Mood:  incredulous

The Sydney News Ltd Sunday tabloid today is more judicious. A two page feature with some straight reportage and analysis of the Norway horror, as if reaching for some self respect and a retreat from the right wing incubator traditional role.

Bolt is not for turning.  According to his German guest it's all about the dumbing down of Europe, specifically Germany, by Muslim immigrants and differential birthrates according to the alarmest meme. Nothing about hybrid vigour of multiculturalism and interbreeding (a well known biological concept), common human values, acknowledgment of Jesus Christ in Islam etc. 

No sense of deference or timing  from Bolt to those attending funerals, or the echo of alarm across the Eurocentric Australian community. Not for Bolt these civilities. The true colour of a cruel and one eyed man, drenched in red (as shown above).

The Fairfax Sydney tabloid carries a headline today "Extremists lure young minds" in another context. The Bolt Report fits the alarming headline quite well.

Some questions arises out of the two page feature in the Murdoch tabloid today:

1. Was Andrew Bolt one of the 8,000 worldwide to receive an email from Norway mass murderer Anders Breivik only hours before his murderous onslaught?;

2. Is Andrew Bolt one of the names on a list of 100 reportedly being compliled by the NSW Police "known for their fanatical viewpoints and ...deemed a "concern" to police agencies .....including white supremacists ... on the radar"?

Posted by editor at 2:50 PM NZT

Updated: Monday, 1 August 2011 3:50 PM NZT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  cool

The Murdoch subsidised broadsheet editorial today carries an angsty editorial letter to itself, a bit like an adolescent indulging in pop psychology. It's ostensibly a missive to the world, but actually the only reader it really cares to convince is itself.

News Ltd with their brand of white supremacism and intolerance have blood on their hands from the Iraq war to sundry other hate crimes, and somewhere in their heart they surely know it is true. 

Call it blogger slander, call it what you like. The Murdoch broasheet is not the free press, it is a malicious corporate propaganda sheet. The online 'printing press' is here and your days of hegemony are drawing to a close. Thank God.

Sincerely, etc

Posted by editor at 12:38 PM NZT

Updated: Sunday, 31 July 2011 2:30 PM NZT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  cool

The latest so called "public interest" campaign of the Sydney Daily Telegraph editor Paul Whittaker is a transparent attempt to divert attention from demonstrated bias and dishonesty in their news work.

It is also dumb as usual.

All those pictures of crumbling roads in the last few days - Question: Is it NSW Government ie Roads and Transport Authority controlled roads, or local council? Because the RTA controls repairs of most roads in Sydney. Or as the RTA are now called - the "Transport Roads and Traffic Authority - TRTA"

http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au

This writer in another career shared budget decisions at Waverley Council on the Finance Committee in relation to the roads budget there 1995-1999. We well remember respected mayor Barbara Armitage like a wise old aunty telling us in open council words to the effect:

"Cr McLoughlin you have to decide if you want to spend millions of dollars on perfect roads or build the public library." 

The words were like a jolt on my populist knee jerk local political instincts. 

Here is the answer to that dilemma, and I want to put on record that ethnic independent councillor Norman Lee, as champion for the local Jewish community, wanted the same money to go into ....tennis courts for Dover Heights, and tried to sabotage the library agenda:

Posted by editor at 9:19 AM NZT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

The lone wolf in the extreme right are emboldened by a certain intolerant and dishonest media drum beat, day by day. Norway is not so different to Australia.

Similarly when the neo nazis organised a coup in Chile in 1973 that society similarly had never experienced political mass murder before.

The precursor to this mass murder iin Chile was a rabidly dishonest, defamatory right wing news media who ruthlessly smeared anyone who organised against, or openly criticised big business interests.One wonders the media profile in Norway.

Anyone of left wing or liberal leanings is positioned by this abusive media for extreme right violence cloaked in self defined 'patriotism'.

The question now after Norway is to what extent the right wing rantings of Andrew Bolt, Alan Jones, Tim Blair, Miranda Devine, Ray Hadley, Chris Smith and a few others are creating the circumstances for extreme right mass murder in Australia?

Posted by editor at 10:12 AM NZT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  accident prone

Bolt gets his conspiracy knickers in a knot today over the terms "climate change" and "global warming" and use of each by the federal government.

Turns out both terms have provenance in this area of discussion back to the 1980ies and 1970ies in the scientific community:

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/climate_by_any_other_name.html

Another interesting spin off of the Dolt Report this morning is that grumpy old man Barry Cohen suffering in his irrelevance, actually made a significant point about man made bushfires from arson, while ignoring the history of Labor and Liberal Party support for woodchipping destruction of wet forest types converted to dry schlerophyll which promotes megafires - like for the last 40 years.

Gerard Henderson is similary hopelessly out of his depth on the landcape and water issued relating to forests in Australia which are down 50% since 1788, and massively disturbed. Indeed in our lifetime the woodchippers may yet set the whole of Tasmania alight unless they are closed down in favour of agricultural wood and fibre production.

Meanwhile in modern Rome (USA) there appear to be many tools around for talking to skeptics, or in Bolt's case, an idiot:

http://www.grist.org/article/series/skeptics

Lastly who else thinks Bolt looks like a Norwegian mass murderer? Oh sorry, is that politically incorrect?

Posted by editor at 1:57 PM NZT

Updated: Tuesday, 26 July 2011 10:01 AM NZT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  caffeinated

The Fairfax press give the Norway massacre close to full front page treatment because the murderer is from the extreme right.

The Murdoch press goes half a front page for the same reason.

Slippery Murdoch has another pressing agenda. The other half of the front page is dedicated to the huge audience involved in Harry Potter final film, but the subtext also is that Rupert has to manage the public reaction lest the connotation that he is the metaphorical Voldermort take hold.

Not for nothing do we see the global and specifically UK launch of the final inspirational Potter emancipation story parallel the demise of Murdoch's highest selling tabloid in the UK owned by Murdoch. One could almost hear the patriotic UK cheer in reaction to a film preaching to the UK public better angels. With all that symbolism of The Blitz, St George's dragon breaking free of the bankers, and stoic facing down of death complete with Christian resurrection theme. Well it was heady stuff.

Even PM Cameron with a streak of Draco Malfoy in him has got the zietgeist in his speeches and wants to be done with the ugly Murdoch power mongers. For that one detects a lurch toward redemption by a man who above all loves his country.

Meanwhile Charles Waterstreet, a trained barrister no less, makes the common mistake of  assuming the woman in grey was Wendi Deng who intercepted the pie thrower. Shows just how brain washed by dumb big media the public, even legal experts, can be. (See our post 2 stories back.)

Complete with "left hook" - it was a right handed punch, and coming second to the woman in grey, well after the room was alert to the pie thrower and Rupert was in no imminent danger from that time on.

Which just leaves w*nker Lachlan Harris in the opinion column of the Murdoch smear sheet. What does he think he is playing at? Time you moved on young man to a decent news outlet and got your hand off your grasping 'career'.

Posted by editor at 10:47 AM NZT

Updated: Sunday, 24 July 2011 2:05 PM NZT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  cool

We've had this discussion with quite a few Gen X colleagues over recent times. One, a barrister was commenting on a mad bad magistrate.

I explained my observations based on some Dr Google and personal observation of a high functioning alcoholic relative now dead - father in fact.

It's about the "dry drunk" routine. As the alcohol over years, and decades in the case of boomers, alters brain function causing a trend towards depression, the otherwise high functioning and generally unaware boomer starts lashing out at seemingly trivial bits of uncertainty and chaos that occur in every normal day.  A typo, a slip up, a correction or fudge that needs to be clarified.

Everyone is an idiot or a f*ckwit except of course our hero the high functioning dry drunk boomer, when actually the every day mishaps trigger a deep and powerful  subconscious and alarming reliance on the alcohol fix to smooth things out, especially after hours of withdrawal. This reliance creeps up so incrementally, probably over decades, the addict probably doesn't even realise the source of their deeper seated fear, powerlessness, depression and anger. Not for nothing is alcohol known as the Great Deceiver:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2237210/pdf/jroyalcgprac00352-0047.pdf

It's very destructive too with the mood swings, the belittling pre-emptive innuendo, the degrading personal comments - all to project the addict's problem onto others just as long as they can get that alcohol anaesthetic for the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

Here is one description of the behaviour of the so called "dry drunk":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_drunk

and here complete with "grandiosity":

 http://addictionrecoverybasics.com/what-is-a-dry-drunk/

The worrying thing is that this effect surely applies to everyone who takes alcohol fairly regularly over the years, whether they believe it affects them or not. Really every bad mood they have may or may not be caused by alcohol cravings. They will never know without a reasonable period of abstinence and self aware monitoring to note any difference in the upward or downward trend of their moods and contentment.

Also given alcohol is the drug of choice of older working Australians the younger generations will have to deal with the associated pathology of their older colleagues for a long time to come and probably forever.

Posted by editor at 7:12 PM NZT

Updated: Saturday, 23 July 2011 7:29 PM NZT

Share This Post

Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink

Mood:  incredulous

Just how unreliable is the big media?

Very it seems. 

Even the simple interpretation of a global media event can't be accurately described.

In the now (in)famous assertion that Wendi Deng acted like a tigress to protect her mogul husband Rupert from a pie thrower, the facts just don't bear that out.

Upon re watching the incident on youtube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3SfSBjo7YE

it is quite clear Deng came in AFTER the pie man was intercepted by another woman in grey (next to and to the left of Deng) using a left arm basketball style forward stance. Then AFTER general alert in the room and crucially for the pie thrower the lost element of surprise, Deng either seeks to consolidate the interception or less charitably to seek revenge.

The woman in grey is simply not Deng, who is in pink. Both women have black hair but that's the only similarity.

Consider these two pictures of the event which makes it quite clear the woman in grey is not Ms Deng.

We suggest the former possible intention by Deng would be lawful, the latter a defence to unlawful assault by Deng of the pie thrower due to provocation, to add to the pie thrower's unlawful assault of old Rupe. Deng is clearly shown here in the pink:

Not so cut and dried as the big media are posturing this last week. And arguably two wrongs don't quite make a right, though any judge would be likely to dismiss it for provocation. Certainly Deng is not the tigress surrounded by coppers on the move. The woman in grey surely is.

To reinforce the point about how hopeless even the best of the big media and big politics can be about this otherwise trivial posturing:

 1. On reconvening the committee a member of the parliamentary select committee tries to smooth things over by commending Wendi Deng for a great left hook. Trouble is it was her right hand, not left that threw the punch.

 2. Have a look at this re-enactment on youtube which airbrushes the woman in grey power suit out of the picture and puts a man next to 'hero' Wendi Deng. Talk about rewrite history. Pathetic really. It's here 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVgcBbVQA8Y

Posted by editor at 6:34 PM NZT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  d'oh

Richard Glover on ABC Drive show tonight poses the question - Is the backlash against the UK phone hacking scandal all a bit over the top?

And why should there be an inquiry in Australia into the well worked balance of corporate, political and social relations represented by the big media sector status quo?

His professional colleagues in the sector are also unhappy about an inquiry or greater regulation. They can't see it.

The simple profound answer is the legal norm requiring a prohibition against misleading and deceptive conduct in the conduct of business. The business world has been legally required to follow this rule since at least 1974 under the Trade Practices Act and state statutory equivalents. 

The Big Media are of course big business too. And they must be held to the same standard and account for their rampant dishonesty.

Only today Crikey newsletter has exposed a massive lie by the Sydney Daily Telegraph claiming their coverage was unbiased in relation to the GST in 1998-2000 compared to the carbon tax announced in 2011. That is misleading and deceptive conduct which should be legally actionable. Anyone who follows politics in NSW already well knew the SDT was a slut to the Coalition party, but it shows how brazen the dishonesty is that the SDT thought they could editorialise this lie recently and get away with it.

Or that big boss Hartigan thought he could run the line in a defence on 7.30 show a week ago. 

Another example of dishonest dealing was Media Watch last Monday night exposing the corruption of a senior journalist's byline by adding material into his story that he didn't write. In that case Steve Lewis article altered by someone in the Sydney Daily Telegraph (again).

Then there is Fairfax every week running an apparently learned educational institution that sounds publicly funded and objective. Namely the "Sydney Institute" which in reality is a covertly funded big corporation propaganda machine that refuses to reveal it's funding sources. This is unacceptable in a decent and honest industry sector. 

Lastly but not least there are nasty biased characters like Alan Jones who poses as a commentator but is no more than a boorish Coalition party stooge. Why anyone would want to listen to a Liberal Party meeting on a public radio programme escapes this writer, but the point is that Jones is an overt propagandist for one political party. He should be so described to avoid misleading and deceiving any poor unfortunate who happens to be sucked into the vortex of his poisonous bile.

All this is obvious to those outside the big media sector - the deep culture of flouting the basic prohibition against misleading and deceptive conduct in the course of business is why the sector needs an inquiry. But more than this - it needs some high profile prosecutions under some new and stronger laws.

The second glaring basis for an inquiry is the common element between the UK phone hacking scandal and the operation of News Ltd tabloids in Australia. Namely the protection racket aspect of emotional violence absent any public interest, that demands any public or private figure pander to the News Corp self interest  in terms of power mongering, financial opportunity and influence peddling.

Quite a few of these bunch of grubby liars and mediocre thinkers have arrogated to themselves the role of social bully boys and girls. There is a base motive of bad faith behind so many stories for self aggrandisement and mindless aggression. It's as if all that alcohol has turned the journos into bitter and twisted caricatures as the drug cooks their brain cells and their personality sinks deeper into chronic depression taking their audience down with them into mindless conflicts and sensation. How bored and boorish they must be.

This protection racket is great sport and a fat pay cheque for those on the inside and predictably with such great power comes great corruption. Journalists are forever leveraging their profile for self interest and many seem to have lost any sense of a vocation to inform and provide 'the closest version of the truth" as possible. 

Posted by editor at 11:03 PM NZT

Updated: Thursday, 21 July 2011 11:04 PM NZT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  down

A working class guy over 50, qualified mechanic for 30 years, but not very literate and not very keyboard able, has mindlessly forwarded this email to the writer last Friday 15 July 2011. A colleague has indicated it should be reported to the Federal Police - we do agree. It is a misogynist fraud from the extreme right echoing the call to armed political violence made to shadow minister Joe Hockey last week.

Coalition voters with intelligent and talented wives, daughters, sisters, mothers should think very carefully about who is barracking for Tony Abbott with this sexual violence smear on a female prime minister. What does it say about their quality of economic and environmental thinking, let alone national defence, the last Iraq war etc etc.

And especially the cohesion and stability of Australia if and when GFC mark II arrives, which seems likely in the next 1, 2 or 3 years.

Really there is no decision. The Sydney Daily Telegraph are the local arm of what we are seeing in the UK with closure of News of the World. The implication of all this is that a vote for Abbott will close down Australia in a most unexpected and disastrous way.

Just go and see Harry Potter with your kids and ask yourself if Murdoch is the precedent for Voldermort, owner of the Sydney Daily Telegraph. Sydney needs a new Sydney Daily Tabloid to replace it.

Posted by editor at 11:27 AM NZT

Updated: Sunday, 17 July 2011 12:08 PM NZT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink