Is there a better description of what all reporters should be doing as explained here by American journalist Michael Hastings… in 2010? Look, I went into journalism to do journalism, not advertising. My views are critical but that shouldn’t be mistaken for hostile – I’m just not a stenographer. There is a body of work that…
Category General
Australia pays millions to company that denies crayons to children
Fairfax reports on a company, Serco, whose primary aim is to punish refugees in its care: The private company that runs immigration detention has been forced to back off an arbitrary ban on children using crayons and coloured pencils in their rooms. Serco Group’s officers in Darwin had decided on the ban, even though crayons…
What Murdoch gave us all; hacking 9/11 victims
If true, this would be yet another example of the culture created by Rupert Murdoch. His legacy is some fine journalism and a whole heap of trash and bigotry. The International Herald Tribune reports: Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, relatives of some of the victims began suspecting that someone was eavesdropping on…
Iran takes a path towards internet isolation
Sigh (via the Guardian): Iran… is clamping down heavily on web users before parliamentary elections in March with draconian rules on cybercafes and preparations to launch a national… internet. Tests for a countrywide network aimed at substituting services run through the world wide web have been carried out by Iran’s ministry of information and communication technology, according…
America is an Empire and has every intention of remaining so
Rest easy lovers of America starting and maintaining wars across the globe. The proposed cuts to the Pentagon’s budget won’t affect those conflicts. Former State Department spokesman PJ Crowley, who has occasionally questioned the power of the US state, just tweeted a very revealing statement that truly speaks for itself: Even with expected… #Pentagon… budget cuts, we…
Why Australian government fears hearing, seeing and feeling the reality of asylum seekers
Despite the “best” efforts of the Australian government and Serco, refugees are treated with a combination of suspicion and punishment. Here’s a good piece in yesterday’s Australian by Paige Taylor which outlines the reality of the attitude towards the media by the political and bureaucratic establishment: The Department of Immigration and Citizenship objects to the…
Media wanted to back Iraq war (and the military merely helped the process)
Michael Hastings is one of America’s finest young journalists, an outsider who penetrates the system he’s paid to investigate. Unlike most hacks who love to be close to power and befriend those they’re supposed to critique, Hastings has a history of listening and reporting the reality behind the cretins and fools who run our criminal…
#Occupy, Arab Spring and uprisings are here to stay
2011 was a year unlike many others. Change was in the air. Revolutions, protests and demands for equality. In the West. In the East. In the Arab world. It’s something I examine in the updated edition of my book The Blogging Revolution (recently released in India). A new book by Paul Mason, Why It’s Kicking…