Sometimes, as we trawl through newspaper items, press releases, senate hearings and so on, it feels as if we've stepped Through the Looking Glass. The normal laws of cause and effect seem turned around.

The scandals concerning the friendly relationship between shock jock Alan Jones and Professor David Flint, chair of the Australian Broadcasting Authority, are rightly in the glare of the spotlight in the media but nothing changes.

The ABC, on the other hand, rushes to hire Rehame for election monitoring - from May! And commissions a Newspoll to test public opinion. All this before the infamous Alston complaints against AM have even been examined by the ABA. Then complaints against Peter Cave on Correspondents' Report in August 2002 - concerning his use of the term 'Jenin massacre' - were dismissed in the ABC's complaints process and also by the ABA. Meanwhile the chairman of the ABC board and the minister of communications confer about setting up yet another 'complaints handling body' outside both the ABC and the ABA.

Mark Day has questioned why higher standards are demanded of the ABC than of the commercial media. 'When it comes to a commitment to truth, accuracy, balance, and fearless reporting, there should be no difference between any news gathering structures.' The Australian 16oct03

Laurie Oakes in The Bulletin 27july99 reported that: 'Jones' bias [before the 1998 election] was astonishing. A study by the media monitoring company, Rehame, found that Jones had nothing positive to say about Labor or its policies during the entire campaign and made not a single negative comment about the Coalition. Prominent Liberal Michael Kroger later told the ABC's Lateline program that Jones had been crucial in holding the line for the party in NSW.'

That's quite OK, and it is all right for Alan Jones to host Liberal Party fundraisers and for Professor Flint to be on a Liberal Party preselection board. Clearly, some media players are more equal than others.