The Australian on News of the World: comedy gold

The Australian's defensiveness after the News of the World scandal is understandable. But the response has been so self-serving, so relentless, and so ham-fisted, it's hilarious.

What have we seen over the last week?

The 'other media organisations are worse' smokescreen

On the 14th of July there was the Oz's page-one 'exclusive' 'Inappropriate' lobbying by ABC bosses, reporting month-old news about the ABC's lobbying of ministers for the overseas television contract. But, apparently, the ABC angle didn't gain traction. Over the following two days in The Age accused of backing hypocrisy and Age poll story relied on 'hacked' emails the Oz returned to a story from April about the alleged hacking by The Age during the Victorian state election.

'The Age is worse than us, so therefore we're good'? For heaven's sake! The Age might be in the service of the devil, but that doesn't mean what they're saying about News is wrong. You have to prove they're wrong. (Didn't we learn that in Year 9 English?)

The 'elites hate News' line

Several pieces including Outraged cultural elites name and shame the evil tabloid hackers and Elite few spearhead the anti-Murdoch campaign suggest worries about the scandal come down to the liberal media being obsessed with itself. The elites aren't aware of what matters to 'people in the pub'.

I don't know if 'people in the pub' are that interested in how much tax BHP Billiton pays, or the NBN deal with Telstra. Shall we drop those stories as well then?

The 'News is actually left-wing' argument

David Flint, in Anti-Murdoch politicians can't stand the heat, does briefly suggest that Gillard and Brown can't take criticism from News, as you'd expect.

But there's more. Flint also smells a rat: ‘…why were the latest revelations withheld until News International's bid to take over BSkyB was almost put to bed?’

That's an interesting accusation, but it's a pity there's no evidence. I think it might be called 'wishful thinking'.

More bizarrely, Flint goes to some lengths to say 'The Australian is innocent, and you have to believe me, because I think it's too left-wing':

I mention this only to point out I don't owe the Murdoch empire anything. Like many readers I have often disagreed with its papers' editorial line…The Australian's support of Kevin Rudd in the 2007 election was particularly inexplicable…More recently, I think The Australian's support of the carbon dioxide tax on the basis of the so-called precautionary principle and on the primacy of market solutions misses the point.

In other words, Flint couldn't be pro-News because he's more conservative than they are. A unique angle I'm still trying to get my head around.

Bombarding readers with pro-News opinion pieces

On the 16th of July we had not one, not two, but three articles, covering an entire opinion page, painting News in a positive light. As mentioned earlier, Brendan O'Neill's Elite few spearhead the anti-Murdoch campaign highlights the glee felt by prominent 'elitist' progressives over the damage to News.

News of the World scandal wouldn't happen here quotes uncritically News Chairman John Hartigan's statement that he is 'confident the practices uncovered in Britain do not exist in Australia'. Mike Steketee's Press Council on the case of casual attitude to ethics blames the Internet for putting undue pressure on print journalists to lower their standards to compete. (Incidentally does this pass the 'people in the pub' test?)

After all the lectures we've had from The Australian regarding lack of balance at the ABC and The Age, it's all just a laugh really.