Never has the phrase, “truth is the first casualty of war” been given such meaning as during the Iraqi conflict and now its aftermath. With so much media pedalling so many competing truths, which “truth” can we rely on? The “truth”, it seems, is merely a “position” one takes. And then one chooses the news media that best reflects it. Surely then, “Bias” can’t actually exist other than as a perception relative to one’s own personal “truth”. Those who agree with me are balanced. Those who disagree are biased. On that basis, can any news organisation claim to be un-biased?

Clearly the position taken by the ABC and that of the government are poles apart. The government is strongly pro-American and the ABC, at the very least, isn’t. Is Senator Alston’s claim that the ABC is biased justified?

Why shouldn’t the government of the day control the ABC like they do the Armed Forces or Medicare? After all, they fund it on behalf of the people who voted them in. Or should governments just butt out and leave the ABC to determine its own editorial stance, even if it’s the truth?