The latest attacks on ABC journalist Louise Milligan show that ‘cancel culture’ is alive and well at The Australian and Sky News, aided and abetted by the federal opposition’s shadow communications minister. (more…)
Category: Media
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The biggest obstacle to real freedom is the belief that we already have it
If you live in one of the so-called free democracies of the western world, the worst mistake you can make is to buy into the hype. To believe you are a free individual in a nation that respects and protects your freedom and individuality. (more…)
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Nothing agitates the ‘Anglosphere’ more than young women in power
There is nothing which agitates much of the ‘Anglosphere’ media more than a young attractive woman in power. The latest example of the phenomenon is the treatment of 37-year-old Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin. (more…)
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55% of Teal voters were Labor and Green supporters
While we worry about social media misinformation we overlook that one of the main sources of misinformation about politics is mainstream media. (more…)
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Modular nuclear reactors: snake oil from the nuclear lobby propagandists
Nuclear lobby propaganda in favour of small modular reactors ignores Australia’s terrible nuclear history and plays fast and loose with the facts. Many forensic enquiries have already recommended against the introduction of nuclear power into Australia on the grounds of proliferation risk, cost, safety, and the environment.
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The Guardian could help Assange by retracting all the lies it published about him
The Guardian has joined The New York Times, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El País in signing a letter from the five papers which collaborated with WikiLeaks twelve years ago in the publication of the Chelsea Manning leaks to call for the Biden administration to drop all charges against Julian Assange. This sudden jolt of mainstream support comes as news breaks that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been personally pushing the US government to bring the Assange case to a close. (more…)
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Should WeChat be banned? Australian users say no
Banning WeChat/Weixin would mean cutting Australian users’ “lifeline” to China; it would risk further alienating an already alienated community amid the anti-Chinese sentiment in Australia. For non-Chinese WeChat users in Australia, banning the platform would deprive them of individual choice and agency. (more…)
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The BBC’s abysmal coverage of Qatar’s World Cup
The British state-owned broadcaster’s refusal to show Qatar’s Opening Ceremony reeks of hypocrisy. (more…)
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US officials concern about world press freedoms while assaulting them
I will never get used to living in a world where our rulers will openly imprison a journalist for telling the truth and then self-righteously pontificate about the need to stop authoritarian regimes from persecuting journalists. (more…)
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AP editor said she “can’t imagine” a US intelligence official being wrong!!!
The Associated Press journalist who reported a US intelligence official’s false claim that Russia had launched missiles at Poland last week has been fired. (more…)
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The case of the wolf and the sheep in Hong Kong
Recently, a correspondent on Australia’s national broadcaster casually referred to Hong Kong as a “police state”. This ignores that the courts operate under common law rules. The role of the judge is key. They are not mouth-pieces of the central government. In HKSAR v Lai Man-ling & 4 Others, Hong Kong’s image overseas has been tarnished by a decision to convict people for writing a children’s book, a judgement which no one can understand and which was wrong. (more…)
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COP27: Australia promotes fossil fuels as pathway to carbon neutrality
It seems the Australian media still has to be told: COP 27 was a disaster and the glaring flaws in Australia’s grab bag of climate change policies were there to be exposed – if any reporters cared to do so. (more…)
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What caused the Anthony Albanese China change? Better advisors?
To say that the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has been poorly advised would be an understatement. For reasons best known to himself he picked up and ran with a posse of advisers from the corrupt and inept Morrison regime. A big mistake. (more…)
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Joy and a troubled conscience at the Qatar World Cup
I will be watching some games – but I will do so with a bad conscience! (more…)
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The biggest threat to capitalism? Purveyors of mistrust
If social trust is good for society, and for the economy overall, why is such a decline in trust occurring? The simple answer is because some businesses make money from distrust.
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Greed and a spoiled society: workers are not the problem
Of course The Australian republished Andy Kessler’s ridiculous Wall Street Journal column, “The decline of work in a spoiled society.” Those News Corp bedfellows continue to miss that they are at the core of the problem. (more…)
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Journalistic responsibility vanishes when reporting on US-targeted nations
Two false news reports have gone viral in recent days due to sloppy sourcing and journalistic malpractice. As usual they both featured bogus claims about US-targeted nations, in this case Russia and Iran. (more…)
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Xi is no longer Dr Fu Manchu?
After the meeting between Xi and Albanese, we will need patient diplomacy well away from the megaphone and from vested interests in defence industries. China is here to stay and love it or hate it we must learn to live with it. The present government is looking more like it understands this.
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Australia’s path forward: 50 years of relations with China
Cooperate where we can, disagree where we must. It’s time to start the next 50 years of the Australia-China relationship on a more positive footing. Exactly as our predecessors did in December 1972. (more…)
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Our media is failing us
At a moment, when one side of politics has abandoned the bases of democracy as an impediment to their grasp on power, we need journalists holding them to account rather than gaslighting the public, normalising the rot. (more…)
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Denying trafficking not the way to protect the Asylum system
Hannah Dickinson from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) has penned an article in this Journal that is full of distraction and denial of the massive labour trafficking scam that started in 2014-15. That approach does nothing to help genuine asylum seekers nor help the over 70,500 unsuccessful asylum seekers currently living in Australia with no rights and no protections. (more…)
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Pivotal Moment: Albanese and Xi in 2022 mirror Whitlam and Zhou in 1971
The meeting between Anthony Albanese and Xi Jinping put me in mind of the public reaction in Australia when Whitlam met Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1971. (more…)
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The truth about Hong Kong is too difficult for the western media to grasp
Early November saw Hong Kong host a gathering of world financial/banking leaders, lay on a successful Fintech conference, and then host the first Hong Kong Rugby 7’s tournament since 2019, which Australia won! (more…)
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Nine Network perpetuates tired, politicised, militaristic discourse on refugees
As Principal Solicitor at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, my team and I meet people seeking asylum every day. We see their suffering as they struggle to access basic rights in an intimidating and often hostile system, and we see the effect on them of vilification and exclusion in public discourse. (more…)
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Better, not smaller government: confessions of an econocrat-watcher
Econocrats have spent too long struggling ineffectively to achieve smaller government, while doing little about what should be their real concern: not smaller government, but better government. (more…)
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The first biography of Lachlan Murdoch provides some insights, but leaves important questions unanswered
The title of Paddy Manning’s The Successor: The High-Stakes Life of Lachlan Murdoch tells us what is good and not so good about this biography. (more…)
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Who benefits from the ABC’s rural journalism?
As part of the ABC’s financial deal with tech giants Google and Facebook late last year it committed to investing the revenue in regional and rural Australia. Brian Burkett, Emma Mesikämmen and Lisa Waller analysed ABC Rural’s radio programming around the recent federal election to find out who benefits from the ABC’s rural journalism. (more…)
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No such thing as an objective journalist: Notes from the edge of the narrative matrix
I feel like we haven’t been talking enough about the fact that US government agencies were just caught intimately collaborating with massive online platforms to censor content in the name of regulating the “cognitive infrastructure” of society. (more…)
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Of Shahid and Ghazees – Spin and the “explaining” of Islam
Spin in all its forms is dangerous. Spin linking Islam with terrorism has become a part of everyday life for us – and it is difficult to recognise it as spin precisely because of that fact. (more…)
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How many ABC journalists will report from COP27 in Egypt?
Many loyal ABC supporters were puzzled that our cash strapped public broadcaster could afford the cost of sending 27 staff to London to report on Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, but at least some of us hoped this may signal a fresh direction in overseas news reporting and analysis. (more…)