News Limited

If Julia Gillard is looking for a shoulder to cry on about the torrid media coverage she has been receiving she could always pick up the phone to another recent prime minister in John Howard. If she were to do so she would find that, far from getting a sympathetic ear, she’d be politely advised to stop whining, harden up and get on with governing.

A quite impolite campaign ad about a recent former PM.

Ms Gillard once said, misleadingly, that her chances of seizing the leadership of the Labor Party from Kevin Rudd were as great as being picked to play for her beloved Western Bulldogs. To use an AFL analogy Ms Gillard is currently like the hapless footy coach who finds their team 10 goals down at half time and starts complaining about the umpiring.

It might be an over-simplification but the question Ms Gillard should ask herself is this. Is Labor on a record low primary vote of 27 per cent because of negative media coverage? Or is Labor getting negative media coverage because it’s got a primary vote of 27 per cent – that is, because its leadership has been so haphazard and its policies so poorly sold that the media is simply reflecting, not creating, public disquiet at its performance?

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  • Godfrey Zohn says:

    08:13pm | 26/07/11

    Ah yes, those cheap sarcasm detectors are useful for overt sarcasm, but often don’t pick up more subtle types unless they’re properly calibrated. When re-caibrating, be sure to install the “irony” and “parody” plugins. Yes, I know i have an odd sense of humour.  I’ll try to be more obvious… Read more »

  • thedon says:

    06:02pm | 26/07/11

    Oh Sandy What are the facts Sandy 1/ That the carbon tax in Australia will make no difference to global warming:  Fact 2/ That Julia Gillard knowingly and intentionally assured voters that Tony Abbott was wrong to suggest she would introduce a carbon tax with green support if the election… Read more »

 

The push by Bob Brown and Julia Gillard for a parliamentary inquiry into the media is so cynical, manipulative and transparently biased that if we really were as evil as they believe we’d congratulate them both for joining the dark side.

We're useless! Let's blame News Ltd!

Both leaders are seeking to establish a connection in the public’s mind between the obscene and illegal practices exposed in the UK and perfectly conventional and legitimate journalism and commentary in Australia with which they just happen to disagree.

It is extraordinary both how blatantly they have hijacked the issue and how seamlessly the more naïve and ideological sections of the community have followed them to this at best offensive and at worst dangerous illogicality.

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  • Kipling says:

    02:57am | 07/08/11

    Um, it may be prudent to point out that despite the woe is me hand wringing from privately owned media mouth pieces hinting at the contrary, the review called for is an entire review of Australia’s media. This would include the ABC (laughingly referred to as leftist media) and other… Read more »

  • Mel says:

    05:35am | 24/07/11

    In light of a recent child-porn arrest involving at least one federal Labor politician, would it be prudent to suggest that all politicians be federally investigated,  their offices and computers searched? Better to be safe than sorry, considering this incident did afterall involve an Australian federal Labor MP, right here… Read more »

 

I was going to start this with a deliberately understated introduction along the lines of: This is not journalism’s finest hour. But then I remembered that the whole News of the World scandal was in fact unearthed by journalists. And then I couldn’t work out how to start.

The final edition. Photo: AP

Journalists are prone to navel gazing; the unkind would say that’s because of an over-inflated sense of our own importance. The kind would say it’s because we are aware of the inherent privilege and responsibility of what we do.

But you can’t deny the NOTW catastrophe is an incredibly significant story, so no wonder the non-News Ltd press are wallowing in it – gleefully, in many instances.

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  • Pat says:

    06:51am | 25/09/11

    Jyst going back to the mentioned Peacock / Kennet phone hack business,  for a moment. I happened to know in passing, the culprits involved. They happened to be far - left groupies. One of which, also tried to help organise and stage a public ‘shag’ on a Sydney beach in… Read more »

  • Fred says:

    11:07am | 19/07/11

    Australian ‘journalists’ are making me sick right now pretending they are so snowy white -  if only Australian’s could speak out about what we know - unfortunately News Ltd threatens to sue the asses off anybody that tries…. don’t want to end up dead like the UK whistleblower either… Read more »

 

It has come to the attention of the Australian Greens and their supporters that members of the media have been questioning politicians about how policies such as the carbon tax will affect people’s lives. To its shame, even the ABC has succumbed to this disturbing trend.

Anyone here from the Murdoch hate media? Photo: Gary Ramage

A petition has been organised by activists on the GetUp! website urging the national broadcaster to pull 7.30 Report anchor Chris Uhlmann into line. In an interview last week Uhlmann had the temerity to ask Greens Leader Bob Brown whether he still believed Australia should phase out the coal industry. When Brown suggested that this was a wicked misrepresentation of his position by those of us in what he calls the “Murdoch hate media”, Uhlmann helpfully reminded the Greens Leader that it was actually a direct statement by Brown himself in an opinion piece he authored just four years ago.

Details, details.

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  • baby food says:

    07:42am | 05/10/11

    Thank you for the particular photograph. Read more »

  • JR says:

    10:57am | 26/05/11

    Good ol Bob Brown, Bob’s your uncle, actually Bob’s that crazy uncle you were scared of and never wanted to visit when you were a kid. Now Bob’s got power, but criticism, er no, we can’t take criticism! We’re the Greens, we’re used to trying to push our ideas without… Read more »

 

A brilliant strategic investment or a Machiavellian ploy, driven by revenge, to mess with the mind of a bitter enemy? The only thing certain about Kerry Stokes’ stunning raid on James Packer’s Consolidated Media this week is that billionaire long maligned as “Little Kerry” will be loving the wild speculation about his motives and intentions.

On Wednesday, Stokes’ Seven Network pounced on 15% of ConsMedia, giving the famously self-absorbed media industry something to talk about after an unusually long period of ownership stability.

Kerry Stokes: possibly sending a rude text to James Packer

The move also opened the third round of the epic Packer v Stokes slugfest.

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  • JASON ANDREW TOPpinFROM BORONIA VICTORIA says:

    12:46pm | 11/07/09

    I think Kerry Stoke will win against James Packer in the end.  James Packer will sell his shares in Consolidated Media to Kerry Stokes.  Kerry Stokes   will own Channels 7 & 9 Pacific & ACP Magazines, part of News Limited , West Australian Mews Papers, Foxtel Fox Sports &… Read more »

  • Eric says:

    06:06am | 11/07/09

    Media ownership is practically irrelevant. It’s the journalists and editors who matter in so far as opinion goes. Read more »

 

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