jack_ryder (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jack_ryder) wrote2012-03-02 02:00 pm
jack_ryder) wrote2012-03-02 02:00 pm
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OMG! Gillard does something I mostly agree with
Kate Lundy has been made a minister!
(though not of communications, sadly.)
(okay - points off for making Bob Carr Foreign Minister, but at least he'll be out of the county. Pity he'll have a return ticket.)
(though not of communications, sadly.)
(okay - points off for making Bob Carr Foreign Minister, but at least he'll be out of the county. Pity he'll have a return ticket.)
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The Conversation commentators appears cautiously optimistic about the Finkelstein Inquiry (http://theconversation.edu.au/the-finkelstein-inquiry-into-media-regulation-experts-respond-5675) but, predictably, the first response I got in my e-mail was a comment based on this opinion piece (http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/free-press-to-be-sacrificed-for-political-retribution-20120303-1u9vk.html) from one of the denizens of the Institute of Public Affairs (who are pretty much the mouthpiece of Murdoch and the mining industry - and one would imagine they have a vested interest in maintaining their "freedom of the press".)
The troubling part of that opinion piece (which doesn't appear in the Conversation summary at all) is this section:
"As if to emphasise just how radical his proposals are, Finkelstein says websites that get more than 15,000 hits a year should be brought under the council's jurisdiction. That's just 41 hits a day - in other words, pretty much every website publishing anything that could be described as 'news, information and opinion of current value' " which shows a basic (and typical) misunderstanding of the web - if true. I wouldn't normally quote from an IPA quisling, but then I don't normally drink my own vomit.
And - btw - I consider closing with a reference to North Korea to be just the latest variant on Godwin's Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law).
See how easy it is to link to stuff, rather than pollute threads with wild claims?
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Freedom of the press and freedom of speech surely means freedom even for those you might disagree with, such as the Murdoch press and the mining industry. I personally despise the Fairfax press but I wouldn't want to see them silenced.
There's an increasingly worrying trend on the left to see freedom of speech as so valuable that only people on the left can be trusted with it.
The response to Gina Rhinehart's share-buying in Fairfax was instructive. There was shock and outrage on the Left that there was no law to prevent non-Labor supporters from buying shares in newspapers!
The funniest thing about the Finkelstein Report was the claim that the ABC was the most unbiased news source in the country! So at least the guy has a sense of humour.
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Bias, of course, is in the mind of the beholder. It seems the right are always ready to call something biased if it doesn't agree with their position. The ABC's attempt at "lack of bias" (I would call it the least biased mainstream media outlet precisely because it has a feedback loop built into it - something the commercial media don't require or want) has reached the point where scientists are asked to justify being scientists. Thanks to the right for pushing them to that position.
I'm so glad you're happy that the mainstream media are "free" to print stories that only back the interests of their proprietors and that you must have welcomed the money = speech equation laid down in US law by the Supreme Court there.
Methinks you're projecting the rhetorical approach of the Right on climate change and other indisputable facts on to the Left.
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I do, or at least I will until the government shuts it down in the interests of "fairness."
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People already have a choice. If you want a right-of-centre slant to your news you can read the Murdoch press. If you want a left-wing slant to your news you can read The Age or The Sydney Morning Herald or watch the ABC or SBS. People can make their own choices. It's called freedom.
And people are making their own choices. Readers are deserting the Fairfax press in droves. That's what terrifies this government - that given the choice people might make up their own minds. They should let Nanny make their choices for them. Nanny always knows best.
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Ah, I can't be bothered.
Let's just agree to disagree. Or is that too leftie for you?
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"Circulation of The Age's Monday to Friday editions fell 5.99 per cent in the three months to December 31 to 184,156, compared with the previous corresponding period, while the Saturday Age fell 6.56 per cent to 263,047 and The Sunday Age dropped 3.77 per cent.
"At the Herald, circulation fell 11.94 per cent to 184,613, the Saturday paper fell 7.73 per cent to 314,683 while The Sun-Herald dropped 8.17 per cent. The Herald Sun's Monday to Friday edition also fell 4.56 per cent, while The Daily Telegraph stemmed the losses to 1.84 per cent. Circulation at The Australian rose 3.51 per cent Monday to Friday, while The Weekend Australian rose 1.63 per cent."
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That's fair enough.