The media in Australia and elsewhere in the world are the ugly face of modern civilisation. A world where deceit, deception and lies rule. Look no further than Fox News and their coverage of the war in Iraq in 2003.
In Queensland the print media is controlled by Rupert Murdoch who has been compared to Adolf Hitler by Ted Turner, past proprietor of the Times Warner media empire. Perhaps Adolf Hitler should be offended, after all the only group his war crimes affected were Jews, gypsies and homosexuals. The harsh reality is that the biased media under Murdoch is destroying the lives of millions of people around the world because it has lost touch with its code of ethics and only reflects the greed-based agenda of its management. In August 2004 the Australian government allowed Murdoch to move his controlling shares in The Courier-Mail, Queensland's only daily newspaper. from Australia to the US.
Not one word was said over this debacle in the media.
It was only the Internet that has allowed the individual to question truth in media. In a world where the media use their contact with voters to control government and set the agenda the Internet has been an unwanted complication for the likes of Murdoch.
Ironically, before News Limited embraced the Internet as a commercial news outlet it continuously ran articles alluding the false impression that the Internet is a state of anarchy where bomb makers and paedophiles hang out. Today News Limited promote nude news, pornography and television programmes intent on destroying marriages among their rating driven pay TV channels.
In the best selling book "Murder by Media" Scott Balson unravelled the curtain of deceit and lies revealing the close bonds between the reporters and their alter-egos media advisers to our state and federal politicians. It's all about contacts of common convenience. Truth and integrity are the casualties and absent from much of government and the media today. The major parties have embraced and are now beholden to the likes of Murdoch. The Trojan Horse of reporters lurking in the politician's lair is alive and well.
So when a damaging expose like the shredding of the Heiner documents keeps on being thrust into the public limelight by a determined whistleblower the system of media and government fall into their tried and trusted strategy of deceit, cover up and denial for their common good.
Look at Peter Beattie who claims that the illegality of the shredding has been investigated exhaustively while refusing to allow a special (independent) prosecutor to evaluate the facts. Look at their partners in crime The Courier-Mail who, while majoring on the minors, have kept the the Labor Government's darkest secrets just that. Well placed stooges in both government and the media collude daily to set the news, agenda and policy of the people.... but this very direction comes from the hand of one man, Murdoch.
Frightening, isn't it?
So when and if you meet a reporter from News Limited understand this fact - they know that they are all tarred with the same brush as their master... in a word liar, Liar, LIAR, LIAR, LIAR, LIAR. Treat them with the contempt they deserve - when they try to get a story out of you they know that the manner in which it is presented in their paper will be determined by people above them and that their agenda has nothing to do with truth or integrity. Reporters with integrity and credibility have resigned and got out of this snake pit - there are dozens of them in Australia.