Get used to it. Wendy Bacon, professor of journalism at the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism at the University of Technology, Sydney, writes today that the empire is feeling real pressure for the first time in living memory: On Thursday, with News Corporation awash in allegations of criminality and failed corporate governance, I sent an…
Showing all posts in June 2019
The Guardian’s Nick Davies on how Murdoch punishes friends and enemies
Speaking on Democracy Now!: JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Nick Davies, many of us here in the United States who watched the hearings this week were really surprised at the extent to which the members of Parliament really were dogged in their questioning and fairly confrontational in their questioning. Could you explain to us the degree of…
So this is the culture inside News Limited
As the Australian Murdoch empire begin a comical defence of its glorious and ethical journalistic traditions – “What? Us? With an agenda? We’re just here to hold governments to account!” – a far more honest account of life inside the empire by Michael Williams, Senior Lecturer Print and Online Journalism at the University of Central…
This is what Iraqis have been given; unaccountable mercenaries
Sigh: By January 2012, the State Department will do something it’s never done before: command a mercenary army the size of a heavy combat brigade. That’s the plan to provide security for its diplomats in Iraq once the U.S. military withdraws. And no one outside State knows anything more, as the department has gone to…
The glorious Afghan war is money down the drain (into the pockets of thugs)
This is what US/Australian/British liberation looks like: A lack of U.S. coordination compounded by Afghan foot-dragging has stymied efforts to track billions of aid dollars poured into Afghanistan’s economy in the past decade, providing potential opportunities to launder money and finance the insurgency, according to Afghan officials and a new U.S. government audit. The audit,…
Business as usual during Murdoch controversy?
John Pilger writes: Long before it was possible to hack phones, Murdoch was waging a war on journalism, truth, humanity, and succeeded because he knew how to exploit a system that welcomed his devotion to the “free market”. He may be more extreme in his methods, but he is no different in kind from many…
Internet won’t bring real democracy in Egypt (pass it on)
No kidding (and such news should be given to Western journalists who love talking about a “Facebook/Twitter revolution” in the Arab world): Egyptians who turned to Facebook and Twitter to galvanize their revolt against Hosni Mubarak are starting to wonder whether faith in social media as the key to Egypt’s democratic future might be a…