(Image: The Herald Sun)

Zero campaigning Today is the first day in News Corp’s campaign in favour of net zero emissions by 2050 — a move far less consequential than it may look on the surface. One particular note that stood out was the explanation of what they were doing and why, run across the company’s papers. Naturally, they condemn both the far right and far left for their inability to compromise and argue that “perhaps the major reason that action on climate change has so repeatedly stalled in this country is that the debate has fallen victim to a culture of constant complaint. That nothing is ever good enough and everything is too little too late”.

Which is a remarkable thing to say when you’ve spent 15 years mainstreaming climate change denialism and turning any form of climate change action into a potentially career-ending issue for successive prime ministers.

Insta-blame Incidentally, we’re not sure if the following post on The Daily Telegraph‘s Instagram is an honest mistake or an expert troll:

The image depicts a pair of grinning young folk ready to rock and roll all over the place in their denim jackets. Thing is, the eagle-eyed reader may have spotted that the town awaiting a coating of red paint behind them is not Sydney. Or if it is, it’s a part of Sydney that appears to contain identical landmarks to Melbourne.

A Nobel profession We spend a lot of time in the Crikey bunker lamenting the state of journalism. So it’s only fair that we take a moment to acknowledge the best of the craft from time to time. Over the weekend the Nobel Peace Prize went to Rappler co-founder Maria Ressa and Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov. These two have given up a lot for journalism

We’ll put it in these terms: Ressa was previously been detained in February 2019 by the Philippine government, who issued 10 arrest warrants for her in two years, and is facing nine separate cases. In June last year, she was convicted of “cyber libel”. She and researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr face between six months and six years in prison.

Muratov, in his 20-year association with newspaper Novaya Gazeta has seen at least six of his colleagues killed in ways that bore the marks of professional hit jobs: Igor Domnikov, Yuri Shchekochikhin, Anna Politkovskaya, Anastasia Baburova, Stanislav Markelov and Natalya Estemirova.

Out of the Lyons pan into the fire As The Australian reports today, among the frontrunners to replace Gaven Morris as ABC News Director is John Lyons. Of course, this is inevitable — Lyons is a highly respected journalist of many years and was Morris’ second in command.

And of course it’s part of the job of any journalist to make enemies. But rarely can the potential of a big promotion have come at such a febrile time. Morris’ resignation comes only weeks after the publication of Dateline Jerusalem, Lyons’ report on what he argues is the outsized influence of Israeli lobbyists and diplomats on newsrooms in Australia. The book names names, chief among them Colin Rubenstein of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).

The council has already put out a series of lengthy responses to the book. We asked what this would mean for the relationship between the AIJAC and the ABC going forward, but Rubenstein declined to comment.