This is an excerpt from the book Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988) by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky.
That these observations have a basis in fact can sadly be borne out by mainstream and social media in 2018.
Take this most recent example....
The United Patriots Front (UPF) is a
far-right Australian white supremacists group.
In September
2017 admirer
of Adolf Hitler, UPF founder & sometime leader Blair Cottrell and two supporters were each convicted under
Victoria’s Racial and Religious
Tolerance Act 2001
and fined $2,000 plus $79.50 in statutory costs for religious
vilification/inciting serious contempt.
This is not
the first time Cottrell has been before the courts. In 2013 he was gaoled for a
string of offences including stalking, arson, burglary and damaging property.
Despite this dubious history Sky
News decided to invite him on as
a guest of former Northern Territory Chief Minister & former Country Liberal Party Leader Adam Giles for a one-on-one
studio interview on The Adam Giles Show on 5 August 2017.
To describe Cottrell as "an activist" is deliberately misleading as his history is well-known, as are some of his more extreme pronouncements such as this:
The reaction to Sky News was swift and this is just four examples:
What a sad moment for Sky in a year full of them. I’m officially giving @foxtel & @SkyNewsAust the boot for good for supporting & platforming neo-Nazism and hope many Australians do so as well. Hope you honestly reflect on your participation in a propaganda network for extremism.— пятьдесят две победы 76ers (@scouse_roar)August 5, 2018
Sky News knows exactly who Blair Cottrell is and what he stands for. They don’t give a shit. That’s why they’re hosting him. Platforming a guy who believes Mein Kampf should be compulsory reading in schools doesn’t even come close to being beyond the pale for them.— ya fave μαλάκας (@mathaiaus) August 5, 2018
"WE DIDN'T KNOW WHO BLAIR COTTRELL WAS WHEN WE BOOKED HIM TO COME ON OUR CHANNEL. GOOGLE WAS BROKEN THAT DAY" pic.twitter.com/sTkEE5b7rF— Kenny Devine (@TheKennyDevine) August 5, 2018
Sky News issued an apology:I have advised @SkyNewsAust that I have quit as a Sky commentator. My father fought Nazis in WWII and was interred in a German POW camp. The decision to allow Neo-Nazi Blair Cotterell onto the channel was another step in a journey to normalising racism & bigotry in our country.— Craig Emerson (@DrCraigEmerson) August 6, 2018
Then announced a ban on Blair Cottrell and a suspension of the Adam Giles Show, along with an internal management shakeup, as the general public pushed to the limits continued to fight back against the 'normalising' of violence and racism.
However, as Sky News often employs markedly right-wing personalities and regularly hosts guests with extreme, intolerant and sometimes racist world views, it is not always easy to accept assertions that extremist views are not the news channel's own views. Or at the very least, that these divisive opinions are seen by Sky News management as driving an agenda desired by News Corp and powerful right-wing groups.
In fact Sky News appears to be fast developing into a version of that US right-wing propaganda vehicle, Fox News, in that it seeks to legitimise and monetise for its own corporate profit the most dangerous elements on the far-right political and social spectrum.1
Notes
1. Sky News' liking for yellow press journalism hasn't past unnoticed.
Junkee, 6 August 2018: Sky News…. was deeply
sorry for slut-shaming a (female) federal senator a few weeks
ago. In the past, Sky News has been deeply sorry for linking a (female) former state
Premier to corruption, deeply sorry for poking fun at a (female) journalist’s
disability, and deeply sorry for suggesting a school boy was gay because he’d
appeared in a video about feminism.
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