The Lord on High Rupert is in town, so no wonder his lackey editor's go all out bashing one of HRH's favourite targets.

The Australian continues to decline, I see. I gave up reading it a couple of years ago, and don't miss it one bit.

BigBob,
I appreciate that editors and journalists of News Ltd in Australia have to impress when their big boss is in town, but they lose public creditibility with their 'rants' when they do so.

Don't they care about about being seen as servile hacks dancing the masters tune? Maybe they see it as part of entertainment? They are entertainers inside the concentric circles that revolve around big media money.

The 'rants' are really a short burst of hate that is switched from one object to another like the flame of a blowlamp. Since the end of the Cold War, refugees, asylum seekers, economic migrants, Muslims, black and Asian people, and indeed foreigners in general, have increasingly come to take the place that was once occupied by the Left in press demonology.

The media are part of the political establishment. The press (and commercial television?) is a key ally, indeed agent, of the Howard Government's strategies. In the case of the Murdoch papers, such naked collusion with government, trash the idea of the press as a 'fourth estate' - an independent, liberal institution holding government to account on behalf of the people. So we have the parroting of Bush’s myths, such as his claims of bringing democracy to the Middle East, when the very opposite is true.

The rants in the Murdoch Press represent sections of the Muslim community as virtually an occupying force--- or, to use that classic Thatcherite phrase, the 'enemy within'. They seem to adopted a bizarre, paranoid siege mentality with regard to 'foreigners' in general.

I think the fourth estate died a fair while ago now.

In keeping with the modern world, it is now just another product to be consumed.

To a certain extent, all papers have now been tabloid'd, such that sensationalism, bias and poor reporting are all that is left.

In his Latham Diaries Mark Latham says that

It is easier to respect the tabloids and talkback radio as they know that the modern media has degenerated into another form of commerce and infotainment, and cater for it accordingly. The ABC still tries to justify itself in the so-called public interest.

I woudl say tha the ABC (and SBS) try to hang onto the watchdog role as best they can eg. 7.30 Report and Lateline.

Looks as though Australia uses about 250 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per year.

As of the end of 2005, there were 59,000 megawatts (MW) of wind generation installed worldwide. That's enough to generate ~170 billion kWh annually, an amount equal to two-thirds of Australia's demand--and most of those wind turbines have been installed in the past 10 years.

Yes, there are issues of variability to be worked through if and when wind rises to that level of anyone's national supply. But it's a joke to call it a trivial energy source.

Tom Gray
American Wind Energy Association
www.awea.org
www.ifnotwind.org

Tom,
It is suprising to keep on reading this kind of nonsense or mythmaking in the Australian press when the individual states in the commonwealth are pushing ahead with wind power despite the obstacles and lack of federal government support. The Australian media are not good at discussing energy policy.

The situation on the ground is a similar story to the one that you mention here.For my own state South Australia we have this kind of belated recognition of what is actually happening in SA and in Australia.