This year's Andrew Olle media lecture was delivered by Lachlan Murdoch. He tried so hard to cater his speech to an Australian audience but between the accent and the uncomfortable use of aussie slang just didn't carry it off. It was merely another platform for the News Corp thrust into the popularist media.

One defence Murdoch, senior, junior or otherwise uses in expanding the popularist media, is that if you don't present issues in an accessible way, accessible to everyone, then you are elitist and narrow-minded. This therefore must require a "dumbing down" of issues to make them accessible. Surely this understates the complexity of world affairs and actually diminishes or trivialises their importance. Life just isn't that simple. Ofcourse in Murdoch's defence, they do produce worthy publications e.g. The Australian.

Anyway, the selection of Lachlan Murdoch as this year's speaker actually diminished the memory of Andrew Olle. There was nothing novel or respect-worthy contained in Murdoch junior's speech. It was merely a justification for current practice and their continuing practice, a softener for arguing that the tabloid media has intrinsic news and analytical value.

And no matter how he justifies the benefits of a commercial media, it is right and necessary to question what dictates news policy, the almighty dollar or altruistic principle (provided that the principle is not the dollar). It is entirely reasonable to suspect the motives of any organisation whose main motive is to generate profit, especially when their objective is purported to be one of serving the public at large.