Media
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Independent media winning the battle of the online audience
Independent media, online and print, continues to grow. Meanwhile, traditional media is under threat on many fronts, driven by stalling readership and declining revenue. News Corp, in particular, is losing out in the online audience stakes…. Continue reading »
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It’s a man’s world: we need to call out News Corp’s hostility to women leaders (The Conversation, 18.11.2020)
Julia Gillard did not simply threaten the political status quo as Australia’s first woman prime minister. As an unmarried, child-free, atheist woman from the left of the ALP, she also threatened Murdoch’s conservative ideology…. Continue reading »
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Tamed Estate: stop the presses; the Prime Minister took a barre class!
No holds barred? Kid-glove treatment for the Prime Minister, climate change denial, Murdoch media appears desperate and breaches of hotel quarantine…. Continue reading »
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Have your say: Senate inquiry into media diversity in Australia
After more than 500,000 people signed a petition launched by former prime minister Kevin Rudd raising concerns about the influence of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, the Senate is to hold an inquiry into media diversity…. Continue reading »
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A Harold Evans postscript
What sort of obituary do you think The Sunday Times would publish about probably its greatest editor, Harry Evans?… Continue reading »
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Tamed estate: “And on the second day, he said: ‘Let it be forgotten,’ and it was.”
The federal Coalition’s PR team clearly forgot the Streisand effect: the phenomenon whereby attempts to suppress information lead to far greater exposure than the information would have generated intrinsically…. Continue reading »
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Off the Ground: A new generation of foreign correspondents
Mazoe Ford is billed as the ABC’s ‘Southeast Asia Correspondent’. She’s been reporting on the civil strife in Bangkok – from Sydney…. Continue reading »
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Tamed estate: Australian media conservatives applaud Trump’s ‘victory’
Two former Australian prime ministers have joined forces to speak out against the power of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, calling for a royal commission. But why do they have so much power anyway, when they get it so spectacularly wrong, so often. Michael Tanner explores the bizarre antics of Murdoch’s pundits during the US election…. Continue reading »
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The real originator of fake news is Trump
We always knew that Donald Trump would be a bad loser. It is not in his genes to accept defeat by not-so-sleepy Joe Biden with good grace, or even bad grace…. Continue reading »
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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 withdrawing correspondents…. Continue reading »
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Growth of Pearls and Irritations
The past six months have been very encouraging for Pearls and Irritations…. Continue reading »
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Data Retention – An act of blindness
A Parliamentary Joint Committee on Security and Intelligence (PJCIS) report into the Data Retention Act has made 22 recommendations that, if accepted, would lead to increased transparency, raise the threshold for when data can be accessed, and reduce overall access to our telecommunications data…. Continue reading »
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Premier kept his side of the bargain but the media didn’t want to know
An easing of restrictions in Victoria was predicated on two criteria: a rolling 14-day average of fewer than five cases per day; and fewer than five mystery cases over the preceding two weeks…. Continue reading »
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We have just about given up on the mainstream media.
For Labor, there is no point in getting into a fight you will never win. The Murdoch myrmidons will always be their enemy, and since they have become invulnerable – like the banks, they are too big to fail — they have to be accommodated. … Continue reading »
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Shaoquett Moselmane MLC returns to Parliament despite the media. (AMUST Oct 23, 2020)
Mr Shaoquett Moselmane MLC returned to the NSW Parliament on Thursday 22 October 2020 following months of controversy after the Parliamentary Privileges Committee exonerated him and cleared the way for his dignified return to the House…. Continue reading »
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Tamed estate: ‘no holes in Gladys’ story’ … give or take 152 moments of amnesia
The Premier then went on 2GB to discuss with shock jock Kyle Sandilands her relationship. Not a sentence I thought I would ever write. This one doesn’t really require further elaboration…. Continue reading »
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Megaphone Madness: how reckless media impeded Victoria’s Covid-19 recovery
The media we consume influences our compliance with Covid-19 recommendations. Poor media coverage in Victoria is impeding the state’s recovery…. Continue reading »
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Tamed Estate: Poor Gladys
Last week in the Tamed Estate, ICAC’s inquiry into former politician Daryl Maguire whose revelations about NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian completely overshadowed Kevin Rudd’s spectacular petition to set up a royal commission into the Murdoch press. Also, international propaganda efforts by the UK and US are being swept under the rug…. Continue reading »
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James Murdoch, Rebellious Scion (NYTimes Oct 10, 2020)
Increasingly uncomfortable with News Corp’s politics and profit motives, Rupert’s younger son chose chickens and sheep over Fox, and insists he doesn’t watch ‘Succession.’… Continue reading »
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Remembering Harold Evans (AIIA Oct 9, 2020)
Harold Evans had an indefatigable role in encouraging and expanding coverage of international affairs in the publications he edited and in the books he published. He also had great enthusiasm for hiring and fostering well-trained Australian journalists…. Continue reading »
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Julian Assange and failure of mainstream media
On 18 September, a little over a year since Amal Clooney was appointed as the UK’s special envoy for media freedom, she resigned. Among Clooney’s barrister colleagues are Geoffrey Robertson, Jennifer Robinson, and Gareth Pierce, all of whom, at their Doughty Chambers human rights practice, are advocates for Julian Assange…. Continue reading »
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Tamed Estate: Budget Week
This week has been dominated by the budget. And that means the traditional pre-budget leaks dutifully reported by the media. These were followed by post-budget revelations that the budget announcement was full of already announced measures. … Continue reading »
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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…. Continue reading »
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Media failure again on alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria
Two new reports from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons challenge claims that chemical weapons were used in two alleged attacks in Syria…. Continue reading »
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The Liberals Quietly Removed That Budget Surplus Mug From Its Store & We Can All Sip The Tea (Pedestrian March 10, 2020)
The Liberal Party has quietly removed a mug promoting a return to federal budget surplus from its official merchandise range, amid mounting speculation the Federal Government won’t put the 2019-2020 budget “Back In Black” after all…. Continue reading »
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The numbers game: how Morrison is playing journalism off a break (Crikey Oct 5, 2020)
All politicians know that numbers create news. It’s simple maths: the bigger the number, the greater the news. And Scott Morrison knows this better than most. He knows how to use numbers as signs of action for the media — and he knows journalists can’t resist them. Just look back over the past week…… Continue reading »
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Tamed Estate: Albanese follows Morrison’s lead
This week we see that Albanese is following in Morrison’s footsteps, with Morrison following the same path as usual. Meanwhile, Frydenberg is refining his dark arts, with Thursday night’s drops receiving no critical coverage. We also have a brief look at abortive biased coverage on behalf of the Courier Mail…. Continue reading »
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Australian media in the Asian Century
The struggles and contradictions in media understanding of China…. Continue reading »
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Tamed Estate: Low Emissions, Insolvency Reforms, Responsible Lending and NBN Privatisation
Following on from the opener to the Tamed Estate released in both Michael West Media and Pearls and Irritations, we will be conducting a rolling watch for media failures and manipulations…. Continue reading »
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Assange: Still waiting… for your right to know
We’re all still waiting … for your right to know. The right of the public in our democracies to know what’s really going on is being tested at this very moment at the Old Bailey in Merry England…. Continue reading »
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