The Guardian reporter shows how it’s done. Note how virtually every BBC “question” could have been written by the British government in relation to intelligence and Edward Snowden. Welcome to mainstream journalism (just as bad as this infamous interview with Julian Assange in 2012):
Category General
Australian Book Review tackles Profits of Doom
The following review… of my book Profits of Doom is written by Virginia Lloyd: One of the literary legacies of the financial crisis is a type of travel writing focused on the local social, economic, and environmental effects of unfettered global capitalism. There are two types of such books. Michael Lewis is perhaps the best known…
How do we know right from wrong
My recent book, For God’s Sake, continues to generate interest in debates over the ethics and actions of daily life.… Here’s an extract published in ABC Religion and Ethics: Jane Caro, Antony Loewenstein, Simon Smart and Rachel Woodlock wrestle with their own traditions and each other over the question of how to determine what is…
What asylum seekers are facing on the ground and why support is desperately needed
My weekly Guardian column is published today (here’s my archive): Blind compassion is killing the asylum seeker debate. While Tony Abbott entangles his new government in megaphone diplomacy with Indonesia,upsetting our biggest neighbour… in the process,… refugees… are struggling to survive closer to home. Vast swaths of the Australian public remain hostile towards asylum seekers, and the advocacy…
3AW Melbourne radio interview on Profits of Doom
3AW is one of Melbourne’s biggest radio stations. I was interviewed by… Alan-Pearsall last weekend on his overnight program about my new book, Profits of Doom, and we mostly discussed privatised detention centres for refugees and war contracting in Afghanistan:
Australian Attorney General in scandal buying/reading radical literature!
Well, that’s one way to see. This supposedly exclusive story in today’s Murdoch Australian outlines the reading habits of Australia’s new Attorney General. And yes, in his collection is the book I co-edited last year with Jeff Sparrow, Left Turn. I dearly hope George Brandis is taking the ideas in there to heart, including backing…
US selling drone warfare to impoverished African nations
The future of surveillance and warfare, and US-based arms manufacturers are very happy about it. The Wall Street Journal reports: Taking a cue from the U.S., more African governments are spying from the skies. From Kenya to Nigeria, African air forces are acquiring surveillance drones—often made in the U.S.—to track militants, poachers and drug traffickers…
Seymour Hersh; journalism isn't propaganda
Far too many reporters see themselves as extensions of power instead of checks on it. One of the finest journalists in the world, Seymour Hersh, unloads on this trend. I couldn’t have put it better myself (via Guardian): Seymour Hersh has got some extreme ideas on how to fix journalism – close down the news…
Jeremy Scahill gives background to Somalia's Al-Shabab
The horrific attack on the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi continues to generate headlines around the world. But what’s the background to the attacks, who are Somalia’s Al-Shabab terror group and what’s been the position of US and Kenyan intervention in the region? Jeremy Scahill, author of the recent book Dirty Wars, tells Democracy Now!…
Why #Hashtag love is the worst way to run your online life
Sheer genius: Jimmy Fallon & Justin Timberlake show you what a Twitter conversation sounds like in real life.