April, 2010

The Australian’s media commentator Mark Day has a swing at me in his column today, over this piece I wrote for Crikey last week. Day completely misreads me. Apart from the headline, which I did not write and which does not reflect the contents of what I wrote, the thrust of my piece is that [...]

I am sure that many content makers will be interested in the course organised by the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, an ad for which I just received by email, and reproduce below. Pity about the second paragraph

The Australian newspaper has succeeded in persuading the Federal Court to prevent  state and federal directors of public prosecutions from being briefed on a “serious criminal offence” allegedly committed during the research for reporter Cameron Stewart’s scoop on an anti-terrorism raid last August. In a judgement released just minutes ago, Justice Michelle Gordon said that [...]

Freelance journalists who have been struggling with Big Media over oppressive contracts might well be encouraged by the news that their union, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, looks like being allowed to collectively negotiate on their behalf. It could be a significant win. The ACCC yesterday issued a draft determination signalling its intention to [...]

The weekend after this I will be attending the Back to Booktown Festival, held in the rural town of Clunes, population 800, in Victoria. I’m looking forward to it. The main street of the town is given over to book traders, and a small number of writers is invited to talk, give workshops and so [...]

There is a comfortable myth that intellectual Melbourne tells itself.  It goes like this. Our city is more literate, more politically aware and more civilised than Sydney, and this is one of the reasons that right-wing talk radio shock-jocks have never really taken off in the southern capital. With the launch of Steve Price’s Melbourne [...]

Last week I drew attention to a post by Laurel Papworth, the social media consultant, in which she accused Tim Burrowes of the media site Mumbrella of cyber-bullying. Today, Burrowes responds.  He makes the point that they have both dished it out. If you publish your thoughts, be it on social media or mainstream media, [...]

My court reporting by Tweet last night has received some international attention from the journalism.co.uk site. It is not the first occassion that the Federal Court has been reported in this way. As reported on this blog and in the Crikey email, Andrew Colley of The Australian and Liam Tung of ZDNet did the same [...]

I had the lead story in Crikey yesterday, regarding the murky business of The Australian’s attempt to suppress a report by anti corruption agencies. By all accounts, the report is critical of  reporter Cameron Stewart and his boss over the reporting of the anti terrorism Operation Neath. This afternoon the case is up for a [...]

For those who are interested, Inside Story has a podcast of an interview between me and the disturbingly perceptive Peter Clarke – about what it was like to collaborate with Malcolm Fraser in the writing of his memoirs.