A media inquiry is needed

A royal commission into Australia’s media is a priority issue for any new federal government, if it has the crazybrave courage needed. The history of News Corporation and its media spinoffs are replete with phone-hacking scandals in Britain, accusations of pushing “fake news”, and influencing elections in Britain, Australia and the United States. Hillary Clinton, in a recent Four Corners interview, articulately dismissed Fox News as having a “bad influence on our [US] politics” and “they’re an advocacy outfit; they’re not journalism anymore”. News Corp’s Sydney Daily Telegraph, similarly, lost any legitimacy because its journalists haven’t learnt the fundamental difference between objective news reporting and opinion, instead they fuse both into a simplistic mash for their preferred position of political advocacy. Unfortunately, Australia doesn’t have the multiplicity of independent media outlets of the US. Julia Gillard’s endeavours to have a media inquiry in

2011 were derided by the pious and the self-righteous, inclusive of the then opposition leader Tony Abbott. News Corp’s The Australian led with predictably emotive cliche’s of “freedom of the press” and “Gillard tries to censure free media”. Australia desperately needs a royal commission into all aspects of the media but the dark forces arrayed against such a process are immense.

– Bob Barnes, Wedderburn, NSW