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Author Archives: Hamish McDonald
Media in the Asian Century: crises galore but screens are filled with Boris’ antics
Australia takes a safety-in-numbers approach to Myanmar, but shows no such restraint in dealings with China. And speaking of China, there was a meeting of minds in The Australian, both left and right.
Posted in Media
10 Comments
Media in the Asian Century: Defamation payout has Nine urging law reform
And Senator Eric Abetz does not back away from his much-criticised call at a hearing last October for three Chinese-Australian witnesses to publicly and unconditionally condemn “the Chinese Communist party dictatorship”.
Posted in Politics
13 Comments
Media in the Asian Century: Digging in deeper in an already fraught relationship with China
China sanctions a sting in the tail for Trump officials; role of ASPI in provoking ire of China flies under the radar; and conservatives perform impressive backflips on Biden.
Line between sledging and racism continues to blur
An invidious Sydney tradition surfaced again at the third Test match between Australia and India last week, with six spectators ejected from a stand for allegedly racist chants towards a nearby Indian outfielder.
Posted in Arts and Sport, Human Rights
4 Comments
Media in the Asian Century. An Australian anti-China hawk helped draft US Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific
“In many ways (Australians) were ahead of the curve in understanding influence operations and interference in domestic systems,” one senior US official told me. “They were pioneers and we have to give a lot of credit to Australia.” The official … Continue reading
Posted in China, Media, Politics
32 Comments
Eggbeaters in full flight: extoling the virtues of new Trade Minister Tehan
Tehan to the rescue, a Hastie move into Defence and Chinese whispers.
Posted in Politics
13 Comments
Media in the Asian Century: Read all about our media expertise on China!
This week Sharri Markson exposed the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the British MI6 and others for a gormless bunch of gumshoes and naifs.
Posted in Media, Top 5
26 Comments
Hook, line and sinker: China threw the cast and Scott Morrison fell for it
As someone who has been associated with the Sydney Morning Herald for more than 50 years as a cadet, reporter, correspondent, leader writer, foreign editor and still occasional contributor, I can’t think of a lower level of commentary ever run … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
28 Comments
Media in the Asian Century. The past week’s regional diplomacy passed through the media in a blur.
Drop-catching in Canberra China’s embassy in Canberra has belatedly woken up to the way things are done in our capital, it seems, and got into the business of “dropping” newsworthy material into the laps of selected press gallery members.
Posted in Asia, China
2 Comments
Media in the Asian Century: upheaval all around but no Australian perspective
For the Australian media, it seems, it’s always safe in England or America. Anyone noticed that despite a daily death toll from Covid-19 of near 500 in the UK and near 1,000 in the US, there is no talk of … Continue reading
Posted in Media
7 Comments
The Un-Australian Activities Committee and Eric Abetz. Media in the Asian Century
Is Senator Eric Abetz working for the Chinese Communist Party’s United Work Front Department?…Not one Australian newspaper has editorialised about his conduct.
Posted in Politics
3 Comments
Australian media in the Asian century
Pompeo and circumstance Our foreign minister, Marise Payne, flew off to Tokyo for a rare meeting of the “Quad” on Tuesday with counterparts including the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo.
Posted in Media, Politics
2 Comments
Australian media in the Asian Century
The struggles and contradictions in media understanding of China.
Posted in China, Media, Politics
5 Comments
Media in the Asian Century. Tit for tat for journalists.
And did anyone in Canberra get the chance to tell Peter Dutton and Christian Porter that raiding some Chinese journalists, hardly deep-cover agents, might invite retaliation in kind? Was the lure of building an ALP-linked Chinese influence case, with Professor … Continue reading
Australian Media in the Asian Century
Aided by the media frenzy,the Government blitz on China continues and Tony Abbott takes a job serving Boris Johnson.
Posted in Media, Politics
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Media in the Asian Century
Our main stream media just does not understand Asia. It’s ignorance and hostility is on display day after day.It relies on news ‘drops’ from our security and defence agencies.
Posted in Media
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His country, weak or strong (Inside Story 3 August, 2020)
Xi Jinping is standing in an open military vehicle as it rolls down Beijing’s Avenue of Heavenly Peace. He greets the thousands of troops lined up on either side: “Comrades, thank you for your work!” Heads swivelling to keep their … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
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Media in the Asian Century
As it turned out, Marise Payne seemed to be using the John Howard playbook of alliance management in the Washington visit.
Posted in China, Media
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Media in the Asian Century
Australian media lead the anti-China campaign.
Posted in China, Media, Politics
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Media in the Asian Century
It’s actually less august journos in the Murdoch chain of tabloids that are getting Xi Jinping’s goat and setting relations with China into a downward spiral, at some cost to Australian exporters.
Posted in Politics
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HAMISH MCDONALD. Journalists on the ramparts (Inside Story 20.5.20)
Another triumph for Canberra and the Morrison government’s deft and resolute diplomacy, it would seem. Support for an inquiry into Covid-19 from more than half of the 194 countries at the World Health Assembly in Geneva was “a major strategic … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Politics, World Affairs
6 Comments