Guest post by Alec Rawls
Andrew Bolt has been blogging for the past week about the totalitarian tendencies in the just released “Media Inquiry” commissioned by Australia’s Labor government.
This “Finkelstein Report” advocates unlimited regulation of virtually all published and broadcast speech in Australia.
The actual proposal can be scanned in a few minutes (pages 290-300 here). It would set up a 21 member News Media Council, charged to enforce at least some level of oversight:
While the setting of standards should be left to the News Media Council, they should incorporate certain minimum standards, such as fairness and accuracy [§ 11.52, p. 291].
But there is no corresponding limit on how much the Council is allowed to regulate. Just the opposite, the Report explicitly declares that protecting freedom of speech is not part of the Council’s mission! §11.55, p. 292:
The News Media Council requires clearly defined functions. It is not recommended that one of them be the promotion of free speech. There are ample bodies and persons in the community who do that more than adequately.
Really? In a country that has no constitutional or statutory protection for speech, how are non-governmental “bodies and persons in the community” more than adequate to protect speech from a governmental body that is endowed with unlimited power to regulate speech?
The report explicitly calls for opinion to be regulated along with news (§11.64, p. 294) , and while low-readership blogs would possibly be exempted, Bolt notes that the suggested threshold for regulation would cover any blog that averaged even one reader a day, and even that would be at the complete discretion of the Council (§11.59, p. 293).
In addition to making whatever rules they want, the Media Council will also sit in judgment (§11.70, p. 296):
If not resolved informally, complaints should be dealt with by a complaints panel consisting of one, three or, only in exceptional cases, five members of the News Media Council.
Envisioned remedies (§ 11.74, p. 297-8) include forced corrections, forced withdrawals, and forced publication on the offender’s website of contrary views.
Crime and punishment
Elsewhere the Media Inquiry makes perfectly clear which views are to be corrected: global warming skepticism and criticism of the Labor government.
Skeptics could even be forced to take their own views down and post contrary views in their place. Just impose all the contemplated remedies at once, and why not? There are no stated limits. There are no limits on scope: that political speech is to be granted wide play, or even whether challengers for office must submit to oversight on their claims about the incumbent regime. Neither are any procedural limits imposed. The Council can make up whatever rules it wants. And if people refuse?
Failures to comply (§11.77, p. 298) are to be turned over to existing courts (civil or criminal not specified) which would be called upon to punish non-compliance as contempt of court (i.e. running fines or jail until compliance is forthcoming). In other words, unlimited punishment.
In the name of efficiency there are to be no “internal” or “external” appeals (§278, p. 299), but judges deciding on contempt charges would be allowed to review Council rulings if they feel that their dockets are not full enough already (§11.79, p. 299).
Orwellian “benefits”
§11.86 (p. 300) lists the proclaimed benefits that justify this system of unlimited regulation. Compared to the barbaric system of liberty, where people compete to offer the most convincing arguments, having the government be the arbiter of truth will:
[enable] the public to have confidence that journalistic standards will be upheld and that complaints will be resolved without fear or favour.
Yes, government is well known to never play favorites, and Solomonic power is famous for its even handed wisdom: “Cut the baby in half!” Liberty is way overrated.
Solomon did not actually cut the baby but we can be certain that this 21 member Council, all appointed by a single “independent committee” (like the authors of the Finkelstein report!), would be an abattoir.
“Independent” the report clarifies (§11.46, p. 291), means “Independent from government” (emphasis added), and yet it is to have the power of government. In other words, it is to have unaccountable power, and this independence from accountability is to be conferred upon a well known permanent Labor constituency, Universities Australia, which would get to appoint a majority of the “independent committee.”
Thus the entire enterprise would have the great virtue (from the Labor point of view) that unlike the sitting government, the voters cannot “throw the bums out.” Here the appointing committee and the appointed Council will violate the fundamental principle of republicanism as articulated by Alexander Hamilton, who appealed at the New York Convention that:
The true principle of a republic is, that the people should choose whom they please to govern them.
Too bad the Australian Constitution also lacks a republican guarantee.
The final punctuation mark on Finkelstein’s plan, the last proclaimed benefit of allowing dissidents to be swallowed whole by the Ministry of Truth, is timeless virtue:
Enhancing the public flow of information and the exchange of views.
“War is peace,” and “we’ve always been at war with Eastasia.” As Brendan O’Neill writes in The Australian:
…we’re witnessing the unravelling of many of the values and virtues of the modern era.
All in a knee-jerk snit over the fact that the left-dominated media does not yet have a complete publishing monopoly. Dissenting voices can still be heard, and Finkelstein finds that very disturbing.
Negative liberty: non-existent in Australia and in peril in America
To an American, what is most striking about the Australian plan is the complete absence of any statement of negative rights, or freedom from restrictions on speech. Our entire concept of free speech is framed in negative terms: “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech.” The Australians have no constitutional protection for speech, but it is still astounding to see how readily the left would overthrow this pillar of Western liberty in exchange for partisan advantage.
The same totalitarian ambitions are at work in America too. They face greater legal obstacles here, but key actors are powerfully placed. Obama’s “regulatory czar” Cass Sunstein wants to use the system of “notice and takedown” from copyright law to shut down “conspiracy theories.” As an example, he wants to suppress claims that:
the theory of global warming is a deliberate fraud.
If SOPA had passed then all of the necessary machinery would have been in place, ready to expand from copyright infringement to the suppression of conspiracy theories at the drop of a one-line rider on any bill. At that point our freedom to speak our minds would lie in the hands of Sunstein booster Elena Kagan (who brought Sunstein to Harvard, calling him “the preeminent legal scholar of our time”); the racist Sonya Sotomayor (a long-time member of La Raza, or “the race“); and a borderline Court-majority of similar un-worthies.
We dodged a bullet and it looks like Australia will too, given how well the Finkelstein report is being received down under, but dodging bullets is a precarious business. If we don’t somehow manage to effect a fundamental retrenchment of liberty it won’t be long before we lose it.
Nice photo of Anthony Perkins at the beginning of
this post. Thanks Orson.
David Ball says:
March 16, 2012 at 7:13 am
Lazy Teen has demonstrated exactly how and why history will repeat itself.
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I love his posts! Every time he does it allows me to realign / recalibrate my moral compass. 180 degrees out from his is about right on.
With age comes wisdom. I remember my son at about 3 years old. The wife was ironing cloths and he kept wanting to touch the hot iron ( strange kid always had to touch stuff best I can tell that unless he touched it, it wasn’t real). Anyway she kept telling him that it was hot but he kept after it. It was hard for her to let him touch the iron. This was a bit of an extreme learning event but we never had to warm him twice about something being hot again.
I see a bit of my son in Lazy but with one major difference. He keeps wanting to touch the iron even after getting burned……
RockyRoad says:
March 16, 2012 at 1:06 am
…..So is this a global effort? I personally believe it is–there’s a sense of coordination on several fronts that makes it appear almost like a conspiracy, but not as secret as a conspiracy requires; it’s there for everybody to see.
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Very much so. Just look at all the pictures of Bill Clinton hanging around Tony Blair and the seminars given at the London School of Economics. Look at all the world wide “Conferences” and treaties and such. Look at how the World Trade Organization and the United Nations interferes with national sovereignty.
Heck look at Tony Blair facing parliamentary probe over secret meetings with Gaddafi. and London School of Useful Idiots: How a cadre of Blair cronies, ex-MI6 chiefs and top dons at a top university supported Gaddafi for his millions and Verdict on Gaddafi exposes roles of Blair, LSE and Oxford and Tony Blair’s government tried to pressurise Oxford University into giving Saif Gaddafi a place to study – but he was refused because he was not bright enough.
ozspeaksup says: @ur momisugly March 16, 2012 at 4:24 am
It is time for an Aussie Spring!
How can the Aussie public be so complacent about the eroding of Democracy that the brave men and women fought so bravely for in the past?
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Alberta Slim says: @ur momisugly March 15, 2012 at 7:02 pm
yes! a LOT of us would agree, however unless some nice country will send US guns and ammo to oust the bastards we have sticks stones and maybe a boomerang or two for knocking some sense or senslessness into this ship of fools busy sinking our freedom economy and the very essence of the aussie larrikin who tells it true and shame the devil..
there really WAS a False flag in pt arthur to get our guns..
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Aussie Spring
First the Egyptian Spring was aided by the Fabians another commenter said you already have running the Aussie government. A downloadable Fabian Society pamphlet “From Dictatorship to Democracy “ was spotted in Egypt. As journalists have sought to untangle the disparate threads that unite these uprisings, one of the most interesting revelations has been a common reference to a dusty — but still relevant — book, “From Dictatorship to Democracy.”
Fabian, ex-Prime Minister, Tony Blair made headlines last year… Tony Blair will earn around £2 million a year in his part-time role as adviser to the Wall Street bank JP Morgan and will also continue to carry out his unpaid work as a UN Middle East envoy….
…..
A False flag was also seen in the USA.
If you follow what Janet Napolitano has been up to, you will note she has left the Southern Border of the USA wide open.
Administration Will Cut Border Patrol Deployed on U.S-Mexico Border – September 24, 2009 “….the Obama administration on May 7 said the Border Patrol “plans to move several hundred Agents from the Southwest Border…”
Local Officials: Border Crime On The Rise – January 6, 2011
Three of the four border states are losing their National Guard troops So what does Napolitano do? ….Ms. Napolitano attempts to justify to lawmakers a 30 percent budget reduction for U.S. Customs and Border Protection…March 17, 2010
The Secure Fence Act (2006) instructed the Department of Homeland Security to secure about one-third of the border between US and Mexico with 700 miles of double-layered fencing, cameras, motion sensors, and other types of barriers, by the end of the year to stem illegal immigration. Napolitano Cancels Virtual Border Fence Project..1/14/2011
On top of that as a background we then get Fast and Furious where our own government hands out weapons to Mexican criminals like they were candy. (Rolls Eyes)
Sure sounds like a great big set-up to me and the people it was aimed at was Janet Napolitano’s “Homegrown Terrorists” and out Second Amendment rights.
Makes a rather Damming picture does it not?
In the USA such regulations would cause a revolution , but the army would refuse to attack the people!
What kind of people are Australians that they would accept slavery ?
Hmmm … the ‘normal, worldwide functioning of governments’?
Scary stuff … (side question: What’s it like to be a Bircher?)
.
Somebody get a rope.
“If we don’t somehow manage to effect a fundamental retrenchment of liberty it won’t be long before we lose it.”
It’s already lost. The vast majority no longer has any idea at all what “liberty” is – they think it’s what the government allows you to do.
Without a SARC tag that looks like a real low blow _Jim.
Now, Now. If you folks are going to keep ranting on about Orwell and such, we’re just going to have to disappear them along with Dante’s Inferno (Europe’s all over this as anti-Islamic) and Huckleberry Finn (not alllowed in most U.S. schools as an example of U.S. literature because it’s racist for ridiculing racists). Maybe Atlas Shrugged too.
We’re right to pay attention. And global warming is the biggest canary in the free speech coal mine potential for the biggest cave in. There’s a lot of the “there would be no problems if government had all the power” blind irreposibility about and no shortage of people looking to use it. Atlas Shrugged is dangerous because it threatens those in power with ignoring their power – not so much because it’s pro-capitalism. If they can go full Orwell, they’re betting we won’t be able to revolt in any other way – and theiy’re probably right.
We do realize that regulating “published” material is the internet right down to our posts on this site? They can’t credibly deny it if they’re willing to do it to newspapers and books right now. Power has a will of it’s own and it is always reaching. (Oops, now they’re going to have to ban Lord of the Rings, Frodo.)
LazyTeenager has really painted himself into a corner this time. Having strayed from discussing the science, he has acted out of a blind instinct to defend everything put out by those activists and propagandists who ally themselves with the liberal-left/CAGW persuasion, and he has actually staked out a position that places him with despots like Pol Pot, Stalin, Hitler, Mao and their respective regimes.
How ironic. What would solzhenitsyn, Havel, Aung San Suu Kyi, Nelson Mandela and other “free speakers” think, or have thought to hear LazyTeenager tell them that the problems in their countries stem not from too little freedom of speech, that they believed, but from too much?
How ironic also, that in his instinct to spring to the defence of these “liberal-left” icons, he has shown us not only his own, but also their own true nature. Despots all of them.
NetDr says:
In the USA such regulations would cause a revolution , but the army would refuse to attack the people!
I doubt it. The NDAA passed easily without even being noticed by the masses.
What kind of people are Australians that they would accept slavery ?
Just like Americans – ignorant, and not wanting to deal with anything other than warm fuzzies.
Forget about all this and turn on Dancing with the Stars.
Bread and Circuses…
Wonder how many folks it would take to “police” an entire world full of blogs?
I figure I can create about 3 new sites per day, and automate the loading of stories onto them. With some careful ‘anonymizing’ I think I can tie up about a dozen folks trying to sort it all out. And if two people did it, in harmony,…, and if fifty people did it,…, they might call it a movement…
http://www.arlo.net/resources/lyrics/alices.shtml
As the saying goes “Good luck with that”…
Then there’s the unlimited potential for emailed news letters. I can easily see a hundred different iPod apps showing up that encrypt and circulate emails of newsletters… Frankly, given how the “War on Drugs” got an entire generation to go try them, a “Ministry of Truth” could have untold effect generating fertilizer for liberty…
(FWIW, at one time, at Apple, there was an application named Rumor Monger. You installed it on your Mac and it would find OTHER Rumor Mongers on the network. All distributed. Folks would type a ‘rumor’ into it, and that rumor would spread to any other other machine via a semi-random stochastic sharing. It became so popular that we were mandated to ‘take it down’ – as the network was filling with Rumor traffic and The Powers That Be didn’t like some of the rumors… which implied they were running it too… In the end, the only way we got it to stop was via floating a couple of New and Improved versions. Once they had displaced all the old ones, the built in timer expired them… Yes, they were suicide trojans. Now, knowing that’s the ‘kill method’, a future “Rumor Monger” app will be very hard to kill… So, all you Aussie Hackers, I suggest you start writing your Rumor Monger applications now… I would enhance it, though, to allow setting topics of interest and to allow setting a ‘trust level’ for individual “rumors”. Have each article tagged with an ‘origin code’ based on an encryption of some internal datum and then you can just tag articles that you find ‘junk’ and decline more from that source. Would also dampen spam. At that point folks will have to admit that they are trying to censor Individual Speech if they try to prevent folk from ‘sharing’… Oh, and if that encryption is done with a public / private key method, it can be made impossible to show that a given person originated it without the private key… I’d put the whole message inside another layer of encryption, so each recipient would present their public key, then get an encrypted set of ‘rumors’, for private decryption. Now you know who shared the rumor, and you know that the rumor was tagged by ‘someone in particular’, but do not know if the two are the same… If needed, you can add the finesse of having some or all rumors shared prior to decryption, so the sender has deniability that they knowingly shared a particular story. I’d thought of making this app myself, but it looks like the flow of events is demanding the idea be set free…)
What folks who want a little bit of tyranny forget is that it just grows until the Totalitarian phase results in the death of the organism…
At least there is a silver lining. Died-in-the-wool leftists and progressives can now see in full glorious color the end results of their government expanding policies, in Finkelstein and Carbon Regulation.
There is going to be a lot of self-examination in the Labor party over this attempt to regulate all speech in Australia.
I think I will go read some truly rueful and self-flagellating regrets on the part of Labor voters in Australia for their government expanding ways. Could someone point me to one please?
(Not huffpo, though, they aren’t mentioning it right now.)
Resistance at the ballot box is futile.
Government power is increasingly divested into non-democratic, unaccountable bodies which remain in place regardless of government changes.
Democracy is being short-circuited ‘in the public interest’.
…which is their way of telling Joe Public they’re too dumb to decide what’s best.
Curiousgeorge says:
March 15, 2012 at 5:38 pm
Rants on blogs are one thing. But understand who has the guns
Sorry …Australian’s were disarmed by the government over a decade ago. No right to speech or to bear arms.
E.M.Smith says:
March 16, 2012 at 2:00 pm
“Wonder how many folks it would take to “police” an entire world full of blogs? ”
Chiefio: As usual, you have nailed it! In my long life, it is clear this is the worst and potentially most damaging government in Ausralia’s history and one of their main characteristics is a “kneejerk” reaction to situations seemingly without any thought at all as to unintended consequences. Justifiable public questioning and criticism of their actions sent them off on this stupid attempted censorship path using the UK mobile phone hacking scandal as an excuse. Greens Leader Bob Brown who helped the lyiing Julia Gillard retain power after the “hung” election result, is one of the prime movers as from being a fringe player to having a key role, his Party’s wacky control freak policies have now come under the spotlight. He’s squirming under the pressure and doesn’t like it one bit!.
Your post shows the complete folly of what they are proposing as they will never be able re-bottle the Internet blogging genie. Thank you for your timely advice and ideas. We Aussies are a fairly laid-back bunch until stirred and believe me, I have never before known such open anger in the general community against the actions of a government on so many fronts.
To those from other countries, don’t judge us from what you read in any of our compliant unquestioning MSM or hear on our rabid Left-wing natonal broadcaster ABC. Look to our many excellent blogs for what the real Aussie thinks.
Oddly enough, the bikie gangs don’t seem to have any trouble acquiring guns.
E.M.Smith said @ur momisugly March 16, 2012 at 2:00 pm
We need a revolution so we can install the Chiefio to become our Enlightened Despot 🙂
SPM says:
March 15, 2012 at 8:10 pm
I would say that was a good case for people to habitually carry..
1st, this guy was a looney!
2nd He had access to AU$1.5million?
Jeez. I don’t really think that crank had to buy weapons legally!
3rd If he thought there was a good chance he would be shot by one of his potential victims, would he have done it?
jim says:
March 16, 2012 at 1:58 am
Enjoy your tyranny! It will be well deserved. Oh and way to go blaming societies’ ills on an inanimate object, you dolt.[ this is not helpful name calling . . kbmod]
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I’m not blaming the gun, Jim, it’s the psychopath holding it. You know, people just like you. [ is this it now, just playground insult trading? . . c’mon guys you are better than this surely . . kbmod]
Also, it was the Liberal Party (right wing) Prime Minister at the time, John Howard, who was the driving force in having all the states adopt a National Firearms Agreement. Except for the odd cowboy, it had nearly 100% public support. If you have to ban automatic and semi automatic weapons to stop the nut jobs getting hold of them, so be it. It also eliminates the possibility of your average 3 year old getting hold of Dad’s pride and joy and blowing his or his sisters brains out.
I’ll take your version of tyranny any day. In my job I meet a lot of people and I was surprised by the number of Americans living here, some in excess of 40 years. They clearly enjoy the tyranny as well.
David A. Evans says:
Yes, he clearly is a psychopath, but at the time nobody was aware and he was easily able to acquire the weapons.
He had inherited the money apparently. Had he tried to acquire the weapons through the criminal underworld, the police may have possibly been alerted.
Given his mental state, I don’t think armed potential victims would have made any difference.
As for your comment “a good case for people to habitually carry..”, I’d say would say you have watched too many wild west movies.
Australia is a better place because of these gun laws. The criminals will always acquire the weapons they want, but they generally use them on each other or the police. They don’t appear to be in the habit of murdering innocent men women and children, en masse.
Cheers
Don’t worry, Australians, the Chinese Government will invest far more in your country with this law enacted. You just need to know what’s good for you!!!
Greylensman wrote:
March 15, 2012 at 9:10 pm
“SAMURAI,Error in basic principal. The USA is a republic, meaning simply that it is not a Monarchy, governed by a democratic system. Do not confuse “State” and Administration.
Thus you have communist republics and constitutional monarchies such as Uk, along with democratic republics and theocratic republics such as Iran.”
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You are incorrect in your understanding of US’ original Limited Constitutional Republic political system.
The term “States” I was referring to are the 50 individual states of the US. The US Constitutuional Republic originally severely restricted the size, scope and powers of the central Federal government by only giving it a very short list of specific and clearly enumerated powers that it could perform in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.
Even if 80% of US citizens demanded a new service be provided by the Federal government, for which it was not explicitly granted contitutional authority, the Federal government would be powerless to do so. For example, Departments of: Social Security, Medicare, Welfare, EPA, HUD, Labor, Education, Energy, etc., are all technically unconstitutional services that were not granted authority or responsibility to by the Constitution.
All these programs CAN be provided by individual States, if they so decide, as expressed in Amendments 9 & 10 of the Constitution, with the understanding that individual States are solely responsible for funding the programs and will not be bailed out by the Federal government if the programs bankrupt a state.
America’s Founding Fathers knew that if the central Federal government was granted too much power and too many responsibilities, it would eventually bankrupt the nation, once politicians realized they could buy votes with expensive programs.
The Founding Fathers hated democracies (they called them, appropriately, mobocracies) because they knew from history that mobocracies always fail, because governments eventually run out of other peoples’ money to spend.
Granted, the US has become a democracy and the US Constitution is no longer followed. That is why the US IS heading for a complete economic collapse in a few yeara with over $16 trillion in national debt and roughly $115 TRILLION in unfunded liabilities.
NetDr says:
March 16, 2012 at 9:55 am
In the USA such regulations would cause a revolution , but the army would refuse to attack the people!
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This is why there is such a push for an EU security force. Then, when there is a serious uprising anywhere in the EU, troops (peacekeeping force) from a different country can be used against the populace, especially if there is a country with a traditional animosity available.
Steve T
SAMURAI says:
March 17, 2012 at 10:56 am
…. The US Constitutuional Republic originally severely restricted the size, scope and powers of the central Federal government by only giving it a very short list of specific and clearly enumerated powers that it could perform in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution….
America’s Founding Fathers knew that if the central Federal government was granted too much power and too many responsibilities, it would eventually bankrupt the nation, once politicians realized they could buy votes with expensive programs. …
Granted, the US has become a democracy and the US Constitution is no longer followed. That is why the US IS heading for a complete economic collapse in a few yeara with over $16 trillion in national debt and roughly $115 TRILLION in unfunded liabilities.
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One of the key issues was the the change in voting in the US Senators. The Senate was supposed to protect the interests of each state against enchroachment by the Federal Government. The The 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution changed that. Voters have elected their senators in the privacy of the voting booth since 1913. The framers of the Constitution, however, did not intend senators to be elected in this way, and included in Article I, section 3, “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.” Unfortunately BRIBERY, intimidation and deadlocks were a major factor in changing to a popular vote. With William Randolph Hearst championing the idea using muckraking articles in his publishing empire.
The Second key issue is the Commerce Clause. What is the Commerce Clause and Why is it Important?
More recently here is an article by a lawyer on how it allows the US government to regulate your home garden: http://www.examiner.com/scotus-in-washington-dc/trojan-horse-law-the-food-safety-modernization-act-of-2009 Trojan horse Law the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 We have dodged that bullet so far thanks to an intense grass roots campaign, but a simple one liner amendment down the road will change it. This is the same simple one liner that changed the Animal Welfare Act after all the fuss died down and gave the Feds have jurisdiction within state. This is what tripped up the Dollarites and left them facing a 4 million dollar fine. USDA shut kids rabbit business Complete federal control of the food supply is the aim. The FDA even has a name for it. “From Farm to Fork” and it is international http://www.iso.org/iso/pressrelease.htm?refid=Ref1510
The section of the original “Food Safety” bill that was removed and could be easily added reads:
To save Jim the trouble of hitting me again with his usual pro-banking snark. Here are FDR’s own words: http://www.wyzant.com/Help/History/HPOL/FDR/Chat/
Of course it doesn’t help that is own son-in-law, Curtis Dall, makes a case for FDR being the puppet of the international banking cartel…
Quotes from the book: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/New_World_Order/FDR_ExploitedFather-In-Law.html
The book itself as a PDF http://vho.org/aaargh/fran/livres4/dall.pdf
When ever Jim hits with his usual snark I am reminded of this quote.