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In a statement, News Corp said Turnbull made a "false assertion" when he said its newspapers blamed the bushfires on arson. "This unsubstantiated statement is blatantly untrue," the company said. It said the newspapers under its control published 3,335 stories about the bushfires between September 2019 and January 23 this year.
"Only 3.4% mentioned 'arson' or 'arsonists.' In this same period, news.com.au also published more than 300 bushfire stories, of which only 16 mentioned arson, equivalent to 5%. Not one of these small number of stories stated the bushfires were 'all the consequence' of arsonists," the company said.
The multigenerational Murdoch media family behind News Corp has had its own divisions on climate change and other areas of coverage.
MarketWatch publisher Dow Jones & Co. is owned by News Corp.