Did the media meddle in the Labor leadership so that we now have Kevin instead of Kym? Is there a real demand for change in the leadership of the Liberal party or is the media mischief making yet again?
Does the media have a right or a duty to deliberately interfere in and destabilise the political process?
Does the print press have the right to withold otherwise publishable letters from opposing points of view merely because editorial staff personally disagree with the point of view expressed? Are they right to try and sway opinion or do they have an obligation to present a fair and balanced view? Is it right for the media to withold information in the hope of influencing the outcome of an election?
Old questions perhaps but they are taking on a new meaning in the run up to the next election. Is the Australian media doing its job? Are you happy with it?

The sad fact is the media have always ran the show.
The conflict of media ownership and dicatorship in Australia is a discrace.
When kerry Packer died the Howard Government would have known they were in trouble.
Especially John Howard.
If you look what James Packer has done since that time you can see the result already.
Sold just about everthing his father built up and purchased Casinos in China.

China seems to be the flavour of these elections.
Who else do we know who has close ties with China?
Kevin Rudd and James Packer both seem to think China is our future.[ Or theirs]
Australia is flooded with cheap imports putting our farmers and producers out of business.

However whats going to happen when China decide to up the prices.
My advise is grow your own vegetables and if you dont know how learn.
Get yourselves a couple of chooks to lay eggs and tell your local council to jump in the lake if they try to stop you.

Start to take some control over your own lifes.
Bulk buy plenty of tin food and water each week and store it.
Of course you wont read that in any of the papers so we will just keep the secret between us.
Australia sooner or later will be under sanctions just like we have all seen in other countries.

For those people who never thought it could happen here they are wrong.
James and Kevin have looked after their own future so I suggest the Australian public do the same.

Dont wait to read in the paper Aussies should do everything possible to become self suffient.
Just do it.

ccat, if you leave your society in the hands of the rich and well-connected, you shouldn't whinge when they run the place for their own benefit.

there is an alternative society, in which the citizens run the place for the benefit of all but the rich and well-connected. but oz doesn't qualify- too ignorant, lazy, and self-indulgent.

There is an alternative society Demos? Where? Utopia? It sure isn't any communist regime...

I, for one, think most (but not all) of the criticisms of the media interfering in the process are claptrap.

There is one overriding principle you should understand - the media is out to make money. They do this, by creating whatever stories people will read.
The sad fact is, the majority of people enjoying reading about stupid subjects - take a look at the major news sites and which stories have the most hits.
Nine times out of ten, it will be a subject related to sex in some way.
There is indeed a problem here, but if the media is guilty of anything, it's pandering to the base desires of its audience.

Now, to political coverage. Most of it's so shallow it's irrelevant anyway. Come on - those of you who think they're meddling for Howard, have a read of how many 'Kevin Rudd riding high in polls' stories there have been out there.
Those of you who think it's backing Rudd, think of how much support the coalition's received from certain papers such as the Oz.

There's been some meddling in coverage of new media laws - it's concerning how little coverage that's received. But aside from that, this thread seems more of that "oh, look how bad the media are, they're controlling the masses" which, quite frankly, tends to either come from academics divorced from the realities of the industry, or people with an axe to grind who are pissed off nobody's paying them attention.

Agreed TRTL. Obviously some people believe everything the media tells them, but they're few and far between. And the media can only be powerful if most people take them seriously.

As for the media meddling in politics, I suspect their ability to do that only exists for politicians who still believe in the power of traditional media. Some are starting to learn to communicate with people in other ways, which is promising.

On the current Howard/Costello business, they're not telling us anything we don't already know. I, for one, am sick of hearing about it.