As Alan Austin reports, Australia’s official media regulator is failing to stem the daily flow of destructive untruths.
AUSTRALIA urgently needs a press watchdog to put an end to the distortion of “news” that is destroying the country’s social cohesion, undermining its defence capability and keeping its citizens in poverty and misery.
Australia’s mainstream media lies routinely. The Australian Press Council (APC) is completely incapable of alerting consumers to this abject evil, let alone stopping it.
Lack of reporting on the economy
Newspapers are distorting the balance sheet of the rapidly recovering Australian economy every day. Last month’s UBS Global Wealth Report showed that Australia is now second in the world in terms of average prosperity, behind Luxembourg. Under the coalition, it was fourth.
Having significantly surpassed Denmark’s wealth, Australia is now the only economy in the world to have posted two consecutive surpluses, reduced its debt-to-GDP ratio twice and kept average wealth per adult above US$540,000 (AU$810,000).
Australia is also the only country with budget surpluses, excellent credit ratings and inflation below four percent that has achieved positive GDP growth in every quarter last year and so far this year.
This is an extraordinary turnaround after the dismal years of the Coalition, when Australia’s economy languished at the bottom of most OECD rankings. The contrast between the failure under the Coalition and the success under Labor is truly remarkable.
But Australians who consume the false media reports believe the opposite. Polls show that 40 percent of voters currently believe the Coalition is pursuing better economic policies, while only 24 percent prefer Labor.
The following mendacious headlines from the recent past contribute to this profound deception:
All of them obviously contain false “news” designed to deceive voters into believing that today’s economy is being poorly managed.
Indigenous Affairs
The appalling distortion of the “information” provided on the Voice Referendum last year was exposed here by the founder of the Press Council and former CEO of The ageRanald Macdonald.
He came to the following conclusion:
“As an academic who understands the importance of public interest and informed journalism in a democracy, I would say that the vast majority of Australian journalists and columnists, and particularly those who promote their distorted views, have failed the test of accurate and fair reporting on a crucial issue for this country.”
Defensive capability
The refusal to report accurately on defence procurement is arguably an even greater evil. The stark reality is that every Coalition government has failed at defence provision, from the F-111 fighter jets ordered by the Menzies government in the 1960s that never flew a successful mission, to former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s failed submarine contract, which cost five billion borrowed dollars and delivered no benefit.
Australia’s defence has always been ensured by the Labor Party, as evidenced by the Collins-class submarines, Super Hornet fighter jets, Black Hawk helicopters, Hunter-class frigates and other weapons.
Through constant media lies, opinion polls have been constructed that show the Coalition ahead of Labour on national security and defence. This deception puts the nation at serious risk.
Denigration of effective women
The Murdoch media, led by the rancid daily The Australianhas long waged vicious campaigns to destroy the lives of prominent women. Current targets include Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Victoria’s Premier Jacinta Allan and US Vice President Kamala Harris.
Recent headlines include:
Several areas of systematic deception
Other critical issues where the media regularly distorts content include immigration and refugees, climate change, energy policy, corruption in the coalition and the US defamation trials against Murdoch’s News Corp.
The watchdog Australia needs
An effective media monitor would publish a monthly list of the 25 or so articles that most seriously violated journalistic principles over the past four weeks. The 14 articles mentioned above should be included in the list. The list would identify the publication, journalist and editor and show how the principles were violated.
This list remains on the public register and new entries are added every month.
Based on the approximately 300 violations per year, consumers can identify which journalists were the most dishonest, which editors failed the most and which publications should be boycotted – as was the case with Murdoch’s News from around the world in the UK in 2011.
Australia’s media lapdog
The APC’s current performance is nowhere near high enough to justify its costs – currently $1.77 million annually – and the responsibilities the community entrusts to it. It is now mid-August and only five objectionable articles have been made public this year.
None related to the economy, indigenous affairs, defence or national security. One adverse ruling was made against a Murdoch media company that criticised a prominent Labour woman. This was headlined ” “Wong criticized for recent donation to UN group infiltrated by Hamas”The judgment found that the facts of the story were false, but made no comment on the reprehensible treatment of the Foreign Minister.
A new model is urgently needed.
Alan Austin is a columnist and freelance journalist for Independent Australia. You can follow him on Twitter. @alanaustin001.
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