How long before Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones and the Gestapotato pick this up and run with it?
Posted by Dave Bath on 2020-01-11
How long before Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones and the Gestapotato pick this up and run with it?
Posted in Australia, International, Media, Politics, Society | Tagged: Australian bushfires | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Dave Bath on 2020-01-11
“In Victoria, where about 1.2 million hectares has burned, only 385 hectares — or 0.03 per cent — have been attributed to suspicious circumstances.”
Posted in Australia, Media, Politics | Tagged: Australian bushfires | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Dave Bath on 2012-06-20
Has Gina Rinehart done us all a favor by her ham-fisted attempt to stifle the only moderately-balanced privately owned newspapers in the country, by making it obvious Big Money thinks the press can be bought as a proxy means of buying politicians?
The world’s richest woman, mining magnate Rinehart, has made it plain she wants to make Fairfax (The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, as well as numerous popular radio stations) more mining-friendly, more anti-scientific-consensus, and I suspect, more against the opinion of independent economists when it comes to policy in general.
While progressives may be angry at Gina in the short term, it may be the pigs, the "one percent", the "five percent", those against evidence-based policy, that will be angrier with her in the long term. That’s not guaranteed, but it is a possibility, a possibility the arrogance of Big Money is naturally too stupid to consider.
Notes/See-Also:
Gina Rinehart has absolutely nothing to contribute to the transformation of the company into a profitable digital publisher and is not interested in it anyway, …
 :
the combination of print and digital publishing simply does not work. They are completely different products with different uses, and the construction and operation of them require totally different ways of thinking.
Media should not be under the direct control of special interest groups whether they belong to this country or to other countries. That is why we need diversity of media ownership. That is why I stood on the back of a truck with Gough Whitlam overlooking Fitzroy Gardens long years ago, to try and prevent the Fairfax empire falling into foreign hands. A foreign owner has interests that are not ours. A mining magnate has specific industry interests that are not necessary those of Australia.
Posted in Australia, Ethics, Governance, Media, Politics | Tagged: Fairfax, Gina Rinehart, independent journalism, liberal democracy, plutocrat arrogance and stupidity, sydney morning herald | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Dave Bath on 2011-07-26
Skepticlawyer has a(nother) good post "Excusitis" (2011-07-25) talking of the "no true scotsman" fallacy – giving a wide range of examples across the political spectrum. This error is something many in the less-decent right have been, and will be, doing in the wake of the Breivik atrocities in Norway.
We in the left should acknowledge those on the right who are thinking logically, with decent motives, and help them clean up the fifth column of bastards and inflammatory voices within the right. It will give us on the left a chance to have a proper debate where we’ll have to keep on our toes – be protagonists not antagonists.
But those on the right who choose not to reflect, choose to dismiss Breivik as unrelated to the rhetoric of right-wing pundits, are fair game for derision and exposure by the left.
The decent righties can be troubled and reflective. We on the left need them, and need to help them reflect rather than attack the good with the bad, causing knee jerk defences, the debate about extremism turned merely into "two dogs barking"
Consider the predicament and honesty and basic decency of "Anonymous John" from Sweden, commenting on the sweep-Breivik-under-the-carpet post over at OzConservative – it’s something every lefty should read and reflect on to know what we should do next:
Posted in Australia, International, Media, Politics, Society | 2 Comments »
Posted by Dave Bath on 2011-07-24
Perhaps I was wrong in an earlier post about how a lefty watermelon lone gunman would be labelled by the media here.
I’d thought the label "madman" would be applied if the mass-murderer was white and non-moslem, if the mass-murderer was from the left or the right.
But, thinking about the effect of who was killed by Breivik, the gutting of the Norwegian lefty talent base, I think the likes of the Murdoch press would identify such politically-motivated terrorism as such, if and only if it was something like a (very hypothetical) watermelon mass-murderer, going into a Young Liberals annual general meeting and wiping out a similar proportion of talent.
Posted in Australia, International, Media, Politics | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Dave Bath on 2011-07-24
Unless you are part of that demographic-to-be-ignored, the latte-sipping bleeding-hearts, both left and small-l-liberal, here is a quick guide to labels and policies regarding mass murderers, or assassins of your own prime minister:
Demographic: | Swarthy Moslem | White Lefty Latte Sipper | White Christian Anti-Moslem Righty | Swarthy Ultra Orthodox Jew Righty |
Psychology: | Evil | Mad | Mad | Mad |
Your Ideology: | Evil | Mad and Dangerous | Irrelevant because of insanity | Irrelevant because of insanity |
Punishment: | Execute or incarcerate forever without trial | Criminally insane ward in a prison | Criminally insane ward in a prison | Imprison |
Others in the demographic: | Kick them out of the country, don’t let any more in, or subject them to security agencies bullying. | Make them shut up, and especially don’t let them speak in schools or mass media.. | The Right Stuff | Patriots |
Assumption next atrocity is from the demographic: | 99% | 1% | 0% | 0% |
Assumption the demographic’s policies will destroy civilization: | 100% | 100% | 0% | 0% |
Personally, I’d classify all four as mad, and where frank psychosis is incomplete, the evil results come from improper education, incitement by others in the same demographic, and twisted readings of the texts of the ideology.
In other words, things that could be largely prevented by a combination of decent community mental health services, and an education system that gives fair exposition of all texts used by nutters as pretexts for action, stressing the humanity in those texts, and showing how the inhumane parts should be deprecated.
Posted in Australia, International, Language Use, Law, Media, Politics, Society, Theology and Religion | 1 Comment »
Posted by Dave Bath on 2011-07-23
Surprise, surprise, the Murdoch Hun main web page now has a link to the ethics and code of conduct required of editors and journalists.
….So, have fun ticking these dot points off for Muroch’s Melbourne rag for the first few points, using the Hun’s most notoriouspopular propagandistcolumnist as a touchstone: Andrew Bolt, or indeed, even the Murdoch broadsheet, The Oz:
Given the extent to which Abbott dances to the Murdoch tune, I wonder if the same standards should apply to him?
Posted in Australia, Ethics, Media, Politics | 3 Comments »
Posted by Dave Bath on 2011-07-23
I’m finding Buzz and the public posts (easily separable from private posts) in Google Plus a hell of a lot more conducive to short comments than Twitter.
So, if you want some of my shorter thoughts and notes …
Oh, and regular readers here, if you still need an invite to get into Plus, get a gmail address to me one way or another and I’ll send you one.
Impressions of Plus
GooglePlus isn’t all prettily wrapped up yet, and it’s an odd mix of twitter, newsfeed, email and blogging with a bit of linkedin thrown into the mix – even without blogger. The one thing I really like is the way it is well integrated into gmail – add posts, get notifications, respond to comments, all without leaving your gmail windows.
And yet, if you expect a facebook clone, you’ll be disappointed.
It is, however, already very good at letting you choose what bits are seen by who – public, one circle, or another circle. At the very least it means I can easily choose to not annoy my younger friends with geeky science posts, not waste more politically-oriented interlocutors with posts about funny things my grandson said when I came home that night… that’s a real boon.
Posted in Information Management, Media, Society | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Dave Bath on 2011-07-23
(Update on my opinion of what was going on in Breivik’s head: "Was the Norwegian atrocity strategic?")
I wonder what filled the gunman arrested in Norway and linked to the Oslo bombing, Anders Behring Breivik, with so much hate? (Here is the untranslated original.)
I wonder if he reads papers filled with the same Tea-Party-esque anti-watermelon rhetoric as we have here…. Or are the Norwegians too damned nice to have a popular columnist equivalent to our bogan-inciters?
The guy probably has a pinup of Sarah Palin on his wall and a bible by his bed.
I wonder how long F*x News pushed an islamist terrorist line, or whether even F*x realizes that those nice nordics are so nice, that they’ll only be attacked by individuals or a "losers’ club" in desperate need of psychiatric care – the types who probably needed remedial reading classes but didn’t get enough of them.
Can you see tabloids around the anglosphere (or indeed anywhere) demonising as "the face of evil" people who look like the following? Calling for incendiary right-wing groups to be shut down?
The man arrested over the shootings and bombing in Oslo - a profile that will not be demonized by Andrew Bolt
No… I don’t think so.
Update: I expected better of "The Guardian"!
Oslo bomb: suspicion falls on Islamist militants
Norway’s role in Afghanistan and its decision to file terrorism charges against a Muslim cleric may explain the Oslo bomb attack
…
The question now is who is likely to be behind it.
The most obvious conclusion would be a jihadist group.
Ye gods, could the The Guardian attacking Murdoch be not a principled stand but a takeover bid for the ability to spout rubbish to bogans?
Update: This page apparently lists Breivik’s facebook interests, favorite books, etc … saying (in my view correctly from what we know), that he is "Norway’s Timothy McVeigh" – except McVeigh wasn’t exactly bright.
Update: – I was wrong about the remedial reading if the reports about his facebook reading list are correct. I still reckon he’ll turn out to be a nutter not a terrorist.
Update: Yes, Andrew Bolt did as expected:
Once the identity of the attackers becomes known, the consequences for Norway’s immigration policies could be profound
Yes…. paragraphs on moslems, and any corrections or focus on the real problem tucked away, not blasted in bold….. but read the comments to Bolt’s article and see what ordinary voters who drive the policies of both major parties are like..
UPDATE: THE BEST TWEET I’VE SEEN: from @ElineGiske
ElineGiske Eline Giskeødegård
G.W. Bush, 9/11: “We’re gonna hunt you down.” Stoltenberg, 22/7: “We will retaliate with more democracy”. I’m proud to be Norwegian.
Posted in International, Media, Society | 2 Comments »
Posted by Dave Bath on 2011-07-21
Tony Abbott should probably loosen his celice … from around his neck – it’s cutting off the blood supply to his brain.
Tony Abbott’s 2011-07-07 interview transcript on the Liberal Party website proves a half-way decent 3rd grader knows more science.
See, one of the things that people haven’t quite twigged to is that carbon dioxide is invisible, it’s weightless and it’s odourless.
By saying carbon dioxide is weightless, it shows Mr Rabbit never paid attention to Julius Sumner Miller on chocolate advertisements, or Deane and Rob on The Curiosity Show.
Even Dan Quayle, the US VP who was filmed at a school spelling bee telling a kid to mis-spell "potato" had a better excuse than Abbott.
But the Australian public (apart from the latte left and latte right) won’t laugh, they won’t notice the error.
Pauline Hanson, even Humphrey B. Bear is an intellectual giant by comparison.
Posted in Australia, Environment, Media, Politics | Tagged: Chemistry, Climate, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Abbott | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Dave Bath on 2011-07-19
The adage "act first, apologise later" has extra truth in it given new research on the persistent effect of lies/misinformation, even when strongly counteracted.
The research indicates just how damaging the lies and innuendos of dodgy politicians and press can be – retractions and corrections have relatively little effect on later decisions by victims.
It means truth in advertising, and even more, truth in reporting, needs heavy-handed policing, heavy penalties for intentional misrepresentation, and strong statutes.
Research reported in Scientific American "Lingering Lies: The persistent influence of misinformation" gives a stunning example of just how strong the effect misinformation, even when immediately corrected, can have.
Posted in Australia, Biology and Health, Ethics, Media, Politics, Society | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Dave Bath on 2011-07-16
In true tabloid form, and putting another black mark on modern society’s good sense and probity, the Murdoch empire is copping a well-deserved, indeed too light, punishment, but because of the trivial and limited offences, not the heinous acts of the group that are harming the world as a whole.
It was the hacking (and destruction of evidence) of the phone of a teenage girl who had disappeared (and later discovered murdered) that finally got things moving against Murdoch’s empire in the UK.
It will be the hacking of phones of the World Trade Centre attack victims that will probably get things moving in the US.
These are hardly the most serious of the obvious illegal acts – the bribing of police is a greater crime against the functioning of a society, so the general public is damned by being galvanized by the pure tabloid headline offence, that only affecting individuals, rather than being concerned about corruption that eats away at civil society for all.
The greater crime against civilization committed by the Murdoch empire is hardly causing pain to Murdoch at all. This damns the public even more, who have had the opportunity, through the sum of individual actions, to hurt Murdoch’s methods – not just used by Murdoch, but any media magnate.
Posted in Media, Politics, Society | Comments Off on Right penalty for the wrong crime
Posted by Dave Bath on 2011-07-06
Murdoch’s Limited News Corporation has, shall we say, a fair and balanced attitude to hacking.
The principles they operate by when deciding whether an act is good or evil becomes apparent after a little thought.
On the one hand, the Murdoch empire defends itself when its agents hack the phones of politicians, royalty, and even murdered girls – aiming at profit by gaining unlawful access to information that is obviously private.
On the other hand, hackers who hijacked the F*x News twitter feed, posting untrue news reports, are totally reprehensible, and get the US Secret Service involved to chase down what could be termed incompetent and untruthful journalistic volunteers.
It is not as if it’s the first time F*x has reported counterfactuals, it’s not as if it is the first time the Murdoch authors, even in broadsheets, deliberately cause people to believe falsehoods.
Posted in Media | Comments Off on Fox – goose or gander
Posted by Dave Bath on 2011-07-04
The dead in the horrible Victorian bushfires a few years back, and those that will die in the future from similar causes, seem to be, by misdirected investigations and blind eyes to evidence, poorly served by both current and previous governments.
Who benefits from this? Only the negligent – the privatised power supplier cutting corners on safety, or a government unwilling to pay compensation, or politicians in both major parties who do not want a proper evaluation of the fundamental dogma that pushes privatization of state assets in general and utilities in particular.
Posted in Australia, Economics and Business, Governance, Media, Politics, Victoria | Comments Off on Bushfire bastardry
Posted by Dave Bath on 2011-04-28
The Chaser’s Royal Cockup Performance Cut … why?
Perhaps the royals were worried about crudity, given what The Chaucer authored last time after seeing DCameron.
Goe uppe the ille, ryght uppe the myddel,
goe downe the knayve, the ryng than twyddel.
We practysed words, the dressyes mocked up,
for we do and don’t want ryght royle cock up.– The Commoner’s Tail
For those readers who don’t get it D.Cameron is British PM, while Prince Gay Otter is the alternate title of The Decameron by Boccaccio, a series of often bawdy tales which inspired Geoffrey Chaucer to pen Canterbury Tales.
Posted in Humor, International, Media | Tagged: Royal Wedding, The Chaser | 1 Comment »