One of the small consolations of living in these the End Times of our doomed civilisation is my enjoyment of the gradual closing of any rhetorical distance between the senior executives of News Corporation and the wolf warrior spokes-comrades of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
News Corp has an impenetrable paywall and a famously diminishing audience. It would probably go away completely were it not being continuously platformed by ... the ABC. If Auntie would just kick the News personnel off Insiders, RN and The Drum, (and the board) we wouldn't have to hear of them ever again. That is clearly the ABC's own internal problem.
When I go to the council library, I usually feel IMPELLED to have a quick look at The Australian. It is always just so NUTS. When I consider the authority it once held among followers of Australian politics, including those who often disagreed strongly with the editorial line, well, I feel as if I've stumbled from a parallel universe. That which was affectionately known as The Oz... long gone.
It must cost a fricken fortune to keep The Australian going, even with its ludicrously prominent but not big bucks op-ed regulars, its obscure byline serfs, flagship journalists painted as eminent, but who would be flat out getting a job elsewhere. And good old Samantha Maiden who must know where the bodies are buried!
The cost of distribution and maintaining what is still Australia's least pathetic newspaper arts journalism must be high. The bozo claque that appears to be its central audience can't be interested in the arts, (Although it seems to see itself as "above" the Tele, the Herald Sun, the Courier Mail etc.)
I'm tired of the ABC's "soft" current programs that have been running for decades. I haven't watched them forever, either, had a gutful. I say just DUMP Insiders, Q&A, The Drum, get rid of this nothingness and put something fresh on! And "the ABC's own internal problem" would be more than halfway solved.
" News Corps editorial choices and shrinking but increasingly batshit crazy audience" music to my ears. Does the craziness go up as the numbers go down? Is it concentrating the crazy? at what point will the density of RWNJobbery reach a singularity extrapolating current trends.
Though given my offspring is a fully fledged fan of Xi Jinping, the president of the people's republic of China, I will need to be circumspect when it comes to reporting your comments to them.
Love the image of an RWNJ singularity. Could be a rapture?
Sadly, I think that this is wishful thinking. There is plenty of crazy to go around (cite John's previous posts elsewhere on the subject of the bird site).
I, like the rest of us have seen some major pile-ons from the Murdoch corner, but the one against Stan is probably the worst I've seen in terms of intensity and duration.
So much so that while not a huge Stan fan (I like his writings better) I've been contemplating writing Stan an email/message/something just to say ..I don't know, like don't let the fuckers grind you down dude, they're the problem not you, as soon as I figure out how to actually send Stan a message as I'm sure he has wisely drawn up the castle gates.
And the comparison you make between Winnie the Poo's China good and strong, everyone else sux philosophy and the Murdoch's empire is quite apt, and ironic,. Like how the Republicans in the US remind me of Taliban --these days the crazies seem to be headed for the same event horizon.
Stan Grant made the same "mistake" as Adam Goodes - telling an uncomfortable truth, honestly, clearly, and with dignity. They both made us feel bad. Their words sting, not because they speak falsely, because we know what they are saying is true, and we'd rather not be reminded. The Murdoch press tell us we get a free pass: how dare "they" make "us" feel bad!
The ABC has been dancing to Murdoch's set list for years now. Come Monday, RN will feature an ex-News Corp journalist of limited skills and perfect teeth, who will interview a News Corp journalist about whatever is on the front pages of The Australian and question whether Albo is going to put a tax on the family home.
Generations of ABC journalists... much smarter ones... knew what Murdoch was and is and built a wall. The ladt ten years or so has seen it smashed down.
And, no, they're not scared or made to. They actively work toward it. We need Rudd's royal commission and to replace Ita with Michael West.
Brilliant JB, so many sentences of utter gold in this one!
"Pressing the fear button", aka targeting the amygdala for a workout, has been the grist of news and current affairs media forever - news stories all about horror and decay, followed by a smigde of sport and weather, and finished off with a cute puppy to make you forget what they subjected you to for most of the bulletin. Frontline parodied it all perfectly back in the '90s.
But the degree to which it is now honed to a razor's edge, and amplified by social media, is driving everyone batshit crazy, not only those who were already that way. Cambridge Analytica combined the fear-button with personality profiling and electoral roll micro-targeting to make Donald Trump President, and no doubt used the same tactic to sway elections towards populist sock puppets across the democratic world.
The chief question is how do we stop our evolutionary brains being used against us? The answer, as with most problems, is complex, but relies on education. Why aren't we teaching rudimentary neuroscience and media awareness to year 10s? De-fang these horrible liars by exposing their tricks to the young and they can't hurt any of us any more.
You made the Guardian's 10 years of Australia's best photography section this week. The pic looks like you're waiting to be brought to court on some heinous crime though ! And Kimbra is a lot prettier.
On target as ever, JB. The fear element has always been a political ace. Who can forget Reith's "children overboard" and Howard's subsequent "we will decide who comes here and the circumstances in which they come" dogwhistle? Gifted the Murdochracy some $$ensational headline$$ and us a decade of the Howard drears which in turn enabled the horror show of the post-Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments.
And Labor's scary claim that the Liberals will wreck Medicare (and direly impact public health)? Oh, wait, umm...
I've never been a fan of Stan Grant's role as a moderator on ABC shows, but because of his style, not his ethnicity. What has happened to him is abhorrent and a national shame. The media which encouraged it should be shutdown for fomenting hate and potential terror activity among the ignorant and fearful.
News Corp has an impenetrable paywall and a famously diminishing audience. It would probably go away completely were it not being continuously platformed by ... the ABC. If Auntie would just kick the News personnel off Insiders, RN and The Drum, (and the board) we wouldn't have to hear of them ever again. That is clearly the ABC's own internal problem.
When I go to the council library, I usually feel IMPELLED to have a quick look at The Australian. It is always just so NUTS. When I consider the authority it once held among followers of Australian politics, including those who often disagreed strongly with the editorial line, well, I feel as if I've stumbled from a parallel universe. That which was affectionately known as The Oz... long gone.
It must cost a fricken fortune to keep The Australian going, even with its ludicrously prominent but not big bucks op-ed regulars, its obscure byline serfs, flagship journalists painted as eminent, but who would be flat out getting a job elsewhere. And good old Samantha Maiden who must know where the bodies are buried!
The cost of distribution and maintaining what is still Australia's least pathetic newspaper arts journalism must be high. The bozo claque that appears to be its central audience can't be interested in the arts, (Although it seems to see itself as "above" the Tele, the Herald Sun, the Courier Mail etc.)
I'm tired of the ABC's "soft" current programs that have been running for decades. I haven't watched them forever, either, had a gutful. I say just DUMP Insiders, Q&A, The Drum, get rid of this nothingness and put something fresh on! And "the ABC's own internal problem" would be more than halfway solved.
I picked up a copy of the Oz in a cage a couple of years ago. I was shocked, shocked I tell you, that it was so nucking futs.
" News Corps editorial choices and shrinking but increasingly batshit crazy audience" music to my ears. Does the craziness go up as the numbers go down? Is it concentrating the crazy? at what point will the density of RWNJobbery reach a singularity extrapolating current trends.
Though given my offspring is a fully fledged fan of Xi Jinping, the president of the people's republic of China, I will need to be circumspect when it comes to reporting your comments to them.
Love the image of an RWNJ singularity. Could be a rapture?
Sadly, I think that this is wishful thinking. There is plenty of crazy to go around (cite John's previous posts elsewhere on the subject of the bird site).
I, like the rest of us have seen some major pile-ons from the Murdoch corner, but the one against Stan is probably the worst I've seen in terms of intensity and duration.
So much so that while not a huge Stan fan (I like his writings better) I've been contemplating writing Stan an email/message/something just to say ..I don't know, like don't let the fuckers grind you down dude, they're the problem not you, as soon as I figure out how to actually send Stan a message as I'm sure he has wisely drawn up the castle gates.
And the comparison you make between Winnie the Poo's China good and strong, everyone else sux philosophy and the Murdoch's empire is quite apt, and ironic,. Like how the Republicans in the US remind me of Taliban --these days the crazies seem to be headed for the same event horizon.
Stan Grant made the same "mistake" as Adam Goodes - telling an uncomfortable truth, honestly, clearly, and with dignity. They both made us feel bad. Their words sting, not because they speak falsely, because we know what they are saying is true, and we'd rather not be reminded. The Murdoch press tell us we get a free pass: how dare "they" make "us" feel bad!
Can we relate Murdochs to Morlocks? Subterranean beings, descended from humams, feeding on the gullible above ground Eloi.
The ABC has been dancing to Murdoch's set list for years now. Come Monday, RN will feature an ex-News Corp journalist of limited skills and perfect teeth, who will interview a News Corp journalist about whatever is on the front pages of The Australian and question whether Albo is going to put a tax on the family home.
Generations of ABC journalists... much smarter ones... knew what Murdoch was and is and built a wall. The ladt ten years or so has seen it smashed down.
And, no, they're not scared or made to. They actively work toward it. We need Rudd's royal commission and to replace Ita with Michael West.
Brilliant JB, so many sentences of utter gold in this one!
"Pressing the fear button", aka targeting the amygdala for a workout, has been the grist of news and current affairs media forever - news stories all about horror and decay, followed by a smigde of sport and weather, and finished off with a cute puppy to make you forget what they subjected you to for most of the bulletin. Frontline parodied it all perfectly back in the '90s.
But the degree to which it is now honed to a razor's edge, and amplified by social media, is driving everyone batshit crazy, not only those who were already that way. Cambridge Analytica combined the fear-button with personality profiling and electoral roll micro-targeting to make Donald Trump President, and no doubt used the same tactic to sway elections towards populist sock puppets across the democratic world.
The chief question is how do we stop our evolutionary brains being used against us? The answer, as with most problems, is complex, but relies on education. Why aren't we teaching rudimentary neuroscience and media awareness to year 10s? De-fang these horrible liars by exposing their tricks to the young and they can't hurt any of us any more.
You made the Guardian's 10 years of Australia's best photography section this week. The pic looks like you're waiting to be brought to court on some heinous crime though ! And Kimbra is a lot prettier.
Ha. It does look like I’m either going to kill somebody or be killed.
What can I add? Except…applause.
On target as ever, JB. The fear element has always been a political ace. Who can forget Reith's "children overboard" and Howard's subsequent "we will decide who comes here and the circumstances in which they come" dogwhistle? Gifted the Murdochracy some $$ensational headline$$ and us a decade of the Howard drears which in turn enabled the horror show of the post-Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments.
And Labor's scary claim that the Liberals will wreck Medicare (and direly impact public health)? Oh, wait, umm...
I've never been a fan of Stan Grant's role as a moderator on ABC shows, but because of his style, not his ethnicity. What has happened to him is abhorrent and a national shame. The media which encouraged it should be shutdown for fomenting hate and potential terror activity among the ignorant and fearful.
I stand with Stan. Yes to the Voice.