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- QUENTIN DEMPSTER. The ABC is now fighting for its survival (Speech delivered on 7 February 2019)
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- Wait for it! Dutton’s Army! 18 February 2019
- FRANK BRENNAN. Safe Turnbacks and Appropriate Medical Care for Asylum Seekers (Eureka Street, 18 February 2019) 18 February 2019
- BARRY CASSIDY undercuts Liberal scare campaign over boats. (ABC Insiders) 18 February 2019
- BOB DEBUS. How close to Armageddon do we have to get? 18 February 2019
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Category Archives: Media
PETER MANNING. The Chair the ABC needs
After a year from hell, the ABC desperately needs stability, leadership, vision and funds.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. The ABC is now fighting for its survival (Speech delivered on 7 February 2019)
In trying to defend the ABC as an institutional pillar of a fearless free media in Australia’s robust democracy, first, we have to confront paranoia.It comes in the form of constant Murdoch Press complaints that the ABC is biased and … Continue reading
Posted in Media
10 Comments
MATTHEW O’NEILL. How the media’s fixation with Trump was exported. (The Interpreter 23.1.2019)
The Trump administration has hurtled into its third year and the media circus that’s trailed the 45th president continues apace. Australians who didn’t tune out of the news over the summer holidays were fed a diet of chaos and controversy … Continue reading
Posted in Media, Politics
3 Comments
CRISPIN HULL. Solution to ABC budget cuts. (Canberra Times 19.1.2019)
Here is an idea for how the ABC might deal with the inevitable round of cuts next Budget. Clever bureaucrats when faced with funding cuts go for the jugular. They attack some popular vote-sensitive function and announce it will be … Continue reading
JAKE JOHNSON. Facebook let corporate partners read users’ private messages.
Just hours after civil rights groups called on Facebook’s top executives to step down from the company’s board for allowing “viral propaganda” and “bigoted campaigns” to spread on the platform, demands for CEO Mark Zuckerberg to resign intensified after a bombshell New York … Continue reading
KIM WINGEREI. Independent Media On The Rise
To conclude my series of posts on media power and politics, it is worth highlighting how independent media is on the rise in Australia. As we head into the new year – elections looming – trust in politicians at an … Continue reading
Posted in Media
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KIM WINGEREI. The Politics of Media Power.
Much has been said and will continue to be said about the power that Rupert Murdoch wields in our very concentrated media landscape. It is a landscape that continues to change and the ACCC just released the preliminary report on … Continue reading
CHRIS HEDGES. Banishing Truth – The story of Seymour Hersh. (Truthdig 24.12.2018)
The investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, in his memoir “Reporter,” describes a moment when as a young reporter he overheard a Chicago cop admit to murdering an African-American man. The murdered man had been falsely described by police as a robbery suspect … Continue reading
Posted in Media, Politics
8 Comments
ANDREW GLIKSON. The ABC 2018 year-roundup and the defining issue of our time.
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil – God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act” Dietrich Bonhoeffer The ABC 2018 year wrap-up included a few seconds of … Continue reading
PETER MANNING. The Best of 2018: Public trust and the ABC, a landmine for Turnbull.
It’s a long-time ago now but in the early 1990’s, just after I’d finished my stint as head of ABC TV News and Current Affairs (and having a blue with first Bob Hawke and then David Hill over ABC TV … Continue reading
Posted in Media
5 Comments
AMANDA MEADE. Positive finding on ABC and SBS a bitter pill for News Corp (The Guardian).
Rejection of competition complaints wasn’t what the Australian was hoping for. Plus: Ray Hadley sees the light.
Posted in Media
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JOHN MENADUE. Newcastle Port – another botched privatisation -A repost from 5 September 2016
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has taken legal action over the terms on which the NSW Coalition Government in 2013 privatised Port Botany and Port Kembla and imposed severe restrictions on Newcastle Port. Our mainstream media has shown scant … Continue reading
Posted in Infrastructure, Media
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WANNING SUN AND HAIQING YU. Mandarin-speaking voters in Victoria: WeChat, new influencers and some lessons for politicians.
The state election in Victoria saw a dramatic swing to Labor in areas with a high concentration of Chinese-speaking migrants. Mount Waverley saw a 6.4% swing to Labor and Box Hill 7.7%. As participant observers in WeChat discussions, we offer … Continue reading
Posted in Media, Politics, Refugees, Immigration
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KIM WINGEREI. Media Ethics and Politics
As the political circus goes from bad to worse, it is important to not only demand that our politicians improve their behaviour, but the media has an equally important role to play. Journalists and the media already have a code … Continue reading
Posted in Media, Politics
9 Comments
MICHAEL PASCOE. Fairfax joins the Murdoch sectarian beat-up brigade (The New Daily).
The first law of journalism is that bad news is good news – bad news sells. On Monday, Fairfax’s Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers had a choice between a “good news” story and twisting the facts to make a “bad … Continue reading
Posted in Media
3 Comments
LAURIE PATTON. Time to ditch our dud NBN – beaten by the ‘All Blacks of Broadband’
The contrast could not be any starker. As warnings emerged that Australia’s telcos are seeing their profits squeezed by the end of NBN Co’s short-lived wholesale price discount (with the likelihood that retail prices will rise), across the ditch came word … Continue reading
Posted in NBN
3 Comments
ANDREW GLIKSON. Which planet is the media living on?
While extreme weather events are being reported almost daily on news bulletins, only rarely is it conveyed that these events constitute the manifestation of advanced global warming and a fundamental shift in the state of the atmosphere. Rarely do major … Continue reading
Posted in Environment and climate, Media
1 Comment
PAUL COLLINS. ABC -Shenanigans at Ultimo’s Level Fourteen.
Monday’s Four Corners on the ABC’s management shenanigans—the Guthrie-Milne, she said-he said fiasco—and the failure of the rest of the ABC Board to own-up and answer publicly for their performance tells you everything about what’s wrong at the top of … Continue reading
Posted in Media
7 Comments
JIEH-YUNG LO. Ross Cameron sacking shows we won’t tolerate racism any further.
In typical fashion, Andrew Bolt through his blog at the Herald Sun mounted a defence of Ross Cameron’s sacking from Sky News Australia. Instead of recognising its racist connotations directed towards Chinese people (and people of Chinese origin for that … Continue reading
Posted in Human Rights, Media
2 Comments
MARGARET SIMONS. Good riddance to Guthrie and Milne. The ABC needs grown-ups in charge (the Guardian 12.11.18)
The most powerful message to emerge from Four Corners’ sad story about the tumult at the top of the ABC is that neither the former chairman Justin Milne nor the former managing director Michelle Guthrie appeared to be friends of … Continue reading
AMANDA MEADE. ‘It was magic’: Kerry O’Brien on ABC bosses, battles and why it’s no bed of lefties (The Guardian)
‘It was magic’: Kerry O’Brien on ABC bosses, battles and why it’s no bed of lefties.
Posted in Media
3 Comments
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Mass media power plays and the death of Fairfax
The competition regulator ACCC has now green-lighted the death of Fairfax Media Ltd., the governance entity what has been a foundational influence on public interest journalism in Australia since 1831.
BRIAN COYNE. Reading the needs and wants of the ordinary punters.
The ABC’s 7.30 program on Tuesday night had an interesting analysis program on Rupert Murdoch, his heir-apparent, Lachlan, and the future for their empire and the media. [See link below] While they’ve sold off much of their empire (for something … Continue reading
Posted in Media
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LAURIE PATTON. The NBN sinks deeper into a technological mire.
Oh dear! This week new NBN Co boss Steven Rue told Senate Estimates they are still projecting that FTTN (the trouble-plagued technology using Telstra’s ageing copper wires) will be used until 2040. Experts, including Internet Australia chair Dr Paul Brooks, say FTTN will have to be replaced within 5-10 years of completion, … Continue reading
Posted in NBN
2 Comments
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. A short history of the ABC. Part 2.
The Senate will be enquiring into political interference at the ABC. Quentin Dempster provides useful historical background to that inquiry.
JOHN STAPLETON. The fiasco of Australia’s telecommunications.
Complaints against the troubled broadband network have risen yet again with the latest Telecommunications Ombudsman’s Report, released this week, showing significant increases in complaints over the last year.
Posted in Infrastructure, NBN
5 Comments
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. A short history of the ABC. Part 1.
The Senate will be enquiring into political interference at the ABC.Quentin Dempster provide useful historical background to that inquiry.
GAY ALCORN. ‘Australia is in trouble’: majority media and lobbying destroy trust in politics, Garnaut says.
Economist Ross Garnaut tells conference the independent centre is being drowned out by business interests,main stream media and lobbyists.
Posted in Media, Politics
2 Comments
JIM RUTENBERG. Reality Breaks Up a Saudi Prince Charming’s Media Narrative.
Just six months ago, American media outlets presented a sunny-side-up portrait of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia as he made a good-will tour of New York, Hollywood and Silicon Valley and dining with Rupert Murdoch.
Posted in International Affairs, Media
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USHA M RODRIGUES. New research shows how Australia’s newsrooms are failing minority communities.
Australians from culturally diverse backgrounds often feel frustrated about media coverage of news events and issues that portray them in a negative light. A new study analysing media coverage of issues related to multicultural Australia found that more than a … Continue reading
Posted in Media
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