Misinformation is the enemy of our society. Phone tapping and computer hacking is not the main problem with Australian media. The lack of objectivity, fairness and depth is.  In a recent trip to Indonesia, one of the most surprising and outstanding cultural differences I found was in the honesty of their major newspapers. My poor knowledge of Indonesian culture and media had been informed by news stories in our own press. I had expected a tame media cowed by the military and government. However the opposite was true as the newspapers vigorously pursued corrupt and incompetent members of parliament and had no fear of analysing the weakness of the President. All this was done without alarmist rhetoric or a partisan start-point.

Even more impressive is the way important issues are presented for discussion and the depth of information being provided to readers. Reading the Jakarta Post and the inserted China Daily has been a fascinating educational experience. A good example is a recent article by Economics Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz on the structural weakness imposed on the US budget by policies of the Tea Party faction of the Republican Party, and how the adoption of similar policies is exacerbating the economic chaos of struggling members of the European Community. The article cuts through the neo- conservative mumbo jumbo economics that is holding back progress here and abroad. The China Daily contained a comprehensive, highly informative, interesting and well researched feature on the economic impact of ageing on the countries of the region.

In stark contrast, there is shallowness and partisan viewpoint in Australian news-media that is both disappointing and alarming. Most time and space is given to trivia while important issues are rarely discussed in-depth by try-hard media figures for whom celebrity is more important than substance. Even the Australian Broadcasting Commission is moving down this path.

Rather than increasing understanding and adding meaning to our lives, our media sets out to distort the truth. Instead of analysis and reasoning we are given marketing propaganda backed up by shallow opinions. Invariably these opinions are laced with derisive and inaccurate school bully clichés like “Carbon Cate” to attack and label those who dare to express an alternative view. These clichés are chanted across publications and the broadcast networks like a deafening morning chorus of moronic cicadas, shocked that sun is coming up but having no understanding why it is once again appearing on the horizon.

The revered elder statesmen and women of the press paddle safely in the shallows of mediocrity. They appear on our weekend newspapers and television screens pontificating on issues after being spoon fed their lines by political spin doctors with whom they are far too close for our comfort. To further indoctrinate readers and viewers, we are harangued by sainted business leaders winging against some perceived threat to his short-term wealth. Any new ideas or concepts that challenge the current orthodoxy are treated with suspicion and usually ridicule. Criticism of these new concepts does not come from a basis of careful analysis, but instead it arises from ignorance and the fear of being moved out of an intellectual comfort zone.

Serious life threatening issues like climate change are not covered by journalists with some expertise or knowledge in the field, but by business and economics writers and by journalist members of the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), which is actually a lobby group for private industry posing as a scientific think tank.  However when these double agent journalists are confronted by an indestructible wall of scientific evidence there is a denial of the mainstream scientific view and a parade of views from cash for comment shock jocks, crackpot “experts” and bleating billionaires protecting their money piles and their right to pollute. While these same people laud Australian sporting heroes for being ahead of the pack, when it comes to business and the environment, being in front of the world is a sacrilege

It is clear that the intent of most publications and broadcasts is primarily to promote consumerism, push business interests, and to campaign against anything that threatens either of these. Any long-term sustainable proposal is put in the too hard basket by an industry lacking in principles and that has forgotten its true purpose.

Hacking is not damaging Australia; partisan, mean-spirited inane spin that is pumped out as information is.