The Crikey culture blog

Category Archives: media

Lick these cold Man Nuts

March 13, 2012 – 10:23 am

You may seen these posters advertising an ice cream bar. I’ve quizzed friends, none of whom have managed either a convincing rationale or a straight face. Can anyone explain this slogan?What is the ice-cream-consumer appeal in the idea of Licking Cold Man Nuts? Is it being deployed in Bob Katter‘s electorate? You might as well [...]

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Favourite new podcast: Lexicon Valley

February 23, 2012 – 10:37 am

Ah, politics. Before the knives, the talk. Famously, Orwell: ‘Political language … is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.’ Apart from fully sic, the language antidote is at Lexicon Valley, at Slate. Three episodes in and I’m an enthusiastic addict of the [...]

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Sh*t is f*****d up and bullsh*t

October 24, 2011 – 11:28 am

What an ugly, disgraceful overreaction by the mayor and the City of Melbourne to the Occupy Melbourne group. When I hurried up to the City Square on Friday around 4.25 to catch a tram for Carlton the emptied square was cyclone fenced with riot police standing behind the wire. Further up Swanston Walk everyone was [...]

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Rupert’s hands

July 20, 2011 – 10:56 am

The things that most fascinated me about the Murdochs’ appearance at Westminster last night were Rupert’s hands. They are thoroughly octogenarian. One thought of leopards and their spots, as the apparently doddery old guy and waffling, spinning young man ran rings around most of the MPs, who huffed and puffed. But one also recalled Lady [...]

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Rupert: What a Jeremy Hunt!

July 18, 2011 – 10:54 am

Poster seen in East London: The picture, of  a younger, still hair-blessed and virilish Rupert M, has been plastered with a sticker that reads: “What a Jeremy Hunt” It refers to the U.K. Culture Secretary. According to the Washington Post, News International pushed Hunt to refer its bid for British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc to [...]

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Paradigm Shift Time: the end of print

July 6, 2011 – 9:19 am

Six a.m., lying in bed somewhere adjacent to sleep — I sense headlights sweep across the transom followed by thumps on the pavement. At the same time yesterday morning I stood watching as the feller ina black Ford do a little circle in the street as he volleyed a basket of gladwrapped logs onto the [...]

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Too cool for tiny ethics (on reviewing)

August 10, 2010 – 11:36 am

Well, of course, with the election roundng the bend into the final straight and with the world as always shaping up like a pear, this kind of subject is close to being a nonentitial* irrelevance. And yet, the kind of world we want to live is exactly one which can afford the luxury of such [...]

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Julia in China

July 1, 2010 – 1:10 pm

Julia on the front page of last Friday’s Dongguang Daily. (The differences of scale! Dongguang is an industrial city bordering the north of Guangzhou. Not so big by local standards, pop. of about 7 million in 2008, shipping about AUD 92 billion in exports last year; Australia’s 2009 exports were AUD 250 billion.)

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Google to Save Newspapers

May 25, 2010 – 11:39 am

Even if you don’t care if dead-tree media companies are going to survive, it’s everyone’s concern that newspapers – not dead-tree, but livewire online whatever format – have a future. Because, you know, we can’t have all these unemployed journos running around desperate and ranting – look what happened when the US forces disbanded the [...]

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How the Sun rose over the UK

May 4, 2010 – 10:32 am

The UK Sun, Rupert’s red-top, has always been winningly subtle in its political support. It was, of course, “the Sun wot won it” for the Tories in 1992, and then thoughtfullly awarded 10 Downing to Blair in ’97. This year’s model is the pink, glossy-faced (that’s a literal description) David Cameron. It’s refreshing to see [...]

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