Media
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In our make-believe politics, the strings pulled by the super-rich are all too visible
Biden wanders offstage or walks like a geriatric robot. Yet we are meant to believe he’s carefully navigating us through the nuclear tripwires of the West’s serial wars. Continue reading »
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US ready to play ‘Tibet card’ – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Dangerous turn adds new anti-Beijing flashpoint. Plus: Bangkok banks used to supply Myanmar military; Why Hindu nationalists back Israel; Thais opt for neutrality in great-power war; How to stop China slipping into Japan trap; Online gambling an Indonesian epidemic. Continue reading »
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SOS – Save our scribes
As legacy media dies we seek its phoenix. Continue reading »
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Assange – the aftermath
On March 12 last year, former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr summed up why the Americans were determined to send the now free Julian Assange to a maximum security jail for over 170 years. Continue reading »
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The legacy media hate Julian Assange
It is often said that the reason the legacy media hate Julian Assange so much is that they are jealous of Assange’s rock star status. But it is much more than that. Not only did Assange make the MSM look dishonest; by reinventing Fourth Estate journalism with WikiLeaks, Julian Assange challenged the control of the Continue reading »
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The release of Julian Assange
It would be the political persecution of the 21st Century. A publicly orchestrated campaign of mobbing, libelling and black balling by the most powerful country on the planet of a publisher who, using novel technological means, enlivened a moribund fourth estate by linking, ever more closely, the leaking whistleblower and the scribbling journalist. Continue reading »
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Big media firms trying to get government to cover Facebook money
Australia’s mainstream media groups are trying to pressure the government in order to obtain funding to cover the $70 million that was provided by Facebook in a deal in 2021 and which the social media group has said it will not renew when the deal lapses later this year. Continue reading »
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Freedom for Julian Assange but a history of injustice
After years in a top security British jail, Julian Assange has been freed provided he pleads guilty under an US Espionage Act to unlawfully obtaining and disseminating US defence information. That should be the last and long overdue chapter in a cruel, revengeful persecution of an Australian citizen, a whistleblower, journalist and publisher. Continue reading »
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‘I’m permanently pissed off’- just one feature of a Gaza malaise
In response to the question, ‘Do you despair over the slaughters in Gaza’, a close friend responded, ‘When I hear the news, I’m angry and permanently pissed off. I also recognise that anger can lead to despair.’ Continue reading »
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Malaysia, Thailand ready to join BRICS – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Anwar slams ‘insane’ US over Gaza. Plus: Putin, Kim reduce dependence on Beijing; Where child brides are considered normal; India prosecutes Arundhati Roy for Kashmir speech; American arms-makers struggle to match China; Big cities become lethal heat traps. Continue reading »
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Criminal probe shines light on anti-China group’s wide links
As US Investigators probe the transactions of Epoch Times finance chief Bill Guan, recently arrested on money laundering charges, the spotlight is spreading to associated groups and individuals. Continue reading »
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Stabilisation, but deeper relationship stymied by Australian mass media sinophobes
Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s visit underscores the significance of the Australia-China relationship, especially given China’s status as Australia’s largest trading partner. A deeper relation should develop, but that will take time. Trust needs to be reestablished not only at diplomatic and business levels, but also in the Australian mass media, whose China opinion writers have Continue reading »
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Narcissus at war
The manipulation of truth and the acceptance of self-fabricated narratives can have devastating consequences, akin to the fate of Narcissus in Greek mythology, who, entranced by his own reflection, was consumed by self-love to the point of destruction. Similarly, the propagation and strategic use of misinformation as a political tool has serious consequences. Continue reading »
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Across the US Empire, deranged shrieks drown out talk of peace
Historically ignorant strategists urge people to their deaths to sustain the illusion of American primacy. But the problem of dealing with a belligerent, crumbling, supremacist USA is the true geopolitical challenge of the age. Continue reading »
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Superficial coverage of Dutton’s nuclear policy does Australia a disservice
Noel Turnbull correctly writes that media coverage of the federal opposition’s nuclear power proposal is superficial. There is a very wide range of as yet unanswered issues. Continue reading »
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BBC reporting on Ukraine
The BBC has a loose bolt somewhere. It has now begun a strange campaign saying it is dedicated to non-spin reporting. Continue reading »
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The afterlives of lies
The hoax of “weaponised rape” in Gaza takes what seems a fatal hit. Continue reading »
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Why does Anthony Albanese persist in trying to appease News Corp and the Coalition?
It is pitiful to think that a Labor Government elected in its own right two years ago might be running scared of a depleted Opposition party and its public relations arm, News Corp, but that is what appears to have been happening on a number of fronts. Continue reading »
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Who prepared Dutton’s report on nuclear power?
The Canberra Press Gallery is not a homogenous group although its members do seem to suffer from a fair amount of groupthink; preference for gotchas and speculation about what might happen next in politics; and heavy dependence on leaks and drops for copy. Continue reading »
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Israel the grotesque, who supports that government?
Celebrations on Tel Aviv beaches followed news of the rescue of four Israeli hostages. As part of an alleged clinical, precise military exercise, as many as 300 Palestinians were killed and 700 injured, but in Israeli revellers’ eyes, this latest slaughter of Palestinians is of no consequence, even welcomed. Continue reading »
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What Western mainstream media won’t tell us about China
We might not like to read this, but here are a few things Western media completely forgot to tell you about Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang… Continue reading »
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Indian elections double victory for democracy – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Voters teach Modi a lesson. Plus: Graham Allison on Thucydides’ Trap latest assessment; China, US switch off the megaphones; IMF, World Bank warn of system break-up; summit opens way for rules-based competitive order; tobacco companies control smoking-law narrative. Continue reading »
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A better service may be transmitted
The Indonesian government’s TVRI channel is supposed to have negotiated an MOU with the ABC to swap programmes. A great idea – benefits all. That’s the initial reaction. Continue reading »
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About that elusive ‘context’
Why do mainstream journalists write as if today’s events just popped up out of nowhere? Why has it become de rigueur to ignore the events of all the yesterdays and yesteryears that brought us here? Where is that elusive ‘context’ in stories on Ukraine, Gaza, China and others? Without context, how can we navigate our Continue reading »
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Raising the bar
John Menadue recently asked Pearls and Irritations (P&I) readers to suggest how to go about raising the bar in relation to content and relevance. Continue reading »
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Shaping the policy debate: how does the British media present China?
The almost total lack of any positive coverage of China in the British media further closes off the scope even for making arguments that policy should reflect opportunities from dealing with China. Continue reading »
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We don’t know what Australian Jews think about Gaza
Since October 2023, much has been said about what Jewish Australians think about Israel’s war in Gaza. If you’ve been reading the statistics quoted in media articles, you can be forgiven for thinking that the vast majority of Australian Jews support Israel’s war in Gaza and believe that the student protests on Australian University campuses constitute antisemitism Continue reading »
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Death machine: striking at the heart of the planetary problem
What is it going to take, asks climate activist Violet Coco, to stop the death machine, to save humanity and the living world? We first need to find the engine, the beating heart of this global materialist-consumerist-industrial civilisation. Continue reading »
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Jewish extremists in West Bank pose biggest threat to Israel: report
When it comes to the security of Israel, it is uncommon to publicly hear of any threat facing the country other than that which emanates from either its Arab neighbours or else Iran. Continue reading »
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Nova Peris’ apologism for colonialism and genocide
In repeating blatant Zionist propaganda to justify her support for Israel, Nova Peris erroneously and harmfully conflates Jewish identity with support for the Zionist project in Palestine, which in effect depicts all Jews as complicit in Israel’s criminality. Her abject apologism also betrays all indigenous peoples’ struggles against colonial oppression. Continue reading »
