The Australian media can learn a lot from the crises unfolding in other countries.
One year into COVID-19 and we’re seeing dangerous mutations of the virus, violent mass protests, anti-media domestic terrorism and hostile policing. Journalists around the world have essentially become war reporters in their own towns.
In Australia it’s like living in a parallel universe, but one where we can peer through space to see the Boschian nightmare playing out in real time.
Amongst all this, the media has been trying to do its job (we’re at work, not war as Washington Post editor Marty Baron cautioned just four years ago). But the worldwide authoritarian revolt, with its Trumpian “enemy of the people” rhetoric, has encouraged open war with the media.
