Media
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Paul Collins. A wake for ABC Religion.
Last week I attended the funeral of long time religious broadcaster and colleague, Ronald Nichols at Sydney’s Christ Church Saint Laurence. It was the day after a broad cross-section of religious leaders had written to the ABC Board and managing director Mark Scott, expressing concern about what was happening to the ABC’s specialist focus on Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Outsourcing and redundancy at the ABC.
Mark Scott has expressed concern at the pain being felt by staff losing their jobs and careers. He announced that he and his senior team would take a pay freeze for a year. When it was pointed out that there would not be sufficient staff left to fill the program schedule, some senior manager apparently Continue reading »
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Tony Kevin. Cuts to ABC Classic FM strike at Australia’s cultural heritage’
Limelight, ABC Classic FM’s online magazine, reported on 24 November ‘The number of concerts recorded will be slashed by a massive 50%, with just 300 performances due to be recorded over the next two years verses the 600 concerts recorded during the previous two years. Broadcasts of live performances currently account for 17 hours of Continue reading »
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Eric Walsh. A ‘ragged’ year not a ‘ragged’ week.
Nobody laughed – things must be different in the press gallery these days. Prime Minister Tony Abbott in one of his longest press conferences was trying desperately to erase the hangover from the setbacks which have dogged him and his government since his dismal performance at the G20 meeting which he had hoped – forlornly Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Why the ABC is unique and important.
The BBC is the most successful public broadcaster in the world. It is a good model, not to copy but to adapt to our own needs and circumstances. Lord Reith who was Director General of the BBC 1927-38 pithily described the BBC’s purpose in three words…educate, inform and entertain. He was famously determined that the Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The scholarship is the real issue.
Freya Newman has been placed on a two year good behaviour bond with no conviction recorded for accessing the computer system of the Whitehouse Institute of Design concerning a ‘scholarship’ awarded to Francis Abbott. Overwhelmingly the media coverage has been about Freya Newman and very little about the substantial issue, the ‘scholarship’. The substantial issues Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The ABC should stop kicking own goals.
There is not much doubt in my mind that the budget cuts to the ABC are part of a vendetta against the ABC and to oblige Rupert Murdoch who intensely dislikes quality competition. The ABC is the most trusted media organisation in the country and News Corp is the least trusted. But the ABC looks Continue reading »
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Stephen King. The ABC’s “me too” strategy puts it on track for redundancy.
Is the ABC trying to make itself redundant? Because that appears to be its strategy. Here’s why. The ABC is expensive. In 2013 it was allocated more than A$1 billion of taxpayer funds. The ABC claims, however, that its real funding since 1985-86 has dropped by about one quarter. And the current federal government has Continue reading »
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John Tulloh. The ABC on the slippery slope in Asia.
‘The overall objective for the International News initiative is to focus resources on original storytelling of the highest quality, ensure our international newsgathering operations are sustainable and ensure all audiences – digital, television and radio – are considered in our coverage’. ABC announcement, November 2014. This is a worthy aim for that fickle and Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Murdoch and Abbott vs ABC.
This is a repost of a blog which I initially posted on December 19 last year. Tony Abbott has a debt to repay to Rupert Murdoch for the extremely biased support he received in the last election. With the help of Senator Cory Bernadi, Tony Abbott is now following the Murdoch Media line in attacking Continue reading »
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Walter Hamilton. The ABC and its competitors
When the British conducted atomic tests at Maralinga in South Australia in the 1950s Australia’s newspaper proprietors tried to prevent the ABC bringing along its recording equipment to capture the event. They wanted the ABC locked out of the story because it would steal their thunder: how could a printed article about an atomic explosion Continue reading »
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Is capitalism redeemable? Part 9: Restoring a moral voice
It is easy to allocate blame for our apparent entrapment in bad public policy. Tony Abbott’s truculence, disregard for reason, inflexibility and broken promises all come to mind. As does the blatant partisan stance of the Murdoch media. Those who look for more general causes draw attention to dysfunctional party structures, an adversarial parliamentary system Continue reading »
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John Tulloh. Innocents abroad at the ABC.
INNOCENTS ABROAD AT THE ABC LOOK INWARDS AS AUSTRALIA LOOKS OUTWARDS ‘Now we cross to an ABC correspondent in Beijing for the latest on the Japanese crisis…’ The Guardian the other day carried a report that the ABC planned to emasculate its foreign news presence as part of its budget cuts. While the ABC has Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Media failure.
Yesterday I posted a story from ‘a former ABC correspondent’ concerning cutbacks in ABC bureaus, particularly in our region. The post was entitled: ‘The ABC:soft targets and collateral damage’. Cutbacks at the ABC are a very serious problem and will prejudice Australia’s future in our region. So much of Australian media reflects the pattern laid Continue reading »
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The ABC: soft targets and collateral damage
In 1963, the ABC’s then Controller of News reported to his superiors on the results of a wide-ranging visit to Asia. He recommended that the ABC undertake a major expansion of its overseas operations, driven by the belief that the journalists and camera operators of the national broadcaster were best equipped to keep Australians informed Continue reading »
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Eric Walsh. Gough Whitlam – Australia’s greatest reforming Prime Minister.
Australian media had never seen anything like it. Suddenly print, radio, television and social media were overwhelmed – blanket coverage of a single event. Edward Gough Whitlam, Australia’s 21st and greatest reforming Prime Minister, was dead. Newspapers were turned over to almost complete coverage ,not only of the fact that the former PM had died, but Continue reading »
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Annabelle Lukin. When governments go to war, the Fourth Estate goes AWOL.
A year after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the University of California, Berkeley, conducted a postmortem of the media coverage of the so-called “Iraq war”. The conference included academics, journalists, UN weapons inspectors and diplomats. UC Berkeley also invited Lieutenant Colonel Rick Long, whose job it had been to prepare journalists to be embedded with Continue reading »
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The Italian solution.
Last night the ABC program, Foreign Correspondent, carried a remarkable and moving account of the work of the Italian Navy in rescuing ‘people fleeing conflict or economic despair in the Middle East and Africa’. The Italian Admiral in charge of the operations in the Mediterranean said ‘We have the duty in these cases when we Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Stuck in a closed information loop
Conservatives who read and listen to News Corp media have a problem. They are encouraged to believe that the world is really like News Corp says it is. The inevitable result is a loss of reality. Paul Krugman in the New York Times on September 23 wrote of the problems of right-wing Republicans who keep Continue reading »
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Mike Steketee. Buying favours of politicians.
You might be interested in this repost. John Menadue If the staggering evidence before the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption has taught us anything, then it must surely be to end the charade that democracy can function properly when people are buying favours of politicians, directly or indirectly. The standard argument that political fund-raising Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The Great Complacency
Professor Ross Garnaut has spoken many times about our great complacency and our unwillingness to undertake the types of economic and social reform that we saw in the Hawke/Keating periods and in the early days of the Howard Government – think, GST. Have the golden days of reform gone forever? The former head of Treasury Continue reading »
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Tessa Morris-Suzuki. The CIA and the Japanese media: a cautionary tale.
When Japan surrendered at the end of the Pacific War, the occupation authorities pledged to democratise the country. They carried out many reforms and introduced a new peace constitution, guaranteeing human rights and freedom of expression. The reforms had a profound and lasting effect, but there was also a less democratic side to US-Japan relations Continue reading »
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Michael Kelly SJ. Pope Francis is a game-changer.
There’s no doubting that Pope Francis is a game changer and not just for the Catholic Church. The question remains whether he can pull off the changes he’s foreshowed and many Catholics want. Three decades of people being made bishops more for reasons of their readiness to comply with directives from Head Office than for Continue reading »
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Ian McAuley. A Year Of Tony Abbott.
The Abbott Government was elected one year and one day ago. Ian McAuley celebrates the countless successes that have slipped under the radar. A year into the Abbott Government’s term we can reflect on its impressive economic achievements. The highlight is the repeal of the carbon tax. It’s easy to stand up against tree huggers Continue reading »
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Clare Condon SGS. Sanctioned Violence: What does it do to our society and relationships?
Some violent acts, depending on where and how they were perpetrated, are regarded as criminal. Others, however, are sanctioned by society, even applauded and cheered. Some are blatant; others are covert and subtle. Some are justified by cultural norms, by the blind eye or the deaf ear; they happen behind closed doors. Others are justified Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Overplaying one’s hand.
With the benefits that governments get with incumbency, presidents and prime ministers need to be careful not to overstate their case or overplay their hands. The temptation is great, particularly when there are national outpourings of grief and when a global stage awaits. Tony Abbott was certainly on the world stage over MH370. On 21 Continue reading »
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Take your pick on the way News Corp operates.
On oath before the Leveson Enquiry, Rupert Murdoch said “I’ve never asked a prime minister for anything’. (Leveson transcript 25 April 2012) In his book ‘The Whitlam Government 1972-75’, published in 1985, Gough Whitlam says ‘ … in the week after the 1972 election, Menadue, who had become my private secretary at the beginning of Continue reading »
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Chris Mitchell, The Australian and Iraq
As part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of The Australian, the editor, Chris Mitchell, revealed on Monday 14 July that he was a secret opponent of the invasion of Iraq. This will come as a surprise for many who followed The Australian’s wholehearted support of the Iraq invasion and hectored and criticised those Continue reading »
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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 »
