A good summary of the situation.
It is truly laughable that this is the best that they could do, especially as the Oz pretends that its function is to "inform the nation".
I would suggest that David Flint missed his calling. He probably wanted to be a stand up comedian, but did not have the necessary talent, so he became a lawyer and a writer of "news"-paper opinion pieces too.

It is also interesting that as far as I know, both Frank Ferudi and Brendan O'Neill were both, once upon a time, actively involved in Marxist organizations.

Brendan O'Neill is particularly detached from reality. Not far behind are Andrew Bolt, Janet Albrechtsen and Angela Shanahan. I love reading them though because as the author states: "it's all just a laugh really"

Any bias displayed by Fairfax and the ABC could be rectified by turning over Gerard Henderson and Chris Uhlmann to News LIMITED.

Oh wait! Pinko Adams at The Australian might have something to say about that.

James Jenkins is spot on: comedy gold.

As far as reaching the bottom goes, the Australian's only competition in that area is the Telegraph; They not so much inform about important events of the world (or nation) as much as some kind of gratuitous tabloids for different wacky demographics (either Bogans, or angry youth who feel emotionally invested into the conservative movement in America).

A test worth taking.
Fill in the Australians feed back form.
Do it twice, with only the best manners, nothing less, tell them of your concerns about honesty and balance.
A third attempt to highlight your view any of the authors highlighted story's appeared to ignore both.
Then our National Comic book/paper will block all future attempts from you to offer feedback.

…With Australian competition built firmly on the foundations of “duopolies”, (evinced Woolworths/Coles; Murdock/Packer), look for no bargains!... It’s not humorous at all really!

...And further to Belly’s point, try subscribing an opinion contrary to editorial political standards of your local rural “rag”, in the letters to the editor, and observe the progress of your thought = nil...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/blog/2011/jul/22/phone-hacking-scandal-live-coverage
We do indeed, live in interesting times.
And if we look very funny ones too.
We are after all a nation that likes to pull one another's leg.
What other country could produce a drinking/Social group that requires its members to carry a card declaring their mums and dads never wed.
Well just maybe we are no longer that country, like the fellowship of old Bs we are fading away.
This hugely interesting debate, evidence that claims made about this,and one other Australian Medea family for nearly a century may, just maybe, be true.
You just can not say that I am told.
Links from the world,views from both sides of politics, are? leftist loony stuff from people like me.
Who I am told, think only what the Australian Labor Part let me think.
Well they are the only party worth voting for, warts and all.
WHY have we lost the ability to laugh at our selves, to debate honestly politics, news.
WHY have we fixed our views to totally support our side, to ignore truth .
If we care, if we do not let this scandal slip away and be forgotten we can come out a better world.
The only side that matters is truth.
To say less is to bar forever improvement.
No party should forget being better is the only target,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jul/21/fox-news-phone-hacking
If only we could see more of this type of reporting.
Fear hides it from us, with over 70% of our news owned by the controllers of public opinion we are unlikely to soon have anything near a free press.
Story however is fun interesting and frightening too.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/let-not-murdoch-be-misled-on-his-defence-20110722-1hsr1.html

Clearly to any open mind we have problems.
Much bigger than some will admit to.
In the end, some, far too many, we not read a word about this story.
Not for a second under stand.
This is not just about getting a story at any cost/any way.
Not just about money, but a story so awful if we truly look, it tells of us voters, whole country's, being fodder for an Empire.
Power and greed for more power our very ideas of Democracy are a victim.

What everyone seems to be missing is that a considerable amount of
blame should be loaded onto the telephone companies.
What happened should not have been possible. The software routines in
the system should not have allowed two mobile phones with the same
number to be on the networks at the same time.

They have the information available to be able to know that a mobile
phone has had its number changed. They could then enquire if the
owner of the new phone is the true owner of that number.

In all this chatter in and out of parliament no one has asked those questions.