Four Corners is the best investigative program on Australian television. It breaks stories; it investigates governments; it shines a light into dark and toxic places.

Most recently it examined News Corp and the role played by Fox News during the 2020 Presidential election in the United States.

In a democracy the powerful should be held to account and so the subject is entirely legitimate for a public broadcaster to examine.

Writing in The Guardian, Amanda Meade reported that, in response, ‘News Corp has published 45 articles in just two days attacking the public broadcaster across its Australian mastheads.’

She reports that a spokesperson for News Corp had said that it would not be fair to say News Corp has run a coordinated campaign on the program.

‘What has happened is that the editors and journalists who watched the program chose to report and comment on its bias and obvious failings as a piece of serious journalism.’

As a trope, this comment come directly from Squealer’s instructional handbook for group communications: unable to contain their righteous anger, the masses spontaneously protested as a single orchestrated crowd.