Mainstream Western coverage of the recent Hamas foray into Israel and its aftermath has been marked by sensationalism, lack of historical context, and superficial moralising. (more…)
Category: Media
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The Voice, a broken system and the righting of old wrongs
The cut-through of mercenary, racist and Trumpist tropes reflected in the “No” referendum campaign has many people, including refugees, alarmed. (more…)
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Morrison’s Taiwan visit designed to goad China into war
The speech by former Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison in Taipei on Wednesday 11 October, 2023, was clearly designed to undermine the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Albanese to Beijing. It continued to drive forward the American objective of goading China into war over Taiwan. (more…)
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A week of golden negativity
Last week was China’s “Golden Week”. It is so called because it is the longest holiday of the year, with the period of Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day fused into one marathon stint. (more…)
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Deafening silence as Israel kills over 320 children in Gaza
“Where is the outrage we saw when Israeli children were killed?” asked a co-founder of IfNotNow. (more…)
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“I wouldn’t start from here”: Advice on Australia-China relations
Engaging China: How Australia can lead the way again (Sydney University Press 2023) reviews most aspects of the Australia-China relations and proposes useful ways to develop them for the national benefit. Jointly edited by Jamie Reilly and Jingdong Yuan, it includes contributions from thirteen scholars, journalists and former diplomats, a foreword by former Foreign Minister Gareth Evans and a postscript by former Ambassador Stephen FitzGerald. It does not apologise for its advocacy of greater engagement in a productive and secure manner. (more…)
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Jailbreak from prison Gaza
Since when do we praise Occupiers for brutal oppression? Words are used to confuse, obfuscate and detract from the truth of Palestine-Israel. Words such as terrorist, enemy, militants and murderous are often used to describe Palestinians who are, in essence, victims, freedom fighters, oppressed, occupied and ignored. (more…)
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Will a “shocking hurdle” defeat the Yes vote?
In a lead article published on the front page of The Saturday Paper on the 30th of September Rick Morton discussed the people who were planning to vote against the Voice. He remarked that focus groups conducted late last year revealed what he called ‘a shocking hurdle’ blocking the path of the yes vote. Almost a third ‘of all participants believed First Nations people had been treated fairly. Not just now, but since invasion.’ (more…)
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In the final week of the referendum – make up your own mind
What can we achieve together in this final week of the referendum campaign? Join me on Thursday for a special webinar with First Nations women Lynette Riley and Beverly Baker to learn first hand about the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament. (more…)
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Battle at Lake Changjin: Will we choose pride, prejudice, propaganda – or peace?
The second highest grossing film in the world in 2021 barely got a mention in the Australian press. It was co-directed by three acclaimed filmmakers, cost close to US$200 million to produce, made $1 billion, and was nearly three hours long with a sequel of equal length. It ran briefly at the Event Cinema in Sydney. But few in Australia saw or heard of it. (more…)
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Silent thunder and the beauty of the Palestinian olive harvest
In Northumbria, a majestic Sycamore Gap Tree has flourished at the site of Hadrian’s Wall for some 300 odd years. Last week it was cut down by some vicious, uncaring vandal. From the moment the trunk of that beautiful old tree hit the ground the thud of destruction turned into a thunder of condemnation across the world. The people who committed this heinous crime should be punished to the full extent of English law. But, what about the people who have destroyed, uprooted or burnt one million trees in Palestine? (more…)
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China-US in disinformation warfare – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: America must show it has answers to global problems. Plus: Thai government talks of gun control; Australia-China de-coupling is impossible; Myanmar military’s killing, torture and rape; Cold War returns to Korean Peninsula; China’s EV makers have edge over US. (more…)
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The future will be decided by economic influence, not military dominance
America is falling into a trap. It thinks the future will be decided by military dominance, despite losing one war after another. China, on the other hand, recognises that the future will be decided by economics. (more…)
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Australia’s aborted cultural decolonisation
Over the 50 years since Patrick White’s Nobel Prize, the progressive cultural nationalists, who borrowed White’s honour, challenged a tired old elite, and then generated a new cohort of tired old elites. They had broken with Britain, but embraced America and its fantasy of the universal progressive empire that dare not say its name. The Austral-Americans were born, and became the enforcers of today’s sterile regime culture. (more…)
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American anxiety
Bad-tempered coverage of China continues to flourish across the entire US media. It ranges from fire-breathing to pearl-clutching. Most commentators look daggers at Beijing in a dozen different over-cooked ways – and especially at the Communist Party of China – while reminding readers and viewers of America’s continuing paramount superpower status. (more…)
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Fearmongering: the media’s creation of fear in the general public
It has often been suggested that the LNP have always used an underlying fear and insecurity in the general public as a means of securing voting support on the basis that they offer better protection against external and internal threats. Typically, these threats are left vague, yet it is wholly evident that the main stream media is intent on ramping up China as an external threat and Middle East and youth crime gangs as an internal threat. Is Climate Change presented as a threat to our security? Rarely, and usually in an entirely non-systematic manner. (more…)
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The biggest sporting event the West has never heard of
The last week in September saw the much delayed (due to Covid) opening of the 19th Asian Games. This event which is held on a four-year cycle involves participants from 45 nations, and perhaps unsurprisingly given the enormous populations in this part of the world sees a larger number of athletes taking part than even the Olympics. (more…)
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How has the Belt and Road Initiative changed the world?
The ten years of the Belt and Road Initiative has proven that the rise of China has not brought colonialism, disaster, war, refugees, and crises. Instead, it brought the world trade, commodities, tourists, infrastructure, economic growth and civilisation. No matter how Western politicians, media, and think tanks vilify the BRI, they cannot cover up a basic fact—that is, when China is strong, it does not take the old path of aggression and expansion we see in the histories of Europe, the US, Japan, and others. (more…)
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The news has nothing to do with newsworthiness
I don’t mention it often but I actually have a degree in journalism. I graduated with distinction from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 2003, and while it would be another 13 years before I’d ever put my degree to any use, the experience played a massive role in forming my opinions about the mainstream press. (more…)
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Waiting for the collapse of the ‘China collapse’ prediction
For the past one month or so, my wife has been on a self-guided tour of Europe, visiting friends and scenic spots. She told me on the phone recently that she could not help but argue with her friends and new acquaintances when they tried to convince her that China would “collapse” in two to three years. (more…)
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The despotism of Mike Pezzullo
Journalists from The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and Sixty Minutes have at last exposed the efforts by Mike Pezzullo, Secretary of Home Affairs, to influence government in favour of conservative politicians and by insisting that press freedom be stifled. (more…)
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Amidst the shattered remnants of an impartial public service
Will the Mike Pezzullo case be a line in the sand? (more…)
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Karla Grant explores Norway’s 34-year Indigenous Voice to Parliament
As Australia nears its referendum, Karla Grant takes a closer look at Norway’s Voice To Parliament. (more…)
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Why Rupert Murdoch came to New York
With the announcement that Rupert Murdoch is stepping down from the board of FoxNews and Newscorp, I thought was it an apt moment to reprint one of the most detailed portraits ever written of the press mogul: Alexander Cockburn’s 1976 profile and interview with Murdoch published in the Village Voice in 1976, shortly after Murdoch had acquired the New York Post. Alex’s interview with Murdoch was liberally mined by William Shawcross for his otherwise demur biography of the carnivorous tycoon.–JSC (more…)
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Murdoch stepping down – Don’t believe it!
Rupert Murdoch is addicted to media and politics. He will be continually looking over Lachlan’s shoulder. (more…)
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The mass-media memory hole: Ukraine, Libya and war crimes
A key function of state-corporate media is to keep the public pacified, ignorant and ill-equipped to disrupt establishment power. (more…)
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Freedom of the press barons?
The ‘disinformation’ (read: lies and bullshit) being propagated about the indigenous Voice to Parliament by the Murdoch media, among others, harms our society. It promotes division, celebrates and cultivates ignorance and bigotry, oppresses a minority and diminishes us all. Why do we tolerate such behaviour? (more…)
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Trudeau ruins India’s global triumph – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Canada, India tensions have sorry history. Plus: BRI shows most countries shun ‘decoupling’; Myanmar rebels ‘will never give up’; China to dominate green car market; Putin and Kim lead ‘axis of outcasts’; China decline the fashionable chatter in Washington. (more…)
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Humanitarian imperialism created the Libyan nightmare
NATO’s military intervention in Libya in 2011, which overthrew the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, resulted in a chaotic and murderous failed state. Libyans pay a horrific price for this catastrophe. (more…)
