One of the pillars of an open, democratic society is a free Press, however that freedom has two parts: the freedom to investigate has to be matched by an obligation to publish. Otherwise it’s not a free Press, it’s an organ for personal, corporate or state propaganda. The Press is talking loudly at the moment […]
On Wednesday the Minister for Home Affairs did what he and the Prime Minister have consistently claimed, and complained, he couldn’t do.[1] He blocked a medevac transfer, using the medevac law he and the PM had previously sworn made it impossible for him to block transfers. Apart from the stunning hypocrisy and barefaced lying this […]
Look, down in the gutter, is it a cat, is it a window, is it a brand? No, it’s PETER DUTTON! Recently the Minister for Home Affairs, the Honourable Peter Dutton, suggested that certain protestors should have their welfare benefits cut, face mandatory jail sentences, and be publicly shamed. Even for Dutton this seemed pretty […]
What a piece of art this Press Release is; how subtly and not so subtly it attempts to frame Jones and 2GB as the victims, and their valued advertisers even more so. For my own amusement I decided to dissect it and its language to lay bare the hypocrisy and deceit. “Through this incident, So […]
How four charts are all that’s needed to demolish the ABC’s pathetic defence of an NBN lie. If you need further explanation, it’s below. Background The other day the ABC published a story about the NBN that effectively claimed that Netflix was the cause of congestion problems in part of its network. The ABC article […]
If you’d googled “the Netflix effect” a few days ago all you’d have found was articles about binge viewing, or the sudden stardom of previously unknown actors. That changed on Monday, when in this story the ABC tried to convince us that there is another “Netflix effect”, and according to them it’s the reason why the […]
Or – a dam doesn’t care where the river starts In a secular society like Australia the source of an individual’s moral code should be irrelevant; what matters is their behaviour. If the law says you may not throw stones at people, then if two individuals both throw stones at someone, one of them isn’t […]
The Unsung Heroes Of Election ’19 Just as the automobile displaced the horse and buggy, so too assembly-line car workers displaced the craftsmen who made buggies and buggy-whips, and as their profession died out, with it sadly died the skills and knowledge of their craft. Today we’re witnessing another such extinction: journalism. This piece is […]
At considerable risk to my mental health I watched Waleed Aly’s interview of Scott Morrison on The Project, and then against professional advice watched it again so that I could transcribe it. What follows is that transcription, as accurate as possible inasmuch as I had to stop listening when my ears started to bleed and […]
You don’t reason with a tornado. It’s not a sentient being. You don’t reason with toddlers. They haven’t developed the capacity for logical thought. Even in adults, reason is pointless against grief, rage or belief, because they’re not based on logic or rational thought. They’re supported by emotions and values, not logic and facts. Which […]
There is a blot on our escutcheon! A stain on our reputation! Our name is mud! Oh, the ignominy of it all. Our politicians happily lie, cheat, and steal openly from the public purse, and then lie about cheating and stealing from the public purse. But we don’t cheat at ball games. We happily incarcerate children, even […]
For some time now I’ve watched with growing dismay as our once superlative public broadcaster is slowly gutted and made over as a cheap copy of commercial stations. There are many lies told as the rationale for this slow bleeding out of Aunty, and probably the biggest and simplest is that the ABC should, or […]
Death of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation greatly exaggerated. Writing about the Queensland election results I am struck by the similarities with the press coverage of the 45th Presidential elections in the U.S.A. which I wrote about previously. Here, as there, there have been multiple, almost 180 degree shifts in predictions about the election result. Here, as […]
MP John Alexander resigned his seat in parliament on Saturday, five days after Fairfax Media revealed that it was highly likely he was a dual citizen, and nearly four months after the issue of dual citizenship became front page news with Scott Ludlam’s surprise resignation. While I’m not John Alexander, here’s my attempt at what […]
Everybody knows the proverb “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”. I don’t think so. Quite apart from the simplistic, black-and-white division of the world into friends and enemies, I think it’s a morally dangerous idea. It might encapsulate a frequent truth about expedient political alliances, but more often than not I think it […]
