Murdoch scandal

The latest Joe Toscano anarchist podcast dissects the reasons why the Murdoch empire needs to be toppled. Great listening and fundamental education. Also wraps up the state of democracy in Australia.

Sorry Julia

I'm sorry to say although I agree with the Prime Minister that much of Australian journalism is complete crap, I don’t agree with her when she suggests the problem is due to the 24 hour news cycle. The problems with Australian journalism and much of the journalism in the Western World has more to do with the concentration of ownership of the fourth estate in the hands of a rapidly shrinking number of players than technological innovation.

It’s no accident parliamentary democracies have traditionally highlighted the important role a free, independent and diverse media plays in the lives of free people while totalitarian regimes of all political hues fight tooth and nail to ensure only one political voice is heard via state controlled channels.

Corporate capitalism and the fourth estate

The emergence of corporate capitalism as the dominant economic force in the 21st century has destroyed the delicate balance that existed between government, the people and the fourth estate creating a climate that rewards political conformity, manufactures community consensus and subverts the idea ultimate political authority in a democratic society rests in the hands of the people not the state, the government of the day or that small section of society that owns the means of production, distribution, exchange and communication. The pathetic nature of political debate today is, to a significant degree, due to a handful of people owning the fourth estate.

Even a cursory examination of the 1854 Eureka Rebellion highlights the pivotal role a free, independent and diverse media plays in political transformation. Ballarat, a town of 20,000, was serviced by two newspapers, The Diggers’ Advocate and The Ballarat Times and Southern Cross while Melbourne, a city of less than half a million, was serviced by The Age, Argus and Herald. The political tsunami that followed the drowning of the Eureka Rebellion in a sea of blood by the colonial authorities would never have occurred if Victoria had not been serviced by a free, independent and diverse media during that period.

Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Bob Brown are in a position to change the political, social and cultural landscape in Australia once and for all

Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Bob Brown are in a position to change the political, social and cultural landscape in Australia once and for all. They find themselves in the unique position of having the community support they need to stop the parliamentary puppet masters dictating parliamentary policy. They find themselves in the position to uproot the few stunted perennials that blight political, social and cultural debate in this community and let a thousand flowers bloom by passing parliamentary legislation that forces media monopolies to limit their media holdings to 10% of the privately owned media outlets in a community. They are also in a position to pass parliamentary legislation that alters the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s guidelines so that a variety of opinions, not just the major political parties’ opinions, are brought to the fore in Australia in the publicly funded media sphere.

Source and more of this at http://www.anarchistmedia.org/current.html