« going nuclear | Main | cancer: cures and healing »
February 15, 2005
media and democracy
This is an interesting article on the media and democracy by Michael Gawenda in The Age. Refering to recent changes in the America media he says:
If the US is a divided nation with the virulent Bush-haters matched by equally virulent Bush supporters on the other side of the divide, the American media increasingly mirror this division.In the punditocracy, the battlelines are clearly drawn--in newspapers, on TV and on radio--and as far as this correspondent can tell, especially on television, no one has anything surprising (or nuanced) to say.
The mediascape in the US is a battleground between conservative and liberal. What has been dumped is the old liberal ethos of objectivity, neutrality and truth by the media acting as the watchdogs of democracy. Gawenda says:
...increasingly, commentators and journalists who write for newspapers are paid by the TV networks to do battle on their so-called current affairs shows, and they are not paid to say the world is a complex place and that sometimes Bush is right and sometimes wrong; they are paid to be partisan. They are paid handsomely to yell at each other and over each other.
Is this the future of the Australian media after the crossownership laws are changed post June 30th by the Howard Government?
Update: Feb 16
An example of a journalist doing battle is Alan Wood from the Murdoch Press. Writing in The Australian about Kyoto he says the following:
TODAY the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions comes into force. If you believe the climate change propagandists, it is the first step in saving the world from the terrible consequences of global warming. The truth is Kyoto is a joke.
Note 'propagandist'. That means untruths, lies and deceit for political purposes.
And then:
...the Australian approach risks pouring a lot of taxpayer's money into dubious renewable energy projects and doubtful technologies. With Kyoto dead in the water, it is time Australia rethought its approach, including its unquestioning acceptance of the science behind greenhouse, which is being challenged on several fronts.
Note the 'dubious' for clean energy technology and 'unquestioning' for climate change scientists.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at February 15, 2005 04:03 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.sauer-thompson.com/mt2/mt-tb.cgi/2669
Comments
Sadly, the process has already taken seed.
Posted by: BigBob at February 15, 2005 04:48 PM
In a previous comment I mentioned the "Howard Regime" which I said something like comes into effect in July.
You said it has all ready started or something to that effect.
So if they repeal or amend what's known as the "Packer-Murdoch amendment" there will inevitably be the equivalent to Fox and Outfoxed in Australia (including radio, newspapers, etc)
Posted by: Vee at February 15, 2005 06:20 PM