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.

I dont think the author said Jones formented social unrest - he just said his statements prior to the Cronulla hissy fits were reckless - most people concede that.

As for the lads credentials I think in these pages credentials are pretty meaningless - if you can string a sentence together, spell and make some sense - and given that most contributions are opinions - the question of credentials is a bit moot.

And I dont know that we should expect anything of commercial broadcasters - in the rare instances we get anything of merit we need to celebrate - and in every other instance when they serve up garbage - dont be surprised.

"There is no place for moral reflection in a mob" sums it up nicely

Nahum,

Congratulations on a sensible and timely article, it brings level headed approach to the media's lynch mob mentality.

Peace,

There are always many sides to a question of racial/cultural conflict.

LAMBING_FLAT_RIOTS.

3) It was a common Chinese practice to take over the diggings left behind by the Europeans, indeed, it was seldom that the Chinese would begin digging upon new ground. But it was the usual custom of many European miners that they'd dig for a main strike of gold, then go off to an area were gold had been newly found, set up new diggings until that strike had run out, and then return to their original site (which they had established, and dug deep, with much hard work and sweat) to dig out the final traces of gold - sometimes only to find that a horde of Chinamen had taken it over.

4) The miners were also angered by wasteful use of (scarce) water by the Chinese. (That) was a cardinal sin on an alluvial mining field which could not carry on its work without adequate supplies of that vital necessity. Indeed, it was at about this time there were minor disturbances elsewhere over this question, and on some fields Chinese were arrested for refusing to carry out the gold commissioner's instructions concerning water rights.(9)

COMMENT
The problem here..was that the government was worried about an English treaty with China. If they discriminated against the Chinese it would cause a diplomatic incident. (as if that should worry the English after the Opium wars)
So, the emerging "Australians" faced a government which would allow their sense of National/Cultural Identity to be over-run and replaced with Chinese.
The issue was clear.. 'survival'. So... a 'mob' formed and took stern action. Was this 'injustice' or.... ? If it was injustice (to the Chinese), would it also have been 'injustice' to the diggers to allow cultural genocide ?

Sometimes men have to make hard decisions. Lets never forget, the rule of "Law" is always the rule of the few over the many, and for the promotion primarily of the interests of the 'few'. Only to the extent that the 'many see mutual value in that rule, will it remain unchallenged.

Programmes like the "Current Affairs", "Sixty Minutes" ect are simply trashy excuses for making money out of someone's misery. There are better things to do with one's time.
But this is Australia and here we have the freedom to say our piece, to debate, to critisise,to comment.
Long may it continue.It is forums like these where we can discuss the very things that affect us, where we are not just the 'silent majority, or minority",even if our opinions are of no account, at least we have the right to say them.

mickijo, that's probably the best thing that's ever been written on this site - ever. I only wish that I had written it.

Salute.

* * * *
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:
* * * *

That has already been done, google John Safran vs Ray Martin.
If someone hasn't put that up on u-tube I'd be amazed.
For the record Ray Martins wife went troppo and Ray couldn't take being on the receiving end of his own antics. It never aired because Ray phoned up the ABC and threatened legal action or so the rumour goes but media watch aired about 30 seconds of it, comedy gold.

Husmusen

BOAZ_David, if you post quotes from books and articles, provide a reference to the work and its author, please.

In any case, Cronulla in the 21st century is not the colonial goldfields. Do you believe that a mercenary mob of fortune-seekers 150 years ago set the gold standard for law enforcement in civilised, first-world Australia?

There are leaders and there are followers. It's not the followers that are the problem. There is no such thing as mob rule. It is about those that rule the mob, and always has been. You get the leader you choose to follow and if your Muslim or Christian or liberal or conservative or what ever identifier you need... well, it's all down to your leader isn't it....can't blame it on the sheepple.
Of course if you don't have any convictions it's not likely your leader will either.

I remember a segment from the "Frontline" TV series that explained how Current Affairs TV isn't about journalism - it's about emotions.
"We want to cheer for the battler, be angry at the pedophile".. and so on.

Now they include those insidious and meanlingless phone polls, to make viewers feel that they somehow have a direct involvement with the story and to raise some extra cash on the side.

Somebody else once said "you are the product". They don't sell the product(story) to you, they change you to suit the product.

Ideally, all the facts should be presented and in a way to allow you to make up your own mind. What we get is a trial/verdict/execution process that tries to influence public opinion under the guise of informed comment.

The Safran-Martin encounter was pure gold and I hope that it gets a reprise.

Another similar expose is long overdue.

The electronic whorehouse is want to portray anything it can to make bucks/ratings. This goes hand in hand with the sanitisation and 'perception management', force fed to us from government and vested interests.

Truth can never get in the way of a 'good' story, it just isn't in their ethics (when they can get away with it).

Why even have Google/Yahoo/Independent news sources ?? - when we can get all the 'real news' we need from Packer/Murdoch/Fox outlets. More cathode ray therapy to dull the senses and any dissentions.

May your god help us when the new ownership laws have begun to weave their magic.