OK,

I shall put in my tuppeny ha’porth.

To quote Massimo Pigliucci:

>>…many, perhaps most, people don’t actually want to be informed, and even less so challenged in their beliefs and worldview. Rather, they want to see a champion defending their preconceived view of the world, a sort of ideological knight in shining armor. Blatantly partisan outlets such as Fox News (on the right), Air America (on the left), and the countless number of Evangelical Christian radio stations are obvious examples of this…>>

The same is true in Australia with the Murdoch newspapers taking the part of Fox and the ABC taking the part of Air America.

An extreme example of how people can get stuck in a kind of mental rut and see EVERYTHING through the lens of their obsession is provided by a well-known OLO poster who seems convinced that every post I make here is part of some nefarious Israeli propaganda plot. It never seems to occur to him that I may be genuinely interested in the topics of my post and am motivated by simple desire to share my (non-Middle-Eastern) passions.

A freedom struggle in Tibet does not play into the preconceived ideas of most Australians. Therefore there is no percentage in giving it much coverage. There are no emotional resonances to the story.

Well China is far away.

What is less understandable is the way that, say, riots in far away Egypt get more media coverage than the steady movement of our biggest and most powerful neighbour towards religious extremism. In the end, which is going to have a more profound affect on Australia?

...Immolation was a favourite protest method of the Vietnamese Buddhist monks during the indo-Chinese war of the 60,s. Very effective it was too in gaining sympathy for the cause as I remember!

http://www.secularnewsdaily.com/ is a source for the activities of religious extremists in the US. They issue frequent bulletins which one can subscribe to. One big difference between the US and Australia is that the religious extremists such as Fred Nile in Australia are not influential in the major Australian political parties. In the US they have a big influence on the Republican Party.

One Under God,
And Kevin Rudd's future half Chinese grandchildren, these guys always look out for THEIR posterity first.

Davidf,
Yes and no, to what extent are the likes of John Howard influenced by British Israelism?
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/britishisraelhiddenhand10jul05.shtml

Steven may object but what I'm pointing out is that China and Israel indirectly distort mainstream news reporting, they have their own "gravitational force" so to speak.
It's not that lobbyists for either state are haunting the newsrooms (then again how many journalists are activists?) but due to "national interest" and political correctness a certain style of reporting is applied on issues pertaining to those two entities.
The "National Interest" is really irrelevant to journalism, it's only "Vested Interests" ie the state, an organ of the elites which promotes political correctness and self censorship.
The interests of the Nation aren't diminished by free and open reporting,rather it enhances the democratic process, only the state and it's "Vested Interests" stand to suffer.

Dear Jay Of Melbourne,

You wrote:

"Davidf,
Yes and no, to what extent are the likes of John Howard influenced by British Israelism?
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/britishisraelhiddenhand10jul05.shtml"

What I read sounded like something written by a believer in conspiracy theories. I don't know what the likes of John Howard are. However, although I did not favour John Howard I think he is too intelligent a man to go for the nonsense your reference cited.

I quoted Massimo Pigliucci above:

>>…many, perhaps most, people don’t actually want to be informed, and even less so challenged in their beliefs and worldview. Rather, they want to see a champion defending their preconceived view of the world, a sort of ideological knight in shining armor. Blatantly partisan outlets such as Fox News (on the right), Air America (on the left), and the countless number of Evangelical Christian radio stations are obvious examples of this…>>

In addition to "blatantly partisan outlets such as Fox News..." we have seen a proliferation of conspiracy theory websites. The misnamed "educate yourself" website appears to be a prime example. Even a cursory reading shows that its aim is not to "educate" but to reinforce batty beliefs.