Rather than embroil myself in the particular controversy here, I would like to address the general concept of media honesty on a different matter.

One of the Sydney papers, had an article on 'Muslim Immigration' where it claimed that in the past few years Muslim immig had shown a stead rise in proportion.
The alleged 'fact' to support this contention was primarily as follows:

"Immigration from 'Muslim Dominated' countries such as Malaysia" has increased dramatically.

What they failed to point out, is that most people migrating from Malaysia would be CHINESE who are not Muslims. The reason they are migrating is the limited scope and opportunity in that country for ethnic chinese due to institutional race discrimination in Education and Government employment which are mainly taken by the Muslim Malay's.

I do believe we must monitor all trends which could threaten our social harmony and political stability, especially when it comes to Muslims or Islam, but I prefer it is based on accurate rather than slanted reporting.

I think you've hit upon the central problem. Ignorance. I noticed in my own beat ups that the reporters were incredibly ignorant about how the internet works. One emboldened line in the political domain article taken from Ros Bates clearly demonstrates that neither the candidate in question or the reporter Richard Finnila understand anything about domain name registration.
http://projectorion.proboards28.com/index.cgi?board=stories&action=display&thread=1160443025

"I'm going to have to wait around 12 months now and then try and register it again before he does."

Anyone who writes articles about domain name registrations should atleast know that the buyer has first option on renewing them. The Sydney Morning Herald reporters were equally unknowledgable about how it all works. Yet their article was on page one. That's a very sad reflection on the strandards of the Sydney Morning Herald.

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=603051

As this popular discussion forum demonstrates, those with a little understanding of how the internet operates can clearly see its a big beat up. I helped out John Stainton by securing a domain name he should have purchased years ago and all I get for my trouble is a raking from idiot journo's. I hope up and coming celebrities remember to register their domains early in future. After the treatment I got nobody is going to do it for them.

Found out who fed the misleading information to SMH. A disgruntled Wikipedian named Andrew Lau who goes under the username of (Netsnipe). Like many publishers and other websurfers I love "vandalising" Wikipedia as they call it. He did it in revenge apparently.

Hey Waynee poo, got some great deals for ya,

Domain names for sale

lyinglittlerodent.com.au (5 dollars)

celebrityhunter.com.au (9 dollars)

ambulancechaser.com.au (10 dollars)

Those sound great Rainier but I've already purchased a self professed Ambulance Chaser today.

http://www.richardfinnila.com

Richard Finnila
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/author/0,23829,5000519-3102,00.html

What goes around comes around Ricky. I'm going to be keeping that domain forever.

I also purchased http://www.bindiirwin.info about 5 minutes ago. All of the other Bindi and Terri domains have already been bought up now. That's how it works. First come first serve. John didn't heed my warning to buy them up himself and now they are all gone.

Perhaps I'll email him and offer the http://www.bindiirwin.info domain and perhaps I won't. It's my choice. Just like it was my choice to email him weeks ago and offer http://www.bindiirwin.com for free.

If I keep it do you think I'll make page one again? Reporters are such clowns aren't they.

well at least you have a sense of humour lol

So answer me this Ranier.

What would you have done if you discovered http://www.bindiirwin.com was still unregistered and you knew it would soon get gobbled up by Cybersquatters?

Would you have let some American advertising agency buy it up and reap in millions of dollars in revenue per year? All perfectly legally.

I did the Irwin's a favour. I emailed John offering it to Terri weeks ago. Long before this story about nothing hit the headlines. Tabloids don't usually take strories from the net. I could have kept it.

John Stainton still hasn't figured out that celebrity domain names are like hotcakes. If I hadn't purchased it then what do you think would have happened next? http://www.bindiirwin.org and http://www.bindiirwin.net have the lords prayer splattered all over them. It's possible other buyers checked what was available before he did but were only after the dot com domain and left disapointed.