It’s no secret that Today Tonight, A Current Affair, and like “newstainment” programs in Australia don’t like young people. What’s new is when government and the law step in on the side of young people and these media institutions declare war on them, and then vindicate themselves whenever possible.

I refer to a series of TV news reports titled “Stars cleared”, aired last week on ABC, Seven and Nine stations (and maybe other ones but I didn’t see them.

In these reports we learn that members of staff of newstainment programs at Channel 7 were on trial for breaking a Victorian state law by disclosing the anme of a young person who petitioned the state’s Childrens Court to divorce his parents.

Young people are less powerful and more vulnerable than older people in our society. Young people also have rights. When young people want to assert their rights they sometimes need support. Sometimes, when young people assert their rights against older people (eg parents) they need protection. Privacy laws exist in Victoria for protection.

Channel 7 violated the privacy of one child, and threatened his/her security by letting everyone know his/her name and what he/she had done in a courtroom. Channel 7 knew the law, and broke it.

But that’s not the point of the story we saw last week on TV. Instead, “Stars cleared” is abotu well known and celebrities like David Koch, Naomi Robson, Jennifer Keyte et al under fire by the law, and winning.

That the Victorian court was “starstruck” is the anchoring term in this narrative, spoken by Channel 7 news editor, filmed surrounded by silent faces we are all meant to know. This line single-handedly shifts the focus away from a media comany’s criminal activity and frames it in terms of the old fable where those who attack celebrities eventually lose out.

Why? Because they’re celebrities. We’ve given them our authority to know and show us the world outside our quarter-acre block. Media companies depend on this relinquishment of authority to stay rich, and we need to know that these figures remain virtuous. So the celebrities are cleared while their superiors (who faces don’t appear in the television report, or at least aren’t identified) take the blame. But in the end it’s the law who’s the villain.

Because the law wants to protect young people, who are the meat in Australia’s newstainment meat market. Because these programs’ only social responsibilities are to sell an audience to their corporate sponsors, and to attract an audience by displaying and validating their fears and prejudices.

I’m so mad. I’m so over TV news and I’m ready to fight this ongoing campaign of cultural abuse against Australia’s youth - the so-called future of our nation (because there definitely aint no place for them in the present).

But I’m not sure what to do. I can donate a little time, and some web space. But I don’t want to start something if something good is already happening. If you have an idea or project that advocates for change in the media, please let me know.