In a $725 million deal announced Sept. 9, National Geographic Society and 21st Century Fox joined forces to create a new for-profit media company, National Geographic Partners. The partners will control National Geographic magazine, television networks, maps, digital and social media platforms, books, and other media. The main shareholder in 21st Century Fox is media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.
The National Geographic sale has been met with great concern. Murdoch is a climate change skeptic, as he said in a 2014 interview aired on his own channel, Sky News. Rolling Stone listed Murdoch as the No. 1 politician or executive blocking progress on global warming, and wrote, “No one does more to spread dangerous disinformation about global warming than Murdoch.”
Murdoch’s new reign over a magazine that previously devoted itself to unbiased fact and scientific discovery is an epic blow to the credibility of future National Geographic publications.
Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree anthropogenic climate change is happening, and “most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position,” according to NASA.
Through all of this, Murdoch maintains his stance that humans are not involved in the problem.
“We should approach climate change with great skepticism. … We can’t stop it, we’ve just got to stop building vast houses on seashores. The world has been changing for thousands and thousands of years, it’s just a lot more complicated today because we are more advanced,” Murdoch told Sky News in 2014.
It seems unlikely that National Geographic’s scientific potential will continue to be reached if the owner of its media disagrees with most scientists.
Though Murdoch told The Washington Post that he doesn’t plan to change National Geographic, his history of meddling in media suggests otherwise. Fox News under Murdoch’s control is known to discredit climate science. The Wall Street Journal, purchased by Murdoch in 2007, has even gone so far as to refer to climate science a religion. In Australia, Murdoch’s media interference was enough to convince the Australian senate to retract its greenhouse gas emission tax. At all of Murdoch’s media publications, “manufacturing doubt about climate change remains official policy,” according to Rolling Stone.
Murdoch’s apparent distaste for science virtually dooms National Geographic’s credibility as the pioneer in scientific exploration it has been for 127 years. National Geographic has always been a go-to source for reliable science.
“Our programs in field-based research, conservation, exploration, and education continue to provide the world with scientific breakthroughs and discoveries that inspire people everywhere to care about our planet,” according to National Geographic’s website.
Murdoch’s deal will give the National Geographic Society, the part of the company that will remain non-profit, an endowment of nearly $1 billion, which the website claims will be used to “expand its work in science, exploration, and education.”
It’s hard to believe Murdoch’s personal views won’t get in the way of that claim. Will research proposals related to climate change receive funding? If Murdoch’s recent track record is under consideration, probably not. National Geographic has dedicated itself to science since 1888.
It will be a shame to watch Murdoch push his anti-climate change agenda into a historically progressive and innovative publication.
