There’s a frenzied rush by the Australian political/media class to both propagandise Australians as quickly as possible into supporting preparations for war with China, and to ram through legislation that facilitates the censorship of online speech. Australia’s Communications Minister Michelle Rowland is set to release draft legislation imposing hefty fines on social media companies who Continue reading »
Media
If truth is the first casualty in war, then truth-seekers are surely next. Radio New Zealand (RNZ) Digital Editor Mick Hall has been suspended for what are called ‘inappropriate edits’ to foreign-sourced materials, mainly from Reuters. RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson said that “It’s so disappointing that this pro-Kremlin garbage has ended up in our Continue reading »
Coverage of the destruction of the Kakhovka dam and Nord Stream pipelines shows a western media willing to prioritise anti-Russian propaganda over facts. The hypocrisy gets starker by the day. The same western media that strains to warn of the dangers of disinformation – at least when it comes to rivals on social media – Continue reading »
The recklessness of Australian politicians and mainstream media and the damage which that has caused, is abundantly clear in the latest poll, carried out by the Lowy Institute on Australian attitudes to China. The irresponsibility began with Clive Hamilton’s ‘Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia’ (2018), with its provocative cover picture of a massive Chinese Continue reading »
A recent article by Ben Bradley in The New Yorker magazine, ‘Daniel Ellsberg’s life beyond the Pentagon Papers’ made me think again about the fate of the two courageous anti-American whistleblowers, Edward Snowdon and Julian Assange. Daniel Ellsberg, who is regarded as the first whistleblower in United States, died recently at the ripe old age Continue reading »
Despite the great interest in and importance of US Secretary of State Blinken’s visit to China, there have been far more interesting things happening here for China watchers. They illustrate the continuing shift in geopolitical gravity towards China as the centre of the multipolar world. To coin a sporting phrase, “it’s all happening here”. Here Continue reading »
The ABC is in trouble again as it abandons its cultural role to become “fully digital” by 2028. On Thursday last the ABC told a “pretty flabbergasted” political editor Andrew Probyn that he’d been made redundant along with 120 others, 41 of them in news, in a major cost-cutting measure. The purpose: so that the Continue reading »
Every woman in Australia, and not a few men, should experience a shiver of apprehension about the Bruce Lehrmann case. It’s not just a story about whether a particular woman was raped at parliament house in 2019. It’s even less a story about whether former defence minister, Linda Reynolds, her employer at the time, was Continue reading »
The Washington Post finally conceded in an editorial recently that the United States must “spend smarter” when it comes to defence. Instead of looking for ways to cut defence spending, however, the Post simply wants to spend differently. It favours more spending on conventional and nuclear-armed submarines, despite the huge U.S. advantage in both power Continue reading »
Is a taser a tool, or a torture weapon? That’s something Australians should think upon; Late news suggests to me that’s more than just a teaser. Imagine an old grey guy, nicknamed ‘Grumpy Geyser’ – He’s limping his frame across the road, A bread knife in one hand has him slowed. A panicked nurse had Continue reading »