Media
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War footing groupthink; subsidies and socialism; glasshouses and stones
Upside down, inside out and black is white. Journalists fall over themselves to paint Scott Morrison as a courageous leader, the Financial Review lauds the “very affordable” housing market, in defiance of just about every expert in the country, and Tax Office attacks from an employee of Murdoch’s News Australia, whose approach to tax surely Continue reading »
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Rise of independent media
‘Rise of independent media’ is a panel discussion between investigative journalist Michael West, Crikey editor-in-chief Peter Fray and author and media analyst Margaret Simons and is chaired by the editor for InDaily David Washington. The panel took place at the Adelaide Writer’s Week festival on 2 March 2021. Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century.
If Defence is going to be Peter Dutton’s springboard to greater power, he has a like mind in the United States in Mike Pompeo who is hoping to rally the defeated Republicans towards victory in 2024. Continue reading »
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Hit jobs from the inside and News Corp attacks free speech of citizens
Coordinated attacks on the Reserve Bank, free speech for the Courier Mail … but not for citizens, and digging up dirt on Josh Bornstein. Continue reading »
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Why has there been a spike in anti-asian hate? The NY Times answers their own questions
A collage of panic-inducing anti-China headlines from the New York Times and other major publications can be seen as a factor in the rise of anti-Asian hate seen in western countries. Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century: On our Quad bikes
The most concrete measure to come out of the March 12 Quad summit was a plan for India’s huge pharmaceutical industry to manufacture one billion doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine financed by the US and Japan for world-wide distribution to regions in need, particularly the most remote. Continue reading »
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Light relief after a tawdry, desperate week: ‘Floods prove weather’s not broken’
Media coverage of “solo lewd acts’ diverted focus from the real game – was there a cover-up of the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins?; no apology from Scott Morrison for fabricating an harassment claim; and there’s always room for climate denialism in The Australian. Continue reading »
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Vaccine misinformation on social media is out of control, but we should expect better from the mainstream media
I am surely not alone in being angry that The Australian would accept Clive Palmer’s money and let him publish dangerous, inaccurate claims about our Covid vaccination program. Continue reading »
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The alarming unintended consequences of the Online Safety Bill
The Online Safety Bill promises to improve and promote the online safety of Australians. But not for all Australians. The broad-brush approach of the bill goes far beyond what is necessary to achieve its objective, and the Government has ignored community concerns over its many shortcomings. Continue reading »
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The Quad: an unlikely friendship with unfriendly motives
Sydney Morning Herald political and international editor Peter Hartcher has told us that a historic friendship meeting between Japan, the US, Australia and India – the Quad, has begun. However, it’s not particularly friendly, or historic. Continue reading »
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Orwellian media manipulation: PM’s answer to ‘Dorothy Dixer’ published before he uttered the words
Look over there, mate. Should we really ignore a rape allegation against the first law officer of the nation because Labor also has skeletons in its closet? Continue reading »
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Ignorance and Prejudice on China is now entrenched in Australian media – Part 2
With a mainstream media climate like this on China and dissenting voices being discouraged, it is hard to see any early prospect of easing tensions. The Australian people have been badly let down on China by our policy elites. Continue reading »
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‘Ignorance and prejudice on China are now entrenched in Australian media’. Part 1
Ignorance and prejudice on China are now entrenched in Australia, fed by media repetition of false narratives; possibly encouraged by US and UK origin foreign influences; and enabled by stubborn and inept Australian political leadership. Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century
They come at it from different angles but Chinese deputy ambassador Wang Xining and Peta Credlin, former prime ministerial staffer of Tony Abbott and current Sky News After Dark presenter, are agreed on one thing: the Australian media have gone to the dogs. Continue reading »
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Sexual violence an issue of ideology? The Australian then stopped digging
The recovered memory line took hold after being given an outing in Crikey, although coverage showed some fundamental misunderstandings. Meanwhile the Australian Financial Review lamented the fact that Scott Morrison wasn’t receiving the glory of the vaccine rollout. Just as well, actually, because it is occurring at a snail’s pace. Continue reading »
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Abbott and Morrison did not stop the boats, but the media collaborated in the spin
Our corporate media will not acknowledge that Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison did not stop the boats. Despite clear evidence, the Canberra Press Gallery fell for the spin. With a tame media and cooperation by the military, the big lie was repeated time and time again and became accepted as fact. This was all before Continue reading »
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The Iraq War, the Murdoch War and media culpability
The media here thought the terrorism in Australia fell from the deep blue sky and had no relationship to the help John Howard gave to George Bush in the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq. The Australian media continue to fail us badly over its coverage of the Middle East wars, terrorism and the continuing Continue reading »
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The French submarine boondoggle is Australia’s biggest defence blunder and compounded by media failure
Our corporate media has failed to hold the government to account in its scandalous handling of the $90 billion French submarine purchase. For five years, the media has failed us. It is now rewarded in the new Media Code with 90% of the tax on Google and Facebook to be handed over to the three Continue reading »
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Porter allegations: Accusations fly of ‘trial by media’; AKA journalists doing their job
There was an outpouring of grief for the “trembling, tearful wrecks” of Cabinet Ministers forced on to sick leave, having to experience such ‘humiliating’ and ‘devastating’ claims. Some particularly callous commentary equated Porter’s life with that of the “ruined” life of the woman who died by suicide. Continue reading »
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Has Christian Porter been subjected to a ‘trial by media’? No, the media did its job of being a watchdog
Trial by media occurs either when media coverage prejudices the outcome of legal processes or when the media initiate an issue and then proceed to play prosecutor, judge and jury. Neither applies in the Porter case. Continue reading »
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Morrison’s media code could be catastrophic for climate and energy news
Morrison’s government could hardly have wished for a better outcome. The core of their supplicant media is to receive millions to continue their cheering from the sidelines, while independent voices such as RenewEconomy risk being squeezed by these secret deals. Yet big media companies and the competition regulator claim this to be some sort of Continue reading »
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Tamed Estate: Facebook 1, Australian government 0 but no mainstream media mastheads ran that line
And the miserly $3.57 a day rise in JobSeeker was ‘fair and affordable’, ‘pragmatic’, and ‘fiscally responsible’. The mainstream media tripped over themselves to support the government’s line in the face of widespread condemnation from eminent economists that the huge cut to the unemployment payment rate would cost jobs and hit the recovery. Continue reading »
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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. Continue reading »
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Media bargaining code dire for public interest journalism if small outlets aren’t protected
In Spain in 2014, when Google shut Google News, small independent publishers were hit far harder than the big players. If Facebook plays a similar role in Australia, then the consequences of Facebook’s recent action will be dire for public interest journalism and Australian media diversity. Continue reading »
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Laughing Stock: Australia’s new media code rivals our climate policy for absurdity
Google good, Facebook bad. That sums up mainstream media coverage of the Coalition government’s bizarre new media code. That’s because Google paid up, Facebook decided it was extortion and called Josh Frydenberg’s bluff, banning Australian news. The mainstream media has been corrupted. Continue reading »
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Tamed estate: the PM has to ask his wife how to feel empathy yet Labor is on the hook?
Gladys’ cheerleader in chief at the Sydney Morning Herald finally comes out swinging – at the NSW Opposition Leader. And editorials from The Australian get oh-so-close to touching on the failures of the federal government in aged care and vaccine rollout. Continue reading »
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People in glass houses should be careful about throwing stones
A group of Australian journalists in their never-ending hostility to China keep throwing stones at China for human rights breaches in Xinjiang, but largely ignore Australian and other breaches. Their ignorance of China explains a lot. Continue reading »
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Australia’s flawed push to make Big Tech pay for news (Nikkei Asia 12.2.21)
The experience of online life is one of information overload — it is not always easy to separate the signal from the noise. This problem has been made worse as advertising dollars have flowed away from traditional media organizations toward tech platforms. Continue reading »
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Twelve points to help journalists and save democracy
Despite what the Government and some of the mainstream media will have us believe, the “News Media Bargaining Code” does nothing to protect or enhance quality journalism in Australia. There are better ways to achieve that. Continue reading »
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Tamed Estate: IR reforms ‘dangerous’, ‘extreme’ but let’s go with Christian Porter’s description – ‘modest’
When tabling the omnibus Industrial Relations bill in early December, Christian Porter described the changes as “modest”. The mainstream media duly followed suit and in no time at all had even dropped the quotation marks. Continue reading »
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