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July 27, 2005
There is no need to comment is there?
The Howard Government's proposed new media laws will decrease the diversity of the media. The reforms will scrap foreign ownership, allow TV networks to offer viewers multiple digital channels, and give pay TV the right to broadcast more major sporting events.
This deregulation of the media industry will enable media companies to control more than one form of media in the same metropolitan market. Does that not mean increasing concentration of the media?
The Communications Minister Helen Coonan says that she intends to introduce a "diversity" rule that would ensure there were five large media companies in each capital city. Crikey's Daily Report points out that five large media companies in each city means greater concentration, as there are currently nine large media companies operating in Sydney and Melbourne.
That means the changes in existing media rules are not going to disadvantage the big media companies and owners.It is to be expected as that is the rules of the game.
No doubt this means even greater scope for the partisan commentary of the Murdoch media, (The Sun, Fox News, Daily Telegraph), and using the various media outlets in Australia, the US and the UK as pro-war propaganda machines in the war on terorism. Crikey debated this reecently, Stephen Mayne said that: "Fox News is not journalism. It's propaganda that has blindly endorsed the Iraq war strategy and amazingly misrepresented the Australia-US alliance."
In response, Christian Kerr said:
Fox News not journalism?...All commercial media is a product flogged to consumers to get advertising to make a profit. Always has been, always will be.. If people don't like Rupert's products, then don't consume them...This is business. Fox has a winning formula. If it goes out of fashion, no doubt it will change.
Kerr says nothing is wrong about mass deception or the way that Murdoch is a part of the counter enlightenment. It is just business. Money is all that matters. Anything else is being idealistic for Kerr.
Nothing much in this debate about the media, democracy, public debate there. Mayne suggests that propaganda by the media is wrong as it is not journalism. But he does not explicitly connect the failure to be balanced in their coverage to the importance of public debate on public issues in a liberal democracy.
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I dunno who Christian Kerr is, but he's some sort of shill for the market.
He knows as well as you & I that Fox's influence on the discourse is purposive, it's just that in this case he's onside or indifferent.
The excuse that the market is the judge is leadenly malicious. There are two parties to a conversation - it's not one way - the media has its influence over what the public believes and is interested in hearing.
Fox is a mighty foe from my side of the political fence. And they know it.
Coonan/Howard are onside and partisan. Unfortunately there's nowt much we can do about it.
There have been worse times. There are worse places. But we are on a down slope there's no denying.