The really dangerous idea — it’s all the media’s fault

This article was published in Crikey 2 September 2011

Of all the dangerous ideas raised at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney over the weekend, the organisers seemed to miss one pertinent topic: is the media to blame for everything that’s wrong with our society?

Because, as evidenced by several sessions, that’s what plenty of audience members wanted to hear about, especially when (but not only when) the media was summed up as being the Murdoch empire.

Dick Smith was greeted with cheers when he spoke of “dopey stupid journalists” who claim that if you’ve changed your mind on an issue you’ve “backflipped”. Smith went so far as to compare the Murdoch media to the Soviet Union. “Rupert, come back to Australia. Give some real direction to your troops,” he said.