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?
