Category: Media

The digital media farce continues as nothing changes

Nine Entertainment is the latest of the old media companies to announce deals with Google and Facebook. For a fraction of what they once thought they deserved, and without any of the benefits to consumers which the Digital Bargaining Code bill purported to provide. (more…)

Jun 3, 2021
Climate Change and ‘The Australian’s’ Graham Lloyd

For years I have marvelled at the way The Australian’s Graham Lloyd has spun climate science research to boost scepticism about global warming and the need for action. (more…)

May 28, 2021
Australian Media in the Asian Century.

This week’s media roundup sees the welcome return of journalist Max Suich. In response spluttering snipes from the anti-China hawks’ nests at ASPI and the ANU’s National Security College were weak. There were also several book releases around growing tensions between Australia and China and new information on the ASIS bugging of Timor-Leste in 2004. (more…)

May 21, 2021
Darkness in a propagandised state risks war with China.

Our distorted perspectives, our ignorance, is now more dangerous than the situation leading to the Vietnam War in the 1960s. We have experienced a sudden end to immediate knowledge of Asia including China We are vulnerable thus to pandemics of media misinformation. (more…)

May 18, 2021
Tamed estate: Debt and deficit disaster? Not when it comes to the Coalition

The coverage was positively glowing. Debt projected to be four times higher than at any point under Labor but nothing could silence the cheerleaders.

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May 14, 2021
On the bandwagon: Australian media helps government peddle disinformation

There has, quite rightly, been criticism in the mainstream media of authoritarian states and their use of disinformation campaigns and cyber attacks. However, the US and its democratic allies decades ago pioneered the use of disinformation in their huge propaganda campaigns. China is just a beginner.

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May 11, 2021
Tamed Estate: Cosy circle receiving Coalition’s ‘drops’ widens to include Rupert’s tabloids

And in true Orwellian Doublespeak, Prime Minister Scott Morrison used the war footing to paint himself as the champion of peace.

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Apr 30, 2021
‘Exclusive survey’ from company with strong links to Liberal Party provides great fodder for Nine’s newspapers

While countries around the world are targeting green hydrogen production, Energy Minister Angus Taylor is spruiking clean hydrogen, which keeps fossil fuels in the game.

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Apr 26, 2021
The repeated lie that Abbott and Morrison stopped the boats has become a ‘fact’. It is just not true.

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 Donald Trump and his big lies.

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Apr 22, 2021
Paranoia over China, government, media, AFP collusion

The High Court’s current deliberations about the legality of warrants issued last year to the AFP to search the home of John Zhang, part-time assistant to NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane, are the tip of a massive iceberg of government abuses of power. (more…)

Apr 16, 2021
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 needs little explanation.

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Apr 16, 2021
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. (more…)

Apr 11, 2021
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. (more…)

Apr 9, 2021
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.

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Apr 9, 2021
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.

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Mar 28, 2021
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.

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Mar 26, 2021
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.

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Mar 26, 2021
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.

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Mar 24, 2021
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. (more…)

Mar 23, 2021
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. (more…)

Mar 22, 2021
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?

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Mar 19, 2021
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. (more…)

Mar 16, 2021
‘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. (more…)

Mar 15, 2021
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. (more…)

Mar 12, 2021
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.

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Mar 12, 2021
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 human disaster and political and sectarian confusion. (more…)

Mar 10, 2021
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 failing monopoly media companies. (more…)

Mar 5, 2021
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.

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Mar 5, 2021
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.

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Mar 5, 2021
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 victory for media diversity and the democratic process.

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Feb 26, 2021