How ironic that some of the most vocal supporters of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption have become some of its loudest critics. For the moment at least. But their critique contains a message with respect to similar institutions at the state and territory levels, and also the soon-to-be-established National Anti-Corruption Commission in Canberra. The NSW [...]
It appears the media pile-on against the late George Pell will continue past his death and burial. For example, last Thursday left-wing newsletter Crikey headed its “Your say” readers’ comment section as follows: “George Pell was a winner for the Catholic Church but lost his soul in the process.” Crikey’s various readers produced no evidence [...]
It was a morning in mid-July when I last had an in-person conversation with Cardinal George Pell. We both addressed a conference of Catholic priests in suburban Sydney. His topic was The Church and its future – mine, The Pell case and the media. I spoke about the huge media pile-on against Pell which was [...]
Sure, the Christmas-New Year period may be what some like to call the media’s silly season. But recent months suggest that a lack of historical awareness contributes significantly to the foolishness involved. On Boxing Day, Nine’s newspapers gave page one coverage to a letter written by one-time star cricketer Sir Donald Bradman to prime minister [...]
And so it came to pass that 2022, the Lunar Year of the Tiger, was more lunar than tiger. Indeed, a sense of madness prevailed as hyperbole, narcissism, self-indulgence, false prophecy, fake news and end-of-the-worldism swept the land. Month by month. January is ushered in with Paul Daley declaring that hearing the morning call of [...]
Hell has no fury like a leading ABC presenter or executive producer scorned – to reinvent and revise the proverb of 18th-century dramatist William Congreve. Or so it seems. On Wednesday, the Australian Communications and Media Authority released its report into the two-part ABC Four Corners program Fox and the Big Lie, which aired on [...]
It was yet another example of the Guardian-ABC axis in action. The Guardian was established in Manchester in 1821 as an avowedly left-wing newspaper and this tradition continued when it moved to London in 1961. Guardian Australia was set up in 2013, and it follows the ideological tradition of its British relative. Despite the fact [...]
Chris Bowen, Climate Change and Energy Minister in Anthony Albanese’s government, and Greens senator Jordon Steele-John are true believers in the need for global reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. The difference is that the former is aware of the difficulties involved in Australia meeting its emissions-reduction target while the latter seems to be [...]
How convenient that the University of Melbourne’s website contains a section titled “Find an expert”, which can be a handy source for contacts for a journalist who has an early morning story to report. This may or may not be the reason Oliver Gordon contacted Sarah Maddison, professor in political science at Melbourne University, for an [...]
It’s not my intention to rain on Gough Whitlam’s parade as Australia approaches the 50th anniversary of Labor’s victory over William McMahon’s Coalition government on December 2, 1972. However, it is to be hoped that the assessment of Whitlam in the next couple of weeks will be more nuanced than that which occurred when Australia’s [...]