The crushing dominance of News Corp in Australian print media, which once enabled Murdoch to rule the roost, seems to have become irrelevant, at least among urban Australians.

News outlets back candidates for many reasons, the most salient being because they genuinely believe, after an honest evaluation, they would do the job properly, or better than the alternative.

It's not unusual for a newspaper to stand by its principled assessment. In fact, that is an important purpose of their work.

But promoting an evaluation which isn't genuine and balanced is a betrayal of that purpose.

In that vein, the brutal and relentless savaging of independent candidates by News Corp was telling. The attacks knew few boundaries.

"The most destructive, harmful and dangerous vote anyone can make in the forthcoming election is for a teal independent or the Greens," wrote the Australian's Greg Sheridan on 3 May. "They are both a direct threat to our national security."

Well, that didn't work. The Greens picked up another three seats.

Independents on Saturday stomped home in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, and television coverage of their triumphs rivalled that given to the outgoing prime minister, Scott Morrison, and his Labor successor, Anthony Albanese.

The News Corp campaign was directed at preserving a two-party political structure - Labor v the Liberal/Nationals coalition - no matter what voters wanted.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}