The Crikey scoreboard isn’t pretty. Think Hawthorn v Western Sydney; Australia v anyone else in cricket at the moment.

That’s our count of the number of positive articles — opinion columns plus our assessment of news pieces — compared with the ones toeing a concerted line across News Limited and Fairfax publications against government proposals for regulatory reform of the media.

Let’s be clear, this is flawed law — we’ve said so a bunch of times. But when the debate is this overwhelmingly one-sided, legitimate criticism is lost.

The government wants to toughen media standards to give the public what it deserves: fair and balanced journalism. Funny thing is, on this very issue, Australia’s media has proven it’s incapable of delivering it.