Letter
Australian media's biggest problem
It’s all very well decrying Australia’s media myopia, but look who owns it. We’ve got Murdoch, Zuckerberg and Musk, for whom the US dollar, garnered worldwide, is God. Fairfax persisted until finally capitulating to the Nine Network. Credibility died there when a year’s worth of red ink decorated Peter Hartcher’s histrionic, fear-mongering, anti-China series. Poor old Aunty is seriously infected by Liberal Party appointments and funding cuts. Its former quality innovation and Australian content has diminished drastically.
No wonder our always UK/US focussed mainstream media, now constricted even further by reduced ownership, is now referred to as legacy media. Their negatives are outdone more entertainingly by influencers (my God!), foreign agents of unknown countries or organisations, technologically brilliant but morally bankrupt computer nerds out for money and/or a laugh. It’s surprising that the world, and Australia in it, is as informed as it is.
Bruce Dover’s suggested remedies are apposite. But when the real problem is media ownership in Australia plus, increasingly, foreign and malign activity in new media? When, if ever, have we seen a government with the intelligence and courage to take on such a necessary and worthwhile challenge? Don’t hold your breath.
— Margaret Callinan from Hawthorn VIC 3122