Trust, reliability and responsibility are key themes this week. Monica kicks off with a timely interview with Laura Tingle. The Chief Political Correspondent for the ABC’s 7.30 expands on her recent description of ‘the too-comfortable bipartisan consensus around AUKUS’ and her comments on Insiders about the ‘Red Alert’ series in the SMH/Age and ensuing debate, including responses to former PM Paul Keating’s appearance at the National Press Club.
Here at CMT we too have been discussing the reporting by the SMH and the Age, including the choices made by reporters Peter Hartcher and Matthew Knot on the contributors to the series, and Nine’s decisions around the series title and graphics that accompany the text. We acknowledge the expertise of the writers and the public interest in the policy issues underpinning the reports. But we find it hard to accept the claims by SMH editor Bevan Shields that Media Watch was out of line in its critique of the reports and that it should apologise to Nine. Nine has a massive platform for launching its own take on the risks of complacency when it comes to Australia’s position in our region and beyond. The critique from Media Watch was informed, relevant and timely. And it used a civil tone, not the ‘savage mouth’ that Tingle ascribes to Keating and that Shields rightly objects to.
The importance of exposure to a range of views is also highlighted in Chris Hall’s piece on what he characterises as ‘platform journalism’ and how youtubers are offering alternative sources of journalism on the war in Ukraine.
Platform journalism is the subject of Chris’s PhD and – shifting back from Ukraine to Australia – a couple of weeks ago he noticed a very interesting Friendlyjordies video. The video features a leaked recording of comments by John Barrilaro where the former NSW Deputy Premier himself deploys the ‘Pork Barilaro’ nickname. His complaint about the use of this name in Friendlyjordies videos posted on YouTube formed part of his successful defamation action. As Media Watch noted this week, news outlets have almost completely bypassed the story on account of legal obstacles. These include the prohibition on recording a ‘private conversation’ and – at least in New South Wales, where there is no equivalent of the public interest defence in Victoria – the additional prohibition on the communication or publication of the private conversation.
While still on the topic of reliable sources of news and comment, Sacha looks into the launch of NewsGuard in Australia, which aims to provide users with guidance on authoritative news sources. And finally, Ayesha rounds out our discussion of trust when she relates the observations of Indonesians journalists who spoke of the problems with ‘hoax’ news and the highjacking of original journalism in Indonesia.
Derek Wilding
CMT Co-Director