Using the media to mislead the residents
Taking the time to observe the many birds in our garden provides a complete distraction from the more serious matters of life.
Well, at least this is what it should be.
Tag Archives: the media
Trump and the media
click on the image for the wise words about dealing with Trump
The Media
Did Media Literacy Backfire?
click on the image for the article
Journalism
A word or two on the media and journalism – click on the image above
The Guardian on globalisation
Why all the super buzz about the supermoon?
Obama and the Realities of the Media
Comment on the main stream press churnalism
Australia, as with most western countries, suffers because of the death of real journalism. This has been mentioned before in particular with Nick Davies’ book, Flat Earth News – click here.
In Australia the main stream press is quite diligent in ensuring that any real social equity and justice issues are panned as being not relevant if they are mentioned at all. The media have a history of defining and then pursuing a neo-conservative agenda.
Journalism in Australia
Comment on Australian Journalism
I have long been disappointed by the quality of Australian journalism. This includes the quality of the work being done through the ABC as well as most mainstream media. It has become far to easy to churn out any story without checking facts.
Big Tobacco & Michael Moore of Canberra
Commentary: Did Big Tobacco win this one
I had previously posted a link to a good commentary by Michael Moore of Canberra. He said among other scathing things: “Tobacco companies want to prove that plain packaging does not work because it is being seriously considered by other governments across the world.”
When news gets weird
Commentary: when the news gets weird
Most days the news is too predictable in that most sources simply churn out whatever the others are churning out.
George Monbiot
Commentary: George Monbiot
There are lots of good commentators out there who have loads of intelligent views to offer. George Monbiot, author and contributor to the Guardian, is one of these people.
I have quoted from George before and have a few of his books.
Michael Moore of Canberra
Commentary: Articles by Michael Moore of Canberra
I have mentioned articles written by a local, Michael Moore. While he holds down a very busy job in health, he continues to devote serious time to punching out thoughtful articles in one of the local free newspapers. They are most welcomed.
Bolt out of the blue hits Bolt
Comment: no further comment required
Andrew Bolt has been called a racist on his own TV show by former Labor frontbencher Craig Emerson. Bolt attacked Qantas’ decision to support the Recognise campaign for Indigenous constitutional recognition as racist, but Emerson said Bolt was the racist for his attacks on fair-skinned Indigenous people
Click on the image for the video when Craig Emerson calmly messed with Andrew Bolt’s thick head!
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Paul Costigan, 18 August 2014
The Saturday Paper
Review: Media
the SATURDAY PAPER
I am recommending that you read a couple of articles in last weekend’s Saturday Paper. As a general comment, The Saturday Paper is a good read. At times the combined effect of their well written articles about current issues can be a little depressing. Australia’s has one of its worst governments and most commentators are doing the right thing in examining just how much trouble these people are causing the country. It is not good news. My preference is that I would like to see more regular articles on the visual arts!
International Atrocities
Political Comment on two international atrocities
Two commentators have offered intelligent comment on the two atrocities currently occupying headlines and interest.
Murdoch
INSIDE STORY
The battle of Mort Street
A story about newspapers in Canberra: with both the Canberra Times and Murdoch’s new The Australian going into battle on Mort Street Braddon.
Click here to go to The Inside Story.
Annabel Crabb
Comment: Book Reviews
Annabel Crabb and the reviews of Hilary Clinton’s Book, Hard Choices
There’s a good chance that I will not buy Hilary Clinton’s Book, Hard Choices. I admit to not reading any of these large political biographies. I do however often follow the media’s comments on such productions to sense just how the media treats the authors (even if they are mostly ghost writers).
You Must Read The Monthly
REVIEW: The Monthly
This is a recommended read this month
This is not to say that it isn’t a good read in other months, but the July 2014 issue is definitely a sit and read from cover to cover!
for instance:
Murdoch Power & Money
Comment: Murdoch Power wins again
The saga of the phone hacking trial has delivered verdicts based on the evidence that was presented and accepted. The difficulty was always going to be that Murdoch power and money could always outdo the resources of those trying to make the charges stick.
Q & A Student Protest
Opinion: Media and student protest
A few comments on the ‘events’ that occurred during the live broadcast of the ABC’s (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) program Q&A.
The Saturday Paper
Review: Media
the SATURDAY PAPER
These are our comments on the Schwartz Media weekly publication, The Saturday Paper. It is available in most states and is also available in a subscription online version. (this version revised 14 May 2014)
Murdoch UK
Reminder: of dirty deeds done by Murdoch & co
Just in case you have let this nasty affair slip from your radar
Read the latest by clicking on the image right. (or here)
I love the proposition about her being ‘complete fool!’
Web Information Archived
Opinion: About how we preserve online information
Web publishing is a highlight of the democratic process in the 21st Century. All sorts of people and groups have a voice. The trick of course is then getting anyone to notice.
However the greater concern is that with this super abundance of information out there to be read, how much of it can and should be archived. I’m not a heritage freak that believes in heritage of everything and anything. Things change and some things have their day and we move on. Continue reading Web Information Archived
First Dog on the Moon
Major announcement
First Dog on the Moon Lands on the Guardian
For those who have not been Crikey subscribers, their cartoonist, First Dog of the Moon, has been a big attraction.
Sadly for Crikey he has jumped fence and run away – all the way to the Guardian. So we can all enjoy him there now – with no pay-wall and even better – the Guardian has produced his cartoons in big print so he is now much easier to read.
Here’s the first cartoon – click here
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Paul Costigan, 6 April 2014
Murdoch
Comment: Another Murdoch rip off
As reported in the Australian Financial Review, the great caring foreigner, Rupert Murdoch, who is always on about the disadvantaged having too much access to government support and that related social welfare program should be abolished, has yet again managed to rip off the Australian public.
The article reports how through the careful management of paper shuffling, no money actually moved, that the Murdoch press made an enormous claim for some form of tax subsidy.
America the Beautiful
The truth is out there
Follow Up to previous post on this subject – Click here
Last week I wrote about the Superbowl advertising and how the Coca Cola advertisement had caused a backlash from the right-wing nut jobs. This of course was good advertising for Coke.
Click here for my original post.
The nut jobs launched themselves online to go on about how English is the language for America. Well that’s what they say. The same groups are anti everything else; gay marriage, equal right, migration – the lists goes on.
Déjà vu
Opinion: Rabbott defence of Navy actions
With all the spin and calls to be patriotic and to use the Navy for its political purposes, the Rabbott government has carried on with its attack on the ABC.
Health Costs
Opinion: Health Costs – the reality
The Australian Government is currently not doing much, except to hand power to its business friends.
We expect all manner of stupid decisions to follow soon. That is, once the business groups have worked out what they want this Rabbott Government to do. Hence all the reviews underway, which are being overseen by the business and lobby groups who brought this government to power.
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid
Opinion:
Be Afraid, be Very Afraid of balance as provided by the ABC
Once upon a time I was a rusted on ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) watcher. I relied on the ABC, and SBS, for most of my news and current affairs.
Over time as a reaction to the style of gotcha journalism that became the norm on the ABC, radio and TV, I started watching less and less. Today as the result of this quiet reduction in watching and listening to the ABC, I have found that I now routinely do not watch or listen to the ABC.
Judeo-Christian
Opinion: what is the government doing?
and now we have a misuse of the term Judea-Christian
I would recommend first reading the Wikipedia contributions on the use of the term, Judea-Christian (click on the image).
This term, Judea-Christian, is being thrown about by our Rabbott government and its appointed camp followers who are to review the yet to be implemented National Schools Curriculum.
There is now doubt that this carefully orchestrated use of the term Judea-Christian is in fact a nasty stirring up of discrimination.
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid
Opinion: Political Stupidity Reigns Again
The Latest from our Rabbott Government
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid: The national edukashon minister announced that after years of development, years of consultations and a bloody huge amount of work, that he considers he needs to appoint two close political associates to look into getting ‘balance’ back into the curriculum. They state that they will be independent. That probably means their report will be independent of facts and of intellect.
It is obvious that this is more about getting the old ‘culture’ wars started again and to drive particular ideological points into the headlines while loads of other disastrous changes are being put through by the Rabbott.
Journalism
Guardian Opinion
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 Media
Opinion: The state of Australian Media
The Democracy experiment continues to be under threat
An article from the Asia Sentinel hits the mark on the media issues in Australia.
A milestone of a dubious kind was passed in Australia recently when it was discovered that the number of public relations practitioners had for the first time exceeded the number of journalists actually working as reporters and editors. (Hamish McDonald)
The full article is a good read. Click here.
Revolutionary technological breakthrough
Review: Advances in technology
and after watching this, you may need to find your local supplier
of bio-optically organized knowledge centres and then work out whether you are able to get this functioning in your home. Hope this new technology is not too difficult for you to handle along with your new ipads and iphones and all the other latest stuff.
That Media Sneer
A note on Crickey Reporting
Ever so often, actually a little too often, Crickey puts out a silly and patronising report that leaves you feeling What was the point?
Here’s one by Andrew Crook, who has a few of these out there.
Hold the bus! He has researched the possible annual income of the outgoing Prime Minister. Well that ‘s important information I needed to know!
One can not help sense that he is not going to let that Julia Gillard retire quietly and resume life peacefully in her new roles. Must be some dirt here somewhere. Surely such a ‘senior journalist’ could do some real journalism. Is that asking too much? Andrew – get a life, on your bike…
End of the Road?
Review: Book
End of the Road?, Gideon Haigh, Pengiun Specials, 2013
It’s a tough life taking an interest in your country. Traditionally the main sources of information for most people has been the media. In the last decade this source has become totally corrupted, especially the mainstream media and the ABC.
When it comes to the rhetoric around the car industry in Australia, the ideological arguments that are trotted out do nothing but harm and mislead. Thank god (or whoever is out there) Penguin has these ‘Penguin Specials’ and thank you to Gideon for his research and information that goes a long way to providing a reality check on where the country is at when it comes to having a car industry.
Flat Earth News
Review: Book
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
When Names Stick
Sometimes your image of particular people changes to something silly and from then on they can no longer be taken seriously
It was while I was sitting at a meeting a couple of years ago that I became quite irritated and maybe even a little bored with the posturing, the rantings and endless domination of the conversations by one particular male at the meeting.
Media (2)
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.
Truth is out there?
Julia’s ‘murderous rage’
An article in a paper today by Alecia Simmonds stopped me in my tracks.
In the piece she discusses the reporting of the conversation between Anne Summers and Julia Gillard in Sydney. Alecia questions why the reporting concentrated on the statement by Julia when she referred to ‘murderous rage’. Alecia point was that such reporting was about manufacturing controversy yet again. There remains so many celebratory aspects of this event to be highlighted and discussed but too many reporters have yet again chosen to concentrate on making a headline as some form of criticism.