This thread is neat little study.

First Mollydukes:
<< ...conservative ideology is at the heart of racial prejudice and intolerance...>>>

And,

<<Do you worry about the many sad people here who are so fearful of women, homosexuals, athiests, black and yellow people - oh and probably purple and green ones also - fearful in fact of anyone and anything different from them or what they know and understand? And the fear renders them angry and abusive>>

Then he goes off to talk about "Bogan land"
And label rightwing people as racist, ignorant & prejudiced.

Nuffin abusive or hypocritical about that -- no siree!

Then Bommot (enters, stage left--he always seems to enter from the left!)
Having just used terms like <<Discount Monckton>> " & <<Gina-money>>
And criticized "Quadrant and the Murdoch press" for rightwing bias.
He quotes from that paragon of balance, The Guardian!

Nuffin ironic there--no siree!

Then Poirot (following Bonmot-- in "what light through yonder window breaks?" mode)

<<bonmot,

Agree!>>

(well, Surprise, surprise)

<<I said this before on another thread, but I'll say it again....Fox News is a cheer-squad for the Republican Party masquerading as a news outlet>>

There is of course no cheer squad quality to Poirot following Bonmot around applauding his posts -- no siree!

Boy, I'm glad I’m just a mild mannered neutral observer!

I should probably point out that this thread is about the slide in Australia's ranking in the World Press Freedom Index.

I commissioned the piece because I saw the RSF media release but couldn't work out how they had drawn the conclusion they had.

Mark's article now gives me some understanding of it. I'm however not sure that the drop is warranted. However I do agree that media in Australia faces a threat to its freedom from various government inquiries, motivated by a desire to control what and how media reports.

I think I would withhold any downgrade until I'd seen the outcome of those various inquiries, but it is a very unhealthy sign that they've occurred in the first place.

SPQR,

Well, you may be right - there's so few posters around here with whom I find agreement.

Talking about following others around.....

I suppose I should be flattered to have you tagging along deconstructing my posting habits. Every time I turn around lately there you are offering a first class critique (or should I say a flippant put-down)...don't get out much, eh?

A few quotes by one of America's better presidents, Franklin D Roosevelt.

"Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education."

"A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward."

"It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach."

"It isn't sufficient just to want - you've got to ask yourself what you are going to do to get the things you want."

"Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds."

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

All I can say to our conservative brethren is come out of the dark, cast off your fears and enjoy the light.

Journalism is perceived in australia as to being of very poor quality. I personally hardly ever watch the commercial stations. I do watch ABC and ABC 24hrs. I see it as left wing slanted. However as I know that I believe I can sift the weet from the charf. I get most of my news from the internet- The guardian,various blogs and news sheets,New York Times and so on. My impression from my grandaughter who is doing journalism at uni is that the teaching is very left wing orientated. Of course its usual for uni professsors to be left wing so nothing new there.

The reasons for the downgrade of Australia's ranking put in the article do not seem adequate, particularly as diversity of media ownership (greatly lacking in Australia) does not even get a mention. The Bolt case judgement (despite the carry-on by Bolt and others) has nothing to do with media freedom. There is some argument that Bolt's victims should have taken him to court using defamation laws, rather than laws concerning racial prejudice - they certainly would have won the case using defamation laws - however the facts remain that Bolt's factual errors concerning his victims were egregious and glaring. The case should have told the media to check facts before going to print, even in a so-called "opinion" piece. Sadly, I don't think this lesson has been learnt, and we are burdened with ever more opinion in Australian media masquerading as "news". This phenomenon, along with a lack of diversity in media ownership, are ongoing threats to press freedom in Australia, much more real at present than any mooted internet censorship by the Federal government (which hasn't happened, and hopefully won't).