LAST WEEK, News Corp’s newspapers The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Courier Mail and The Adelaide Advertiser caused controversy by publishing front page “exclusives” and “special reports” alleging that more gas is needed to avoid electricity blackouts in the future.
If readers turned the page and read the fine print, they would learn that this so-called “news” was actually not news. It was an advertorial (a fancy word for an advertisement), paid for by – you guessed it – the fossil fuel industry.
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This is deliberately misleading. I’m not sure why you think it can’t be outlawed, numerous laws exist regarding false and misleading advertising which is exactly what this is.
It is not reasonable to expect even a majority of people to pick up on this kind of deliberate deception.
Making this kind of deliberate deception illegal would not be limiting freedom of speech, opinion pieces and clearly labelled advertising are one thing, a front page story with no indication that it is not news is another.
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You sound very angry
No they don’t.
I think we should stop the thread here and agree to disagree my friend.
How convenient for you.
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I’m sincerely sorry if I sound angry. I was trying to be concise. I am genuinely interested in hearing why you think outlawing this kind of deception would not be appropriate. I am quite certain we would disagree but I am always interested in hearing opposing opinions.
Really, please expand on this, I will try to respond with kindness and understanding despite any disagreement.
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I’m sorry if I’m misunderstanding, I don’t feel that you’ve actually addressed the issue at hand.
Specifically the event where Murdoch papers took payment from the fossil fuel lobby and in return ran front page stories pushing specifically their line that increased natural gas is necessary. This was made technically legal by small print on the next page.
The longstanding convention is that when presented as such a story has been written by a journalist to create the content and not pursue promotion, ‘advertorials’, while problematic in themselves, have always had a note, often small print, directly adjacent to the story.
The event reported here was deliberate misdirection intended to escape the notice of the reader.
The issue isn’t the freedom of the fourth estate, it isn’t even advertising or opinion in the press, it is that it should be clear to the reader what is news, what is opinion and what is advertising. There already exist laws that protect this separation. The Murdoch papers have found a loophole and have deliberately exploited it to deliberately mislead their readers. It is difficult to interpret it any other way and it is this specifically which should be made illegal by clarifying existing laws to close this loophole.
One solution could be to make terms such as ‘news’ or ‘current affairs’ or ‘journalism’ protected terms.
Anybody can claim to be a “nutritionist” but only those with actual recognised qualifications may describe themselves as “dieticians”.
The news media could be given tax breaks under the strict condition they produce only accurate and unbiased journalism.
“Advertorials”, and “puff pieces” would be banned and if a news organisation broke the rules, they would be fined heavily and lose their tax breaks.
Thoughts?
It’s an interesting idea, I honestly don’t think there is an easy solution here though. Balancing freedom of speech with controlling false and misleading information is a supremely difficult and as yet unsolved problem.
Why not both? The media should absolutely be forced to do their job properly, and people should absolutely be educated to spot bs.
@Moc
‘Forcing’ is akin to tyranny and would limit our ability to explore and debate perspectives other than our own thereby closing ourselves off from any possibility of ‘learning’, ‘growing’ and bettering ourselves.I’m curious as to your perspective. Laws are rules under threat of force. Are you implying that having laws and enforcing them is tyranny? Would a society with no rule of law be better in your opinion?
@Moc
I think you’re reading me wrong. A discussion on law and order would be too long winded (and peppered with points of view - some irreconcilable ) for me to entertain at this time. Let’s just say that ‘muzzling’ the citizenry is a double edged sword. We ought not invite anarchism nor encourage tyranny, it’s a fine balance. And where the fourth estate is concerned, a rocky path at best where, should we tread too heavily, we will impoverish our society. I hope that makes my thinking clear on this issue my friend. It is hardly controversial.
#lawAndOrder #FeedomOfThePressI used to think like you. I almost completed a journalism degree in Australia— so I’m well aware of the role and necessity of the fourth estate. But having seen years of the awful effects of Murdoch’s propaganda rags on my country’s culture and government, I think media should be subject to certain laws.
For example, News Limited’s news media companies only serve propaganda for fossil fuel magnates. It’s not news. They have never and will never do their job as the fourth estate, because they are propaganda for those in power, nothing more and nothing less.
Yes, free political expression should be protected and is important for the function of democracy. So it not conflating literal propaganda with news.
@Moc
Don’t read them, don’t watch them, don’t buy their stuff. It’s all up to us (consumers) whether bad actors are successful or not. Rage against your fellow citizens for giving them oxygen and money instead.
education system to teach all kids (because we no longer go to school ourselves)
Why should we abandon the vast majority of our population, just because we’re not forced to attend school? Education isn’t limited to the classroom!
As with any issue of survival, the application of effective skills are worthy solutions to the problems we face.
It’s less a solution and more a coping mechanism. I am in support of promoting these skills, but I’m also in strong support of mitigating the commecialisation of news media as much as possible. And that includes outlawing these kind of articles.
