Maqqa wrote on Jun 10
th, 2012 at 9:30am:
And they will make her pay at the polls
Pretty ACCURATE - and equally APPALLING
Currently, in the Australian print media, we have the right-wing and pro-conservative Murdoch Press - slightly off-set by the centrist Fairfax Group
Up TILL now ...
Rinehart aide urges editorial influence
Kirsty Simpson
June 6, 2012.
THE Fairfax board should have the right to change the editorial direction of the company's newspapers if it would increase profit, one of Gina Rinehart's closest advisers has said.
Jack Cowin, founder of Hungry Jacks and a board member of Channel Ten, told ABC radio yesterday that he believed
Mrs Rinehart, the world's richest woman and the largest shareholder in Fairfax, would eventually win a board seat
and improve the company's fortunes.
He said newspapers were businesses, not a public service, whose purpose was to ''portray the facts in a manner … to attract readership''.
Commenting on whether Mrs Rinehart would interfere with
editorial policy at The Age or The Sydney Morning Herald, Mr Cowin cited a recent article that had said stopping her from doing so ''would be like Qantas not allowing its directors to talk about aeroplanes''
Asked by 774's Rafael Epstein whether Fairfax would employ people like right-wing News Ltd columnist Andrew Bolt if Mrs Rinehart were on the board, he said: ''I would think there may be an argument that would balance the message that's being communicated to the community if there were more Andrew Bolt.''
Asked which way Mrs Rinehart would take editorial policy, Mr Cowin said: ''Gina Rinehart would have a stronger right-wing view than probably the average liberal journalist'' He said the purpose of a company ''is to try to make a profit, and if the editorial policy … is not optimising the opportunity, then it's the role of the directors to try to change the direction''.
A spokesman for Fairfax Media declined to comment.
As Fairfax shares slumped yesterday to a record low of 58˘, Mr Cowin backed Mrs Rinehart's bid for two board positions at the company.
Mr Cowin, who has been touted as a possible board appointee, accompanied the mining magnate when she visited Fairfax chairman Roger Corbett this year.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/rinehart-aide-urges-editorial-influence-20120605-...An ENORMOUS pressure on OUR ABC
- whose resources are CONSTANTLY under erosion - to