Several events of recent months have catapulted into public consciousness a topic that has long been an obsession of mine; the role of the media in shaping public opinion.
The problem of false balance in 'objective' journalism, which dictates that the media is obliged to uncritically present opposing arguments in a contentious issue, was highlighted by the absurdity of US President Donald Trump's comments following violent white nationalist rallies in that country that led to the death of an anti-racist protestor.
When Trump attempted to blame 'both sides' for this violence, he was roundly ridiculed for his false balance. Trump's is an extreme example of balance as bias, but he was simply attempting to use a well-worn journalistic tool to his advantage.
Closer to home we have the postal survey on marriage equality. While The Guardian took the early initiative to state they 'won't be giving equal time to spurious arguments against marriage equality', other major media outlets, including Fairfax, have been publishing a litany of anti-marriage quality op-eds, presumably in the interests of 'both sides' journalism.
Anything else, the argument goes, would be biased, or even worse, 'censorship'. But is the media obliged to air an opinion just because it exists?
Ask many people, including journalists, what they think the role of the media is and they will likely respond along the lines of 'to let people make up their own mind'.
But that is not strictly true. In a liberal democracy, the media's most essential function is to serve the public interest. Of course, this includes providing information so that the public can make informed decisions, the key word being 'informed'.
In order to do so, journalists must decide what is in the public interest and why. In other words, they decide what is newsworthy and what the public 'needs to know'. It does this by ignoring or minimising some events and issues in favour of others. Some terror attacks get blanket coverage for weeks, others cause barely a ripple. Editors decide which opinion pieces to publish and which to pass on.
"Journalism that serves the public interest promotes a harmonious, healthy society, not by merely airing all opinions that exist but by equipping citizens with the tools they need to participate in the democratic process."
For the most part, we accept this as part of how the media works. Only when it comes to certain issues, is the accusation of 'censorship' raised. When I recently wrote