http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/the-dead-cat-revival/
WHEN THE Gillard Government announced a set of mild reforms to media regulation recently — I had an epiphany.
Why would the long-beleaguered Labor Government announce a set of controversial reforms in the lee of an election? Ones that were designed to produce a visceral response from Australia’s “free press” free marketeer cheer squad — Kerry Stokes, Gina Rinehart and Rupert Murdoch. These are people who were never going to sit blithely by while an almost displaced puce PM brought in unnecessary oversight over their overgrown patch.
Did Gillard and Conroy expect their reforms to get through? I doubt it. There was something else afoot, quite obviously.
Now, I may be proven wrong, but it is my view that this was a coldly calculating shot in a long and intense bout of rope-a-dope that may ultimately prove to be the undoing of her opponent, ‘Punchy’ Tony Abbott, as well as the man in his corner — ‘Coach’ Rupert Murdoch.
Gillard, and her British media adviser, John McTernan, have come up with a plan ‒ a very risky plan, I’ll grant you, but one that just might work ‒ to pit the old media against the new.
Gillard and her new Scottish muse have gambled all they have (which isn’t much, admittedly) that the power of the fifth estate – the new, and generally progressive, online media of the type you are reading now – along with the sway of major social media channels, like Twitter and Facebook, will be enough to overshadow the power of a now openly biased and corrupt old media.
It’s a huge gamble the pair have made — and one with so much at stake for the rest of us.
Why do I say this?
Well, firstly, have you ever wondered why it is that Rupert Murdoch ‒ a filthy rich American citizen who owns 70 per cent of Australia’s press ‒ gives a hoot about what happens to Australia’s media?
