Getting It Right !

All across the world a mass movement is gearing up to demand that governments take remedial action to hold world temperature to a level that will stop the rise of sea levels which will swamp our cities.  This takes the form of demonstrations in the streets to kids walking out of school and making banners to express their concern.

Vested interests have done much to promote the view that global warming is a fallacy.  Both the oil and the plastics industries have been tenacious fighters to stall action programmes and the public have been inundated with so called " specialists " paid to debunk what we see happening around us.

Perhaps the greatest distortion of the facts occurs when the proprietors of the newspapers we read and the media channels we follow have a personal view that is the opposite of what we see happening to our world.   Despite the " freedom of the press " claimed by the journalists who write the stories it is very clear that the management view is what pervades under those newspaper mastheads.

Never has that been clearer than here in Australia.   Richard Murdock and News Corp have the lion's share of what the average citizen reads and views.  The newspaper mastheads emanating from the New Corp stable include  "The Australian, " " The Daily Telegraph " and the " " Herald Sun ".   This is compounded by the audience gained by the " Fox " news coverage on television.

We have just had perhaps our worst bushfire event since records began.   Fires have been burning out of control across the entire Australian continent.  Homes have been destroyed and lives lost,. and the damage done to the tourist industry will probably put many choice destinations back years as they struggle to continue.

The reports on this fire by News Corp avoid any reference to global warming having influence in the destruction. In fact, two of their star columnists are active climate change deniers.  Andrew Bolt and Piers Akerman have a big following and their advice is widely followed.   It can be argued that the climate change apathy that has existed for so long in Australia has a lot to do with the guidance flowing from media sources.

Rupert Murdock is a giant in the news industry.  He fought - and won - an epic battle for control of the press in Britain and he has an unrivalled presence here in Australia.   He is now an old man, but he has two sons following in his footsteps.  What is significant is that one of those sons - James Murdock - has broken with the family denial and is now actively promoting the need for a political programme to hold down the world temperature.

This might be the rallying cry that makes a huge difference to public opinion.  Global warming will affect every man, woman and child in this world and the vast number of employees in the Murdock empire must tire of their employers view dictating the slant of how the news is presented.  Perhaps the era of proprietors dictating their views as the newspapers policy is coming to an end.

In this enlightened twenty-first century, the day when the man with the money told people what to think belongs in another age. Specially when our very survival rests on making the right decision !