The American Spectator

Writing here on July 21, I drew attention to the attack on the Murdoch press by Australia’s leftist Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and the unprecedented threat to press freedom in this country which it posed.

Things have now progressed.

The Government  is holding an inquiry into the Australian media that will examine the business model of newspapers and regulatory oversight.

With characteristic hypocrisy, it was announced, not very prominently, that the inquiry would take “oral evidence” during sessions in Sydney and Melbourne only. Australia’s cities, as a glance at the map indicates, are spreads out around the rim of the continent, and most other cities are hundreds, or thousands, of miles from Sydney or Melbourne. Plainly dissidents who lived in the other states will had little chance to make any personal appearance before the inquiry.

The first and most obvious target is the Murdoch press. Announcing the inquiry in Parliament, Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy stated: “I don’t need an inquiry to establish that the Murdoch press owns 70 percent of newspapers in this country. We’ve all known that for 20 years. I don’t need an inquiry to establish that some organs of the Murdoch Press are clearly running a campaign against this government” — ominous enough words. In fact, some of Murdoch’s journalists, such as Andrew Bolt and the Australian’sGreg Sheridan, are among the best in the country.

In July, Gillard said that News Ltd., the Australian arm of Murdoch’s media empire, had some “hard questions” to answer in light of the UK phone hacking scandal. She declined, however, to say what those questions were, since none of these scandals had related to Australia.

Murdoch’s British and Australian news organizations have completely different personnel. There has been no suggestion that News Ltd. or its personnel have been involved in any misconduct.

It is now suggested this be taken further, and the powers of a “press council” be extended to police private bloggers. It is proposed that the powers of the “Press Council” be expanded to allow it to impose fines of up to $30,000. Just to be sure there is to be no mistake as to where its power comes from, it is also proposed that it be further financed by the government.

The Press Council was set up by the newspaper industry in an attempt at self-regulation to forestall more thorough-going press control that had been threatened by the far-left Whitlam Labor Government in the 1970s (the electorate booted it out in the 1975 election).

The inquiry was demanded by the Greens, who like Greens elsewhere, have been captured by the extreme left to such an extent that their original platform of environmental conservation is hardly recognizable, and who have been treating Gillard as a sock-puppet in an attempt to force through a wide-ranging far leftist agenda — abortion, euthanasia, homosexual marriage and the usual works.

Green leader Senator Brown said: “But how to get better diversity will be a challenging question for this inquiry. The public interest needs to be looked after.” Does this mean Government intervention – i.e. press control — to ensure “greater diversity”? If not, what can it mean? Behind this pronouncement is a typically leftist presumption that the public is not fit to look after its own interests and the task needs to be taken up by self-anointed guardians.

The inquiry is headed by a retired judge, Raymond Finkelstein. He is assisted by Matthew Ricketson, former writer for Murdoch’s main media rival, Fairfax, publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Age.

Attacks on the Murdoch press from the left dwell on the fact that it has about 70 percent on the Australian market, its critics never admitting that the reason for this is simply that 70 percent of the media-consuming public prefers it.

Conroy claimed that “We need media that is independent, diverse and capable of putting the public interest above the interests of media owners.” If in fact he is sincere in what he says, it suggests he has no understanding of how the media works. The big media are public companies and the “owners” tend to be widely dispersed shareholders. The left tends to have a mighty, superstitious awe of the power of the newspaper media and seems unable to understand that unlike public radio and television broadcasting, the press is dependent on the market (even to an unusual degree, given that it depends not only on readers but also, and primarily, on advertisers).

Conroy said the inquiry might also look at not-for-profit journalism initiatives such as those underway in the United States, whatever that means.