Media
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Rod Tiffen. ‘The Australian’ and tobacco consumption.
As the Australian approaches its 50th anniversary amid much self-congratulation, an insight into its editorial standards and how it conducts itself in controversies is provided by its recent reporting of competing claims over tobacco consumption. Tobacco is still the largest preventable source of premature death in the world. Despite the scale of its damage the Continue reading »
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Pearls and Irritations –over 2,100 daily readers
This blog was launched in January 2013. Daily figures for June 2014 were: 2,108 views/reads 5,896 pages read 12,652 daily “hits” Monthly figures for June were: 63,266 views/reads 176,894 pages read 379,587 “hits” for the month. There are 2,952 subscribers. Thank you for your support. Please spread the word. John Menadue Continue reading »
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Michiya Matsuoka. Japanese collective ‘atmosphere’ and the power of the media.
In John Menadue’s blog of 31 March, 2014, he expressed strong concern for recent events concerning Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, and warned that Japan was fast approaching a nationalistic agenda and revisionist view of history. (See re-post today) I have these same misgivings about Japan and fully agree with John Menadue’s concern, including the Continue reading »
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John Menadue.The vendetta against the ABC and the cost to Australia
Tony Abbott’s vendetta against the ABC is prejudicing Australia’s regional diplomacy. The ABC is the most trusted media organisation in the country but Tony Abbott wants to bring it to heel. He has grown used to the fawning Murdoch media. According to Essential Research, 70% of Australians have a lot of or some trust in Continue reading »
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Peter Menadue. Should corporations have political rights?
There is an old legal saying that a corporation has no body to be burnt or soul to be damned. In other words, it is just a legal fiction designed to confer limited liability upon its shareholders. Despite that, there is an insidious and very dangerous notion abroad that corporations have political rights and Continue reading »
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A last hurrah from Graham Freudenberg on his 80th birthday
May Day 2014 – fittingly the day of Neville Wran’s memorial service at Sydney Town Hall – may well turn out to be the day when the Labor Party began to see its way ahead. Not because of the event itself, although it certainly was a marvellous celebration of a great Labor era. But it Continue reading »
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Walter Hamilton. Yasukuni Shrine and why it matters.
Yasukuni–Japan’s Patriotic Lightning Rod The Shinto shrine known as Yasukuni sprawls over ten hectares in the centre of Tokyo near the northern edge of the Imperial Palace grounds. Here are enshrined 2.47 million ‘deities’––the spirits of Japanese military personnel and civilians on war service from conflicts going back to 1853, including around 1,000 convicted war Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Taxes – public or private
The Commission of Audit has recommended that a Medicare levy surcharge be applied to individuals earning more than $88,000 a year and $176,000 for families. This is designed to force high income earners to take out private health insurance. This is one of the most economically stupid and dangerous proposals that I have seen for Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Anzac and hiding behind the valour of our military.
For those who may have missed this. I have reposted this earlier piece about Anzac and hiding behind our heroes. John Menadue There is an unfortunate and continuing pattern in our history of going to war- that the more disastrous the war the more politicians and the media hide behind the valour of service men Continue reading »
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We were warned about lobbying.
In my blog of April 19 2014, ‘This is about more than a bottle of wine’ I referred to the need for major reforms in lobbying. Three and a half years ago the ICAC in NSW brought forward proposals to better manage lobbying and avoid corruption. The Recommendations of the ICAC are still relevant today. Continue reading »
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Simon Rice. Racial vilification, social values and humility
I have spent a professional lifetime trying to get people to know about (let alone respect) anti-discrimination law, and suddenly everyone knows about ‘section 18C’. For all the wrong reasons. A right reason for knowing about 18C would be because it is offers guidance on what can fairly be said and done on the basis Continue reading »
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Rod Tiffen. Abbott contempt of court.
After the 2013 election, the ABC satirical program The Hamster Decides responded to an election night comment by the columnist for the Australian Chris Kenny that the ABC’s funding should be cut with an animated version of Kenny having intercourse with a dog. Kenny demanded an apology and then sued for defamation. It is unusual Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The war on asylum seekers
For political purposes the government has deliberately embarked on a policy and a language to militarise the asylum seeker issue in the same way the Howard Government did in the “war on terror”. It is designed to highlight the government’s resolve, to play to our fears about a threat and to lessen our rights to Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The Carbon Tax and Flat-Earthers.
Despite all the political rhetoric and hysteria, the evidence is mounting almost daily that the carbon tax is largely working as planned and that its impact on electricity prices is quite small, particularly compared with the ‘network costs’, the poles and wires, which have been the main drivers of increased electricity prices. But the flat-earthers Continue reading »
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Mark Gregory. NBN – ageing copper network and structural separation.
The Australian telecommunication industry is in crisis and centre stage is an ageing copper network that some would have you believe is good for another hundred years and others argue it is time to move to an all fibre access network. But the problems extend far beyond copper versus fibre and go to the heart Continue reading »
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Chris Geraghty. The ABC and Scott Morrison
The ABC has been much criticised, by our Prime Minister no less, and by the silly bullies on some commercial radio stations, for not being patriotic enough, for not barracking for the home team. Disloyal journalists published a story that some wounded, unwelcome refugees who had been intercepted on the high seas by our navy Continue reading »
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Walter Hamilton. The ABC and its Japanese Cousin.
If the board and management of the ABC need to firm up their ideas about the proper relationship between a public broadcaster and the government of the day they might consider what is happening in Japan. NHK, that nation’s public broadcaster, is a $7bn enterprise largely funded from television licence fees, with a board of Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Alcohol and violence on the streets — the tip of the iceberg.
In recent weeks public attention has been focused on alcohol fuelled violence in Sydney streets and the very slow response of the NSW government. But the response when it did come really only addressed the ugly tip of the iceberg. the violence on the streets. The government response was superficial – minimum mandatory sentencing, greater Continue reading »
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Pearls and Irritations – one year on. John Menadue
I launched this blog in January last year. To date there have been 285 posts, just over 5 a week. I hope you have found some ‘pearls’ and been ‘irritated’ from time to time. Thank you for your support. I have enjoyed putting together stories that I believe are important for Australia’s future. I now Continue reading »
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Journalists are not welcome in Nauru. Elaine Pearson
Dramatically increasing the cost of visas to enter Nauru places severe restrictions from the ability of journalists and others to let us know the truth about asylum seekers being held there. John Menadue Here’s an innovative way to discourage foreign media scrutiny of a touchy human rights issue: jack-up the cost of a journalist visa Continue reading »
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Repost: Pink Batts – facts and fiction. John Menadue
The following is a repost from July 11, 2013. I wonder if it is necessary for the Abbott Government to rake over the past rather than concentrate on the future! The fiction is continuing in the uncritical media that only the Commonwealth Government should bear responsibility for the problems of the Home Insulation Scheme. We Continue reading »
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Repost: Are most asylum seekers and refugees Muslims? John Menadue
Repost for holiday reading. Well, as a matter of fact, they are not. But I am sure that many commentators and a lot of the community believe that most are Muslim. The dog-whistlers like Scott Morrison feed on this assumption .According to Jane Cadzow in the Sun Herald he urged the Coalition parties “to ramp Continue reading »
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The cost of healthcare in Australia and remuneration of doctors. Guest blogger: Professor Kerry Goulston
The cost of healthcare is unsustainable here and in many other countries. In Australia it is 9.5% of GDP, estimated to rise to 16-25% by 2025. There are obvious reasons for this—population ageing, end of life heroics, increased technology and increased use of procedures. A rapidly increasing contributor to the cost of healthcare in Australia comes from Continue reading »
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Climate change as portrayed in ten major Australian newspapers. John Menadue
Last week the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism at the University of Technology, Sydney released a report on the above subject. It highlighted, amongst other things the unprofessional performance and influence of News Ltd publications in shaping the public debate in favour of the sceptics of climate change. This is despite the overwhelming consensus by Continue reading »
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A somersault – back to business as usual. Guest blogger: Arja Keski-Nummi
While in opposition Tony Abbot conducted a robust and aggressive policy on boats that effected Indonesia. But now he has done a somersault in order to put the Australian-Indonesian relationship back on a more even footing. As his speech at the official dinner portrays he has gone to the other extreme and engaged in rather Continue reading »
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How the Australian media frames North Korea and impedes constructive relations. Guest blogger: Dr Bronwen Dalton
An analysis of the last three years of coverage of North Korea in the Australian media shows a tendency in Australian coverage to uncritically reproduce certain metaphors that linguistically frame North Korea in ways that imply North Korea is dangerous and provocative; irrational; secretive; impoverished and totalitarian. This frame acts to delegitimize, marginalise and demonise Continue reading »
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Tony Abbott’s debt to Rupert Murdoch. John Menadue
Media Watch of 9 September gave us a snap shot of what Rupert Murdoch did for Tony Abbott. It said “the final tally of (the Daily Telegraph’s) coverage in the election campaign stacks up like this.Out of a total of 293 political stories we scored only six as pro Labor. While 43 were pro Continue reading »
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The aftermath of Saturday’s election. Guest Blogger: David Combe
David Combe was ALP National Secretary from 1973 until 1981 Just over a month ago, I received an email from an old friend – an ALP Life Member who belongs to the ‘my party right or wrong’ school of loyalists – asking my thoughts on the likely outcome of the election which Prime Minister Rudd Continue reading »
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The election – punishing bad behaviour. John Menadue
One thing the election did was to explode the perceived wisdom that if the economy was doing well, governments are seldom voted out. But the Rudd Government was. As I have written in earlier blogs. The Australian economy, by almost any measure is one of the best performing and managed in the world. Our material Continue reading »
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Boat arrivals are down. John Menadue
You would hardly know it if you read the Murdoch papers or listened to the Canberra bureau of the ABC but boat arrivals are dramatically down in recent weeks. How ironic it would be if even before Tony Abbott becomes Prime Minister, that asylum seekers arriving by boat have been reduced to a trickle. It Continue reading »
