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.

I must have my daily newspaper, life would come to a halt without it.BUT...why must we have a new dontmissit sensation every week? Why does every utterance of Kevin and John have to be made headlines ? Who cares?
And if there is nothing of note happening in Australia, you can be sure a Hollywood star will fill a page or a footie hero will do something stupid.Again.
Australian media is the font of trivia. And is dumbing down Australia.I wish I could do without it.

There is one major way that the media meddle in the political process: the constant promotion of economic growth and everything that feeds into it. As TRTL says; the media is out to make money, and they will by and large say what their advertising clients want to hear.

As both major parties are in accordance on continuous unending economic growth, this doesn’t appear to affect politics that much. But it does, because it cements in the minds of the masses the message that Costello et al tell us constantly; that we’ll all be rooned if we don’t have ‘healthy economic growth’, for ever and ever.

It greatly helps in keeping the minor parties with an environmental / sustainability charter out of the picture and in causing any that do manage to stay in existence to work within a paradigm of accepted continuous growth instead of opposing it.

It short, it hugely biases our whole political outlook, at a time when we desperately need to gear our society onto a genuine sustainable base, which necessitates limits to growth.

The media have thus been hugely culpable in assisting political parties and big business in taking us ever-more rapidly towards a point of huge economic and social upheaval.

Ludwicg
Of course you are correct. Anybody with the very basics is aware that.

Let me share this with the others who seeem to think media have no effect.

When newspapers began several years ago, proprietors made explict use of them to advance their own political agenda.

Nothings changed.

It is not a matter of whether we like it or not The West Australian and the Sunday Times are an organ of the Conservative Parties The Packer Famile and The Murdoch Family have always undermined Democratic Socialists and supported Conservatives and Social Democrats. This is the system in which we live whether we like it or not. It does mould and manipulate peoples minds the media is not democratic and it quite easily sways the electorate at crucial times such as an election or referendum. In Britain there is a pressure group named The Campaign For Press Freedom not very successful but argues on the cause for what is right. We as a family purchase National Newspapers on every day of the week these Newspapers are have been relentless attacking Alan Carpenter and before him Dr Geoff Gallop two of the most capable sincere and honest people you could ever wish to meet. These Newspapers also relentlessly attack Grg Combet and Sharon Burrows again two of the most sincere honest and capable people you could ever wish to meet. Yet never ever a mention in the Press about families who are genuinely finding it hard to live in this prosperous Country of ours. Disabled people forced to go to work many working poor. Many workers coerced to sign Individual Contracts under the Australian Workplace Agreements. Young couples with babies having to bid at an auction for rental accomodation. House Prices way far out from a working persons reach whils tax concessions are given to those who negative gear with a score of properties it has become obscene. Howard Government subsidising Health Insurance and Private Education to the detriment of Public Hospitals and Government Schools again so shameful. Billions of Australian Dollars spent on the Iraq Invasion surgically dropping cluster bombs on innocents. Promoting the most unsafest form of power with no regard for the life that will be residing the surrounding locations whether it be fission or fusion. This is how our Newspapers brainwash us all today we are told our water has to be privatise railways.

It is not a matter of whether we like it or not The West Australian and the Sunday Times are an organ of the Conservative Parties The Packer Famile and The Murdoch Family have always undermined Democratic Socialists and supported Conservatives and Social Democrats. This is the system in which we live whether we like it or not. It does mould and manipulate peoples minds the media is not democratic and it quite easily sways the electorate at crucial times such as an election or referendum. In Britain there is a pressure group named The Campaign For Press Freedom not very successful but argues on the cause for what is right. We as a family purchase National Newspapers on every day of the week these Newspapers are have been relentless attacking Alan Carpenter and before him Dr Geoff Gallop two of the most capable sincere and honest people you could ever wish to meet. These Newspapers also relentlessly attack Grg Combet and Sharon Burrows again two of the most sincere honest and capable people you could ever wish to meet. Yet never ever a mention in the Press about families who are genuinely finding it hard to live in this prosperous Country of ours. Disabled people forced to go to work many working poor. Many workers coerced to sign Individual Contracts under the Australian Workplace Agreements. Young couples with babies having to bid at an auction for rental accomodation. House Prices way far out from a working persons reach whils tax concessions are given to those who negative gear with a score of properties it has become obscene. Howard Government subsidising Health Insurance and Private Education to the detriment of Public Hospitals and Government Schools again so shameful. Billions of Australian Dollars spent on the Iraq Invasion surgically dropping cluster bombs on innocents. Promoting the most unsafest form of power with no regard for the life that will be residing the surrounding locations whether it be fission or fusion. This is how our Newspapers brainwash us all today we are told our railways and water has to be privatised.

I regard Kim Beasley as one of my party's greats, and without shame both pushed for his leadership, dreaded Creans and Latham.
But pushed for Kim to go, I would be more than happy to have Kim as PM, in fact only Bill Shorten could please me more.
But Australia did not agree.
No perfect world for us Demos, it has always been the work of the Medea to report the news.
Often they do make the news they report, but short bottom Johny is just as unsaleable as my great man Kim.
Do we wait until the rubble stops falling or have conservative Australians the will to tap the little beggar on the shoulder?
If not the after wash will provide me endless joy for months after the crash, now why has our Medea not yet reported on Howard's wifes impact on his leadership?
I await with a huge grin the unmasking of Jenny after the election.
Remember that tree planting thing? I see a new screen saver in the making for each day of 2008!

Bronco Lane - many people with disabilities would like a job and are unable to get one - 'forced to go to work"? They would like a little more understanding from their fellow workers so that they can stay at work. (Like able bodied idiot co-workers nicking their designated car parking spaces or blocking the entrance with boxes, failing to ensure their deaf colleague gets given vital information in writing or that a memo is read to a visually impaired person...seen all that.)
Sorry that was off topic but your comments are typical anti-Coalition bashing with little regard for the facts.
If the media was as pro-Coalition as you suggest why is it that the majority of letters to the press are pro-Labor? Coalition supporters don't write letters? Give me a break. Journalists have a union and the majority of them vote Labor - fact not theory.

Lets face it, the media is not one amorphous blob. Instead, each media outlet has its own biases. Fairfax is generally seen as left of centre while most News Corp papers can be pretty much considered right of centre.

Hang on communicat papers do not print as many ALP supporters letters as anti ones.
But I share your views on the way we handle that group of workers you highlight.
I could add to your comments a great deal, but one day, this may surprise you, I think we will see all who can work do so, not social welfare forever.
It is my view social isolation is worse than working for a living.
But to work it would need far better than the sham work for the dole wages.

Been unable to reach the Forun for a few days - plenty of time to read the papers...I make it 2.3 pro-Labor to 1 Coalition in the support stakes.