Throughout the country people are protesting about the introduction of Climate Polution Reduction Scheme. The overwhelming theme of these protests is that Canberra has caved in to the demands of fossil fuel lobby by contemplating emissions trading.
Their argument is that cap and trade strategies are a clayton's solution; they given the appearance of doing something when in fact you are doing nothing. Even the Greens appear to have fallen for this, the ultimate of cynical three card tricks.
Yet where is the media in all this? Not only are the protests not reported, apart from the blogosphere, there is no public discussion of the alternatives available to us.
It would seem that the free press has been bought lock stock and barrel.

Nahhh, you missed one important word there, FREE, it wasn't bought, it was given.
Government, Corporates, and Media are the New Trinity, indivisible yet separate
That word "free" used to imply an ideal, but in this world of economic rationalism, it meant something else entirely.

The government's ETS is not worth the paper it is written on because they have sold out to the fossil fuel lobby. That does NOT mean a properly constructed scheme designed to actually cap emissions in Australia would not be an extremely useful tool for doing so.

The fossil fuel industry is against ETS like it is against every other measure they see as a threat to their business. They are even complaining about the toothless, gutless scheme this sorry government is trying (not)to introduce.

Rudd I am sure welcomed the financial crisis as a distraction from its promised ETS. The crisis is seen as a means to take measures that big business favour rather than oppose.

Any impost on business, especialy 'big business' WILL COST JOBS!

REMEMBER THAT!

Any impost on business, especialy 'big business' WILL COST JOBS!

Beware the Bandersnatch!

Dear BAYGON, I think this is one of the most important questions of our time. The media and entertainment industries have overwhelming and disproportionate influence over us. Why? Because they can!

Our societies can be sold almost any opinion, often because we are too lazy or too busy to think for ourselves. We have become a society of headline junkies. Where do the media stand on all the key issues? The answer is they are all over the place.

It is often difficult to recognize the same news item when it is presented differently by so many media outlets. After the initial release of the news item we then get the second wave, the “opinion shapers”. After that we get the intellectual/academic wave, which instructs us on the associated philosophy of their views and how we should actually “feel” about that news item.

Your frustration at the selective way news and current affairs editors, program producers and staff journalist’s present news is shared by many.

It’s all about marketing really, sow the seeds of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt, create vulnerability and offer the “product”. We don’t have to buy it but many of us do.

Selective media coverage and opinion is frustrating because many do not see the balance of views and information they expect, they intuitively know that the issue is being presented with bias and prejudice. It is presented to us through the prism of an ideology. The opinion can relate to social, financial, political, religious or ecological issues and the precursor is always an implied threat or risk, no exceptions.

Whilst ever we fail to distinguish reality from ideology the 4th estate will continue to influence the thinking of the lazy, vulnerable and fearful in our society. The 4th estate has very few products for those who can think rationally for themselves.