Q+A: Is media freedom under attack?

After a big week in which Jimmy Kimmel was taken off air, the New York Times was sued for $15 billion, and Donald Trump threatened to tell Anthony Albanese about an ABC journalist, we ask - is media freedom under attack?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to Fear and Greed Q and A, where we
ask and answer questions about business, investing, economics, politics and more.
I'm Uncle Thompson and good morning Sean Aylmer.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good morning Michael Sean.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Today, the question that we are digging into is basically
how worried should we be about censorship of the press.
And this is particularly in the United States. And there's
a few incidents that we've seen really over just the
last week that have been the catalyst for this conversation.
The first being the US President Donald Trump suing or

(00:38):
announcing that he is suing the New York Times for
the hefty sum of fifteen billion US dollars, accusing them
of being a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party. The next
one really was one that came right towards the end
of the week. It was Jimmy Kimmel being taken off
over his comments around Charlie and we've spoken about this

(01:01):
through the week. The other one was one that involves
Australia where we had the ABC reporter John Lyons being
essentially roused on by the President for asking a question
about whether he should have as many business interests as
he does when he is in the White House and
the President saying that I'm going to have to talk

(01:23):
to Anthony Albanezi about you. They are three incidents, all
very separate, but with a pretty disturbing common theme among them,
don't you think.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yes, it's easy for me in the media to get
very caught up in these sorts of stories. So it's
worth looking at the context here. Do we care about
freedom of the press. Do we care about a free media?
Of course we do. The option is China, whereby the
press in China just is the mouthpiece for the government.

(01:57):
In a country like Australia, you have this tense debates
this week. Climate change has been the big one over
the last few days anyway, you know, we've had the
Greens versus Lives, versus Nats, versus labor. The idea is
that the media reports and that creates it, you know,
writes opinion on that and helps build debate to come

(02:19):
to some sort of consensus. I noticed Barack Obama in
the last week or so, he came out and he said,
you know, the great thing about America up until now
at least, is that you could have a debate and
you come to some sort of consensus without political violence.
Let's talk about then what you outline there. The problem

(02:40):
with a government, in this case the Trump White House
pressuring the media is that its stymies that debate. Say
Jimmy Kimmel, like him or loathe him, He stands there,
he gives his monologue. He very critical of Donald Trump
at times. His point wasn't well from my reading of it,

(03:04):
his point really was that Donald Trump was politicizing the
tragic death of Charlie Kirk. And that one in the
New York Times one. Donald Trump's point is that he
doesn't like what the New York Times is writing. He
reckons there are a mouthpiece of the Democratic Party, the
not on his side. In the John Lyons that instance,

(03:25):
he was kind of Donald Trump seemed to be caught
off guarded, as you said, just roustled him for asking
the question. It was a totally reasonable question. Now Trump's
thin skinned, there's no doubt about it. But using his
power as president to pressure these organizations is really bad
for democracies my take, Michael.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah, and then that one. Then it wasn't just a
momentary outburst. It then played out that the ABC was
essentially barred from attending a press conference in the UK
this week, because that's then where Donald Trump was heading
off too, and the ABC's accreditation was withdrawn from this

(04:07):
press conference. It was ostensibly for capacity reasons, because they'd
hit their limits now for international media, and the ABC
said that this was logistical reasons, but awfully conveniently timed
logistical reasons, And there is a lot of people drawing
a link between the two and it may well be

(04:28):
the case, and I think that is really quite alarming.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah, I mean, fundamental to democracy is the free press.
It is as simple as that. And what we're seeing
is impingements on freedom of the press when the White House,
I mean the White House has done this ever since
Donald Trump got there. So remember there was a bunch
of the big news organizations who weren't allowed into the
White House briefings, and then influences were allowed in. Influences

(04:54):
sympathetic to Donald Trump were allowed in. So the impingement
on freedom of the press has been going on ever
since he got the job. It's just this week. The
Jimmy Kimmel case is because that is opinion. So one
of the big arguments you have in media land is
fact verse opinion, and so often deformation cases rely on

(05:19):
whether what someone was writing or saying was a fact
or an opinion. Now, in Jimmy Kimmel's case, that is
pure opinion. He's a comedian. No one is saying that
everything he says is one hundred percent true, and no
one would ever argue that. So to actually kick him
off the show because someone doesn't like his opinion, as

(05:40):
in Donald Trump doesn't like his opinion, that is totally
outrageous because not for a moment everyone knows it's an opinion.
Not for a moment was he saying this is factually correct.
It's kind of what he thought. And I find that
one particularly upset, to be honest.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Now, there is also a distinction to be made here
between essentially picking and choosing media favorites, because that has
happened forever right where particular leaders like talking to particular
people within the media, and it happens. It happens in
Australia and has happened for a very long time, where
for instance, you might have conservative prime ministers that like

(06:23):
talking to particular radio stations. And I'm thinking I used
to work previously at two GB, and there are a
lot of appearances by prime ministers like Tony Abbott Scott
Morrison on that kind of station. But you also then
have leaders that would deliberately avoid particular interviewers. Daniel Andrews,

(06:44):
for instance, refused to speak to Neil Mitchell on three
AW and so there is a lot of kind of
picking and choosing and a lot of but this does
feel like it is now crossing a line in terms
of what is happening in the US compared to what
we have seen what we see play out, And if
Dan Andrews was holding a press conference, there were still

(07:06):
plenty of critical questions being aimed at him from all
over the media, and there would still be a reporter
there from three AW asking some of these other questions
as well. It wasn't as though threew was just banned entirely,
but it does feel like this has now taken it
upper notch in the US.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yeah, you wonder what's going through the minds of the
executives at ABC who sacked Jimmy Kimmel. Because they're running
a business for shareholders, so presumably they can argue they
want better access to the White House, they want to
make sure that there's government spending and advertising to keep

(07:42):
the station going. I'm sure they could rationalize it in
some way as a good financial decision to listen to
Donald Trump's views and get rid of Jimmy Kimmel. And
that certainly is an argument. And the problem with that
argument is that media outlets actually are in a privileged position.

(08:04):
Through licensing, they are allowed to reach millions of people
that most of us can't reach. Now, influencers can reach them,
but there's not many of those out there, So they
really do have this responsibility in a democracy to do
the right thing. The fact that ABC has caved to

(08:26):
Donald Trump and sack Jimmy Kimmel and this is all opinion, well,
I think that's really poor reflection on that organization.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah, I think you're right anyway. I think that's a
good place to leave it as well. I do not
think it is a problem that we're going to solve
right here.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
We're not.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
Wonder if I wonder if fear and Greed would be
banned by the White House after this episode. I suspect
we would be.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
I think Donald Trump likes fear and greed. Fear and
greed it speaks to markets.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
Anyway, Thank you very much, Sean. Thanks Remember if you
have a topic, an issue, a question that you would
like us to delve into and discuss and analyze. Then
please send it on through via the website Fearangreed dot com,
Doday You, or any of the social media platforms LinkedIn Facebook, Instagram.
I'm Michael Thompson and this is Fear and Greed Q
and A