The self-righteous bloviating from press interests, and the shrill coverage from News Ltd papers in particular, leads to the suspicion that Senator Conroy can't be far wrong with his tiny package of media reforms.

The Daily Telegraph, without a glimmer of irony, thinks it is an ''aggressive attempt to silence your media''.

Kim Williams, Rupert Murdoch's provincial governor, said this is the first government outside of wartime to ''attack freedom of speech''.

The ever-reliable ''professor'' David Flint thinks the media plan is an assault on the very foundations of our federation.

Opposition spokesman Malcolm Turnbull declared: ''Freedom is at stake, liberty is at stake, democracy is at stake.''

And this from a Liberal Party spokesman whose leader has growled at the ABC about its ''bias'' and about whom the public broadcaster lives in fear of retribution.

What is really at stake is how far these special pleaders can get away with their over-egged rhetoric.

Maybe forgotten in the excitement is the realisation that under the Conroy plan, Murdoch's News Ltd will now have its Foxtel pay TV operations subject to a public interest test for mergers and acquisitions. It can't get more shocking than that.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/wild-protests-at-a-tiddlywinks-approach-20130313-2g0sp.html#ixzz2NSw8QE5B

Dear Rob and Tony,

It is wrong that you should side with Murdoch ‒ whom the Mother of Parliaments the House of Commons, called ‘unfit to run a major international company’‒ against anybody, or to imagine he somehow stands for freedom of speech.

Nobody under him has freedom of speech.

They must say what he says, in the tone of Bill O’Reilly, to keep their jobs.

They must sound like Palin, Rove, Bolt, Akerman, to stay in work.

They must support the Iraq War, and Sarah Palin, and Glenn Beck, and John Howard, and his right ‒ that is, Murdoch’s right ‒ to sell tobacco to the Third World.

They must persecute Slipper, Thomson, Hicks, Habib, Haneef, Obama, Bill Clinton and Teddy Kennedy.

They must agree that Fox News is ‘fair and balanced’ and Rebecca Brooks guiltless of any wrongdoing — like bugging the anguished relatives of the dead.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/freedom-of-speech-is-not-the-freedom-to-oppress/

As an adjudicator, the APC has been a spectacular failure for the ordinary Joe Citizen, but brilliantly successful for the print proprietors, and, of course, has been commonly known for years as a toothless tiger.

The whole adjudication process is voluntary. There are no enforceable penalties — except to publish the decision of the APC’s adjudication committee, and even then some regional papers have long stopped bothering to so do. It’s the ‘being slapped in the face with a wet lettuce leaf’ style of penalty — an irritant rather than a penalty and has long been regarded as a joke.

The Australian Press Council is a wonderful lesson in how to be an effective lobbyist. It is also a brilliant lesson in why self-regulation never works.

In looking at some of the mainstream media’s coverage of federal politics and, in particular, the often vitriolic personal pursuit of the Prime Minister, while ignoring any meaningful coverage of the Opposition’s problems ‒ as well as the media’s perceived lack of real and informed analysis of policy and administrative performance ‒ is it any wonder that the spectre of the 1975 media election coverage has reared its ugly head?

This time, however, I can’t see any journalist ‒ except, maybe, the odd one or two ‒ standing up for a fair and balanced media as a fundamental principle of a healthy democracy, nor for the integrity of what it is they do personally as a profession.

For journalists working in a diminishing labour market, there’s just no future in it.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/the-day-the-australians-reporters-stopped-writing-lies/

More crap from News Limited...:

IF YOU'RE the sort of person who says women can't read maps, you should probably read this story.

And you know what? Try reading it upside down, so you have a little empathy with a woman in Serbia who can ONLY read things upside down.

Bojana Danilovic is a 28 year old Serbian council worker who has a freak connection in the way her brain processes images.

What the rest of us see right way up, she sees upside down. Her whole world is quite literally both topsy and turvy.

Experts from America's Harvard University say Ms Danilovic is suffering from a condition called ‘spatial orientation phenomenon'.

....

As you'd imagine, things are a little unusual in Ms Danilovic's world. She has a special upside down computer screen and keyboard. She has special forms to fill in at her job at the town hall in the small Serbian city of Uzice.

When she gets home after a hard day's dizziness, she watches one TV which is balanced atop another TV teh rest of the family is watching.

News.com.au understands there is no truth to the rumour that Prime Minister Julia Gillard suffers brief outbreaks of this condition when viewing opinion polls.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health-fitness/bizarre-medical-condition-woman-sees-world-upside-down/story-fneuz9ev-1226597958051#ixzz2NZLtEHrs

Ah ah... One should know that anyone who were in (hot metal) typesetting (like Gus was linked to for 20 odd years) used to be able to read backwards and/or upside down... I still can do it.

Even the great Da Vinci used to write mirror-like backwards....

Chinese write up down. while Arabic is written right to left.

And of course the person with the most "spacial disorientation crappy-phenomenon" is Tony Abbott who read only papers with extreme-right porkies — because he cannot read anything else with truth in it... or even read a simple electricity bill...

KEVIN Rudd has warned the Gillard government it has failed to sell a historic schools funding revolution with mums and dads in the dark about what the "Gonski" reforms mean.

His criticism came as the ALP national secretary George Wright issued a rare rebuke to the parliamentary wing over ongoing leadership instability warning it was "extremely damaging" the government.

Speaking at a function in Brisbane to discuss Troy Bramston's book of Labor speeches For the True Believers, Mr Rudd again confirmed that unnamed cabinet minsters questioned his decision to apologise to the stolen generation as "dangerous".

And he warned Labor's communications strategy was failing with many people didn't know what the word "Gonski" means when it was used as short-hand of explaining school reform. Mr Rudd said he was hugely respectful of businessman David Gonski who prepared the blueprint but it was no way to sell a policy.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national-news/kevin-rudd-warns-gillard-government-it-is-failing-to-sell-gonski-education-reforms/story-fncynjr2-1226598806505#ixzz2Ng6puxNi

In fact it's not that the government has failed to tell the story... It's because the media, of which the merde-och press is part of, has been doing it's darnest to muddy the waters and sink the government efforts. The alternative would be for the government to deliver fridge magnets with a note telling the parents how the Gonski reforms would be beneficial for the country which they would be, but the media would turn to its usual trick and wage a furious campaign — supported by the moronic Liberal (conservative) opposition —  against the government using money to "promote" itself... You see what I mean when the government starts to release real information...

But this article in the merde-och media is more about stirring "DIVISION in the Labor Party" and to promote Rudd against Julia whom they hate, than to have a real concern about the education of your kiddies... As far as the press is concerned, a 12 year old kid-level is sufficient to be conned by the Daily Telegraph... Any older than that and the merde-och press has to double the porkie sauce in "The Australian"... Meanwhile women can read the glossy magazines to find out which famous female butt is on a diet this week... That is the media for you.

The Australian Journalists Association has a 12-point code of ethics. All twelve are now routinely violated by Murdoch employees.

In 2010, Herald Sun reporters lied about their identity to ensnare politicians in a British tabloid-like sting. They had the support of editors and executives — despite explicit condemnation in the code.

Most Murdoch publications are now merely spruikers for conservative political causes which they advance with distortion and lies. The frequency and viciousness of these crusades increased markedly after Labor came to power in late 2007.

In 2008, Glenn Milne in The Australian attacked PM Kevin Rudd over a risqué play in Gippsland which the local Labor candidate had promoted in his newsletter. Milne failed to disclose, however, that the tawdry theatrical event was actually approved and funded by the previous Howard Coalition Government.

Glaring examples since then are the relentless campaigns against the economic stimulus packagesduring the GFC, against climate change, against the mining tax, against the carbon tax, against internet security, against changes to discrimination laws and against the National Broadband Network (NBN).

Sydney’s Daily Telegraph was found by the Australian Press Council to have used false customer figures in a news story on the NBN. Other Telegraph articles were found misleading by serious omission. The Council expressed concern that

‘within a short period of time three articles on the same theme contained inaccurate or misleading assertions.’

The Daily Telegraph ran a front-page story headed: “Thousands of boat people to invade NSW”.

The Australian Press Council found elements of the story to be “gravely inaccurate, unfair and offensive”.  The Council condemned the newspaper for “an especially serious breach of its principles.”

Glaring examples since then are the relentless campaigns against the economic stimulus packagesduring the GFC, against climate change, against the mining tax, against the carbon tax, against internet security, against changes to discrimination laws and against the National Broadband Network (NBN).

Sydney’s Daily Telegraph was found by the Australian Press Council to have used false customer figures in a news story on the NBN. Other Telegraph articles were found misleading by serious omission. The Council expressed concern that

‘within a short period of time three articles on the same theme contained inaccurate or misleading assertions.’

The Daily Telegraph ran a front-page story headed: “Thousands of boat people to invade NSW”.

The Australian Press Council found elements of the story to be “gravely inaccurate, unfair and offensive”.  The Council condemned the newspaper for “an especially serious breach of its principles.”

In February last year, The Australian ran a cover story headed “Mutiny kills PM’s Bob Carr plan”. It contained at least six “revelations” relating to the appointment of Bob Carr as Foreign Minister. All six were soon proven to be fabricated.

Murdoch publications have campaigned against all Labor state governments. News reporters at Brisbane’s Courier-Mail were instructed to use the news pages to drive a campaign targeting then Premier Anna Bligh.

The campaign against the Greens, and former leader Bob Brown in particular, has been particularly vicious.

An editorial in The Australian declared:

‘We believe he (Brown) and his Green colleagues are hypocrites; that they are bad for the nation; and that they should be destroyed at the ballot box.’

These are not just vigorous campaigns confined to the opinion pages — something that would be not so objectionable. But rather these are crusades fought with distortion and lies in the news content.

Can anything be done? Former employee Bruce Guthrie – who defeated News Limited in court in 2010 – believes ‘you can bite back against Murdoch’.

Senator Conroy seems to be attempting exactly that. Will he succeed? We shall see.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/news-limiteds-hysterical-campaign-confirms-need-for-media-regulation/

A deal has been struck between the three main political parties on measures to regulate the press, Labour has said.

Leader Ed Miliband said the deal would protect "future victims" of press intrusion, while maintaining a free press.

An overhaul of press regulation began after it was revealed that journalists had hacked thousands of phones.

But Tory Maria Miller said leaders still needed to discuss details.

Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry into press ethics in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal called for a new, independent regulator backed by legislation, which prompted months of political wrangling.

The Liberal Democrats and Labour wanted a royal charter backed by legislation to establish the regulator, while Prime Minister David Cameron supported a royal charter without a law.

A Commons debate and vote were scheduled for Monday, but after overnight talks between the Lib Dem and Labour leaders and a senior Tory minister resulted in a deal, the vote was cancelled. A statement from the prime minister is expected in the Commons later.

The Federal Government's chances of winning crucial crossbench support for its media laws are narrowing dangerously, with independent MP Andrew Wilkie declaring he will not support the bills.

His announcement is a blow to the Government's chances of securing the five votes it needs for the legislation to pass the lower house.

At this stage it has secured just one: Greens MP Adam Bandt.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-20/wilkie-deserts-rushed-media-bills/4584538