In the wake of revelations about News Corporation staff engaged in hacking and other illegal practices in the UK, the Australian branch of the company has been vigorously defending its honour and espousing its firm commitment to the highest standards of ethical journalism.
Scrutiny is my favourite thing!
As News Ltd chairman John Hartigan wrote to staff yesterday:
I believe it is essential that we can all have absolute confidence that ethical work practices are a fundamental requirement of employment at News Limited.
Senator Brown has called for an inquiry to make sure that everyone is living up to Hartigan’s declared standards:
“It is timely for us to review the media practices, media ownership and how well the media alliance’s own code of ethics is working in Australia,” he said.
The Prime Minister supported the idea:
“I’m not surprised to see that in Parliament or amongst parliamentarians a conversation is starting about the need for a review, and I will be happy to sit down with parliamentarians and discuss that review,” she told the National Press Club.
“I anticipate that we’ll have a discussion amongst parliamentarians about this, about the best review and way of dealing with all of this.”
Naturally, enthusiastic employees of Mr Hartigan, supporters of ethical media all, and firm believers in the importance of scrutiny, immediately recognised the value in an independent inquiry just to check that the self-regulation really was working to protect an environment of vigorous, democratic, open debate, as we all know it is, without a shadow of doubt.
I am shocked to hear the leader of a major political party propose something so dangerous, so threatening to free speech. And to do this within an hour of some in the Canberra press gallery virtually demanding of Gillard advice on how to help her…
Do not doubt just what Brown has in mind as he cynically exploits the scandal that’s engulfed the Murdoch-owned News of the World in Britain to muffle conservative media outlets and journalists, and rig the debate more in the favor of the Left…
In a healthier age, these suggestions would be seen as the far-fetched demands of a closet totalitarian. But Brown is powerful, Gillard is desperate and despises the Murdoch papers who’ve questioned her policies, and the “elite’ media has rarely been so supine.
Worse, News has stained its reputation and is weaker than it’s been in years to defend itself.
And, of course, those famous defenders of free speech have gone only too silent since the rise of this Labor Government. No one knows that better than me.
Oh. Well, I’m not sure why that writer thinks that News Ltd is “conservative”, rather than the fair and balanced news reporting organisation the rest of us know it to be, or why he thinks that anyone would be seeking to undermine Rupert Murdoch’s massive BUT ENTIRELY DEMOCRATIC power over public discourse in this country, but this particular fellow has always been a bit excitable.
And I’m sure the other principled folk over there will write in support of reform to make sure that what happened overseas doesn’t happen here, not that it would, because the journalists who work for the Australian division of News Corporation are nothing like the journalists who work for the UK division of News Corporation.
Any moment now.
ELSEWHERE: Jonathan Holmes from the ABC’s Media Watch is wary of anything that sounds like “government regulation”, but also notes the problems from having one company controlling so much of the nation’s media. He thinks it’ll be okay if Hartigan sets up ombudsmen in his papers and enforces the company’s code of conduct. Or at least, no worse than “a state-appointed regulator to enforce good behaviour on the press”.
But I don’t think that’s what either Brown or Gillard were actually calling for.
34 Comments
Meanwhile in the United States, the furious families of the victims of 9/11 are demanding the American government investigate allegations that Murdoch journalists attempted to hack their phones
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58887.html
For the Bolter it must feel like his Fukushima predictions all over again. But it just gets worse. Maybe this is his Fukumurdoch?
“…to muffle conservative media outlets and journalists,…”
Yeah, it’s a bitch only having 70% of the Australian print market to defend your interests. How does one manage?
St Andrew of the Sisterhood of the Perpetual Victim.
Funny how it was probably the flagship of the “elite media” in the shape of the Guardian that, through dogged old-fashioned investigative journalism, brought Bolt’s filthy employer to his knees.
Heard a beauty from Bob Brown today.
“The Murdoch press is more of a views paper, than a newspaper”.
I feel as though I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole and ended up in Kansas after that linked piece and Rudd’s sisters attack on marriage equality campaigners as “global gay Gestapo” (which the ACL defends!) all in one day.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/people-in-politics/kevins-sister-crusades-against-gays/story-fn5oa9i5-1226094169116
http://australianchristianlobby.org.au/2011/07/mr-abuse-and-demonisation-of-gay-marriage-opponents-must-stop/
Its easy to confuse with poos paper Phil…
(ducks quickly.)
Any enquiry into the media must include the ABC.
Petition for ABC to return to its charter
http://suggest.getup.org.au/forums/60819-campaign-ideas/suggestions/1684971-petition-for-abc-to-return-to-its-charter
Is Schadenfreude always, necessarily wrong? More like Sonneuntergangfreude but, a rose would smell as sweet by any name.
The Greeks, as usually, had a concept of it, Nemisis follows Hubris and there can be few greater examples of hubris than the Mudorc empire.
As many have commented over the last week, to try another belief system, “ain’t karma mean!” – well, no, that’s the whole point, balance.
Those that lie by the word, die by their lies, or summat …
Thank God (and the Independents) we have a progressive government in office at this time in our history. Under the conservatives nothing would have been done except a surreptitious sweeping under the carpet.
I tell you what, the australian has become just a bit obsessed with crikey lately, hasn’t it?
I do think you chaps are doing something right. They’re unhinging before our eyes.
I found this among the comments under Stephen Mayne’s Rupert’s crisis story on the Drum today:
” gab :
13 Jul 2011 9:32:50pm
7.30 totally failed to ask The Guardian editor the big Australian questions that flow from all the outrageous Murdoch phone spying.
What sorts of signs should we look for in Australia that might indicate Murdoch journalists are hacking the mobile phones and emails of Australian politicians?
How can the 30% of the Australian newspapers that are not owned by Murdoch investigate what News Ltd and its reporters are up to?
How would the Guardian go about investigating the string of damaging ALP “leaks” that appeared in Murdoch papers during the 2010 election?
These stories were based on “leaks”, we were encouraged to perceive, that came from an embittered Kevin Rudd seeking to pay back his parliamentary ALP colleagues.
At the time, like many, I was furious with Kevin Rudd but given all that has happened in Britain and Australia this past week I’ve changed my mind. I do not believe Kevin Rudd leaked against the ALP. It is my opinion that Kevin Rudd’s phone was hacked. We do need a full independent judicial enquiry to get the bottom of how the Murdoch media operates. For the past three years in Britain they have repeatedly denied allegations of criminal behaviour that have since been proven.
There could have been a major global story for 7.30 what Murdoch reporters phone spying really means for Australian democracy and free speech. In a country with the worst (Murdoch) media monopoly outside of China, the 7.30 interview was shallow and almost meaningless. Goodness me, how do you reduce such an explosive story to dross? Not good enough Auntie. I want my 8 cents back for yesterday’s poor show.
Alert moderator ”
Strikes me as fair comment. What do you guys think?
MoC: Yep. Ain’t Karma a bitch?
Crikey! had a piece the other day about the wonderful Emma Chalmers and her, um activities, lately in Brisbane. That name rang a bell.
When was “News Of The World” doing naughty things? Wikipedia helps:
This was from August 2006:
I suppose anyone could collate a list of News Corp people who did a stint at News Of The World.
Maybe everyone could pitch in!
Here’s the Nick Davies Guardian story from July 2009 that really kicked off the Murdoch phone spying scandal:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/08/murdoch-papers-phone-hacking
“It got pretty lonely” covering the Murdoch regime unlawful surveillance story, according to The Guardian’s Deputy Editor:
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/138975/guardian-deputy-editor-it-got-pretty-lonely-covering-news-international-scandal/
And ‘Emma Chalmers’ is a secondary character in Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’!
What an interesting coincidence.
Talking of scrutiny, or maybe not. Has anyone else posted this??
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/fox-news-watch-avoids-news-corp-scandal-almost_b75808
Where the presenters of ‘Fox News Watch’, which reports on ‘media’, can be heard discussing the fact that they are NOT going to discuss on air “the subject we are not talking about today”.
Yes, that’s it folks, fearlessly reporting ALL the news in the media – in a fair and balanced way, of course.
It was linked from the Beeb,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/seealso/2011/07/us_view_how_a_uk_scandal_affec.html
I didn’t think Rudd was leaking anything and the so-called leaks were not worth two sentences in any column anyway.
What a shock today to see that every newsltd. journo thinks an investigation should be avoided.
Steve Lewis {EDIT – We can’t publish potentially defamatory allegations- Jeremy}
Simon Benson at the Terror {EDIT – We can’t publish potentially defamatory allegations- Jeremy} around senate estimates questions and {EDIT – We can’t publish potentially defamatory allegations- Jeremy} as exclusive even though {EDIT – We can’t publish potentially defamatory allegations- Jeremy} the actual questions on notice are public.
Paul Maley {EDIT – We can’t publish potentially defamatory allegations- Jeremy} to demonise Tamil refugees and we all saw what they were really fleeing from on 4 Corners a few weeks ago.
Gosh, and they think we should trust them.
The FBI have now launched an investigation into claims that Murdoch companies hacked 9/11 victims’ phones. The Independent reports -
The FBI has opened an investigation into allegations that media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. sought to hack into the phones of Sept. 11 victims, a law enforcement official said.
The decision to investigate was made after US Rep. Peter King, a Republican, wrote FBI Director Robert Mueller demanding an investigation, said the official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. The FBI had received letters from King and other members of Congress.
Keating blasts News.
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2011/s3269932.htm
Gordon Brown has branded Rupert Murdoch’s News International a ‘criminal media nexus’ which engaged in ‘law breaking on an industrial scale’.
And he insisted that, while News International ‘claimed to be on the side of the law-abiding citizen’, it was ‘side-by-side with criminals against our citizens’.
The company, which also owns The Sun and The Times, ‘bought and sold’ the ‘private innermost feelings and private tears’ of the innocent ‘for commercial gain’, he said.
‘Not the misconduct of a few rogues or a few greedy freelancers but law-breaking often on an industrial scale, at its worst dependent on its links with the British criminal underworld.’
He accused the group of ‘descending from the gutters to the sewers’.
‘The tragedy is they let the rats out of the sewers,’ he added.
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/869261-angry-gordon-brown-blasts-sewer-rats-at-new-of-the-world
Ha! I just visited the Oz website and one of those vile embedded video ads started up. It was selling televisions, with the tagline “immerse yourself in a world of endless entertainment”.
Isn’t that exactly what News Ltd has been encouraging the public to do since its inception?
Have to laught at old Bolta – think he’s nervous much?
Best words i’ve heard from Gillard in a while – “Stop printing crap – it can’t be that hard”. Absolute gold!
How’s this:
Now for the News push back
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/15/rupert-murdoch-gordon-brown-interview
Bob Brown has just upped the ante on the media inquiry issue (ABC News 24).
The more I hear of Bob the more I respect him.
Is this the Murdoch/News smoking gun? RT @MayneReport The 2010 News Corp AGM will be a problem for Rupert as it shows complete denial http://t.co/z86WYWQ
I keep hearing from the conservatives all the time that the media has a progressive bias. If that is the case, then why is Labor & the Greens saying yes to an enquiry & the Coalition saying no.
If people like Bolt insist that the media is populated by a bunch of lefties, then why aren’t people like him leading the charge for a media enquiry?
The reason is pretty self evident now.
Who would have guessed?
Sorry link to the rabbit’s comment
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-15/opposition-rejects-media-inquiry/2795906
I wonder if ‘ethical practices’ covers the literal hundreds of outright lies and misrepresentations perpetrated by News Ltd ‘journalists’ and ‘columnists’ as uncovered by Media Watch – and places like this very blog..
I don’t remember Hartigan being too interested in any of those – ever…except to come up with some idiotic glib smartass reply.
This sounds like a lame PR stunt; they’re as crook as ever, and probably a lot worse than we even imagine..
Many of Bolt’s audience are clearly concerned about the evil communist menace – as represented in Australia by the Greens. Perhaps their spiritual guru should confirm his stance on communism, especially that as represented by China. Does he feel Australia should trade with commies?
Bolt also disappoints with his sudden retreat. Wasn’t he saying just a few days ago (before Gordon Brown’s accusations btw) that he had been told many of the allegations were not true?