Laughing Stock: Australia’s new media code rivals our climate policy for absurdity

As if Rupert Murdoch and the Coalition had not already flubbed Australia’s credibility around the world for their failure on climate change, now we look like we don’t know how the internet works.

It is either that, the Dumb Aussies narrative, or something more sinister. The Morrison government, with the feeble connivance of Labor, has demanded Google and Facebook pay News Corp, Nine and Coalition-friendly media organisations for “content”, for their stories that is. 

Yet, in their childish fervor to bust into the market and prop up these government friendly publishers, their bizarre Digital Media Code has got it completely wrong. Google and Facebook don’t even publish their stories, merely links to their stories. 

The reader…