The West Australian is Western Australia’s only state-wide newspaper, and really the only newspaper that covers the events of the state in any detail at all.
While I want to support public journalism in Western Australia, and subscribing to the West is really the only feasible way of doing this, the bias expressed by the West Australian is really hard to take.
Follow the money
The newspaper is owned by WA’s oligopoly media company, 7 West Media, who also own 40% of Channel 7 and affiliate stations and media companies (such as regional station GWN). But its worth noting that 7 West Media also owns Boral – WA’s largest producer of concrete. The Chairman of the Board at 7 West Media is a billionaire called Kerry Stokes, who owns another 40% of Channel 7 in his personal account. Kerry Stokes/7 West Media also own significant investments in mining equipment, industrial hire companies and mining/oil and gas (owners, for instance of WestTrac, Coates Hire and Australian Capital Equity).
TL;DR: 7 West Media’s ownership make the majority of their money from mining, gas and building/construction.
Editorial position
To say that the ‘vested interests’ of 7 West Media’s owners influence their editorial policy is an understatement. The paper, led by editorial columnist Paul Murray, is always pro-mining, always pro-big business, always against environmental regulations, or positive or progressive policies that might impact the smooth flow of mining and gas money into equipment and concrete revenues.
That ownership of these media is designed to influence the political timbre of WA should be clear. For a start, there is very little money in mass media these days, as can be seen by 7 West Media’s plummeting revenues. While the populist/tabloid stylings of editor Anthony DeCeglie are a clear attempt to sell more papers, there is no money in mass media. The profit of these companies does not come from the advertising that crowds the eyeballs of the 7West audience, but from the concrete and mining equipment it sells. The reason to have the paper? To keep the WA public feeling permissive and indebted towards the mining and gas industries that buy the concrete and use the equipment.
So, for the West Australian, climate change is a fiction, renewable energy is a scam and the Greens party (and lately Teal independents) are the largest threat that democracy has ever faced. The fact that these assertions are bald faced lies results in The West Australian often tying itself in knots in order to defend the interests of West Trac, Boral, and the numerous mining and gas companies and enterprises they have invested in.
If you’ve ever looked at mining interests being protected and supported throughout WA and thought ‘how do they get away with this?’ 7 West Media is how.
What to do?
I still subscribe to the West Australian because I believe in the importance of public journalism. The ABC is great but its state coverage could be better and there is space in the WA public for a commercial newspaper (I should mention, I also subscribe to the Guardian in order to protect good journalism; but their WA stuff is even more rare). I’ve actually taught a number of good people who work at The West, and am proud that they have produced some important work. I want to support that work.
At the same time, I am sick of the ridiculous rhetoric and nonsense that comes out of the West and am resolved to start to use this blog as a reservoir for countering some of the rubbish from the West. My loose plan is to pick the logical flaws and rhetorical abuses out of Paul Murray’s column each Saturday. No one reads this, so really it is just to make me feel better, but according to Jurgen Habermas at least, exposing the flaws in people’s arguments should undermine their power.