Murdoch, Australian media inquiry & Mainstream media climate change censorship

The Australian Greens have supported the idea of an inquiry into Australian media that is dominated by the US Murdoch Empire, the Australian Fairfax Empire and the taxpayer-funded ABC (the Australian equivalent of the UK BBC).

From the perspective of climate change action in response to the worsening emergency this is urgently needed in view of Murdoch Empire media climate change denialism and management of the taxpayer-funded ABC ordering “balanced reportage ” between scientists versus non-scientist climate change denialists.

Here is an example of censorship by The Age (Fairfax Empire) of my comments about bad media reportage and non-reportage about acute threats to Humanity, including man-made climate change.

On 13 September 2011 The Age On-line National Times section published an article by Australian Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young about the proposed media inquiry for Australia after the phone hacking scandals of News Corp in the UK (Murdoch has a News Limited in Australia) . Her article was wittily entitled “Is our News Limited?” A key quote: “In Britain, the phone-hacking scandal has put Rupert Murdoch’s media empire under unprecedented scrutiny. Questions are being asked about News Corporation’s influence over British democracy — its capacity to make and break prime ministers and to set the policy agenda of the day. In Australia, similar questions must also be asked. News Limited controls 70 per cent of our nation’s print media, representing the greatest concentration of media ownership in the democratic world” (see: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/po... ).

A 5-decade career scientist teaching at a big Australian university, I sent 2 separate comments under my own name to The Age (owned by Murdoch’s rival in Australia , the Fairfax Empire) but they were both completely CENSORED by The Age which evidently regarded them as containing material that should not be read by its readers even if buried in a comment thread of over 200 comments (for details of the article and the censorship see: http://gpolya.newsvine.com/_news/20... ).

Censored comment 1.

"Good article by Senator Sarah Hanson-Young but Australia’s media woes are not confined to the foreign-owned Murdoch Empire that owns most Australian city newspapers. Thus the Australian taxpayer-funded ABC matches the US-owned News Corp for grossly deficient reportage and incorrect reportage in major areas. Some examples below relating to Climate Change, Nuclear Terrorism and Poverty , these being regarded as 3 major risks for Humanity by President Barak Obama’s eminent chief science adviser Professor John Holdren.

1. Climate Change. News Corp is notorious for pushing climate change denialism and climate change inaction. However the ABC flagrantly pushes Labor’s Carbon Tax that Treasury modelling reveals as climate change inaction and repeatedly reports anti-science falsehoods such as "gas is clean" (for details sent to MPs and media Google "ABC lying by omission and commission").

2. Nuclear Terrorism. News Corp and the ABC both push pro-war propaganda in support of Western nuclear terrorist states but resolutely refuse to report or otherwise grossly underestimate by a factor of about 100 the 9 million Muslim war-related deaths so far in the US War on Terror.

3. Poverty. Currently 18 million people die avoidably each year from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease on Spaceship Earth with the First World running the flight deck, a worsening catastrophe resolutely ignored by both News Corp and the taxpayer-funded ABC.
Media inquiry now!"

Censored comment 2.

"From a scientific risk management perspective, the glaring, fundamental, Elephant in the Room problems with Australian media are self-censorship, censorship and lying by omission and commission. Indeed the more important the issue the greater the lying and censorship and numerous examples can be given of this in relation to the critical threats facing humanity, namely climate change, war and poverty.

Sadly, my carefully researched comment in this regard about the senator’s article that I submitted earlier has somehow gone astray, one supposes because it contains facts or opinions someone does not want readers of The Age to read even if buried in a lengthy comment thread.

In short, while pro-war, pro-inequity News Corp is also disgracefully and dangerously climate change denialist, the taxpayer-funded ABC similarly ignores 9 million war-related deaths in the War on Terror (Google Muslim Holocaust), 18 million annual global deaths from deprivation (Google UN Population Division) and the dishonest and appalling climate change inaction implicit in Labor’s counterproductive Carbon Tax plan (for my detailed analysis sent to media and MPs, including Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, Google "ABC lying by omission and commission").

I look forward to cataloging the lies of omission and commission by Australian media, including the taxpayer-funded ABC, to a Parliamentary Media Inquiry."

For further examples of such censorship see Censorship by The Age”: https://sites.google.com/site/mains... and http://agecensors.blogspot.com/ .

Dr Gideon Polya, Melbourne.