Category: Media
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Media drongos
Every time a federal Labor MP announces he or she will not stand at the next election, the lazy and predictable Canberra Press Gallery rushes into print with the same old names of possible candidates. How often have we been forced to read speculation that former Premier Steve Bracks, former Premier Morris Iemma, former Premier…
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School massacre, guns and reality
You’d need a heart of stone not to be moved by the outpouring of grief over the shooting of 20 children at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. However, the wall-to-wall coverage in the media in the US and here has been over-indulgent, ghoulishly invasive and gratuitously suspect. It’s as if the classroom massacre has…
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Who drove nurse to commit suicide?
An official inquiry in London has vowed to leave no stone unturned in investigating all the circumstances of the suicide of nurse Jacintha Saldanha, the 46-year-old mother of two. What unbearable pressure was placed on Mrs Saldanha after she unwittingly transferred a prank call from a Sydney radio station to the ward where Mrs Kate…
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Looking for Garcia Marquez
Half a lifetime ago, when I was a student, I went to Colombia in search of the historical background to the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. Recently there came news that there will be no more books from its author, the great Gabriel García Márquez. I’ve been moved to write an account of my…
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Decoding the US ‘debate’
Like other political desperados, I watched all three US presidential debates “live” on television and, just for good measure, the vice-presidential debate as well. The debates left me deeply puzzled by American political life. During the Q&A on domestic issues – health, education and tax – I was totally confused while the debate on the…
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Why Packer is holding all the aces in the pack
A former NSW politician telephoned me back in June saying: “Did you see that James Packer is planning to build a casino at the Barangaroo site at Walsh Bay?” “Yes,” I replied, “ but there is no way will he get approval. There is already a casino in Darling Harbour – Star City – and…
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Behind the savaging of Sir Jimmy Savile
The English are passing through one of their periodic fits of morality and the cause célèbre de jour is the late disc jockey Jimmy Savile. Why do Australians have to be dragged into this morass of English public hypocrisy? Here’s some background to consider … Jimmy Savile, a hugely popular radio and TV presenter, was…
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Shameful episode of Four Corners
ABC TV’s flagship current affairs programme, Four Corners, has done serious damage to its professional reputation by screening “The Battle for Syria” under its colours. It was an imported programme so no one on the staff of the ABC bears any ethical responsibility. But the question remains – who bought it in and decided to…
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The Parrot “mans up”
2GB shock jock Alan Jones has apologised to Prime Minister Julia Gillard for saying her father died of shame because of her repeated lies. “Every person in the caucus of the Labor Party knows that Julia Gillard is a liar,” Jones said. “The old man recently died a few weeks ago of shame. To think…
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A discovery in Bangkok
The Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, opened only four years ago by the municipal authorities, is a spacious modern nine-storey Guggenheim-style building. Its aims are to exhibit contemporary art, provide a meeting place for artists and hold community cultural events. When so many of Asia’s great galleries still appear to have little connection with their…