Media reaction says it all about standards

I can't say it any better or add a lot to Bernard Keane on Crikey and Susan Forde on The Conversation who nail for what it is, the over-reaction from News Ltd publications and (slightly less so) other media to the government's response on media reform.

Over-the-top, ridiculous, absurd.

Even biased, inaccurate or unfair, sufficient to warrant a complaint to the Australian Press Council for ahem, breaches of standards?

Nothing from the APC so far. 

Interesting that a fair bit of what the government proposes was in line with what Professor Disney had been saying.

Not surprisingly, News Ltd papers featured at the top of the list of complaints to the APC during 2012. 

Newspaper journalists in 2012 rated at 10% for Very High or High on honesty and ethical standards (14% was their best in 34 years of polling.) 

Bernard Keane to finish:

At the end of 2011, Essential Research asked voters if they thought the quality of newspaper regulation was good or poor. Only 20% of voters thought it was good, 25% thought it was poor. In July 2011, it found 48% of voters thought there needed to be more regulation of the media. By trying to insist newspaper self-regulation actually works, Conroy is in fact giving the industry a chance to avoid actual regulation, or even the “co-regulation” that currently applies to broadcasters. Because if we get a government that decides to act on the apparently widespread conviction among voters that we need more direct government regulation of the media, it really will be a threat to a free press.

The referral of the privacy cause of action to the ALRC is of course ridiculous but at least it hasn't been knocked on the head. It's in for a long hibernation at best.