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OMG what have they done?

A week ago the Libs looked like a rabble, then they spent the week proving it and now, after a bit of a break and a nice night’s sleep they wake up an elect TONY ABBOTT as their leader?

Barry Cassidy summed it up with Annabel Crabb on the rather extravagant ABC coverage of the #spill; [...]

The other contest

On Tuesday when the Libs kick out the petulant Malcolm Turnbull for his blatant disregard of Nick Minchin’s point of view there will ensue a small tussle between the hard right of the Liberal Party represented by the mad monk, Tony Abbott or possibly, all-time funny man Kevin Andrews and the “popular front bencher” and [...]

A casualty of the Liberal implosion?

It seems that the government’s plan to achieve structural separation of Telstra are not going to make it through the Senate this year. Hours of debate over the CPRS (Continue Polluting Regardless Scheme) has meant the bills will now sit in the todo list until next year.

Of course the bills were part bluff to start [...]

The revolution might be twittered, but don't count on it.

While Julie Posetti wants us to believe in the power of the twitterverse to achieve significance in the way news is reported, I think her comments overlook some aspects of how news is made and she asserts a significance for twitter which seems to gloss over some of the “noisy” aspects of that particular internet [...]

Political coverage on TV

Over 18 months ago the fearless poetry spouting leader of the ABC, Mark Scott made quite a splash about another jewel in the Ultimo crown, a so-called continuous news centre. This worthy initiative was mean to herald a 24hr news service to all Australians, not just those who are prepared to pay for Sky News. [...]

Turnbull's Wikipedia hack

Around 12.48pm Oz eastern time someone really thought Malcolm’s days as opposition leader were over. SBSnews tweeted the joy around that time but soon after Malcolm narrowly defeated the shadows in his own party his Wikipedia page reverted to its former glory. A contrite and conciliatory Mr Turnbull will now have the clearly divided support [...]

Minchin on the ABC Board

Hot of the screen, here’s a presser from the Friends of the ABC. Looks like a negotiation position, the libs will drop the “restriction on the appointment of former politicians etc” if labor drops “the staff-elected director position”. Can’t have staff on the board, must keep the workers in their place. I can smell a [...]

Albrechtsen leaves her mark

Oh what a feeling! Planet Janet has announced her departure from the board of the ABC and I would personally like congratulate her on her worthy contributions and selfless devotion to the difficult task of ridding the ABC of

the progressive predilection for emotion over reason and stealth over honesty.

Sure it was difficult for the [...]

Between a rock and a hard place

Why do the champions of the so-called free enterprise system consistently clamour for fair and open markets yet consistently ignore evidence of market failure? The Institute of Public Affairs is well funded right wing think tank that specialises in spewing out free market libertarian thought bubbles that frequently find their way into the mainstream media. [...]

Martin Ferguson's inquiry

So 10 weeks later the operators of the Montara oil rig off the coast of north west WA finally managed to plug the leak but not before it managed to leak 28,000 barrels of oil into the surrounding seas. But never fear because the minister for digging up shit is on the case and he [...]