A significant number of commentators have called on the media to stop sane washing bad behaviour of particular politicians and their lackeys. This call went unheeded during the run up to the last US elections and so a gang of self serving mobsters are now in the White House. I would have expected better from the The Atlantic.
This piece was originally published in February 2023
It would a reasonable assumption that many readers of this column would have read about and possibly bought Nicki Savva’s book on the former prime minister, Bulldozed.
Continue reading Nicki Savva and machinations that damage democracy
Book Review: Killing Sydney: The Fight For a City’s Soul
Elizabeth Farrelly’s new book “Killing Sydney: The Fight For a City’s Soul” is a must-read for anyone with an interest in their local planning issues.
Sometimes we fool ourselves that equity is being treated seriously by most sector of society.
The Uber CEO is gone – why?
click here for the story in The Guardian and read about Susan Fowler, the person who did not do as advised – to ignore the sexist behaviour around her.
Totally recommended readingThe theme being – Future thinking
From the publishers:
Although the term and precise starting point might be disputed, many anthropologists believe that ‘behavioural modernity’ – when certain traits such as abstract thinking and symbolic behaviour are said to have emerged in humans – started around 50,000 years ago.
David Marr – The White QueenFrom the publishers: Most Australians despise what Pauline Hanson stands for, yet politics in this country is now orbiting around One Nation. In this timely Quarterly Essay, David Marr looks at Australia’s politics of fear, resentment and race. Who votes One Nation, and why? How much of this is due to inequality? How much to racism? How should the major parties respond to anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim voices? What damage do Australia’s new entrepreneurs of hate inflict on the nation?
Recommended: The Monthly April 2017.This is a must read for the articles on the ALT-Right by Richard Cooke – who pulls no punches and tells it as we all know it but it seems few in the press are game to do – well done Richard; and then there’s a condemning article – with maybe far too much detail – but totally providing an accurate picture of the damage done to the NBN by Malcolm Turnbull and his pals. And what a cover!
A word or two on the media and journalism – click on the image above
Picking up on an online article by Dr Martin Hirst where he lays out some of the problems with journalisms – I offer the following additional thoughts.
Louise Grayson, Queensland University of Technology (this essay was originally published in The Conversation)
A report that signals the ever increasing problems Australians have with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (the ABC) inaccurate reporting on issues.
An update on the issue of a misleading article in The Art Newspaper. Click here and scroll down the page to see the latest on this story
An open letter to The Art Newspaper( 29 July) plus correspondence (5 August 2016)
Over many years I have accessed the Art Newspaper and when appropriate have either passed on links or have posted articles online that have links back to the Art Newspaper.
Continue reading The Art Newspaper – Wrong about The Bishop Museum
Article and essays about the arts have become threatened species given the downturn in the newspapers.
The number of arts writers has continuously being reduced. So it is wonderful that a few survive.
Here’s a couple of perspectives on the so-called ‘stop the boats’.
I had read and reviewed Nick Davies former revelatory book, click here. Now Nick follows through with the more worrying story of the damage that has been done to the media following the phone hacking scandals.
Antony Loewenstein’s wish list for journalism in 2014
Reporters have a choice: to either continue being regarded as untrustworthy, or to be seen as willing to hold the powerful into account. Here are my suggestions for better journalism:
Click here for his article in the guardian
PS: If the ABC could cease having politicians on Q & A, maybe the program format could deliver real debates and possibly become watchable. We need engaging commentators not politicians or their stooges on such programs.
The current state of Cultural Reviews and Critical Comment
Recently the Guardian ran an opinion piece on the Barangaroo development on the eastern edge of Sydney’s CBD. The author pointed out that she had been involved in the project.
I suggest that the author failed to declare that they had been more than just simply ‘involved’. In fact they had been a leading professional on the team that had won the design competition, that had then seen their designs criticised publicly by people such as Paul Keating, then had their wining design rejected by the client and a new design developed and the contracts awarded to other teams.
Flat Earth News, Nick Davies 2009
Just when you though the media and news reporting was crap, along comes a book that proves your worst thoughts on current journalism.
Nick Davies went out on limb as he has criticised his own profession. I suspect he did not win too many friends.
He was reporting on the facts based on his own research and experiences from inside the tent on what had happened to contemporary journalism and why we are now subject to so much ‘churnalism’. Continue reading Flat Earth News
Very topical speech, reproduced online in the Guardian Australia.
Katharine Viner, deputy editor of the Guardian and editor-in-chief of Guardian Australia, has reproduced her speech on The rise of the reader: journalism in the age of the open web.
It is long. A good read.