"Australia has unwittingly become a social experiment..."

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At the hands of the so-called 'shock jocks' and Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd media outlets - primarily among them being The Australian.

There's a bit of false advertising for you - because there is little that is Australian about The Australian beyond the masthead. Owned by an American who calls LA home, and very very far from the Australian ethic of a 'fair go'.

Outstanding Australian science magazine Cosmos recently published this good analysis by Stephan Lewandowsky of the pitiful state of 'debate' on climate change. Not - let's call it what it is - global warming!

No need for me to rephrase:

Nowhere has the reliance on spin been more apparent than during the coverage of the climate 'debate' by the Murdoch media and allied shock-jocks.
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The 'debate' about the carbon tax has turned into a fact-free brawl that is sufficiently devoid of ethics to make football hooligans blush. Segments of the media, alas, do not blush.
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The Australian used its considerable moral weight to vow that they would help destroy the Greens at the ballot box. The Greens are the party whose politicians, according to recent research, exclusively rely on scientists to shape their views on climate...A vow to destroy the party that relies on scientists for scientific advice - how extreme! how radical! - is what many people would call an agenda.
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That is what happens when a media conglomerate and their allies go out of control and escape accountability.