Category: Media
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Murdoch: serial ballot box thief
The question is asked frequently: how much influence does the Murdoch press have on public opinion? Because no accurate statistical research exists, there is no clear answer. The question usually arises in elections whether in Australia, Britain or the US. The Murdoch media goes into over-drive in support of one particular leader and starts to…
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Murdoch’s war on Labor voters
For Australian voters, the September 7 election comes down to this: “Do you want Kevin Rudd to be in charge of the country or Rupert Murdoch?” That’s the election take of a friend of mine. He, like everybody else, is appalled by the conduct of Murdoch’s vile rags – the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Brisbane Courier-Mail,…
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Elmore Leonard’s 10 tips for writers
Elmore Leonard, who died last week, started out writing westerns, then turned his talents to crime fiction. One of the most popular and prolific writers of our time, he wrote about two dozen novels, most of them bestsellers, such as Glitz, Get Shorty, Freaky Deaky, Kill Shot, Maximum Bob, and Rum Punch. Leonard left some…
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Obeid’s gopher heads to Senate
It’s all over bar the shouting – former Eddie Obeid gopher, Sam Dastyari, will be the next ALP senator from NSW. Dastyari, current general secretary of the NSW Labor Party, used to work as a researcher in Obeid’s 10th floor office in the NSW Parliament. As a 24-year-old Young Labor operative he joined Obeid’s staff…
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Jewish intellectual targeted by Greek fascists
A year ago Alex and I sat on the balcony of a modest apartment in Athens talking late into the night with our old friends, Savvas Michael-Matsas and his wife Katerina. The discussion ranged over world politics, philosophy, poetry and history and, as always, we were struck by Savvas’ erudition and passionate interest in all…
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Julia Gillard fails judgement test
Close your eyes and imagine last year’s race for the White House between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney. As election day draws closer, Obama makes a headland speech saying: “Make no mistake about it, if Governor Romney is elected in November, African Americans will be excluded from positions of power in America. The…
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Roozendaal starts job-hunting
When Eric Roozendaal departed the NSW Upper House in early May, the former general secretary of the NSW ALP and treasurer, delivered the most self-serving speech heard in several generations. “Electric Eric” made no attempt at self-criticism or to review his political career when he was in charge of the Sussex Street machine, co-managed the…
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What was Thatcher’s greatest crime?
An epitaph for Margaret Thatcher, the grocer’s daughter from Grantham? “Reactionary, vindictive, mean-spirited, philistine, cruel, quintessential little Englander.” High points of her cold brutality included the war over the Malvinas (Falklands), crushing the miners’ strike and the Fleet Street print workers (for her ally Rupert Murdoch) and planting US cruise missiles in England after brutally…
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Cyprus, the pundits and Geldof
Yesterday the media across Europe were full of the news that Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Dutch finance minister and head of the Eurozone group, had let the cat out of the bag. Cyprus, he had said, showed the way forward in dealing with bailouts, by going after private investors and bank accounts. He had to water down…
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Why the Rudd plot was sunk by farce
Suddenly the Rudd for PM fiasco makes sense. One of the key plotters was Sam Dastyari, the NSW ALP general secretary and one of the party’s most spectacular lightweights. His part in the abortive back-stabbing farce was revealed by Peter Hartcher in Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald. As Hartcher doubles as unofficial public relations officer for…