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War culpability: the Australian media's uncritical acceptance of Washington's line on Iraq is undermining the public's trust in accurate and transparent reporting.

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The role of the Australian newspaper in pushing the Iraq war agenda was essential. Like every other Murdoch newspaper around the world dutifully pushing their master's wishes, the mogul said in early 2003: 'We can't back down now, where you hand over the whole of the Middle East to Saddam ... I think Bush is acting very morally, very correctly, and I think he is going to go on with it'. Putting to one side the factual inaccuracy of his statement (Saddam held little strategic influence over the Middle East for at least a decade), Murdoch's pro-war and pro-business agenda was mirrored in the Australian's coverage. Apart from bullying and foreboding editorials regarding Iraq's supposed WMD, Foreign Editor Greg Sheridan deserves special mention for hyping up Iraq's supposed threat. No other Australian journalist produced more fawning attention to the claims churned out by Bush, Blair and Howard, though stable-mate Paul Kelly was also competitive. Virtually all of Sheridan's claims have subsequently been proven false and yet no apology has been forthcoming. Likewise from the paper's editorial staff. This kind of short-term memory loss journalism is undermining the public's trust in the media's ability to report accurately and transparently. This behaviour should not be considered responsible reporting.

Although the Australian was the most rabid in pushing the illegal Iraq war, Fairfax publications were also complicit in pushing untruths. The Sydney Morning Herald editorialised on 19 March 2003 that Australia should not enter the impending Iraq conflict. 'It should not have come to this', it stated. 'The international community should not have failed to disarm Iraq peacefully. The United Nations Security Council should not have failed so spectacularly (ed: blindly authorising American demands and militarism?). The United States and Britain should not have been left to go it alone (ed: to invade a country illegally and with no weapons threatening the region or the world?) And when the moment of truth arrived, Australia should not have been so deeply committed to a course set by the US and Britain that it had no choice. We could only confirm the already promised support and are now in a deeply regrettable war.' The best that can be said for its stand was the call for calm--and no war.

By November 4, the Herald expressed its concerns about the lack of WMD, but along...

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