Australia’s democracy sinking under Rupert Murdoch’s media monopoly
Most troubling for our democracy is the Murdoch press. ….
the Murdoch media’s campaign against Kevin Rudd over the mining tax, with the support of the Minerals Council and mining billionaires such as Twiggy Forrest and Gina Rinehart (Australia’s richest person), spelled the end of Rudd’s prime ministership…..Murdoch has similarly set his sights on toppling Julia Gillard and seeing the end to Australian action on climate change.
Carbon tax and the News Limited parallel universe, Independent Australia, By David Donovan, 12 Jul 2011 , We live in a parallel universe. On one side, we have the Government, the Greens, the Independents (except Bob Katter), most of the business lobby, the renewables sector and pro-environment groups claiming the carbon tax will be a long term benefit for Australia and its economy and that, with the Government rebates, it will be a largely painless change.
On the other side, we have the Opposition, the big polluters and the Murdoch press declaring “we’ll all be rooned!”
Drifting around in the void in between is a baffled and confused Australian public.
Continue reading
Gillard and the Greens to scrutinise Murdoch’s media empire
Phone hacking: Australian PM promises ‘hard questions’, BBC News, 20 July 11, The Australian branch of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire will face “hard questions” in the wake of the phone hacking scandal in Britain, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said.
She said she was “disturbed” by revelations about his UK business.
The company dominates Australian media – it controls 70% of the newspaper readership and has extensive holdings in television, the internet, and other media….
The Greens, which hold the balance of power in the upper house, have called for a parliamentary inquiry into News Limited, Mr Murdoch’s Australian firm.,,,,, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14212954
Australia a multi party democracy, but the media doesn’t “get this”
It reflects badly on journalists and commentators who run the Opposition line that minor parties have no legitimate rights to be major players in our parliamentary democracy….Australia is not, and has not been for decades, a two-party political system and old school members of the media who struggle with that are going to have to come to terms with the political reality.
Groundhog day as some media indulge in anti-Green spin Online Opinion, By Vivienne Wynter – , 20 July 2011 I nearly choked on my kangaroo curry the other night watching the commercialtelevision news anchor ask viewers: “Who is running this government?”
This question was posed in an introduction to a story about the Greens announcing the Renewable Energy Agency, prior to the Carbon Tax announcement. Continue reading
Time to expose and remove Rupert Murdoch’s power over democracy
Avaaz , Ricken, Emma, Maria Paz, Giulia, Luis, Alice, Brianna and the rest of the Avaaz team, 14 July 2011“….. Murdoch is a global problem. He’s famous for dictating editorial positions to his papers. He corrupts and controls democracies by pushing politicians to back his extremist ideas on war, torture and a host of other planetary ills, and destroying the careers of politicians with smear campaigns unless they do his bidding. In the US, he helped elect George W. Bush and has most of the Republican presidential candidates actually on his payroll (see sources below). His Fox News Network spread lies to promote the war in Iraq, pushed resentment of Muslims and immigrants and spawned the right-wing tea party. Maybe worst of all, he has helped block critical global action on climate change.
How the nuclear lobby distorts Australia’s media coverage
Distorting the facts. Socialist Party Australia 17 June 11 The industry’s domination of the public debate around nuclear energy is clearly evident in Australia. In 2006 the Australian government commissioned the Uranium Mining, Processing and Nuclear Energy Review, which was unbelievably blatant in its distortion.
The panel included no health professionals, no environmental experts and no leaders in the field of weapons proliferation. Not surprisingly the report expressed no serious concerns in any of these areas.
Within the report a table titled “Fatal accidents in the worldwide energy sector, 1969 –2000” indicated a total of 31 deaths
associated with nuclear reactor accidents during that period. A tiny footnote added that “These figures do not include latent or delayed deaths such as those caused by air pollution from fires, chemical exposure or radiation exposure that might occur following an industrial accident.”
One commentator pointed out that the tobacco industry could similarly claim that the number of deaths attributed to cigarette smoking equals the number of people who die in house fires caused by people smoking in bed, with a footnote stating that there may be some risk of cancer and heart disease also. Continue reading
Beware the uses and misuses of opinion polls, like Galaxy’s on carbon tax
The problem lies with the following: “Does the PM have a mandate to introduce the tax or should she call an early election?” This gives respondents no outlet for the obvious third alternative: that while the Prime Minister does not have a mandate for a carbon tax (and given her position during the election campaign, it could hardly be argued otherwise), the government should nonetheless govern as it sees fit and face the music at the end of its term…
Considerably exacerbating the problem is that the poll was conducted for Australia’s most brazenly partisan metropolitan newspaper, the Daily Telegraph (UPDATE: The Herald-Sun is also selling it as its own work). And true to form, the Telegraph has today used the opportunity to run an editorial headlined “voters demand a carbon tax ballot”, in which it argues that “an election now is very necessary”.
Taxing credulity, June 6, 2011 – by William Bowe “….. today’s Galaxy poll, .. targeted a small sample of 500 respondents on behalf of the Daily Telegraph. For the most part, its results are of genuine concern for the government.
Australia’s media ignores the severity of Japan’s nuclear crisis
the vast majority of Australians who get their news from newspapers or commercial television or radio have no idea about the severity of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, or the danger to human health posed by this ongoing crisis.
VIDEOS Fukushima: Caldicott says Japan may become uninhabitable – media silent | Independent Australia Independent Australia David Donovan 31 May 11
Yesterday – the same day Germany announced it would close all its nuclear plants because of Fukushima, and dangerous levels of radiation were reported in Japanese clean-up workers – Independent Australia did a straw poll of 50 random people at a metropolitan shopping centre in Queensland. Each of them was asked: “were you aware that there had been a nuclear meltdown at Fukushima in Japan”. Almost all of these respondents recognised the name Fukushima but only 4 of the 50 – a mere 8 per cent – said they had heard of any meltdown. Continue reading
How big money buys the media,and threatens democracy
Rupert has indicated very clearly, he is coming to buy the alternative forms of media, not only to have control, but to make money out of it.
I liked a little thing I saw in the paper where Gina Rinehart’s Dad, good old Lang Hancock, said decades ago that if we’re going to get anywhere, we have to buy the media. And Gina is dutifully moving to do [that] just now and what a difference that has made.
Bob Brown and the media: ‘I’ll take them on … they’ve crossed the line’ THE CONVERSATION, by John Keane 4 June 11, , “……Brown:’…it ought to be for the people to make and break governments and it is for the Fourth Estate to be informing them. …. I think it goes back to Jefferson, the very simple dictum: that information is the currency of democracy. So that information is gold and it is very important that the public has a right to be informed. But what they are getting it now is opined. They are getting an opinion coming from a multi-billionaire who cashed in his Australian citizenship because Australia didn’t serve accumulation of money well enough….. Continue reading
News limited’s attack on Cate Blanchett does not reflect community’s attitude
Essential asked about trust in political coverage. Commercial radio was again the least trusted medium, with only 40% of voters saying they trusted it all or a lot, fewer than the 48% who said they had no trust or only a little trust. Newspapers fared better — 53% trusted them, better than commercial television, but still a distant third behind the ABC and SBS.
‘Carbon Cate’ and the confected outrage of News Limited, Crikey, 30 May 2011, by Bernard Keane News Limited’s hatchet job on Cate Blanchett hit all the right notes for this sort of confected outrage — indeed, it could be an exemplar of the form…….. interesting was the automatic connection made by News Ltd and its employee between the media outlet and the community.
Because a News Ltd editor was outraged, that necessarily meant the community was outraged, regardless of the fact that his employee couldn’t find any independent evidence of any outrage. Continue reading
Call for Rupert Murdoch to support carbon price
Murdoch’s papers here, especially The Australian, seem to have gone off the rails. …It seems it’s OK for Rupert to support a price on carbon with his $6 billion wealth but not for Cate….
Rupert Murdoch should lead climate change fight | Crikey Dick Smith: Rupert, come back to Oz, we need you 30 May “…….. Today I am asking Rupert Murdoch to come back to Australia and give us some much needed leadership.
Whilst most of my wealthy colleagues deny that humans can be affecting climate, this is what Rupert says:
“Climate change poses clear catastrophic threats. We may not agree on the extent, but we certainly can’t afford the risk of inaction. We must transform the way we use energy of course — and not only because of climate change.” Continue reading
Propaganda against Cate Blanchett over carbon tax
…….recently, Essential asked about trust in political coverage. Commercial radio was again the least trusted medium, with only 40% of voters saying they trusted it all or a lot, fewer than the 48% who said they had no trust or only a little trust. Newspapers fared better — 53% trusted them, better than commercial television, but still a distant third behind the ABC and SBS.If the Herald Sun and commercial radio think they’re reflecting community concerns, the community doesn’t appear to agree. ….
Cate Blanchett carbon ad controversy – Carbon Cate and News Limited | Crikey
Australia’s democracy weakened by monopoly mass media
Concentrated media ownership: a crisis for democracy, Independent Australia, David Donovan, Australian mass media is concentrated into the hands of a very small number of proprietors. For example, 11 of the 12 major newspapers in Australia are owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation or John Fairfax Holdings. In fact, Murdoch bestrides the Australian media landscape like a colossus—NewsCorp owns 8 of that 12, and also dominate the regional and suburban newspaper publishing industry, as well as owning a major slice of Foxtel.
The Australian people have less different voices to use upon which to make their decisions than almost any other place in the free world. And Rupert Murdoch is happy to wield his overwhelming power……Despite Australian media ownership being amongst the most concentrated in the world, at the behest of powerful proprietors, successive Australian Governments have gradually further relaxed media ownership rules….
With the extra demands placed on the dwindling number of main-stream journalists, they are increasingly reaching for stage managed events and press releases to create their stories. Pew reported that a staggering 86 per cent of stories were produced by power, with only 14% of stories resulting from actual journalism—research, investigation, interviewing sources, digging, et al.
We get most of our news from PR companies. Whilst journalism has declined, career opportunities within the public relations industry have boomed……Democracy is at stake, but the people in power aren’t listening because they are very happy with the way they can easily dominate the news cycle. Pew’s research showed that 63 per cent of stories came directly from Government officials…….http://www.independentaustralia.net/2011/democracy/concentrated-media-ownership-a-crisis-for-democracy/
Australia’s “Murdochracy” and the grab of Aboriginal land
The Murdoch press has been the most lurid and vociferous in promoting the “intervention”, which a United Nations special rapporteur has condemned for its racial discrimination….There is an old-fashioned colonial grab of mineral-rich land in the Northern Territory
How the Murdoch press keeps Australia’s dirty secret , New Statesman, John Pilger 12 May 2011 News Corp papers across the world propagate the myth that prejudice has no effect on the lives of modern-day Aboriginal people n his native land, Australia, Murdoch controls 70 per cent of the capital city press. Continue reading
Uranium miner Paladin blames the media for uranium shares crash
Uranium miner slams nuclear ‘media frenzy’, ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Elysse Morgan Mar 17, 2011 The chief executive of one of Australia’s biggest uranium miners, Paladin, has slammed the media and share traders for their treatment of nuclear focused businesses in the wake of the Japanese earthquake.Shares in the company plunged 33 per cent in trade over Monday and Tuesday, recovered a little on Wednesday and are now on the slide again, down 6.8 per cent to $3.45 by 3:25pm (AEDT).Paladin’s chief executive John Borshoff says uranium centred businesses have become a sideshow to the Japanese crisis….Uranium miner slams nuclear ‘media frenzy’ – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Crikey’s Graham Readfern refutes climate sceptic Lord Monckton
the core of what sceptics such as Monckton wish to achieve in their ideologically-driven and fossil-fuel backed quest (including Exxon funding). That mission is to spread doubt and it is being aided by our only national newspaper The Australian.
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 