On the growing irrelevancy of Rupert Murdoch's pom pom waving dead tree media

This is a great analysis of why the influence of the Murdoch press is less and less something to worry about:
insidestory.org.au/why-bill-shorten-and-labor-can-afford-to-ignore-rupert-murdoch

Only 4% of Australians buy one of their papers. Less than 10% read one. They are already fixed in their political views.

Their influence beyond their own stable is rather less than you'd imagine, and mostly to talkback radio:
"a self-aggrandising and self-referential noise machine, and their volume and bluster should not be mistaken for outreach."

So maybe it's time the rest of us consigned the Murdoch media to the irrelevancy box, and stopped getting hot under the collar about their latest outrage?

Canberra bashing. We are over it. My response to Fairfax and @feed_the_chooks

The Melbourne Age has run a piece by Martin McKenzie-Murray (@feed_the_chooks) that has raised a lot of ire among Canberrans. It's insidiously more than the usual Canberra bashing we expect from Sydney and Melbourne journalists in the way it tries to portray it is somehow different and more rational than the usual dumpings.

To compound the offence, the Age's stablemate The Canberra Times has followed up with a defence—not of Canberra, but of its journalist...

I want to write a piece deconstructing the original article line by line. But in the meantime, here is my response to the Canberra Times defence, as lodged via their Comments function:

We know out city is not perfect. Politicians make mistakes. Transport and land use planners make mistakes (boy do they make mistakes). But the strength of WBG's vision is that the city has largely withstood the worst efforts to derail (light rail pun intended) its innovative alternative to squishing everything into one choked CBD.

But what we are utterly sick of is Melbourne and Sydney journalists scoring cheap points by indulging in the usual Canberra-bashing "stacks on" that repeatedly gets churned out of tabloid and tabloid-esque media.

It's not an over-reaction. It's a reaction to the entire piece. Cherry-picking a few of the more measured phrases Megan, and a few of the more OTT reactions, does not negate the negativity being promoted by the piece as a whole. Not that it is just plain wrong.

Newspapers once controlled the feedback via their iron grip on the Letters pages. But no longer. We now have social media and we have blogs with surprisingly large readerships. We can now fire back when we've had enough of being dumped on by some fly-by-night visitor who didn't venture outside the Inner South. We have had enough. And we expect a better defence from our own newspaper.

Update: Decided not to bother with the critique of the original article. The author was obviously milking the backlash for all the exposure he could by teasing it along on Twitter (blatant click-baiting), so easier to let it die...

Cyberbully pot-kettle, Greens launches, telescopes, more. The week that was.

Alan Jones learns what it's like on the receiving end; the ACT Greens campaign powers towards 20 October; the first stage of the Square Kilometre Array is turned on; a Nobel laureate yanks the rug out from under Newspoll; iPad Mini confirmed; and much more.

The week that was - my readings and posts.

What do political polling and climate change have in common? Not what you think! Brian Schmidt talks about uncertainty.

Here's the talk by our own Nobel Prize winner Brian Schmidt from the recent TEDx Canberra.

He talks about the certainty in uncertainty, showing how credible statistical analysis can reveal unexpected results.

You may be surprised...

What I've been reading and writing - a bit of a catch-up

This is a catch-up of my reading and writing lists as auto-compiled into e-zines by Paper.li. As usual, it is mostly for my own reference down the track, but maybe someone is interested.

The recycling bin may no longer be full of discarded newspapers, but holy moley I'm chewing through some online reading...

Editions for the week ending:

1 October

24 September

17 September

10 September

3 September

27 August

20 August

13 August

6 August

30 July

23 July

16 July

9 July

Phew. That's it. Must keep on top of this a bit better...

Greens leader Christine Milne's address to the National Press Club last week

Christine Milne gave her first address to the National Press Club as Greens Federal Parliamentary Leader last week, with her theme being "An economy that serves people and nature, not the other way around."

Watch here, or if you prefer, the transcript is here.


A few quick extracts:

Didn't take long for Alan Jones to start blaming everyone else - including the journalist

Reluctant as I am to have his visage on my blog, this shot fits perfectly...

The almost unanimous condemnation of the atrocious comments by talk radio 'shock jock' Alan Jones appear to have achieved precisely what a number of commentators predicted: a faux apology, followed shortly thereafter by blame-shifting to everyone else, in this pathetic attempt at defence in News Corp media.

And foremost of course on the blame list is the journalist who had the temerity to pay for a ticket to an open-invitation Liberal Party fundraising event, to use a private email address, attend that event, and - oh my gosh - record the speech being given at that public event. Even the Listening Devices Act (NSW) gets a look-in. Sorry Jones - a public address is not a "private discussion". (I've had cause to study that piece of deliberately vague law-making myself...)

Along the way, the blame shifting gets spread or implied on:

Catch-up on The Beach House Weekly reading summaries

The weekly Paper.li digital magazine tool dropped off for a while and they lost the ability to call up archive copies by week.

It's sorted now, so here's a catch-up . Likely this isn't of much interest to anyone else - more for my own record. But feel free to check them out if you like!


What I've been reading and/or writing about:
July 2
June 25
June 18
June 11
June 3

Look out - Greg Jericho has written a book about social media and politics. Can't wait!

As the old media of Fairfax and New Corp struggle vainly to resist the changes being wrought by the internet and social media, some people "get it".

One of those people is Greg Jericho - formerly anonymous author of the hugely popular blog Grog's Gamut.

Greg was unnecessarily and shamelessly outed a while back by former Canberra Times (old media) journalist James Massola, who is now with the Fin Review.

Although he ended up leaving his public service job, Jericho has gone on to a fairly successful role as an alternative voice on Australian federal politics - primarily via the ABC's cutting edge commentary platform The Drum.

Japanese Emperor censored over Fukushima comments?

Japanese society is apparently seething that the country's media self-censored comments made by Emperor Akihito on the anniversary of the tsunami.

The Emperor discussed the impact of the Fukushima reactor meltdowns and the displaced residents:

As this earthquake and tsunami caused the nuclear power plant accident, those living in areas designated as the danger zone lost their homes and livelihoods and had to leave the places they used to live. In order for them to live there again safely, we have to overcome the problem of radioactive contamination, which is a formidable task.

Even the Japanese Prime Minister said nothing about Fukushima.

Watch the whole speech in the video on the website, includes shots of the amazing mess caused by the tsunami. It was a poignant and honest speech.

What's going on over there??

Calling 'shenanigans' on political and media spin - two good articles. Can we please have more?

It's been a strange week in politics, by any measure and on a number of fronts.

But there's also been something strange going on - departures from spin. Nay - outright criticisms of spin...

The first was not really out of the ordinary - another solid blog piece from Greg Jericho on the ABC's The Drum (and his personal blog the famous Grog's Gamut). It's a longish piece - Greg's posts generally are - but stick it through as he systematically demolishes 'media by anecdote'. He loves graphs and uses them to great effect in demonstrating the lie of Gerry Harvey's pitch that online shopping is killing Australian businesses and the assertion by Terry McCrann and others that there is a looming wages blow-out.

Then today was this great piece by Daniel Hurst on the 100% online media outlet BrisbaneTimes.com.au.

Pretty amazing viral ad video for The Guardian - three little pigs - the real story!

The story usually isn't just black and white, but lazy journalism normally tells us it is.

UK's The Guardian is keen to convince us they approach things differently, and this video ad sure does a good job to that end.



Hat tip to @crystalsinger - yep guaranteed to go viral.

The fundamental problem with adversarial politics - they lose sight of the real purpose

ABC's Radio National Media Report recently interviewed former media adviser and now journalist Niki Savva about the roles of parliamentary media advisers. Savva will be familiar to many as the regular right-wing panellist on ABC Insiders, whose comments are guaranteed to draw a torrent of criticism in the Twittersphere.

The discussion was about media advisers going too far, in the context of the Prime Minister's adviser Tony Hodges getting the axe after prompting the debacle at The Lobby restaurant on Australia Day.

In the interview, Savva said:

"... half your job is to protect and promote your boss and the other half of your job is to make strikes against the opposition."

I have a fundamental problem with that, because naive me always thought politicians were there to govern the country the best way possible. So by extension wouldn't a media adviser's role then be to promote their own good policy, and point out flaws - if there are any - in other people's policies?

Yes I have nominated for Greens pre-selection for the ACT election

It’s now public knowledge that I have nominated for pre-selection for the Greens party for the upcoming ACT elections.

It’s important to note though that nominating for pre-selection does not mean I am now a candidate. It means that mine is one of a few names that will be put to the Greens membership later this month, and the members will vote on who they want as their candidates. When the results are announced in March, then everyone will know who the candidates are going forward into the final months before the election. It’s a reality of the Greens that a surprising number of commentators don’t seem able to grasp—a political party where decisions are actually made by the membership rather than a faceless cadre. Perhaps they are just too used to the way the old parties work...

So despite the coverage given by the Canberra Times, no candidates have been chosen, and until today the members of the party didn’t even know who has put their hand up. In fact, they still don’t because the Times only chose to discuss me. There are two other electorates, and nominees in all of them. I would have preferred to wait out due process before talking publicly if selected. But there are some comments made in the Times and elsewhere that need to be put to rights.

From cherry-picking denialists to space games and squealing sheilas: weekly wrap of The Beach House

What I've been reading and writing about for the week to 5th of February, all in a neat little magazine for you.

The Global Mail - coming real soon now...

As 'mainstream' media is evenly divided but altogether dominated by talking up a Rudd spill and navel-gazing about the (quite concerning) buy-up of Fairfax shares by miner Gina Reinhart, a new competitor has been quietly getting ready to launch.

Although I'm not sure 'competitor' is the right word. Because only the ABC will be close to The Global Mail with regard to a focus on independence and quality journalism.

+

The new Public Service social media guidelines are a joke

"Laughable, unworkable and backward" was a description for the new guidelines for public servants using social media, issued recently by the Australian Public Service Commission.

Media commentator and famous 'Grog's Gamut' blogger Greg Jericho described the guidelines as "doesn't fit with how reality works."

Jericho is spot on. Each department of the APS operates as a separate entity. To try to mandate that public servants can't sound off about the government in general is a joke, unenforceable, in fact barely even able to be monitored.

The common sense 'rules' are simple. You just bite your tongue about anything to do with the department and minister(s) you work for. And that's all that will happen. You simply can't gag more than 100,000 people in a political town like Canberra.

And under the new APSC guidelines, am I now in breach just posting this...?

Perspectives on the Tent Embassy Anniversary fracas

A lot has been written about the events of Australia Day 2012 in Canberra. A lot of it misinformed, a lot blown out of any semblance of proportion. But very little written with any regard for the unnecessary and completely avoidable damage done to the cause for reconciliation.

Apart from Laurie Oakes' piece questioning the role both before and during of the Australian Federal Police, and this piece by Sunshine Coast Daily oped writer Bill Hoffman:

The tent embassy on the lawns of old parliament house is 40 years old.

It has sat there as an ugly reminder of the ugly reality of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' disadvantage for all that time.

Oakes the only one asking the right questions about the AFP handling of the Australia Day incident?

So much was avoidable about what happened this Australia Day just gone. Any Canberran would have known that the 40th Anniversary of the establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy would attract an emotionally charged audience. Any Canberran knows that the Lobby Restaurant is virtually next to the Tent Embassy.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/multimedia/33572/448362/january-27-2012.aspx

How come then that the Australian Federal Police - Canberra's police force - didn't connect that having the two events side-by-side was a recipe for problems?

Why is it that Laurie Oakes seems to be the only one in our mainstream media asking questions about the incompetence of the AFP in anticipating this, and then in the way they managed the extraction of the nation's top two political representatives?

But it has to be said the operation could have been handled better. It was anything but copybook. Clumsy is the word that comes to mind.

The Herald Sun is quoting one of my tweets??

One of the fun aspects that I enjoy about Twitter is the seemingly spontaneous games that erupt now and then under their own hashtag: #famousbookswithoneletterchanged, #notsoambitiousbooktitles, to name a couple.

So when Anthony Albanese delivered a pretty good speech the other day, it only took seconds for journo Lyndal Curtis to notice an uncredited plagiarism by Albo's speechwriter as she was live-tweeting the speech:

@lyndalcurtis: I think @AlboMP just quoted from the movie "The American President". #pressclub

And not long more for the fun to begin in the Twitterverse:

@grogsgamut: These are not the policies you're looking for #AlboSpeeches@cjjosh: "We're going to need a bigger vote" #albospeeches

To which I added:

Your bills shall not pass!! #AlboSpeeches

I had in mind Albanese sounding off about The Greens in recent times... Didn't seem to get a reaction though, wasn't retweeted or anything.

I was surprised though when my Google Alerts threw up this article in the Herald Sun, which quoted my tweet! And it was followed by a second article that was very similar. Must be how media keeps clicking new content over these days - by rehashing existing articles. And note that the article's quoting of Brian Loughnane as the first to spot the quote was not correct - as explained above.