I had a chuckle when I stumbled across the Age newspaper’s website this morning.
Emblazoned with pride under the Age banner is this:
“Independent. Always.”
Independent from what? Free thinking, perhaps? Independent from corporate interests? Independent from the ”progressive” zeitgeist? Independent from chardonnay socialist moralizing?
The friends of the ABC also make use of this “independent” claim, and again I ask, ‘independent’ from what? Taxpayer funding, left wing bias?
These of course are rhetorical questions. The Age and the ABC’s claim of independence are simply a posture, and an imagined one at that. They are no more ‘independent’ than any other media outlet. And they should stop pretending that they are. Nevertheless, allow me to translate what these organisations mean by independence:
“Severely constrained thinking that conforms to the progressive zeitgeist, and smugly calls anyone who doesn’t: A ‘bigot’ and in dire need of their awareness to be raised.”
Looks like I’ll be spending quite a long time in ‘re-education camp.’