The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association [3] (APPEA), a peak lobby group for the oil industry and an opponent of strong government action on global warming [4], has awarded the JN Pierce Award for Media Excellence [5] to the editor-in-chief of The Australian [6] newspaper, Chris Mitchell [7]. (The Australian is published by News Limited [8], a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch [9]'s News Corporation [10].) The media release [11] announcing the award stated that "over the past twelve months The Australian's in-depth coverage of a range of public policy issues affecting Australia’s upstream oil and gas industry has been of a consistently high standard." Journalist Paddy Manning, who worked at The Australian between 2004 and 2007, scathingly comments, "Gobsmacking. A disgraceful admission." He notes that "despite a spectacular about-face on climate change in 2007 by News Corp's chairman Rupert Murdoch, no media group can match the Murdoch press for consistently fomenting global warming skepticism [12] and arguing against climate change mitigation measures."