With the ABC neutered these past decade and Murdoch media, Ch9 and other mainstream organizations tied to the Government and it’s donors for financial gain political media in this country holds any oppositions to account rather than the Government. Democracy is no longer being served and an autocracy is encouraged to flourish. Grass roots politics brought an end to the slippery slide and has temporarily allowed the nation to catch its breathe.
Revelations about Scott Morrison’s power-grab of five secret ministries raise serious questions about the health of Australian media and in turn, the media’s commitment to contribute to a strong democracy.
The core function of political media is to hold power to account. The fact that former Prime Minister Scott Morrison was able to secretly sign himself in as co-minister in the portfolios of health, finance, resources, treasury and home affairs, in collusion with the Governor-General, speaks volumes of journalists’ unwillingness to scrutinise the powerful.
The Abbott/ Morrison Government had made a pact with the IPA and NewsCorp to rid Australia of ABC News. Abbott backed into a corner knowing the ABC was Australia’s most trusted media source found that direct task too difficult so he banned the government MPs from going on the ABC. Morrison did almost the same. The government has become a regular fixture on Sky News and 2GB their “cash for comment” propaganda arms . Even granting Murdoch a free unexplained $30M. Australia has never seen a concerted effort like we have in the past 8 years to turn Australian media into American with Australia’s Sky News a model of Fox News, without MSM diversity. Consolidation of our MSM into 3 privatized corporate arms run by Peter Costello, Kerry Stokes, and with Murdoch controlling the largest has seen our media metamorph into the Conservative Cyclops donor at the behest of the LNP, and the want of the IPA posing as a”think tank” but acting as the LNP’s mega- donor/lobbyist and even grooming politicians of the future.
Their aim to rid Australia of any organization designed to keep the bastards honest and Democracy the political system of choice for this country which demands the existence of at least two major parties both of which are prepared to lose an election but rule for all Australians. Unfortunately only one party today is prepared for that role and it isn’t the current government.
The year ended with the resignation of ABC news boss Gaven Morris and a public sledge by ABC chair Ita Buttrose, who accused the (LNP) government of political interference.
With a federal election around the corner, it is going to be a very busy and a very interesting 2022 for the public broadcaster.
The only comparison that can be made is that like Murdoch’s NewsCorp, Google and Facebook do not pay taxes – see Crikey’s article – “Tax dodging News Corp continues to rip Australia off – and is subsidised by taxpayers to do so“. Unfortunately, for verification purposes one of the many consequences of the Government’s pernicious agenda to undermine public interest journalism being shared on Facebook is I am unable to share the link to Crikey.
After Citizens United, says director Kimberly Reed, “you could just see political power slipping out of the hands of the average citizen and into the hands of a handful of super-rich people.”
If you live in a midsize city or battleground state, you are now more likely than ever to see pro-Trump propaganda and conservative spin on your local news — just in time for the 2018 election season — thanks to conservative media giant Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Media Matters has identified communities that will see competitive congressional midterm races and that have Sinclair-owned or -operated news stations. Many Sinclair stations are already airing national news programming with a conservative slant, and they will be ramping up coverage of their local races.
We’ve already tackled Nevada and Tennessee. Now, we’re taking a look at New York.
The Fox and Sinclair campaigns are telling their audience something very different. They are telling their viewers that they stand with the president of the United States, in opposition to his foes in the rest of the press. They are stating — implicitly in the case of Fox, explicitly in the case of Sinclair — that while other media outlets are producing “fake news,” they are not. It’s a declaration that the networks are a safe space for conservatives: If you are worried about turning on the television and hearing criticism of the president, you can tune in to these networks and instead hear praise of his many successes.
The Post’s Margaret Sullivan wrote last year that the central media divide was between what she termed the “reality-based press,” which tries to discover what the powerful are doing and hold them to account, and “propaganda” outlets that seek to obscure the truth and protect those in power. Both Fox and Sinclair have made it as clear as possible which side of that divide they fall on.
Alex Jones; Jeanine Pirro; Sebastian Gorka(Credit: AP/Getty/Salon)
, it’s particularly concerning how the most vehemently pro-Trump media outlets are going far beyond the sycophantic blather of “Fox & Friends” to outright calls for the president to jail or even execute people he doesn’t like — particularly if they happen to be investigating connections between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.
Ken Clarke has suggested that David Cameron did “some sort of deal” to win the support of Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers in the run-up to the 2010 election. According to Clarke, in his evidence to the Competition and Markets Authority, when – at Cameron’s instigation – he held a meeting as justice secretary with Rebekah Brooks, she “described herself as running the government now in partnership with David Cameron”.
Andrew Bolt in jackboots took the News Corp Bently out for a spin and drove it over a great young Australian just like the mindless Charlottesville embarrassment James Alex Fields. Yes, Bolt is also an Australian, however, the worst face of us a Neanderthal who has and is doing nothing for Australia’s future. Lest we forget…( Olddog )
“The executives may have been unimpressed but Ash Palairet, Abdel-Magied’s drilling supervisor in 2015 on a Shell offshore rig three-and-a-half hours by chopper off the West Australian coast, is among her biggest fans. He says she excelled at her work and was also a natural leader who dealt well with the rig’s blokey atmosphere. “She’s still young but she’s destined for something big. She breaks down barriers and lifts our awareness as a society. She’s pushing the buttons of the establishment, and letting the rest of us be the judge of their responses.”Abdel-Magied, who arrived on the rigs with orange nail polish to match her hi-vis vest, says she loved her offshore workmates, despite their sometimes offensive talk and different political views. “Through all of the stuff that has happened to me, I’ve got messages from these blokes who you might think vote for One Nation, saying ‘Hey, we’ve got your back, we’ve been defending you,’ ” she says. “I was proud to call them family.”
This is what Sean Hannity’s Fox News show is like on a daily basis. It’s pure propaganda, an effort to support the president at every turn, while castigating his enemies — particularly the press. His viewers are living in an alternate reality — one that he’s carefully crafted to benefit Trump.
“While this transaction is dependent upon the passage of the media reform bill, it is appropriate that the ACCC begin its review of the proposed transaction that has been put to us by the parties,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.
Mr Murdoch cannot control Ten because it would breach the two-out-of-three rule. He currently controls radio and newspaper assets in markets where Ten is broadcast. Owning a commercial television network would give him control of three-out-of-three media. Scrapping this restriction is the most controversial of the government’s proposed changes.
Fox News owner and CEO Rupert Murdoch is reportedly advising President Donald Trump on a near-daily basis at the same time as the Justice Department is investigating his company, an ethical breach that could undermine the credibility of the inquiry.The Justice Department is currently engaged in a wide-ranging investigation of Fox News.
The New York Times has confirmed that Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano sourced his false allegation that former President Barack Obama asked British intelligence to spy on President Donald Trump to a discredited former CIA analyst. This analyst, Larry C. Johnson, floated the conspiracy theory on the Russian state-sponsored news network RT o
President Donald Trump’s proposal to gut funding for public broadcasting in his new budget released Thursday would mostly harm residents of small rural towns, many of who are Republican voters, according to public TV and radio executives.The 2018 budget plan from the White House would eliminate all federal subsidies for the
Donald Trump is bypassing mainstream media outlets, which he calls fake news, and giving favour to conservative news organisations. So how should the media respond?
The work of the U.S. government’s largest public diplomacy program is currently being reviewed by two of President Donald Trump’s former campaign aides. It would be difficult for the administration to have found less qualified candidates for the job.The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), whose mission is to “inform, enga
The Trump administration is forcing the Environmental Protection Agency to delete all of its pages on climate change. The move comes as part of a much broader crackdown on postings by all agencies who track the effects of global warming on the environment. All of those organisations – as well as others, like the National Parks Service – have been banned from talking to the public by the US government.
Yesterday’s press conference laid bare President-elect Donald Trump’s strategy for dealing with the press as president: He will seek to delegitimize news outlets that provide critical coverage, try to turn them against one another, reward sycophantic coverage from openly pro-Trump sources, and encourage others to follow in their lead. The c
Today marks the 146th day since Donald Trump last held a news conference. As the Electoral College backs Trump, we speak to former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, now a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “Democracy depends on a free and independent press, which is why all tyrants try to squelch it,” Reich recently wrote. “They use seven techniques that, worryingly, President-elect Donald Trump already employs.” We speak to Reich, who discusses how Trump uses seven techniques to control the media.
An airstrike by a US warplane that killed Iraqi soldiers could have resulted from “a mistake that involved both sides,” the Pentagon chief said, according to AP.
President Trump requested that Spicer stay on, but Spicer told Trump that he believed Anthony Scaramucci’s appointment was a major mistake.
Fox News owner and CEO Rupert Murdoch is reportedly advising President Donald Trump on a near-daily basis at the same time as the Justice Department is investigating his company, an ethical breach that could undermine the credibility of the inquiry.The Justice Department is currently engaged in a wide-ranging investigation of Fox News.
From the March 17 edition of CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer:
President Donald Trump’s proposal to gut funding for public broadcasting in his new budget released Thursday would mostly harm residents of small rural towns, many of who are Republican voters, according to public TV and radio executives.The 2018 budget plan from the White House would eliminate all federal subsidies for the
Boehlert says that Trump sees a weakness in the media, and he’s exploiting it VIDEO
A complete media blackout handed down by the new Trump administration has silenced the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
The work of the U.S. government’s largest public diplomacy program is currently being reviewed by two of President Donald Trump’s former campaign aides. It would be difficult for the administration to have found less qualified candidates for the job.The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), whose mission is to “inform, enga
olddogthoughts 
You must be logged in to post a comment.