Showing all posts in June 2019

“A Web site claiming close ties to Al-Qaida has announced that the leader of the international terror network, Osama bin Laden, is dead, the London-based Arabic daily Asharq Al Awsat reported Friday.” No confirmation of this is currently available.

Who won tonight’s prestigious award for Australia’s Worst Male TV Personality? I shall add little more than hearty congratulations to the winner and wish him less exposure in the coming year. Kerry Packer will thank you, Mr Everywhere.

Attacks on public broadcasters around the world have increased in the last years. Murdoch has been a longtime critic of the BBC, ABC and PBS. His media cheerleaders talk about ingrained left-wing bias and lack of accountability in these institutions but their true aim is more sinister – the eradication of any credible competition to…

The release of UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith’s pre-war legal advice regarding Iraq throws the debate into unchartered territory. Tony Blair has been forced to speak weasel words in his defence (“I did not lie over Iraq”) but a large percentage of the British public now simply do not believe their Prime Minister. Fundamental to…

Ahmed Chalabi, former Pentagon favourite, failed coup leader, alleged spy for Iran and provider of false information regarding Iraq’s WMDs, is back. As acting Iraqi oil minister. The mind boggles. The oil fields were “secured” almost before the invasion began and yet more than two years after the invasion, oil revenues are reaping not a…

“Tony Blair was told by the government’s most senior law officer in a confidential minute less than two weeks before the war that British participation in the American-led invasion of Iraq could be declared illegal.” A startling revelation in today’s Guardian and a story that should receive widespread coverage in Australia, but has not, thus…

I’m proud to join the club… “Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuck-offs and misfits – a false doorway to the backside of life. A filthy, piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up up from…

This weekend signals the beginning of the Eighth Annual Freelance Convention for Journalists, Artists and Photographers organised by the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance. If you’re in Sydney, or feel the need to get here, it’ll be well worth a visit. Speakers include ABC’s Kerry O’Brien and Jonathan Harley and Garry Linnell, editor-in-chief of The…

George W. Bush isn’t one to engage in debate. Indeed, he much prefers talking to slavish followers, Republican hacks and media cheerleaders. He recently toured the US promoting his plan to privatise social security. He conducted fake town hall meetings where nobody spoke out of line and everybody congratulated their President. Why? Republican media strategist…

The election of Josef Ratzinger as the new Catholic Pontiff has drawn the predictable cries from familiar circles, including this one. And critics are just warming up. How about the connections between Ratzinger and Opus Dei, the secretive sect associated with fascism and American Supreme Court judges? What about the links between the new Pope…