What a good and sensible article.

Our media tends to have a lynch mob mentality to inflame the masses and when the scapegoat gets burned at the stake the media says it was only doing it's job.

The mutfi gets blamed for inciting violence,yet the media behaves like the cleric.

When I saw Latelines sensational expose' on child abuse, I thought something is wrong here. It was a polished production, there had not been any previous hints about child abuse allegations within the aboringal commnunity.

"Sophistry" exists where the arguements are designed to appeal to the bias and prejudices of the audience. Inflammatory annolgies are used to inflame the emotions and to bypass the logical thinking part of the brain.

It seems that very few people have the ability to rise above emotions and to look at the claims/allegations from a logical point of view.

Ah, but Nahum, it's so much easier to just get mad. Don't you just love it? Today Tonight loves telling us what to think, and we seem to love getting pissed off at the fiends they uncover, so we can get riled up and throw the remote at the TV. Damn bludgers! Damn lazy parents! Damn reckless youths!

Actually, I've stopped watching Today Tonight and A Current Affair. 60 minutes is also treading a pretty shaky path at times.

I'd discovered that I was getting riled up, but mostly from the sanctimonious visage of Naomi Robson.

Once, just once, I'd love to see one of these presenters bailed up in the same hostile style they love to unleash upon unsuspecting alleged conmen. I imagine it would go something like this:

JOURNALIST: Is it true you ambush your interview subjects unexpectedly? That you're out to deliberately paint them as villains

CURRENT AFFAIRS PRESENTER:No comment. Please, get out of my way.

JOURNALIST: When you approach these people, have you waited for a verdict from the courts?

CURRENT AFFAIRS PRESENTER: You're blocking my car, get out. We're out there to do justice.

JOURNALIST: And whose brand of justice are you presenting? Who decides?

CURRENT AFFAIRS PRESENTER: Get the hell off my property.

JOURNALIST: Is it you? have you decided their guilt beforehand? How much research do you actually do?

CURRENT AFFAIRS PRESENTER: (slams door).

I rather suspect it's quite easy to make unprepared people look like villains.

A very good article. I would like to comment that one reason that we sensationalise things is that it allows us to point the finger at "the other", ie people from working class areas or migrants etc. It is easy then to breathe a sigh of relief that it is not nice, ordinary Australians who are the problem. What these incidents have made clear to me, however, is that we have a significant problem in our nation as a whole and I feel that it comes from the top down and the bottom up. Lack of respect is endemic and it is apparent in the attitudes of our decision-makers when formulating the type of public policy which divides the nation into "haves" and "have nots" right down to the attitudes of individuals to "the other".

I think the author’s credentials must be questioned following his statement about Alan Jones fomenting social unrest. In the years leading up to the Cronulla riots our friends at the ABC and Mr Adams identified the typical Jones listener as being in the 50 – 70 year old bracket, a Liberal Party voter, right Wing, red-neck and lacking in feeling. I watched plenty of footage of the riot and I noticed no discarded walking frames or walking sticks; and, I didn’t see any breathless 60-year-old whacking away at the cops. Tthe absence of the Hills District Senior Citizens bus used to transport violent pensioners led my conclusions in another direction. The rioters were basically FM radio listeners. Is there any chance that we can get the story straight before we tell it?

I do agree with the author that the Princess on Today Tonight does present a tacky show but occasionally we get stories about how our ‘justice system’ fails the people who pay for it. It is better described as a legal system. At this point the author might think about the child basher in Victoria who, despite about 229 previous charges, got a light sentence for bashing his own son. Where was our fabulous ‘justice system’ in that case?

The author touches on mob justice. Might mob justice be a manifestation of the failure of our institutions

Hi Lanie...welcome to OLO.. have not seen you before here.

TRTL and James...
you blokes are close but no cigar... they do this stuff to sell advertising space :)
The more controversy.....the more consumer interest and ad exposure.
Don't worry, I know you already knew that, but ya's didnt say it.

Each day I scan the papers.. as I've said.. there is a clear unmistakable campaign by NewsCorp to keep the 'anti muslim' pot boiling.

The most conspicuous example a while back was on the theme "Muslim Immigration skyrockets" and then the story said "Immigrants from Muslim dominated countries is very high" and they then claimed "Malaysia is the main country" but most of those immigrants are ethnic CHINESE who are Christian or Buddhist getting out of the racist discriminatory Muslim country.

I don't deny there are serious issues needing to be addressed, but they are indeed doing it in the Lynch Mob style rather than government policy. I suppose it could be argued that if you stir enough people up with populist sensationalism, the usually lethargic and dollars/votes centric government might actually tweak policy a bit. Most of us are sufficiently familiar with the 'knee jerk/reactionist' approach of governments.

A Leb Muslim in Sydney who claimed 'They own us' said he might come down to Melbourne to meet me and have it on...but he added "If I do I'll have 50 car loads along side me" :) yep..still a bit of work to be done in intercommunity relations there I'd say.

Cheers all.

If our national broadcasters were not so PC and become balanced then the people might have an alternative to the trash that shows like Today Tonight dish up. The ABC/SBS is all about pushing a political view while the commercials are about making money.