The Ruddellian World We Have Become

It seems a bit clichéd to claim that the world has become Orwellian and to a certain extent that’s true: hi-tech surveillance cameras, tracking personal information through the internet etc. However, it’s some of the less obvious features of Orwell’s utopia that seem imminent: Exhibit 1 – Sky News Australia.

I remember reading a few months back about the rise of Sky News and the new era of public information it foreshadowed. The time of up-to-date, breaking news with continuous coverage and analysis was upon us and the democracy of information here. Unfortunately, recent coverage of the Rudd government through its news and analysis programs shows it to be otherwise: the democracy of information has turned Ruddellian.

Definition
Ruddellian: the way in which news agenda is controlled by the Rudd government so that any fair coverage of the news is impossible.

Case Study
It has been reported continually about the in-fighting and disarray of the federal Opposition lead by Malcolm Turnbull. Moreover, the Rudd government has been very po-faced in not commenting on the Opposition but not afraid to twist the knife whenever bad press strikes. Now don’t take this as just the whinging of a disgruntled Howard supporter: I voted loud and proud for Kevin 07 and I have the t-shirts to prove it; it’s just that I have become so disillusioned with K-Rudd that I am counting down the days to vote against him in the next election.

One of the major things used to attack the Opposition has been their stance on stimulus spending, in particular their opposition to it and now calls for winding it back. Financial data seemed against them and Swan and Rudd were all too happy to remind everyone that Turnbull wanted it wound back against the advice of treasury and risking jobs. Then bang: Ross Garnout comes out and criticises the continued spending and it seems the Opposition have scored a point. Not according to the Sky News perspective however.

Sky News joyfully reports that Swan has announced that funding has been wound back already in response to this and that the government had it covered. This coming from the man who has spent the last few weeks berating the Opposition for wanting to wind back spending and using Ken Henry and his goons at treasury to support his stance. I sat slack jawed as he announced that it had already been rolled back and awaited the barrage of questions regarding his previous stance.

Silence.

Not a single question from the press was shown and the story was abruptly ended.

My problem here is that Sky News has deliberately not included important context and selectively chosen to include Garnout but exclude the daily comments from Turnbull and co about the exact same issue. Is this deliberately misleading the public? Does Sky News have a vested interest in Rudd? What happened to genuine journalism that took the party political stance out of reporting and instead tried to provide a balanced story?

The Ruddellian world is upon us.