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 poor and miserable.
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 numbers every day about Australia’s rapidly recovering economy. Last month’s UBS Global Wealth Report showed that Australia is now second in the world in terms of average wealth, behind Luxembourg. Under the coalition, Australia 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’s media regulator does not hold News Corp accountable
Australia’s official media regulator is no longer serving its intended purpose, reports Alan Austin.
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.
News Corp.’s distortion of news and views harms society
News Corp’s failure to distinguish between journalism, commentary and opinion poses a danger to our society.
Indigenous Affairs
The appalling distortion of the “information” provided on last year’s Voice Referendum was described here by Press Council founder and former CEO of The Age, Ranald Macdonald.
He came to the following conclusion:
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.
Press Council rejects investigation into The Australian due to numerous untruths
The Australian Press Council has declined to investigate an article by former editor Chris Mitchell in The Australian newspaper attacking Julia Gillard, even though the article contains at least five clear factual errors.
Denigration of effective women
The Murdoch media, led by the rancid daily The Australian, has 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.
News Corp convicted of malicious lies and attacks against minorities
Australia’s official media regulator has found that three-quarters of recent complaints about breaches of media ethics principles were directed against 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.
This allows consumers to identify the 300 or so violations each year and identify which journalists have been the most dishonest, which publishers have failed the most and which publications should be boycotted – as happened in 2011 in the case of Murdoch’s British newspaper News of the World.
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. An adverse ruling was made against a Murdoch-owned media outlet that criticised a prominent Labour woman. The headline was: “Wong criticised over recent donation to Hamas-infiltrated UN group”. The ruling found the facts of the story to be incorrect but made no comment on the reprehensible treatment of the foreign minister.
A new model is urgently needed.
Facts and figures confirm that Murdoch’s lackeys are constantly lying to you
The Australian news channel News Corp systematically distorts the “news” it publishes, this time on the subject of bankruptcies.
Alan Austin is a columnist and freelance journalist for Independent Australia. You can follow him on Twitter. @alanaustin001.
