On the media farm all news reports are equal, but some are more equal than others

[barryqwalsh]

Some beleaguered souls spent Friday morning stressed about being exploited by the one percenters. Listening to ABC radio they’d heard about the latest OECD report. “The gap between the rich and poor keeps widening,” Aunty warned. Inequality was on the rise. And over pictures of Australian cities, the ABC’s “Business in 90 Seconds” spot said: “The OECD warns that such inequality is a threat to economic growth.” It was enough to send you to join Wayne Swan at the S11 barricades until, with relief, we opened the pages of The Australian to read how this country “stands out as one of the only advanced countries where the distribution of income has become more equal” since the GFC. According to the OECD Australia wins a rare double; wealth and equality. So it seems that at the ABC the time-honoured media preference for the local angle can sometimes be dispensed with when the local angle doesn’t supply the appropriate narrative. Happily, later in the day radio current affairs came to the rescue when The World Todayremembered it was talking to, well, Australians. “While the report shows Australia scores well for income equality,” it said, “welfare groups say that’s not necessarily the reality in the nation’s disadvantaged households.” So there you have it, a stickler for the facts, their ABC told us the OECD found we’re becoming more equal but “that’s not the story in real-world Australia”. Ultimo seems to have decided the OECD is hopelessly out of touch, which might be encouraging if it betrayed a new scepticism towards all multilateral organisations. We’re sceptical.


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