Entrepreneur Dick Smith says he was too "gutless" to feature in an advertising campaign supporting a carbon tax because he was afraid he would be criticised by Rupert Murdoch's newspapers.
Mr Smith said today he was asked to appear in the television ads alongside Oscar winning actor Cate Blanchett, but declined.
"I didn't appear on it because I knew that I would be a front page of lies in the Rupert Murdoch press here," he said in Sydney today.
"So there was no way I would destroy my name that way, I was gutless, I didn't stand up for the truth."
Blanchett has been criticised for her involvement in the ads, with some media outlets pointing out she can afford to support the tax because she is wealthy.
The ads are part of a campaign, backed by organisations such as Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund and the Climate Institute, calling on the public to "Say Yes" to a carbon tax.
The actor's picture was splashed on the front page of The Sunday Telegraph with the headline `Carbon Cate - $53 million Hollywood superstar Tells Aussie Families To Pay Up'.
Mr Smith said he didn't regret not appearing in the ad.
"By being gutless it meant I wasn't attacked," he said at the launch on Monday of his new book, Dick Smith's Population Crisis.
"They would have done the same to me as they would to Cate Blanchett, because I'm wealthy they would say I shouldn't talk because it could affect pensioners.
"I'm not going to be lied to by people who are trying to make money out of me, I'm not that stupid."
When asked if he thought that Blanchett was stupid for taking part in the campaign, he said she was an "iconic Australian who said the right thing because she's concerned about our children".
"Most of you in the media are either too stupid to realise it or you don't care about children."
Mr Smith earlier said that while Mr Murdoch believed climate change should be addressed, the views of the many papers he owned were contradictory.
"In their editorials they say they accept that human-induced climate change is a real danger ... yet their news pages and opinion pieces are full of endless attacks on politicians and others who support putting a price on carbon," he said.
AAP
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