Opposition communications minister Malcolm Turnbull has attacked News Limited on its coverage of Labor’s flagship National Broadband Network project, labeling the coverage as “embarrassing” and “relentless propaganda”.
Turnbull, in particular, has criticised the technology section of its news.com.au page for not upholding its editorial standards in its coverage, citing examples where the section labelled it as “the world’s top 10 high-speed internet policies”, and listing benefits similar to the NBN Co’s page without fair debate or comment by those who oppose the NBN – namely himself.
He also was highly critical with blogger Andrew Bolt, after he linked to a highly positive article to the National Broadband Network’s launch in Brunswick, saying it was “delivering benefits” to those living in the area.
In a very public Twitter exchange, Turnbull told a News Limited journalist (who has since deleted their account) that “Your relentless NBN propaganda is an embarrassment to News Limited” and challenged him to “set out the facts”.
Talking to the ABC, Turnbull said, “The National Broadband Network is a complicated issue. But that is no excuse for superficial, misleading or unbalanced reporting of it [by News Limited]”.
Edit: Happy April Fools