Stories the Murdoch media would rather you didn’t see
In 2011 then News Limited chairman and CEO John Hartigan proudly announced that News Limited was “the only organisation that really takes it up to the Government“. And how true that was. That all changed, however, in September 2013. It coincided of course with the change in government.
Now it would appear that News Limited is the only organisation that ensures the government gets a free ride.
It wouldn’t bother me if the government was doing a good job. But they’re not. And in that case we could argue that neither is News Limited.
With the Abbott government going down in a screaming heap and the Prime Minister demonstrating he is unfit for the role, a news organisation that really takes it up to the government would have the printing presses running hot with condemnation.
Instead, if you want to find out about the big issues then you would be best to avoid the Murdoch media: they are the only organisation not really taking it up to the government.
If you want to find out about the lies and failings from our government then go elsewhere. The Murdoch media obviously would rather that you didn’t see them.
A quick look ‘elsewhere’ yesterday yielded some great articles with information that you’d think would be of interest to the average voter.
The Sydney Morning Herald tells us that Climate Change Authority head Bernie Fraser issued a blistering rebuke to the Abbott government:
Labor’s proposed emissions trading scheme does not equate to a new carbon tax and the Abbott government assertion that its emissions cuts are akin to the United States are incorrect, according to the government’s own climate change advisers.
Climate Change Authority chair Bernie Fraser issued the strong statement late on Friday, responding to the government’s post-2020 emissions targets announced this week.
I didn’t find any reference to this important announcement in the Murdoch media. They are obviously happy with Tony Abbott getting away with his lies.
Elsewhere, respected economist Bill Mitchell informs us that Australian wages growth is the lowest on record:
The day after the Australian government published their fiscal strategy for 2015-16, which assumes (unrealistically) a significant upstep in economic growth and hence taxation receipts, the Australian Bureau of Statistics published the latest – Wage Price Index, Australia – for the March-quarter today and we learn that the annual growth in wages is now at the lowest level since the data series began in the December-quarter 1997.
I didn’t find any reference to this important announcement in the Murdoch media. They are obviously happy with the government telling us that wages are spiraling out of control.
And speaking of records, elsewhere we read that in the United States wind power also hit the lowest price on record:
The cost of electricity from wind power fell to its lowest point on record last year as the industry continued its growth pattern, according to the Department of Energy (DOE).
A Monday report from DOE said wind power that utilities bought last year in purchase power agreements, the main measurement for comparing costs, was 2.35 cents per kilowatt hour, the drop of two-thirds from its 2009 peak.
Wind saw the most growth of any power source last year and, with 66 gigawatts installed, now accounts for 4.9 percent of of the country’s electricity demand, DOE found.
What do we read in the Murdoch media? The government’s mantra that wind farms are bad for our health and that the government has saved us $550 a year on our power bills – which they haven’t. Just let the lies continue unchallenged.
Also elsewhere, someone finally tells us that the government has had the week from hell:
As the accidents and bungles mount daily, the pre-eminent question in Australian public affairs seems to be moving rapidly from “whether” this farcical political period will end, to “when”.
Of course everyone knows that the government has had the week from hell. And of course, they didn’t read about it in the Murdoch media.
More on the week from hell elsewhere . . . Coalition a victim of its own trickiness as colleagues lose faith in Tony Abbott:
Behind the Abbott government’s very bad week – a careening series of disasters that looked like the political version of an AAMI ad – is a common thread that could wreck it permanently. Tricky politics has driven Tony Abbott into yet another crisis.
So many of the prime minister’s problems begin in the strange netherworld of decision making, where policy is crafted to fit a slogan rather than the other way around, based on the insulting assumption that voters are too dumb to notice.
It was an article in The Guardian. I can’t find articles like that in the Murdoch media.
And finally (because I had found enough to prove my point), the Auntie (the ABC) tells us that the OECD urged higher taxes on wealthy to address growing income gap:
A global study warns the gap between rich and poor is widening at a dramatic pace.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, or the OECD, has found that the world’s richest 10 per cent earns nearly 10 times more than the poorest 10 per cent.
I don’t think I need to remind you that the Murdoch media has been the most active in telling its readers that the poor are the ‘leaners’ in this country. Also, I don’t think I need to remind you that the Abbott government offers tax breaks for the rich.
You just have to wonder: Why isn’t the Murdoch media interested in any of this?
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Return to home page“You just have to wonder: Why isn’t the Murdoch media interested in any of this?”
Like all LNP voters and supporters they are delusional, for some reason they think they will be or are better off
Maybe they think if the LNP are in opposition for too long the Murdoch media might lose its monopoly.
Australia should have this:
Canada’s Radio Act requires that “a licenser may not broadcast….any false or misleading news.”
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/829473
Murdoch as the world’s worst media oligarch should be in court for conspiracy to undermine democracy in Australia and the US.
The word according to Rupert is all we ever hear from News corp
Corporatism in action: How Murdoch used the Tories to stitch up the BBC
Peter Jukes 11 August 2015, 6:00pm
In Britain, just like in Australia, Rupert Murdoch has pushed a conservative Government to gut the public broadcaster. It will all end in tears, writes Peter Jukes.
https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/how-rupert-murdoch-used-the-tories-to-stitch-up-the-bbc,8045
I am continuously recommending the AIM Network to friends and colleagues as a source of balanced opinion.
My personal opinion is that most media sources provide comment and opinion rather than factual reports.
Andreas Bimba Canada has strict truth in media laws that have seen Murdoch neutered there. He has tried hard to make lying legal and under the ultra-conservative Abbott like Harper are watering them down.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/a-law-against-lying-on-the-news
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/276-74/5123-fox-news-lies-keep-them-out-of-canada
“Takes it up to the Government”, yeah right! The Murdoch press has been so far to the right in the last 6 years or so, since we had a female PM (gasp!) that I do not think they would know the truth or a good story anymore! The “Telegraph” in Sydney, The “Sun Herald” in Melbourne & the “Courier Mail” in Brisbane have been relentless in their hounding of anything the Labor party has tried to do or explain, for so many years now, it is beyond a joke or even beyond fair & reasonable, good journalism! Most of the “screaming” headlines (in very bold black or red) that all these rags had used in the lead up to the last election, especially, bordered on outright lies or were at least not very truthful! Some of the many front pages & inside editorials, highlighted (especially) by Media Watch, have been nothing short of disgusting, more like what used to appear in the old “News of the World” or in the (still published) London “Sun”! Both were “really great” newspapers–NOT!!The Fairfax press still stands out in Australia as much more balanced & fair, reporting standards, along with the AIM Network. Keep up the good work people!
Here is the quality journalism Murdoch’s minions offer;
http://cdn.mamamia.com.au/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/14105649/war-on-death-cult-image-720×634.jpg
Taken from the daily tellcrap last week.
Rupert loves it that Abbott bows to his every whim …although, come to think of it, Rupert EXPECTS it.
And Abbott does.
What’s not for Rupert to like ? – so why on earth would he not want it to go on forever ?
This is the Murdoch related section of the IPA list of 75 demands;
14; Abolish the Australian Communications and Media Authority
15; Eliminate laws that require radio and television broadcasters to be “balanced”
16; Abolish television spectrum licensing and devolve spectrum management to the common law
17; End local content requirements for Australian television stations
24; End media blackout in final days of election campaigns
27; Eliminate media ownership restrictions
47; Cease funding the Australia Network
50; Break up the ABC and put out to tender each individual function
51; Privatise SBS
65; Abolish the Office for Film and Literature Classification
69; Immediately halt construction of the National Broadband Network and privatise any sections that have already been built
Joining the dots, these changes would enable a media monopoly without any restrictions or conditions on ownership, nor any oversight of truth in content or decency of conduct.
In other words, all media concentrated in the hands of a foul entity that not only repeatedly broadcasts and prints falsehoods, but oversees criminal activities, namely the bribing of public officials and the hacking of private communications.
Yet so many Australians not only read this rubbish but they pay for it and then believe it as truth. As much as I hate Rupert, got to give him credit for pulling a number and having the power over a whole country. Abbott would not be PM if it weren’t for the Murdoch press and the gullible Australian public.
if the other media outlets, particularly tv based, would stop regurgitating Murdochs headlines, he wouldnt have any influence beyond that which accrues to any other billionaire.
Thank you for that article. Reminds me of why I cancelled my “Australian” a few years back.
Obviously nothing has changed, and yes, I am surprised that it is still going.
Thank you corvus boreas for the IPA-Murdoch list of vandalism directed at thought control of the electorate. It is time this gang was expelled from the front bench. The sooner the better. It is getting urgent.
Well said Michael!
If companies can be sued for false and misleading advertising, why can’t news outlets?
For these people, the truth is only ever an impediment.
Andreas Bimba
I am sure if Australia did prosecute for false or misleading information presented by news outlets that would also serve to reduce the need for Media Ownership laws!
Ah the fingers are still supple.
I went to the Dog Lovers show yesterday (no, Mr Kenny wasn’t there) and they were handing out free telegraphs. Had the great pleasure of refusing a copy and telling the hander outer that I was boycotting the Daily Terrible until Chairman Rupert dropped dead.
The same when I cancelled my foxtell subscription. The operator tried to talk me around by offering a cheaper deal. I said nope nope nope, not until Chairman Rupert dies.(I do miss Phil Kearns tho’.)
There are a dozen copies of the local News Ltd paper left outside my front gate every Tuesday night. If it rains I have a kilo of sodden pulp paper for the recycle bin and if it’s fine I have to strip all of the plastic covers that are not recyclable before they are binned. Nobody reads the bloody thing unless they need a plumber.
When the old Filthmaster departs he will leave the world a better place for his leaving and I’ll be able to watch the rugby again.
I offer a personal example of media access manipulation.
This morning I took a stroll up to the local shop (small supermarket). I contemplated buying a paper. It was 8:59 am.
The Sun-Herald was not in stock.
There were about a dozen copies of The Australian (‘da’strayan’).
There was a mound of Sunday tellcraps, offered ‘free’ with $100 spent in-store.
All on offer was from Rupert’s stable, and the worst in stock was being aggressively pushed.
This is a tabloid ‘newspaper’ that is vindictively falsified, ethically compromised and intellectually bereft.
It is a slime sheet comprised of inaccurate account (reinforced by visual lies [‘digitally altered imagery’]) mixed with bigoted opinion, puffed out by voyeuristic gossip, bloated obsession with parochial sports, and advertising of alcohol and prostitution.
I left no paper but a few sharpish words on the subject.
Even if Murdoch dies, the situation will not change. The ministry of truth has been born and will live long after.
Let us be balanced here: the Oz has two good sections: Arts commentary and reviews, and Higher Education which often laughs at, and laments, the LNP ill conceived and ill-gotten plans for education. But, putting that behind us, overall it’s content is more like a university right wing rag – so stupid in its pro-Liberal one-eyed viewpoint. In fact The Oz no longer qualifies for the title of ‘newspaper’ since it is just an ideological rag. Mind you, it’s purblind readership will have nothing else since the comments are on the total far-right of ideology, and very whacky in their outlook. The refuge of the ‘frozen in aspic’ crowd.
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Newscorpse – says it all.
It hasn’t been the Abbot government for some time.