It appears to me you are mixing ethical rights.
Not at all. We have politicians who see it as fair cop to twist the truth, provide deliberate misinformation and produce mass propaganda in favour of their particular slant. How is it ok for them to apply bias and yet expect other parties not to?
The right to an opinion or free speech have nothing to do with delivering news content.
This is exactly where free speech is most important!
The facts should be disclosed in their entirety and not presented with bias.
Shouldn't that apply to politicians? What about lobby groups?
Its the job of the reader/view/listener to form an opinion based on all the unbiased facts
What determines a fact as biased? Wont every reader/view/listener form their own bias anyway?
and journalists should never put their spin on a story, which is what happens nearly all of the time, especially on commercial news outlets.
But isn't that balance? Haven't the politicians put a spin on it from the beginning? Don't we have a range of media with a range of bias and opinion. And if you want to rid commercial organisations from a right wing bias wont it also be necessary to remove the opposing bias from government funded news outlets?
They either have a political agenda, or try to sensationalise the story to get better ratings.
Yes and you've spotted this already, did you also spot the self serving and bias from the various political forces.
Don't yo see the Hypocrisy when political organisation bay about media bias? What they are baying about really is lack of sympathetic media bias.
Complex matters are far too often shown in shorthand leaving out important information leading up to an event.
What like a PM claiming that tax assistance should somehow be perceived as tax assistance for all?
This leaves viewers, especially uneducated ones, coming away with an incorrect point of view.
Oh this is the bit where moral superiority is claimed, is it? You can see bias but we have to protect the uneducated? What are we doing to protect those same uneducated from political propaganda?
Any politician demanding truth, accountability and balance from the media should be prepared to stand up to the same levels of accountability. If Journalists should be jailed for twisting the truth then so too should politicians. Let's see how many of them want to pass a bill like that.
"quote] and journalists should never put their spin on a story, which is what happens nearly all of the time, especially on commercial news outlets.[/quote]
But isn't that balance? Haven't the politicians put a spin on it from the beginning? Don't we have a range of media with a range of bias and opinion. And if you want to rid commercial organisations from a right wing bias wont it also be necessary to remove the opposing bias from government funded news outlets?[/b]
I just want to comment on this bit,Unc!
When it comes to TV outlets,I think the bias is more perceived than real.
Having been,in my employment,exposed to many hours of both ABC & Commercial news,I haven't seen a lot of slanting in either,when it comes to actual news reporting,or that much on things other than actual "opinion pieces".
Obviously if you have things like dear old departed B.A. Santamaria's "Point of View",you have to expect a right wing slant,but most people know that it isn't necessarily that of the Station.
Some years back,during John Howard's term as PM ,after the delivery of the Budget Speech,both the CH7 Network & the ABC had in depth reviews on it.(Obviously so did everybody else,but I only watched these two).
The ABC said it was "a reasonable Budget,all things considered".
CH7,on the other hand,lambasted it.
Several days later,a senior member of the then Government blasted the ABC for their "biased reporting" of the Budget!
I wonder if they watched the wrong channel!
The print media are another matter,though,as they
do tend to play favourites.
Back in the day,the "West Australian" used to hit the Coalition with numerous "niggles" up to the last minute,then flop back to the Coalition party line on the last day.
As for the dead but unmourned "Bulletin"---I think that rag was edited in the Liberal party room.
The "West" has mellowed these days,& doesn't show its political bent too obviously,whereas the "Sunday Times"is too busy getting week-old news wrong to bother anyone.
TVW7 had only a few hours to get its news straight,but was right more often than the "Sunday Times"!
I don't know of many Sandgropers who get the "Australian" which pretends to be a national paper,& the other ES papers which don't,but the numbers may be increasing with all the "'Tothersiders" who think they are going to work on the mines!
On another but related matter.
As a unreconstructed "lefty" from way back,it annoys me when other lefties talk crap about how "The Commercial stations won't say anything against their major advertisers".
That may have been the case many years ago,but these days,the Commercials regularly "bite the hand that feeds them!"
And get away with it!
At the end of the day,if you push a political point of view,or show that you are "wishy-washy"under pressure from big advertisers,the viewers will flip to another channel.