Let his own bury him

Is anyone seriously suggesting that dams and roads weren’t built in other states? That tourist resorts and coal mines weren’t opened up?

Oh, and if any of the lazy scribblers who have been warbling on about his economic achievements actually care to check the record, they will find that Queensland had the highest or second-highest (after Tasmania) level of unemployment for most of the time he was in office.

But it is not the hacks who are the main villains in this instance, rather those above them in the editorial food-chain. Whoever penned the Courier’s shameful editorial should never be allowed near another one, and whoever was responsible for banning dissenting voices from its opinion pages has no place in a news room, especially not in a one-newspaper town.

The Courier-Mail should also explain its actions, apologise and ensure readers that it repudiates entirely the suggestion that decisions of elected leaders “should not be questioned”. Unless and until it does, readers are entitled to judge the paper accordingly.

No ABC manager should ever refuse to allow dissident voices to be heard on matters of public interest and whoever made that decision is not fit to hold an editorial position. The corporation should take steps to make sure it never happens again.

But let’s end on a positive and happy note. There was a time in the recent past when if the mainstream media didn't report it, it didn't happen. Now, thankfully, there is the internet and independent outlets like On Line Opinion, which become more popular as the audience for traditional outlets falls (a phenomenon even Rupert Murdoch has recently acknowledged).
 
One of the reasons given for the turnaround is that news and opinion consumers resent having their information diet chosen for them by arrogant and out of touch organisations that do not represent them, nor the views they hold.
 
There is something in that for everyone involved in this sad, and all too familiar, Queensland media saga.