 www.araustralia.org |
Alternative Radio (Aust.) PO Box 780 Morwell Victoria 3848 Australia tel. 61-3-5134-8556 mob. 61-413-597-828 inquiries@araustralia.org |
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www.araustralia.org |
Alternative Radio (Aust.) PO Box 780 Morwell Victoria 3848 Australia tel. 61-3-5134-8556 mob. 61-413-597-828 inquiries@araustralia.org |
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Journalism, the fabled Fourth Estate, was once guided by the dictum: Comfort the Afflicted and Afflict the Comfortable. Today, millionaire anchors, caked in makeup and competing for the best hair on the air are bored readers of teleprompters. As newspapers, TV and radio are gobbled up by huge conglomerates fixated on maximising profits, investigative journalism, digging for stories, recedes into memory. If information is key to the healthy functioning of democracy then what happens when the focus is on Scott Peterson and Martha Stewart? And when White House and Pentagon press releases are accepted as fact? A textbook case of journalism's decline is Iraq. Reporters were a conveyor belt for administration fabrications. Many of them went a step further, they became embedded.
Bill Moyers is one of America's best known and respected journalists. He was Lyndon Johnson's press secretary. He was senior new analyst for CBS Evening News and chief correspondent for CBS Reports. He is the winner of the more than 30 Emmy Awards, and the author of several bestsellers. His 2004 book is Moyers on America.
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