I won’t be signing Kevin Rudd’s Petition.
Several weeks ago, a friend tagged me into a Facebook post where former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was “..officially launching an official petition to the Australian Parliament, calling on the Parliament to establish a royal commission into the abuse of media monopoly in Australia, in particular by the Murdoch media, and to make recommendations to maximise media diversity ownership”... Sounds very official, doesn’t it.
This friend that tagged me in the post is not only a Facebook friend, but also someone I consider to be an actual friend. But I won’t be signing the petition.
Forget my contempt for Mr Rudd. His pathetic search for relevance, ten years after his own party sacked him, and several years after the Australian voting public resoundly sacked him a second time, is the least of my worries.
In Mr Rudd’s video, Mr Rudd declares that the Murdoch Media has a “Monopoly” in the print media, and Mr Rudd wants to “maximise diversity”. He lamented on Murdoch keeping loss-making papers open to flex his political power, Murdoch’s bullying of media outlets that have a different point of view, and the support of climate change denial. He also accuses the Murdoch press of being anti-Labor and pro-Liberal.
Here’s the thing. The Murdoch media is historically not biased towards any particular party. I’m old enough to recall Murdoch’s support of the Hawke/Keating government’s reforms, and more recently, their dropping of support for John Howard during the final months of his government. From my observations, the Murdoch press seems to support those things that we all should, namely, freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of association, and free markets. The very things that have made western democracies such as Australia the most liveable places on the planet.
Mr Rudd doesn’t want to destroy a “Media monopoly”. There is no monopoly. He wants to create a monopoly, by silencing conservative voices.
Maybe the reason why there are more Murdoch papers than any others is because the others have gone broke and closed or sold out. The reason why newspapers go broke is because people don’t buy them. And people don’t buy them if they don’t want to read what’s in them. Simple free market economics.
Of course, the left-leaning Fairfax newspaper group has joined the left-leaning Channel 9, becoming a media giant, but Mr Rudd isn’t too worried about their “monopoly”. And consider the other media bias around the country. Ch 7 and Ten news and opinion shows are left-biased, not to mention the ABC and SBS who fly expressly against their charter and refuse to engage in alternative views of current affairs. And don’t get me started on the “Guardian”, who always take the moral high ground while conveniently forgetting that they are funded by money made by slavery. (Look it up).
And before you get your back up about the ABC being biased, just stop and think about it. Can you name one of their many commentators or anchors that you would consider right-leaning at all, let alone conservative?
So what’s Mr Rudd’s end game? Does he want to reduce the amount of papers that are owned by Murdoch? Does he also want to reach into electronic media?
Conservative commentators on the 9 radio network (2GB, 3AW, 4BC), have been shut down by their new Ch 9 owners, for example Alan Jones and Steve Price. This leaves no real conservative voice in Sydney radio any more.
That basically leaves (Murdoch’s) Sky News after dark. The only real place where common thoughts, ideas and opinions are challenged and discussed. Does Mr Rudd want to also shut down this avenue of conservative media? I think so.
Also consider, if Mr Rudd gets his way and the Murdoch Press is forced to sell off a portion of their newspapers, then those publications will close forever. No one will buy them, they simply don’t make financial sense to invest in.
And Social Media of course, was supposed to be a platform for all. A place where the masses can discuss the matters of the day, and let their individual opinions be known to the world. Not any more. Big Tech, particularly Facebook and Twitter, has taken upon itself to become the thought police, imposing censorship, blocks and bans if you dare to express an opinion against the current trends in leftist thought.
All of this above is why so many people are turning their backs from traditional media of all kinds, and are now sourcing their news and opinions from the new sources: Free speech social media (eg Parler), Podcasts and on-line journals.
In fact, Parler is the most downloaded app in the US today, it’s numbers surging following the US election. Conservative commentators hold the majority of podcast subscribers. People are seeking intelligent discourse, and our traditional media isn’t providing. And if Mr Rudd gets his way and shuts down, or even reduces the number of Murdoch publications and broadcast media, more and more conservatives will be forced into these alternative platforms. This is good for no one. We all lose. Without different opinions and views being freely exchanged, we can never improve. You can’t achieve good public policy without quality and robust debate.
And if Mr Rudd’s end game is indeed “media diversity”, then I suggest a royal commission into media bias within the ABC.
The world is riddled with problems. Most of them are fixable. It’s a pity that Mr Rudd doesn’t spend more of his time, his energy, and our money trying to improve the world, rather than pursuing his own promotion, and a personal vendetta against Mr Murdoch.
Since writing this, I see that the other great Labor Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has joined Mr Rudd in his crusade. Once again Mr Turnbull is showing his true colours. Red.
