Sensationalism and a bias to the interests of proprietors and other rich people are long-standing features of commercial media. However Australian media have, over the past few decades, become increasingly biased in news reporting, news selection and commentary. This trend is moving into the realm of overt propagandising and of reporting so distorted and hysterical as to amount to lies.
There is, in fact, a growing nexus in Australian media of fear, hysteria, racism and ignorant ranting.
The Australia Day 'riot' at the Lobby restaurant in Canberra is an example of hysterical misreporting. I happened to see it unfold. It was a rowdy demonstration, but there was no violence and no riot. Security and police were rattled and overreacting. Many people could even see in the footage that the situation was not as threatening as reporters' words were portraying.
The so-called reporting was also richly larded with judgemental words like 'ugly', 'marred','disgrace' and so on. So much for separating editorial comment from reporting.
The misreporting was racist in effect if not in intention. Many editors and commentators shot from the hip in condemning the protesters, and their reaction was more overtly racist.
Now comes the news that Australia's richest person, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, is buying big chunks of our media. Although some are denying that she wants to impose her point of view on our media, why else would she be buying them? Especially as GetUp! has released a video of climate denier Christopher Monckton, whom Rinehart supports, urging just such a strategy. They want hired guns like Andrew Bolt and climate denier Joanne Nova to peddle a mining-friendly view.
Everyone has a right to express their opinion, but when the opinion is ill-informed and delivered angrily it becomes a rant. Unfortunately the ignorant rant is becoming legitimised as proper political discourse in Australia.
It features prominently in talkback radio and online comments. It pervades The Australian newspaper, as evident in its response to Robert Manne's detailed criticisms in his Quarterly Essay 'Bad News'.
The justification for the prevalence of ranting is the right to free speech. However free speech also implies responsibility. One responsibility is not to propagate falsehoods. Another is to reflect before mouthing off; to be