Media
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THE HON BOB CARR. Tribute to Graham Freudenberg.
The speech arrived on the Premier’s desk already clipped into the black leather folder. Did my staff realise that coming from the pen of the master and being a speech of welcome to a US President I would be disinclined to change a word? If so, their instincts were right. Two weeks after Bill Clinton Continue reading »
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DUNCAN GRAHAM Focusing on Washington, glancing at Jakarta
The 17 April Indonesian elections and fallout could have been big news in Australia. According to some experts they should have been. Instead media consumers Down Under got more of US President Donald Trump’s distant domestic political shenanigans than they did of the blood and fire crises facing their neighbor nation and its re-elected President Joko Widodo. Continue reading »
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PETER MANNING. How ‘access journalism’ is threatening investigative journalism.
Mainstream journalists give us a never ending series of “exclusives’. They are usually from a source that wants easy publicity, usually a Minister. In the process the journalist becomes a ‘victim’ of the source.The inference is that if you don’t give this story a good run you won’t get any more leaks. Just forget about Continue reading »
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Slandering Assange, Conning the Public, Why This Process Must End
On June 26 at the National Press Club, media bosses demanded greater protection for whistleblowers and journalists, yet in the treatment of journalist /whistleblower Julian Assange, mainstream media have colluded in slander promoted by the US, UK and Australian political establishment. In response to this campaign, journalists have been negligent. Perhaps intimidated by threats Continue reading »
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LAURIE PATTON. The Assange dilemma. What is journalism in the online age?
Julian Assange released bulk material, unfiltered and uncorroborated, via the Internet. If he had leaked it directly to the media outlets that subsequently, but selectively, published reports based on his WikiLeaks’ dumps he probably would not be in gaol facing extradition to the United States. His identity as a ‘source’ would have been protected. Ironically, any American journalists who used Continue reading »
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KIM WINGEREI Independent media continues to grow
Independent media continues to grow. With 21.7% growth in online audience in the last quarter sites such as this are taking significant mind- and marketshare from the mainstream infortainment giants who continue to lose readers both online and offline. Continue reading »
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Press freedoms: ‘No one is above the law’ is a slogan, not a policy
On the one hand, Australia lacks media protections of the type found in the US and Europe that enshrine free speech in human rights charters. On the other hand, we may well have more national-security and anti-terror laws than any other Western democracy, with around 70 passed or amended since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on Continue reading »
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RICHARD FLANAGAN. The AFP media raids aim to suppress the truth. Without it we head into the darkness of oppression. (The Guardian 6.6.2019)
In March of this year police union leaders warned that the Australian federal police was losing “its independence and integrity and must be separated from Peter Dutton’s home affairs portfolio”. Continue reading »
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NATHAN GARDELS. The Digital Curtain Descends (The World Post)
While China’s last few decades of “opening up and reform” welcomed foreign investment and the global integration of supply chains for manufacturing and export, it followed an “import substitution” strategy in the digital realm. This kept out the likes of Google and Facebook and cleared the way for indigenous giants such as Alibaba, Baidu and Continue reading »
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MARIAN SAWER. After Clive Palmer’s $60 million campaign, limits on political advertising are more important than ever (The Conversation)
Can billionaires buy elections in Australia? In the 2019 election, Clive Palmer demonstrated they can certainly flood the print media, airwaves, social media and billboards with advertising and have an impact on the results through their preferences and negative advertising. Continue reading »
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PAUL BARRY. With pollsters and pundits getting the election result so wrong, how fair and balanced was Australia’s media this election? (Media Watch ABC 20.5.2019)
So how did the Coalition make it happen? And what effect if any did a partisan media have on the result? News Corp’s army of right-wing commentators barracked tirelessly for the Coalition throughout the campaign, warning the nation would be destroyed if Labor won. News Corp’s news, meanwhile — meant to be opinion free — was often Continue reading »
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GRAHAM FREUDENBERG. Vale Evan Williams
No Australian adorned the professions of politics and journalism like Evan Williams. He was much more than a beautiful writer. He was a beautiful man, who brought a shining light and grace to thousands of lives. He died a few days ago. Continue reading »
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LAURIE PATTON. It’s the vision, stupid! Why we need #BetterBroadband
While neither side of politics is saying much about our increasingly-maligned National Broadband Network during the election period, the fact is Australia is falling behind in the race to leverage the benefits – economic and social – of an emerging digitally-enabled future. Irrespective of the outcome of the election we need #BetterBroadband and we need a Continue reading »
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BRIAN COYNE. The great fallacy of our neoliberal affluent times
Brian Coyne offers this addendum to what he wrote in response to Richard Cooke’s searing analysis of Rupert Murdoch and his publishing empire. It might be a difficult-to-appreciate observation for many in our world today: Continue reading »
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. Those who work for Murdoch know exactly what is expected of them.
It was in 1975 that the Murdoch bias finally pushed the dictatorial mogul’s journalists jacked up, and went on strike. Continue reading »
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ROD TIFFEN. These News Corp newspapers are first and foremost propaganda sheets.
It takes rare genius to provoke Scott Morrison and Andrew Bolt to express sympathy for Bill Shorten, but the Daily Telegraph managed it. Continue reading »
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TONY KOCH. For 30 years I worked for News Corp papers. Now all I see is shameful bias. (THE GUARDIAN 9.5.2019)
No editor I worked for would publish the rubbish they now produce. About six weeks ago I cancelled my subscription for The Australian newspaper after getting it for more than 30 years. As soon as this election is over, I will do the same with the Courier-Mail. Continue reading »
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QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Why the Libs cannot be trusted with the ABC..
2 March 1996. Journalist: The commitment to maintain (ABC) funding in real terms … does that stand?Senator Alston (on behalf of incoming Prime Minister John Howard): Absolutely. 6 September 2013. Incoming Prime Minister Tony Abbott: .. and no cuts to the ABC and SBS. These reassuring public commitments were soon exposed as lies. Continue reading »
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WANNING SUN. Another Non-Story on China – An Example of Selective Framing
An ABC news story, ‘Chinese media mocks Australia and Prime Minister in WeChat posts’, fails to mention a few key points, and as a result, is potentially misleading, even confusing. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. News Corp – a rogue organisation (Repost from 21 September 2018)
Rupert Murdoch’s form in abusing power and finding truth hard to handle continues. ‘Turnbull has to go’ is typical behaviour for a man who has done more to damage democracy than any living media person . I worked with Rupert Murdoch for seven years in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I was General Manager Continue reading »
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It is no surprise that News Corp is even less and less trusted
American owned News Corp Australia is the least trusted media company in the country and is a cellar-dweller in the Reputation Index of Australian companies. Its behaviour in this election will ensure that it is even less trusted. Murdoch rewards generously employees who are tame and loyal. But how can self-respecting journalists, and particularly senior Continue reading »
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BERNARD KEANE. The media has failed spectacularly on climate change (Crikey)
The media’s coverage of climate change in the election campaign has reflected the Coalition’s long-term strategy of denialism, rather than a desire for genuine scrutiny. Continue reading »
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IAN DUNLOP. Stopping Adani is a National Necessity, Economically, Financially and for our Survival.
Central banks, regulators and insurers are starting to acknowledge that the risks of human-induced climate change will have far greater economic and financial consequences than the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. Likewise, global investors and corporations are finally accepting that climate risk is fundamentally changing their business models. Continue reading »
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ANDREW SALMON. South Korea unveils national strategy for 5G (Asian Times)
South Korea expects to create 600,000 new “quality jobs” by 2026 thanks to fifth-generation, or 5G, mobile technologies, and hopes to leverage its first-mover advantage in the sector globally, a senior government official said on Monday. Continue reading »
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SCOTT BURCHILL: There are leaks and then there are leaks
The arrest of Julian Assange in London for his activities as head of WikiLeaks has renewed the public’s focus on the role of whistleblowers, and the prosecution of journalists who embarrass governments by exposing their lies, corruption and crimes. Continue reading »
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SAM BYFORD. Huawei chairman accuses American critics of hypocrisy over NSA hacks (The Verge 27.2.2019)
Huawei’s rotating chairman Guo Ping has gone on the offensive this week at Mobile World Congress, following continued pressure on US allies to drop the Chinese telecoms giant over national security fears. Continue reading »
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DAVID MACILWAIN. Two Australians in trouble abroad.
The law to censor violent content rushed through Parliament last week connected dots between two Australians abroad, when Julian Assange was “extradited” from Ecuadorian territory, in London. I examine the linkages. Continue reading »
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BRIAN COYNE The genius of Rupert Murdoch and why we all need to pay attention…
This is in response to the recent New York Time’s commentary on the Empire of Rupert Murdoch, P&I 5th April. Murdoch’s insight has been passed to many of the publishers of commercial media and political parties. It has damaged society and there’s no easy way for it to be countered. Continue reading »
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KERRY O’BRIEN. We can’t let ourselves off the hook (Part 2)
Part 2 of a speech delivered at The Walkley Fund for Journalism Dinner in Sydney on Friday April 5, 2019. Every year at the Walkley Awards, we honour a craft that holds power in its various manifestations big and small, to account. We should also, all be prepared to reflect on our own failures. Continue reading »
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KERRY O’BRIEN. We can’t let ourselves off the hook (Part 1)
Part 1 of a speech delivered at The Walkley Fund for Journalism Dinner in Sydney on Friday April 5, 2019. Forty-three years ago I went to the Philippines for the ABC’s Four Corners, to cover a disaster story—a tsunami that hit the island of Mindanao, killing 8,000 people. After witnessing close up the nature of Continue reading »