You Can Watch The News! (1 Viewer)

[firehose]

Brr, there's heaps of Australian "versions" of US news/current affairs shows. 60 Minutes, Today, Good Morning Australia and Dateline are classic examples.

Anyway, i can't really let judgement on non-free-to-air News channels since i only have f-t-a but i reckon all the commercial tv news is too Australia-centric and too often picks out irrevalent news items (as gruesome as it is, c'mon, a torture of a kitten at a railway station does not merit the top news story of the day. We live in strange times indeed.) ABC news is good they rightly focus on more important, international news, but i must admit i find 7.30 report boring.

I read SMH everyday but i always skip to stuff that i like to read... except the opinion section. Yea those columnists are often critical and moreor less neutral except for Miranda Devine. Fearless journalism is always appreciated in a politically-correct world.

 

[firehose]

Umm yea its PBS news hour. PBS for Public Broadcasting Service (the US version of ABC if u like). CBS, American ABC etc are all commercial networks. Not sure if PBS is US-govt operated though. Yea, that roll-call list of the dead soldiers is eerie.....

 

[firehose]

Yeah it certainly puts a different perspective on the war.....
I suppose PBS newshour can't be operated by the US admin since it shows things like that.
It'd be interesting to see someone do a Iraqi roll-call, but that's obviously a dream.
And yep 7/9/10 are way too common-society based (lol couldnt think of a beta word).. hmm like they put stuff like Iraq election results in the 2nd segment and tsunami seems like it's ancient history judging by their storylines...

 

[chubbaraff]

Well using the logic of people in this forum who can say Fox is bad but its not that bad or claim that New York Times is on the left, I can only say

"Some People Say" that would be a stupid way to think

And id be right.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

you don't think new york times is on the left?

 

[loquasagacious]

The right does....

All the time they're jumping up and decrying the far-left/liberal media. In fact FoxNC was created and sloganised "fair and balanced" because of a conservative perception that the media is to liberal.

 

[LadyBec]

you kno i don't even go around asking for rep and i get a shitload, usually people agreeing with my comments.

even I have agreeded with you actually.
Anyways on to my point: Everything and everyone is biased. It is completly impossible for ANYONE to present a completly fair and unbiased view on anything. It is our job as the public to attempt to analyse what the media tells us for bias/untruths/exaguration. Which most people don't bother to do, prefering to beleve everything they hear on the news is the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
That said, it's my belief that the duty of the media is to try their hardest to minimise their own bias as much as they can, and inform the public of the facts. Which, clearly it struggles with a little.
But it could be worse, at least we have a free media. Some places don't after all.

 

[LadyBec]

When they Liberals destroy the cross media laws News Limited will buy the SMH and sack its journos. NL will have control of all print media in Australia.

Bloody hell don't SAY that.
If they sack all their journo's where the fuck am I going to get a job between working at the Newcastle Herald and The Australian?
You're screwing up The Plan here. dammit.
edit: this might sound stupid... but what's that got to do with my original post by the way? or is it just the fact that they're scumbags that aren't gonna do the whole gaurding-against-bias etc. thing?

 

[Not-That-Bright]

He's claiming that the liberals are going to get rid of our free media, dictate to the media what to tell people then initiate the blitz krieg.

 

[0Jade0]

Like the right wing doesnt do that already....

 

[Not-That-Bright]

O yea, i didn't see many attacks on howard during the election campaign at all.

 

[0Jade0]

HMMMM I recall the "Don't vote for labor... interest rates will rise.... you will all die, it will be the end of Australia! Look what Latham did to Livo council"

Guess what INTEREST RATES ARE RISING!

 

[Not-That-Bright]

No he said interest rates will always be lower under a liberal government, and historically that is true.

By the way while i'm sure interest rates will rise, they will only rise fractionally and the economy will start to balance its self out.

Asquithian: I was just pointing out that the Right definately do NOT have control over the media in this country.

 

[0Jade0]

pfft... i remember
Latham can't run a local council... how can he manage the ecomony...
And the Under labor PMs interest rates have risen.. (cue the flashing of keating and hawke's faces)

 

[Not-That-Bright]

I'm fairly sure that if it had been an election on social values, labor would of won by far... What labor needs to come to terms with is how to sell their economic plan and it definately can be sold to people.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

The ABC was critical of the government, most talk shows on tv were critical of the government.. I will agree the major commercial channels didn't say much about howard, however i think they layed it pretty light on both sides we saw nothing that you see in america (which i guess is good).

In the papers i thought most things were fairly fair, I was mainly reading "the australian" at the time and they provided a pretty good insight into the main policy differences.

I would point out that howard was targetted in the papers because of what he said about interest rates, which i don't feel is entirely fair. Latham was attacked over the social divide he caused with his education policy which i also didn't think was fair it was more just some rich schools being pissed off.

 

[alphatango]

I'm fairly sure that if it had been an election on social values, labor would of won by far... What labor needs to come to terms with is how to sell their economic plan and it definately can be sold to people.

Well, to start with, they might actually get together a coherent economic plan...something more than "we'll give money to you and you and you and you", and preferably "this is where the money is coming from"...

I'm sure someone will jump up and tell me that Labor policies were thoroughly costed during the campaign. For some reason, I never saw them, while the government's costings were easy to find.

Whether it's a policy vacuum or simply ineffective communication, Labor still has a long way to go before it gets my economic vote.

We all know they have litte control of interest rates!

True, they have little direct control. Although the RBA is a government institution, it's been set up to be independent. Nevertheless, it would be incorrect to assume that they can't affect interest rates. It's probably true that the media could have asked more questions about how his policies would affect rates, but that doesn't mean that the government can't do anything about them.

 

[MoonlightSonata]

It would be a real shame to see the SMH subdued

Imagine if Moir was fired

 

[chubbaraff]

I cannot believe NTB, how can you say news here is unbiased. Maybe its how we define bias. Because i see a station like say channel ten as bias because its more interested in Car crashes then politics, it has a bias towards nonsense, and is also beggining to be riddled with opinion. The new York times and washington post are by no means on the left. If they were they would not have attacked the Chavez government of venezuela like they did with no journalistic integrity, synonomous with the right. Out of the articles Ive read the only one sympathetic to the cause of Venezuela is the SMG, NYT and WP were absolute garbage. I think outfoxed stunned me because its creeping in here and unless we watch SBS and sometimes ABC, its gonna get worse. On the election, it was totally bias, they had a responsibility to cover the left, but they didnt. It was a tragedy for democracy and for the children in detention that the media didnt stress the issue.

 

[Grobus]

When you are talking about the ABC I think its important to state whether you are refering to their television or radio coverage.

Ive always found their TV journalism to be superb, but their radio stuff has been really inconsistent. The radio coverage of Iraq was appaling - I dont agree much with the Libs, but Richard Alston was right to cry fowl.