LAST WEEK, News Corp’s newspapers The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Courier Mail and The Adelaide Advertiser caused controversy by publishing front page “exclusives” and “special reports” alleging that more gas is needed to avoid electricity blackouts in the future.
If readers turned the page and read the fine print, they would learn that this so-called “news” was actually not news. It was an advertorial (a fancy word for an advertisement), paid for by – you guessed it – the fossil fuel industry.
@Joshi
It cannot be made illegal, nor should it. What ought to occur is for a ‘universal’ education system to teach all kids (because we no longer go to school ourselves) how to spot dis-misinformation and uncover the ‘agenda’ behind them with ‘clear thinking’ skills (Foremost amongst other skills) IMHO.As with any issue of survival, the application of effective skills are worthy solutions to the problems we face.
education system to teach all kids (because we no longer go to school ourselves)
Why should we abandon the vast majority of our population, just because we’re not forced to attend school? Education isn’t limited to the classroom!
As with any issue of survival, the application of effective skills are worthy solutions to the problems we face.
It’s less a solution and more a coping mechanism. I am in support of promoting these skills, but I’m also in strong support of mitigating the commecialisation of news media as much as possible. And that includes outlawing these kind of articles.
This is deliberately misleading. I’m not sure why you think it can’t be outlawed, numerous laws exist regarding false and misleading advertising which is exactly what this is.
It is not reasonable to expect even a majority of people to pick up on this kind of deliberate deception.
Making this kind of deliberate deception illegal would not be limiting freedom of speech, opinion pieces and clearly labelled advertising are one thing, a front page story with no indication that it is not news is another.
@Joshi
You sound very angry. The first question you need to ask yourself is : What it the truth? And whether a journalist’s opinion or perspective is - just as your toot is - truth or not. In fact, our own personal truths are a collage of what we have accepted as truth based on our experience and that of others we trust for one reason or another - nothing more.So your truth may very well be someone else’s lie. What makes you, or anyone else, judge and jury? It might all boil down to the majority view in which case we’re talking about the tyranny of the majority - is that kind of world you desire? Where would you draw the line on what is legal or not? And on what basis would you make that decision? Nothing is black & white.
I think we should stop the thread here and agree to disagree my friend.
Maybe we should teach projection in schools too?
You sound very angry.
“And this, kids, is projection. Projection is when somebody takes what they’re feeling, and puts that feeling onto the actions of other people. People often project because they’re scared and feel that they’re being attacked.”
I’m sincerely sorry if I sound angry. I was trying to be concise. I am genuinely interested in hearing why you think outlawing this kind of deception would not be appropriate. I am quite certain we would disagree but I am always interested in hearing opposing opinions.
Really, please expand on this, I will try to respond with kindness and understanding despite any disagreement.
@Joshi
Disagreements are fine, more than fine, they are needed if we are to understand where we stand on issues and why we do so.My thinking is that the fourth estate should not be ‘muzzled’ by laws in what it produces as ‘editorials’ and ‘opinion pieces’ because that would be ‘censorship’. Australia has a history with govt censorship and we really don’t want to go back there (plenty of detail on the internet if interested).
Such opinions and editorials are not, of course, beyond the laws as they stand today. This is why liable cases are brought against journalists and their agencies from time to time (even if the legal system is somewhat skewed to favour the well-off, ie. those who can afford the usurious legal fees). That works fine up to a point. In my opinion, access to the legal system should be broadened to cover those aggrieved but too poor to litigate. Everyone should have received an education which equips them to know the difference between news (the reporting of a factual event) and editorails and opinions ( as well as infomercials, copyadvertising, puff pieces, fiction and propaganda).
As for the last of these, propaganda, we only need to strengthen our electoral laws to cover it, at the expense of extremist political groups if needs be. The benchmark being ‘factual truth’, subject to litigation, in political advertising. More work for govt here.
As for ‘news reporting’, the only culprit for the lies ‘reported’ are those who originally spoke them or performed them. In an open democracy you would not want to censor that (even if the reporters are slack and don’t put in the work to point out the fallacies, lies and misdirections in the items they are reporting on - that’s another issue altogether). Maybe there needs to be more that journalism as an oversight body ought to do to bring rogue reporters to heal (something like the medical profession does, or the govt does with respect to trade registration regulators).
Last, we all know that the nearer to a monopoly an enterprise is the worse off everyone else will be. And here our govt out to have the power to break up these monopolistic empires (aka Murdock and quite a few others). Divestiture legislation ought to be supported by all our representatives in Parliament ( those that won’t, do not have our social and financial interests in mind - one then wonders what the F** they are doing in Parliament in the first place, but that’s another story to tell).
Happy to read your own thoughts on this. Apologies for the length of this toot.
BTW, for the trolls out there reading this (you know who you are) present your arguments without attacking the person and you’ll get a lot more out of your ‘doom scrolling’.
#journalism #corporatemedia #censorship #auspol #Murdockcracy
I’m sorry if I’m misunderstanding, I don’t feel that you’ve actually addressed the issue at hand.
Specifically the event where Murdoch papers took payment from the fossil fuel lobby and in return ran front page stories pushing specifically their line that increased natural gas is necessary. This was made technically legal by small print on the next page.
The longstanding convention is that when presented as such a story has been written by a journalist to create the content and not pursue promotion, ‘advertorials’, while problematic in themselves, have always had a note, often small print, directly adjacent to the story.
The event reported here was deliberate misdirection intended to escape the notice of the reader.
The issue isn’t the freedom of the fourth estate, it isn’t even advertising or opinion in the press, it is that it should be clear to the reader what is news, what is opinion and what is advertising. There already exist laws that protect this separation. The Murdoch papers have found a loophole and have deliberately exploited it to deliberately mislead their readers. It is difficult to interpret it any other way and it is this specifically which should be made illegal by clarifying existing laws to close this loophole.
One solution could be to make terms such as ‘news’ or ‘current affairs’ or ‘journalism’ protected terms.
Anybody can claim to be a “nutritionist” but only those with actual recognised qualifications may describe themselves as “dieticians”.
The news media could be given tax breaks under the strict condition they produce only accurate and unbiased journalism.
“Advertorials”, and “puff pieces” would be banned and if a news organisation broke the rules, they would be fined heavily and lose their tax breaks.
Thoughts?
It’s an interesting idea, I honestly don’t think there is an easy solution here though. Balancing freedom of speech with controlling false and misleading information is a supremely difficult and as yet unsolved problem.
You sound very angry
No they don’t.
I think we should stop the thread here and agree to disagree my friend.
How convenient for you.
@maniacalmanicmania
Bye…
Why not both? The media should absolutely be forced to do their job properly, and people should absolutely be educated to spot bs.
@Moc
‘Forcing’ is akin to tyranny and would limit our ability to explore and debate perspectives other than our own thereby closing ourselves off from any possibility of ‘learning’, ‘growing’ and bettering ourselves.I’m curious as to your perspective. Laws are rules under threat of force. Are you implying that having laws and enforcing them is tyranny? Would a society with no rule of law be better in your opinion?
@Moc
I think you’re reading me wrong. A discussion on law and order would be too long winded (and peppered with points of view - some irreconcilable ) for me to entertain at this time. Let’s just say that ‘muzzling’ the citizenry is a double edged sword. We ought not invite anarchism nor encourage tyranny, it’s a fine balance. And where the fourth estate is concerned, a rocky path at best where, should we tread too heavily, we will impoverish our society. I hope that makes my thinking clear on this issue my friend. It is hardly controversial.
#lawAndOrder #FeedomOfThePressI used to think like you. I almost completed a journalism degree in Australia— so I’m well aware of the role and necessity of the fourth estate. Having seen years of the awful effects of Murdoch’s propaganda rags on my country’s culture and government, I think media should be subject to certain laws.
For example, News Limited’s news media companies only serve propaganda for fossil fuel magnates. It’s not news. They have never and will never do their job as the fourth estate, because they are propaganda for those in power, nothing more and nothing less.
Yes, free political expression should be protected and is important for the function of democracy. So it not conflating literal propaganda with news.
