Greens leader Bob Brown has this afternoon called for an inquriy not only into media ownership, but the opinions newspapers publish.
Julia Gillard is open to the idea:
Ms Gillard says she was disgusted by events in the Britain and she is not surprised some parliamentarians want a review of the media.
?I anticipate we?ll have a discussion amongst parliamentarians about this, about the best review and the best way of dealing with all of this,? she said.
I am shocked to hear the leader of a major political party propose something so dangerous, so threatening to free speech. And to this this within an hour of some in the Canberra press gallery virtually demanding of Gillard advice on how to help her?
Do not doubt just what Brown has in mind as he cynically exploits the scandal that?s engulfed the Murdoch-owned News of the World in Britain to muffle conservative media outlets and journalists, and rig the debate more in the favor of the Left.
He says he does not want an inquiry just into media ownership, and the determination of a ?fit and proper? newspaper owner - the very kind of restrictions which have allowed the Gillard Government to intimidate TV proprietors.
He also made clear he wants a more Left-friendly coverage. He said he wants to ensure newspapers are ?even handed and unbiased and to a degree selfless?. By whose standards, Bob? ?Unbiased? the way the ABC is ?unbiased??
He says he wants to the inquiry to tackle ??the narrow range of media opinion and the intrusion of opinion into the news columns?. What narrow opinion, Bob? Are you worried about the fact that The Age has not a single on-staff conservative as a columnist? That the ABC has not a single conservative host of a TV current affairs show? Or is it the conservative voices which trouble you, especially those in the Murdoch papers of what you call the ?hate media??
Brown wants better rules to guard ?privacy?, which could make it harder to tell you important facts about public figures that may safeguard your democracy.
In a healthier age, these suggestions would be seen as the far-fetched demands of a closet totalitarian. But Brown is powerful, Gillard is desperate and despises the Murdoch papers who?ve questioned her policies, and the ?elite? media has rarely been so supine.
Worse, News has stained its reputation and is weaker than it?s been in years to defend itself.
And, of course, those famous defenders of free speech have gone only too silent since the rise of this Labor Government. No one knows that better than me.
These are suddenly dangerous times for those who value free speech. The Murdoch haters may well gloat over the company?s shame in Britain, but it?s their free speech that is now threatened, too.
A word of warning to them. The next prime minister is also certainly going to be Tony Abbott. Would they trust him with the powers that Bob Brown now demands? Would they trust, say, me with the authority Brown demands for a regulator policing bias?
Be very careful what you wish for. Be especially careful of the rise of the new totalitarianism.
