puts in the wedge …. ever so subtly … you go girl !

  3. Alistair Spong Avatar
    Alistair Spong

    wow politics ! Im so interested to hear that the succession from Rupert to Lachlan has already bought some positive benefits…..its uplifting to hear that Rupert’s departure from his empire may one day bring about mass sackings of climate fraudsters. Life like this planet is finite and Rupert hasn’t got that long left, imagine what can be achieved with the media onboard, we’ve come so far already! And then Dear Jerry Hall their to guide the senile bugger if he should linger, the world is well

    1. Calamity_Jean Avatar
      Calamity_Jean

      “…its uplifting to hear that Rupert’s departure from his empire may one day bring about mass sackings of climate fraudsters.”

      I know I’m looking eagerly forward to hearing that Roger Ailes is permanently unemployed.

  4. Jacob Avatar
    Jacob

    When the hell will he and Robert Mugabe die.

    1. Michel Syna Rahme Avatar
      Michel Syna Rahme

      Viagra might well end UP being his labefaction!
      Either Jerry is going to be extremely unsatisfied or we will all get to see Lachlans true colours shorlty!

  5. Robin Avatar
    Robin

    The media always sounds so disturbed when people get along despite political or ideological differences.

Get up to 3 quotes from pre-vetted solar (and battery) installers.