Sky News Australia is increasingly pushing conspiracy theories to a global audience online

As Australians look back on 2020, they will remember the defeat of Donald Trump, who was never popular in their country. But they may also reflect on how parts of Australia’s media, including some ostensibly subject to government regulation, have become effective second fronts in the Trumpist culture wars. A key example is Sky News Australia. For years the channel was little more than an oddity: an artefact of broadcasting regulation, only watched by momentarily distracted channel-hoppers, travellers beset by airport delays, and those involved in the dismal craft of professional politics. Around 2013, while daily programming went on as usual, at night the channel was given over to a pretty sad bunch of hard-right ideologues. One program in particular, Outsiders, became a kind of revolving door for white male reactionaries in the twilight of their relevance, whom Sky would finally put out to pasture after an unforced gaffe.