By Rohan Pearce and Nikki Ulasowski
HOBART — Recent articles in the Murdoch-owned Mercury are an example of how the media can reinforce racist myths and whip up nationalism. The government's crackdown on "boat people" has been an excuse for the media to work themselves into a frenzy over a supposed "invasion" by illegal immigrants. Headlines such as "Waves of boat people just keep coming in", and repeated use of expressions such as "swamped" and "flood" misrepresent the facts and add a hysterical tone to the coverage.
One journalist bemoaned the "staggering" cost of illegal immigrants, while others have asserted that these costs are due to the government being "forced" to spend $200 million of taxpayers' money in "locating, removing and detaining illegal immigrants".
These diatribes against immigrants serve a range of purposes. They help foster an "us versus them" mentality, ensuring ordinary people feel that they have more in common with the rich in their own country than with workers from other countries. Rather than condemning the government and big businesses for unemployment, through their job cuts and down-sizing, these prejudices blame migrants who "steal our jobs".
These prejudices prevent working people seeing that they have the same interests as each other and reinforce the divide between rich and poor countries.
Alongside this campaign against illegal immigrants, the Mercury has also repeatedly given front-page coverage to alleged fraud at the Indigenous Tasmania Aboriginal Corporation. Articles entitled "Police Probe Black Group" and "Black Housing Affair" have reinforced stereotyped images of Aboriginal people as corrupt and incompetent.
While corporate tax scandals go unreported, investigations of Aboriginal organisations are beat up by the media, often before any evidence has been provided. These scandals help build support for government cutbacks to Aboriginal programs and services.
The one-sided coverage by the establishment media promotes racist ideas. Media tycoons such as Murdoch and Packer play an important role in providing the ideological justification for reactionary government policies against welfare, immigrants and Aborigines.