Media and Other Influences on Government
Australian edition
See! the Murdoch gutter-press baying in pursuit of the softest possible targets (heroin addicts) for its "ordinary-people" readership.
Hear! the uglies of trashback radio hectoring, leading public debate with their asinine assiduity.
Smell! the fear of the once-big country's tiny little leaders.
Feel! that the government will always fall to heel under the authority of the media moguls and their monkeys. (When there is risk of offending one mogul while desperately paying tribute to another, turn very very quiet and hope that nobody will notice you). After the hysterical demonstration of brutal and brainless power put on by the uglies of the Murdoch press over the proposed ACT heroin trial, this lickspittle government must have thought very hard about the consequences of upsetting one media warlord more than another.
So the craven, crestfallen cave-in by the government on its much-trumpeted media policy, ambitiously pursued for so wearyingly long by Richard Alston, came as no surprise. Thankfully, it was a crappy policy anyway.
Of course we doughty citizens of Oz used to listen to little John Howard raving about the imbalance of the dreaded ABC and the Fairfax press. There was implicit support for the non-Fairfax press and the commercial TV channels. But News Limited's thugs would not have dared to rant and rave as they did over the heroin trial had they any respect for the calibre of the Prime Minister or his Government. Now the twee blind mice of the Australian Liberal government will be taking good care not to upset Rupert's minions again, and once Little John recovers some of his strength we'll no doubt be treated to more complaints about the traditional enemy (the ABC). Conservatives only change when told to by their betters.
[For those who have been asleep in recent years, let's explain simply: Rupert Murdoch didn't want Fairfax handed to Kerry Packer on a plate, so he did at least three things. First he made his feelings plain in an open and reasonable way - News would require some quid pro quo were Packer to be handed such a glittering prize as Fairfax. Second, he demonstrated his stature and influence by visiting the prime minister on his sick bed at a time that Cabinet Ministers and others could get nowhere near their leader. Thirdly, sensing the weakness of the man and his men, he turned on a demonstration of the very real reasons that a populist, poll-driven prime minister should have for fearing the power of Rupert Murdoch. And of course it worked, as any number of political observers in this country might have forecast it would]
We hope that the examples set by so many others in this country - of fine science, jurism, journalism, even government and public service - can survive a tabloid-educated populace which will no doubt persevere in voting for tweedle-dee-dumb politicians, brayingly supported by the emptiest and loudest of the talk-show hosts among us.
Nort
September 1997
See! the Murdoch gutter-press baying in pursuit of the softest possible targets (heroin addicts) for its "ordinary-people" readership.
Hear! the uglies of trashback radio hectoring, leading public debate with their asinine assiduity.
Smell! the fear of the once-big country's tiny little leaders.
Feel! that the government will always fall to heel under the authority of the media moguls and their monkeys. (When there is risk of offending one mogul while desperately paying tribute to another, turn very very quiet and hope that nobody will notice you). After the hysterical demonstration of brutal and brainless power put on by the uglies of the Murdoch press over the proposed ACT heroin trial, this lickspittle government must have thought very hard about the consequences of upsetting one media warlord more than another.
So the craven, crestfallen cave-in by the government on its much-trumpeted media policy, ambitiously pursued for so wearyingly long by Richard Alston, came as no surprise. Thankfully, it was a crappy policy anyway.
Of course we doughty citizens of Oz used to listen to little John Howard raving about the imbalance of the dreaded ABC and the Fairfax press. There was implicit support for the non-Fairfax press and the commercial TV channels. But News Limited's thugs would not have dared to rant and rave as they did over the heroin trial had they any respect for the calibre of the Prime Minister or his Government. Now the twee blind mice of the Australian Liberal government will be taking good care not to upset Rupert's minions again, and once Little John recovers some of his strength we'll no doubt be treated to more complaints about the traditional enemy (the ABC). Conservatives only change when told to by their betters.
[For those who have been asleep in recent years, let's explain simply: Rupert Murdoch didn't want Fairfax handed to Kerry Packer on a plate, so he did at least three things. First he made his feelings plain in an open and reasonable way - News would require some quid pro quo were Packer to be handed such a glittering prize as Fairfax. Second, he demonstrated his stature and influence by visiting the prime minister on his sick bed at a time that Cabinet Ministers and others could get nowhere near their leader. Thirdly, sensing the weakness of the man and his men, he turned on a demonstration of the very real reasons that a populist, poll-driven prime minister should have for fearing the power of Rupert Murdoch. And of course it worked, as any number of political observers in this country might have forecast it would]
We hope that the examples set by so many others in this country - of fine science, jurism, journalism, even government and public service - can survive a tabloid-educated populace which will no doubt persevere in voting for tweedle-dee-dumb politicians, brayingly supported by the emptiest and loudest of the talk-show hosts among us.
Nort
September 1997
posted by nort at 7:00 PM
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