Gusi you are right we had a media watch dog. It was called "MEDIA WATCH" at 9:25 on Monday evenings. In 15 minutes the program outed the more egreious examples of sloppy and biased journalism in the country.

I am sure that the ABC media police unit has already silenced MEDIA WATCH and THE GLASS HOUSE.

Generally self regulation is far less effective at providing fair and reasonable service than expecting entities to work within regulations that are effectively policed.

I think attacking the role of Media is like trying to win WWII by banning the German language. You must attack the CEOs by showing the weaknesses and vulnerabilities in Friedman economics that their 'overt' behaviour exposes.

With that thought in mind:

CEOs are not very nice people are they daddy? Do they have a theme song?

Yes as a matter of fact, they do son. It goes a bit like the old Randy Newman Politics song:

No one likes us CEOs-just because we arbitrage you up the eye
We may not be perfect, heaven knows we try
We pay ourselves multi-million bonuses even with the kitty dry
But all around, even our old friends put us down
Let's pump and dump 'em and see what happens

We siphon off their evil money-but are they grateful?
No, they're spiteful and they're hateful
They 9/11 us, they don't respect us-so let's surprise them
We'll pump and dump them more

We'll save Australia
But we're gonna rape that flying Kangaroo
We'll build an All American amusement park there
Privatise their highways, mining, water, media, john howard and surfin', too

And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town
Oh, how peaceful it will be

They all hate us CEOs anyhow
So let's pump and dump their women
With taxpayer funded childcare its as easy as ABC
So let's get cracking unzip your flys
I think we'll pump and dump 'em now!

Billie,

I think that media watch is just on a summer recess like four corners and other regulars.

The glass house is just satire with a bit of politics thrown in. Usually successful ABC satire moves to one of the commercial networks after a few years. Perhaps their ratings weren't high enough or no one wanted to sponsor them publicly. I am surprised as "The Panel" had a similar formula and ran on a commercial network.

Gus

I couldn't resist this - I wonder if the neo liberals ever stop and smell the "socialist" excess of the modern world ?

Taxes consume anywhere between a third and a half of GDP in pretty much all OECD countries. Government is pervasive in all areas of life, from whether we can stop people being born to whether or not we can stop our own lives. Is this the liberal vision of victory over the Left ?

Face it - the Left won , it's just neither side will acknowledge it!

Tim's article is excellent, and we do desperately need an alternative media voice in this country. Given probably at least 20% of the nation are Left of some sort , there would seem to be a commercial opportunity for some astute media investor to start a national left of centre media source.

The article refers frequently to the AWB scandal which was certainly an example of corruption and collusion between the current government and its machinery in DFAT with vested politically very well-connected elites. But the article fails to acknowledge that the media most strident in uncovering the scandal was "The Australian" - not a media outlet one normally associates with the Left. That newspaper even called for Downer's resignation. Now how does that fit in with the thrust of the article? On the whole, Australia is relatively well served by its media.

This British site has achieved some noteriety (aka public notice) for highlighting oversights by the mainstream media. Not too much trouble to Google.

MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media

December 19, 2006

MEDIA ALERT: BORN IN THE USA - PINOCHET'S BLOODBATH

The Apparatus Of Silence

"It is a feature of the bureaucratic mindset that trivial details are subject to meticulous attention, while issues relating to personal and moral responsibility are dismissed as non-existent. Thus correspondent Bridget Kendall's pinpoint pronunciation as she described the death of Chilean tyrant Augusto Pinochet - pronounced "Peenochet" by the BBC reporter. Kendall got the name right, but everything that mattered was swallowed up by what media academic Richard Keeble calls "the apparatus of silence". (http://www.medialens.org/weblog/richard_keeble.php)

"Peenochet's" rise to power was discussed, as were his crimes, as were the failed attempts to hold him accountable. But of the power behind the throne, the nation that birthed this monster, there was not a word. ('Chile's general dies': http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?q=pinochet+and+kendall&scope=all&edition=d&tab=all&recipe=all)

Kendall concluded her piece thus:

"To the very end judgements on Augusto Pinochet remained keenly divided."

"That can be said of a mass murderer like Pinochet, a Western ally, but not of official enemies like Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden."

Not to forget that the latter two were "unofficial friends", 20 years ago. Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose.