Antony Loewenstein

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The Sydney Writer’s Festival was a blast over the weekend. One of the highlights was speaking and hanging with the author of Stuff White People Like, Christian Lander. Funny man, a very funny and perceptive man.

Writer Irfan Yusuf – whose book, Once Were Radicals, I launched a few weeks ago in Sydney – had a piece in today’s Crikey (see below) about one of my sessions yesterday regarding blogging and journalism. What isn’t said in this article is that such discussions can be tiresome if contributors simply talk about themselves. Frankly, bloggers can often be far better and accountable journalists than many who call themselves journalists:

To blog or not to blog? That was just one of the questions posed by moderator Rachel Hills to a panel of bloggers, journalists and one burnt-out ex-journalist at a Sydney Writers’ Festival gig on Sunday.

The panel consisted of former Sydney Morning Herald scribe and Webdiary founder Margo Kingston, blogger and author Antony Loewenstein, blogger and tabloid opinion editor Tim Blair and blogger and former editor of Girlfriend magazine Erica Bartle. Their task was to test the following proposition: “If bloggers are all wannabe journalists and journalists are all complacent hacks, why do so few manage to cross over?”

The discussion was fairly free-flowing and surprisingly civil, given what one participant has written about two of the others. I’ll summarise in “first person” what each speaker said at various points.

Kingston: Paul McGeogh kinda pushed me into citizen journalism via what was once the Herald’s Webdiary, and I’m not sure whether to thank or sue him. The interaction with readers was the best thing that happened to me in journalism. Webdiary contributors included concerned expats and rural readers. Journos often put on a persona of detachment because they don’t want their own personal failings exposed whilst quite happy to expose the same failings in others. Many future blog-related jobs will be about moderating comments, and those employed have a high burnout rate. Currently sub-editors do this.

Loewenstein: Why can’t journalists also be advocates? Many effectively advocate despite the veneer of objectivity. Studies have shown that the vast majority of media stories are generated from one source or press release. Journos rarely talk to real people, content to talk to each other. In many non-Western countries, bloggers are the only source of non-state information and take enormous risks, many jailed and tortured.

Bartle: There are no rules in blogging, unlike journalism. Blogs provide a superficial readership experience. I rarely spend an hour online reading a feature article. So much womens magazine journalism is just googling or desktop journalism, with not enough going out into the “fashion trenches”. Rarely do magazine writers speak to people beyond fixed contact lists. Journalist hopefuls should be careful with what they put online as potential employers may not like what you write even if it’s well-written.

Blair: I started blogging after a long career in journalism for Time Magazine and the Daily Telegraph. I’m somewhat lazy and the short form of blogging suited me. When you write a blog post, you can’t help but tell something about yourself (perhaps something like this?). Blog journalists are surprisingly thin-skinned. I encourage young upcoming journos to blog. It’s like an online CV. In these recessionary times, blogging can lead to employment. The Daily Telegraph doesn’t have paid comment moderators (Yep, we can tell).

And what did the chairperson have to say? My notes show Rachel Hills saying she only found a few bloggers in mainstream media interesting enough to visit.

Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon said on Saturday:

Settlements are not the reason that the peace process is failing, they were never an obstacle, not at any stage. Even when Israel pulled out of [Palestinian] territory, the terror continued. Even when we uprooted [Jewish] communities, we got ‘Hamastan.’ That is why I propose that we think about it – not in slogans and not with decrees.

Gideon Levy writes in Haaretz that Israel is sleep-walking to disaster:

Barack Obama has made Israel an offer it cannot – and must not – refuse, yet Israel fails to wake up. Where are those 57 percent of Israelis who said in the latest Haaretz poll that they support a two-state solution? What do they think? That this solution, which they allegedly support, will fall from the sky, without lifting a finger, without making waves among the depths of society, waves that will put such a grandiose process in motion? Where are the protests against the anti-peace position of our elected prime minister, who continues with his hackneyed we-will-not-divide-Jerusalem and we-will-not-come-down-from-the-Golan?

Israeli bloggers campaign for worker’s rights.

The Australian Centre for Independent Journalism and the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at Sydney University present a seminar on:

” Media Complicity? -Reporting Gaza and Sri Lanka 2009″

What happens when the journalists are shut out? What affect does this have on reporting? How should we be reporting Sri Lanka and Gaza from now on? When does journalism become propaganda?

When: Wednesday 27 May 2009
Time: 6 to 8pm
Where: UTS Building 10, Level 7, Room 114 (10.7.114). Building 10 is accessible from Jones Street or Wattle Street, University of Technology, Sydney.
Cost: Free

Speakers:

- Associate Professor Jake Lynch, Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney, former presenter and reporter BBC World Television News and former Sydney correspondent of the Independent. Most recent book is ‘Debates in Peace Journalism’ (Sydney University Press).
- Antony Loewenstein, journalist, blogger and author of ‘My Israel Question’ and ‘The Blogging Revolution’.
- Peter Cave – Executive Producer of ABC’s World Today, who has won five Walkley awards and reported from 50 countries.
Chair: Director of the ACIJ, Professor Wendy Bacon

For further information please contact:
Jan McClelland on 9514 2295 or acijmanager@uts.edu.au

Jews who want to discuss Jews and Israel in a critical way.

The debate grows:

On Monday, a discussion organized by the Jewish Community Centre for London entitled “Can We Talk about Israel?” illustrates just how much the Diaspora debate on Israel has changed. All the panellists were of the left, all opposed the occupation, all were horrified by Avigdor Lieberman and all agreed that it was important to talk about Israel critically rather than give it unqualified support.

Who says the illegal occupation of West Bank settlements is an impediment to peace?

Not the neo-con Zionist Right.