Meeting the Chinese president is apparently now treason. At least, that’s what you’d think if you followed some of our media’s coverage of Anthony Albanese’s latest diplomatic sin: talking to Beijing. (more…)
Category: Media
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‘It is not antisemitic to criticise Israel,’ says Federal Court judge – and the Executive Council of Jewry agrees!
In the light of the revelations in the Lattouf v ABC decision about the way in which the Israel lobby hounded the ABC, the judgment in the recently decided Federal Court case Wertheim & Goot v Haddad is both significant, “interesting” and certainly more than revelatory. (more…)
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The fanatic’s gaze: Louis Theroux and the West Bank settlers
He has made it his bread and butter for years: finding society’s kooky representatives, the marginal, the crazed and the touched. (more…)
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The story most Israelis are not allowed to hear
I write this in quite a distressed state. On Sunday, I watched the award-winning documentary film – “No Other Land”. (more…)
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Missed opportunities in Japan
John Menadue points to the lack of Australian interest and involvement in Asia. (more…)
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Engulfed in a moral panic about childcare assaults
The moral panic enveloping Australia and the ABC over the existence of child molesters in the childcare system will do this nation no good. (more…)
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J’accuse (Part 2) – The Israel lobby
Readers may recall a piece published here on Pearls and Irritations (J’accuse!… the Jew who accuses his fellow Jews of being antisemites on 23 February, 2025 — in which I wrote about an offensive tweet Mark Leibler (lawyer and leader of AIJAC) posted on X — in which, amongst other things, he described those Jews criticising Israel as “vicious antisemites”. (more…)
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Israel: The true superpower? Journalist exposes global threat in explosive Sydney talk
In a searing address to a sold-out crowd in Sydney on Saturday night 28 June 2025, award-winning Australian investigative journalist Antony Loewenstein declared that Israel has quietly become the world’s most dangerous superpower, wielding weapons, surveillance technology, and AI systems perfected on Palestinians to control populations across many countries. (more…)
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Trump tariff deals with Japan, India bogged down – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Trade pact sealed with Vietnam. Plus: Dalai Lama at 90 – the institution will continue; Region’s newspapers show disdain for NATO; China, Pakistan setting up new South Asian bloc; Canberra, Beijing squabble over project naming rights. (more…)
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Iran: The things it won’t do to say
If Thomas Friedman’s fairytale world of light-versus-darkness were to evaporate, less noble motives for US and Israeli actions might be revealed. (more…)
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So… calling for peace isn’t enough, but dropping bombs gets a free pass?
When China submitted a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Iran, the response wasn’t debate or discussion. It was suspicion. (more…)
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I’d rather a bloodied shark than AI
Until recently, I regarded AI as just another technical assist, a natural enhancement of Google where one finds the perfect word to complete a sentence, or to expand on the broad brush of Wikipedia info. (more…)
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Murdoch’s News Corp has moved into the mortgage business. Where are the regulators?
If you want to advertise a house online in Australia, you don’t have many options. Just two companies dominate the market. (more…)
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No time to dye: ABC’s China bias is licensed to kill credibility
The ABC has long held a reputation as Australia’s sober, publicly-funded bulwark against tabloid sensationalism – the broadcaster you turn to when you want analysis, not alarmism. (more…)
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Australia’s media myopia
Australia’s media establishment has a problem and it’s not just about declining revenues or shrinking newsrooms. It’s about a fundamental failure to understand where we live and what’s at stake in our own neighbourhood. (more…)
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Don’t talk or write about Palestine. It’s a career killer
The new McCarthyism sweeps through the university sector at a terrifying pace. At the core is conflation of antisemitism with criticism of Israel, spurred on by the pro-Israel lobby that has convinced or recruited governments and large sections of the media. (more…)
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Lattouf’s win over ABC a big victory for freedom of expression
Journalist and broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf’s win over the ABC in the Federal Court is a significant victory for freedom of expression. (more…)
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Palestine will remain the issue
Israel and the US can bomb us, assassinate our scientists, starve our children, imprison our leaders, change our governments… and Palestine will remain the issue. (more…)
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Iran’s internet blackout left people in the dark. How does a country shut down the internet?
In recent days, Iranians experienced a near-complete internet blackout, with local service providers — including mobile services — repeatedly going offline. Iran’s Government has cited cyber security concerns for ordering the shutdown. (more…)
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Our white man’s media shuns Asia
We talk glibly about our future in Asia, but we are stuck in a US and UK media cul de sac. (more…)
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Banning social media for kids is not the answer. Jonathan Haidt is wrong
Jonathan Haidt is described as a modern-day prophet who claims to have the cure for the epidemic of anxiety afflicting young kids today. (more…)
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Writers bearing witness in a time of genocide
I’ve been thinking a lot about an honours thesis I wrote more than 20 years ago, that thing you sweated through, that maybe your mother skimmed, that you stuck in the back of a cupboard somewhere never to be read or thought of again. (more…)
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Thai Government in turmoil over embarrassing call – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Party quits Thailand’s governing coalition. Plus: Cambodia named a global cyberscam hub; Japanese PM empty-handed after Trump meeting; US tariff regime a critical test for ASEAN; New efforts to ease two-Koreas tensions; Indonesia revises history of anti-Chinese riots. (more…)
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News Corp’s China obsession: why beating the drum is easier than thinking
Introducing our new columnist Fred Zhang, who brings you his take on the way the Australian media reports and/or mis- and under- reports on China. (more…)
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The FICAC Commission of Inquiry fiasco in Fiji
What started out as a trivial story barely worthy of public attention has grown into a full-blown crisis for the Sitiveni Rabuka-led government in Fiji. (more…)
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Social media takes over as main source of news as trust falls
A major global survey reveals that social media has overtaken news sites as Australians’ main source of news amid falling trust in news, growing concern over misinformation, and rising news avoidance. (more…)
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Is Marles the right fit for defence?
P&I readers don’t need to be told that Defence Minister Richard Marles is floundering when trying to make security links with Indonesia seem as though they’ve “never been in better shape”. (more…)
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Reflections on Ukraine’s ‘Spider Web’ and other attacks on Russia: why the euphoria?
Reports by invested parties of battlefield success in most wars — and the war between Russian and Ukraine is an exemplary case — are best read when accompanied by the aphorism of the ancient Greek tragic dramatist, Aeschylus — in war, truth is the first casualty — and then following the unfolding of Newton’s 3rd Law as applied to war reportage: every claim is met with a counter-claim until something resembling an account corresponding to observable facts emerges. This, almost without exception, reduces the original version to an ambitious fable. (more…)
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An algorithm decides whether you have an online life or not
Recently, I lost a Facebook account I’d had for 17 years. It wasn’t just a social media profile — it was a living archive of my life. (more…)
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Investing in Pearls
There’s a certain frisson as well as tension to this time of the year (June). It’s the time when those of us lucky enough (with enough) to have to make tax decisions can choose where to make a tax-deductible contribution that will, indeed et voila, lessen our tax bill while (possibly) benefitting a good cause. (more…)