A strange thing happened the other day, I spent a saturday morning sitting in the sun reading a weekend newspaper. The news wasn’t particularly interesting, lets face it, the majority of the “news” appears everywhere anyway and its either alarm over swine flu or the usual bizarre fixation with the state of the economy, but buried in the SMH weekend edition was its News Review which yielded some more worthwhile reading.
Take for example the speculation around the leadership of the Australian Greens or the editorial about Global Warming. Perhaps the plight of New York as told by Anne Summers or the call to mend relations with India might grab your attention. Then there are the op-eds about The Chaser team or more reporting into the amount of homework young children do. Lots of good reading but two items really grabbed my attention.
The first one was buried elsewhere in the paper. It appears that Fairfax is going to resurrect the Nation Review. If they do succeed in bringing the old masthead back to life in a way that reflects its origins then I will be the first to applaud however it should be noted that the original Review was born in an era of strong left wing and anti-establishment sentiment and as such it was stridently independent.
Perhaps as an indication of motive, the second item that caught my eye was the strident defence of Senator Steve Fielding by Miranda Devine of page seven. Senator Fielding is a right wing independent who along with a handful of other senators constitute the balance of power in the Australia Senate. What that means is that he and his fellow BOP senators exert influence well beyond the size of their constituency. I have nothing against independent politicians, in fact party politics is in many ways detrimental to the political system but I do not personally agree with most of Senator Fielding’s positions.
Buried in MIranda’s article on the merits of Steve Fielding was an indirect attack by Miranda on two online publications that I found fascinating. First she took Crikey to task for their rather scathing portrayal of Fielding’s recent trip to the US as a “sick stunt”. According to Miranda Steve is only doing his job, diligently and seriously, and that he deserves praise for his work, not criticism and certainly not the sort dished out by a pathetic little online newsletter like Crikey. But MIranda’s obviously dislike for Crikey pales into insignificance compared with her attack on the New Maltilda which she described as “puerile and often bigoted”.
I think what is really obvious is that Fairfax have finally decided that online publications are a reality they need to deal with. Publications like Crikey and New Matilda are stealing their audience and with that audience goes a potential market so they must be put in their place. Of course once the Nation Review goes online then it will be possible for readers to visit a respectable and informed online site which will clearly stand head and shoulders above the rantings from the loony fringe dwellers like Crikey and The New Matilda.
The original ferrets would understand what Miranda clearly doesn’t, and that is, Steve Fielding gets a hard time because he deserves it. If journalists are to do more than pay lip service to the notion of the so-called fourth estate then it isn’t their job to defend politicians of any persuasion. End. Of. Story.
