How can News Corp call its gas splash an 'exclusive' and a 'special report' when it's paid for by industry? | Adam Morton

Readers are led to believe a short-on-facts advertorial exhorting government to let companies extract more gas is straight news coverageGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe big news on Monday morning was that the story splashed across the front of News Corp's biggest-selling tabloid newspapers wasn't news at all. It was an advertorial paid for by a fossil fuel industry. Not that readers glancing at page one of the Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, Courier-Mail or Adelaide Advertiser were let in on this secret.Instead, they were sold a lie - that the story was straight news coverage, in some cases described as an "exclusive" or a "special report", on how (in the words of the Courier-Mail) Australia must "step on the gas" as it was the "only way to avoid higher bills, blackouts". Continue reading...