By Christian Marx
With the announcement that Channel 10 had gone into administration, many in the media were in deep shock. This author was not shocked at all. In fact, I was surprised this hadn’t happened much sooner.
There are many and varied reasons why mainstream media is collapsing: The internet, online streaming, endless repeats of 30-year-old programs, terrible reality shows, and a declining revenue base from advertisers. However, arguably the biggest factor is the fact that the media largely omit massive amounts of information in their news coverage.
This happens for a number of reasons. The first and primary reason is that all mainstream media is corporate owned and ultimately serves the personal and business interests of their owners. It seeks to push a far-right discourse, particularly on economic matters. For example, how many programs are there a week on the unemployed and the so-called “dole bludgers”? These “exposes” are a dime a dozen. We never get a hard-hitting investigation on the top ten tax dodgers in the country!
The power brokers work hand in glove with big business interests. Not surprisingly, as they are part of the same club. Far-right economic policies (such as austerity), attacks on the vulnerable, neo-liberal economics are the order of the day, and the gospel according to television programmers.
Fortunately, their propaganda machine is beginning to show some very large cracks.
This was glaringly apparent during the election campaign and final outcome in the United Kingdom. Jeremy Corbyn was mercilessly savaged and smeared relentlessly. Phrases such as ‘being dirty’, ‘scruffy’, a ‘dangerous Marxist’, and even an ‘IRA terrorist sympathizer’ were used.. Rich words coming from the press when Theresa May is now in bed with a little known terrorist group from Ireland. Of course, media won`t talk about this though! That narrative is not for public ears!
Mainstream media has made a fatal error: They no longer control the information flow yet behave as though they do. For those under 50 (and increasingly even older cohort groups) television and newspapers are superfluous … rags that are good to clean the windows with. The lies and spin are now so bad, even those who are more trusting now need to verify their information via the internet. This is why, during the election in the UK, the public began doing their own research, not satisfied with the media lies and spin.
The UK has been almost destroyed by Tory economics over the past 35 years. The wreckage is easy to see. The National Health System is at breaking point, millions are now getting food from the food banks, and the final insult was the proposed dementia tax on the elderly. Not content with smashing the poor via a bedroom tax (those who were living in a house with multiple bedrooms were slugged with a tax if no one was using the bedroom!).
The empty slogans are ridiculous. “Strong and stable”!(?) … My god, tens of millions are below the poverty line while the elite continue to steal the rug out from under the poor and the middle-class. Theresa May should get out of her ivory tower and just walk the streets of London … full of homeless and malnourished children. Their media spin of attacking the most vulnerable backfired.
Did the poor remove funding from the National Health System? No, it was the parasitic 1%, lobbying both “New Labour and the Tories” to put a razor to all social services.
Australia too is constantly bombarded with attacks on the poor, immigrants, almost everyone except the real criminals. Those who run and control the system are the real parasites. The definition of a parasite is one that cannot be detected … one that burrows itself into the organism and leeches off the host. Yes, the real parasites are those who own and control the media and the large corporations and work in tandem with both major political parties. Difficult questions are never asked.
Journalists are no better. If they do not tow the neo-liberal and US centric foreign affairs propaganda, they are usually sacked or marginalized and ridiculed. Real hard-hitting journalism is left up to grass roots organizations such as Democracy Now. Even The Guardian was shameful in its reporting of Jeremy Corbyn; certainly not what one would expect from an “independent” media outlet.
Unfortunately’ the order of the day is sock-puppets such as Andrew Bolt and Rita Panahi. These people are not journalists, merely corporate mouthpieces that spruik the will and views of the rich and powerful. Facebook news and information pages such as DLATP (Don`t Look At This Page) expose these charlatans. Fortunately there are hundreds of thousands of pages such as DLATP, and people are networking among themselves across the globe via Twitter, Facebook and blogs. They see the lies and spin and will no longer tolerate the misinformation.
Ultimately mainstream media has hastened its demise. They have a credibility problem that won`t go away. The future of news and investigative journalism will be grassroots, low-cost digital media. Mainstream media made a fatal error and now they will sow the seeds of their own irrelevancy and destruction. Ultimately, truth is the mightiest hammer!
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Christian Marx is a political and social activist interested in making the world a fairer place. He has a Bachelor of Social Science and has a keen interest in sociology, politics and history. He was one of the organizers of the March in March rallies in Melbourne and is the founder of the progressive news and information page, “Don`t Look At This Page”.
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