Petition: Murdoch, Fairfax, ABC, SBS and all other Australian media outlets.

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June 23, 2013 by kate ahearne

Dear readers.

Yesterday’s editorial in The Age asking Julia Gillard to step down has outraged many people.

Here is a draft of a petition to be addressed to Rupert Murdoch, his executives and journalists, Fairfax and their journalists, the ABC, SBS and all other media outlets.
I hope to be able to get this up on change.org tonight, so please make any comments and suggestions today. They will be gratefully received.

By the way, The Age has since come out trying to justify yesterday’s editorial.

Apparently there has been plenty of outrage. So here’s a bit more.

You can see the original editorial here: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/editorial/for-the-sake-of-the-nation-ms-gillard-should-stand-aside-20130621-2oo6e.html
And the later ‘justification’ here: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/die-for-gillards-leadership-was-cast-months-ago-20130622-2op1p.html

Alan Stokes tries to explain the ‘lashing’ The Age has received for it’s editorial by first blaming the ignorance of their readers: ‘One possible explanation for the backlash against The Age is that readers do not easily see a difference between news – objective reporting of events – and opinion writing – personal views of columnists – and the editorials – also known as leader columns – in newspapers.’

Then he goes on to say: ‘The second reason for the backlash is that maybe the timing is right. One week to go in Parliament and the frustration with Labor is palpable.’

Eh? If you can make any sense of that, could you let me know? Is he blaming the Labor Party for frustrating their supporters, who are now,’ inappropriately’ taking out their frustration on The Age?

Then he goes on to what he seems to think is ‘the clincher’:

‘And the third one is the biggie.

In fighting to save her leadership, Gillard has divided people across the political spectrum, on gender terms and on class terms. She’s making desperate moves to install policies like the 457 visa crackdown and workplace entry rights that reek of union influence.

As the election looms, her most strident supporters see the end but are backed into a corner and are lashing out

.
It’s sad that Australian politics has come to this.’
Yes, Alan, it’s very sad that you and so many others like you have come to this. And ‘backed into a corner’? ‘Lashing out’? Like some wounded beast? Not me. And this is not the way to win friends and influence people, Alan. (In case you thought insulting your readers might somehow, magically bring them around to your way of thinking. – Commonsense 101.)

Anyway, here’s the draft for change.org

The editorial published in The Age on Saturday, June 22 calling on Prime Minister Julia Gillard to step down, has spurred many of us to express our anger and dismay at the way the mainstream media are manipulating the public.

Like many other Australian voters, we believe that we’re living in the most desperate times that we, as a nation have ever faced. Nothing less than our precious democracy is at stake.

So far, we haven’t taken to the streets, but we will if necessary. Many Australian voters have found it difficult to believe what’s been happening to us, and to our Prime Minister.

We find it difficult to accept that a former Australian billionaire who owns so much of our media, and Newspoll, of course, might be lying to us, manipulating us, and using us to further his own interests.

We are no longer prepared to accept the blatant bias of the mainstream media. We are not prepared to accept television and radio interviewers refusing to allow both the government and the opposition to spell out their policies.

We have had enough of the colossal cheek of interviewers preventing Labor spokespeople to talk about anything other than the leadership, as happened on the 7.30 Report last week, and then being told, as we were in The Age editorial: ‘The Age’s overriding concern is that under Ms Gillard’s leadership, the Labor Party’s message about its future policies and vision for Australia is not getting through to the electorate. Our fear is that if there is no change in Labor leadership before the September 14 election, voters will be denied a proper contest of ideas and policies – and that would be a travesty for the democratic process.’

The travesty rests squarely and heavily on your shoulders – it is of your own creation. How dare you treat the Prime Minister in this way, and then try to blame her for your own behavior?

Why is the message not getting through the media to the voters? Why are you refusing to allow it? Why are you creating doubts about the Labor leadership? Why are you not asking the opposition the tough questions? Who are these unnamed sources? Where are these leaked internal polls?

We could mention uncountable other examples of behavior from the mainstream media that we are no longer prepared to tolerate.

So, we, ordinary Australians, request that the management of Fairfax, the Murdoch press, SBS, the ABC and all other media outlets insist that their journalists commence demonstrating the professional qualities required to truthfully inform the people of Australia of issues impacting on everyday Australians.

In particular, we insist that

• The media discontinue its creation of news as opposed to reporting of news.
• The media immediately commence reporting on the policies (or lack thereof) of the Government and the Opposition to allow Australians to have an informed vote.
• You get your hands off our democracy. No more interference in the democratic process.
• You cease and desist from allowing the Prime Minister to be demeaned and trivialized in the media.