MEDIA SHAME FILE
Outlets: Pretty much every mainstream media outlet in Australia
Headline (there were many – this is one of the worst): Australia unites against Musk to take down terror posts
Summary: A couple of observations here.
1) Note how many of the headlines conflate “Australian politicians” with the “Australian people”, and the articles uncritically parrot the government’s claims that “Australians” want the eSafety Commissioner to remove X posts they don’t want us to see? The government is trying to create an illusion of consensus, because most people tend to go with the majority opinion. Shame on the media for allowing them to do it. Note also how they reference “Australian law” to give the reader the impression that Musk is doing something illegal, or that he thinks he has more authority than the govermnment. As X has pointed out, the Australian goverment has no authority to demand global content bans, but these headlines are created to give the impression that the opposite is true.
2) The corporate media have totally fallen into line. You’d think journalists would be in favour of freedom of speech, and maybe some still are, or think they are, but those at the top see this as an opportunity to put pressure on the US social media giants. Not to pressure them to act responsibly though, but to make them pay millions of dollars a year for “content”. Australian media companies are struggling financially (mainly because they are corrupt and out of touch), and see this as an opportunity for extortion. If the government can force Facebook, Google and X to censor posts, then they can also force them to pay the media companies money they don’t deserve for linking to their articles. And the government knows if it forces Big Tech to pay the media, as they have in the past, then the media will always take their side when it comes to disputes like this.
It’s a nice cosy relationship, and everyone’s a winner except you.
3) This exposes the corporate media’s pro-censorship agenda. They much preferred it when they were the only ones with access to primary sources such as the video of the alleged bishop stabbing, allowing them to control what people saw and heard, and frame it they way they liked. They will never stop trying to regain that power, hence their attempts to use factcheckers, and why they like the concepts of misinformation and disinformation.
Key quote: “Australians are fed up with the ‘narcissistic billionaires’ behind social media companies who think they are above the law” (The West Australian)
Subtext: “You can’t be trusted to view content we don’t like, “Australians” support censorship, you should too”
