[Abuse of author]

Agreed, I disagree for instance with the ABC's leftist greenie activism but do not want them silenced, merely that they hoist an equal number of conservative articles and opinions so that balance is achieved.

I do not see the ABC role as having to balance average media coverage in Australia .. if the conservative media was completely silenced, would the ABC then move to fill the void by leaning over to conservatism, given that the Fairfax media may even still exist at such a time (fantasy I know).

I doubt it.

The ABC needs to be completely objective and separated from mainstream media, not duplicate what is already there.

The government's privacy agenda I fear is more about silencing disagreement and dissent than protecting individual's rights.

Completly agree- this new campaign my the government regarding privacy is all about distracting attention from the governments poor polling and policies.

Great article and good arguments.

It is interesting to note that the defining point when an African tin pot dictator is in trouble is when he starts attacking the media for spreading misinformation.

Now that Juliar is in trouble, it must be the media that is at fault of spreading misinformation as it couldn't possibly be her policies.

Did One notice , that when Senator Bob Brown was making his Media Statement, he had difficulty keeping a Smirk off his face. He just couldn't help himself, playing pure politics to the Media.

By all means, Have an enquiry into the Australian Media, ALL Media, not just Murdoch.

Also it MUST include Fairfax and evenly more importantly , the ABC.

The ABC was put on this earth to inpart NEWS.. not Political Beliefs.

Only the lefties and the Greens think that their ABC is without Bias!

Perhaps so!
But if you do a Google on the author you will find some interesting stuff about his less than honorable background.

People on the right are always grizzling about the presumed left-wing censorship of "conservative" or right-wing points of view, and how such writers are even somehow "punished" for their presumed contrarian opinions. Keith Windshuttle wrote such an essay in todays Oz.

Never mind that ALL commercial media is owned by powerful corporate interests which by their very nature are conservative, and when push comes to shove, right-wing.

Noam Chomsky has been telling us this for decades via his many copiously foot-noted books.
So too does Media Lens http://www.medialens.org
Third World Traveler http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com
And the lesser known Project Censored http://projectcensored.org

Re Media Lens: it features the work of Sharon Beder who is the author of the well researched book Global Spin in which she points out that most of the "news" is created and placed by the right-wing think tanks and their associated "public relations" firms.
Which is to say that most of the "news" is corporate SPIN.

Re Project Censored: the many items featured here are more likely to be featured and discussed on the the ABC, or what remains of the Public Broadcasting system in the USA, than in any of the commercial "news"-papers.