Pseudo journalism is dangerous.
In recent times and
by that I mean in recent weeks attacks by supposed journalists on those whose
position questions that of our government’s has been passed off as journalism.
Tory Shepherd joined
in the fan fare with out-right attacks on a sitting member, who dare question
issues outside of what it appears her version of acceptable governance.
In Torys articles it
is all about acceptable science, yet not one scientific fact was included in
her article, fluoride is an ideal and totally save chemical to add to the
populations water in Torys eyes, with total disregard to debate on how much,
where it is from or even whether or not medication of any form should be
considered personal choice.
If one is to debate
a topic like fluoridation, you would expect to see at least some facts and
figures, how much is considered safe, how much is in our water, and maybe even
world comparisons, so as to offer a balanced overview, but this new ideal of
Pseudo journalism appears to simply take the governments side of any debate, as
if questioning our nation’s political direction is unacceptable behaviour.
The same applies to
many recent articles by many supposed journalists all of which attack those who
dare question any issue, where once we had access to balanced articles that at
least appeared to addressed both sides of any issue so as to create genuine and
open debate.
Torys latest
articles which attacked a local MP, made no mention of the MP’s successes nor
any educated details of their 7 year history, but were in fact based on
trolling their Face Book page, and using information both posted by the MP and
her friends, the same applied to recent articles by Paul Syvret, which also
used information from activists personal social networking pages, in neither
case did the journalists actually contact the victims of their attacks
personally.
The issue of pseudo
journalism carries with it severe implications to our system of democracy let
alone the ideal of free speech, when free speech is attacked by the very people
who are reliant on its existence, there is reason for concern, but when
democracy itself is attacked by such self interest, then it becomes a major
problem.
A perfect example of
this was the recent bi-election in Ramsay 2012, where the Liberal party decided
not to participate, creating an issue for the media, because in the last 15
years or so, they have habitually covered only the Labor and Liberal
candidates, so we saw articles produced about the election that only made
mention of the Labor party, as if no other candidates were running.
It would be easy to
come to the conclusion that many media organisation’s are the sole domain of
the two party system, and recent articles back this up, which conjures up
memories of a fine speech by the famous New York journalist and editor John
Swinton.
Considered the dean
of journalism, John made a speech many years ago, at a banquet given to him by
the leaders of his profession, that rings true today more than at any time in
the past.
"There is no such
thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent
press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write
your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never
appear in print.
I am paid weekly for
keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you
are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so
foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for
another job.
If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my
paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.
The business of the
journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to
fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily
bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an
independent press?
We are the tools and
vassals of rich men behind the scenes.
We are the jumping jacks, they pull the
strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the
property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
Journalism in the past
century has endured very little change from the date of John’s speech, and
recent articles do nothing more than show this to be true now more than ever,
in fact some of today’s journalists write more like a child throwing a tantrum
over a lost toy, than even a dismal attempt to use their talents to disguise their
mediums political position.
Democracy is all about
the election of representatives chosen by the Free will of an informed
electorate, so it is time we questioned exactly what happened to our freedoms,
and where the hell the Australian public can now become informed.
Mark Aldridge
Independent Federal Candidate
for Wakefield