My weekly Guardian column: As an atheist Jew, I find it distinctly uncomfortable to defend the free speech rights of Holocaust deniers. I utterly oppose the inaccuracy, hatred and intolerance that goes with refuting the reality of Nazi crimes against Jews, gay people, Gypsies and many others. But a truly free society is one that…
What is the author's voice and where the hell is it living?
I was invited last October by the Australian Society of Authors to speak at their national congress on the role of writing, journalism and being an author. The video has just been posted (!): Much modern publishing is based on a commercial model, and has relied on authors to deliver sales and profits. Yet authors…
ABCTV Big Ideas on Profits of Doom and vulture capitalism
The following was broadcast today on ABCTV1: Can vulture capitalism be stopped? That’s the question put up by… Antony Loewenstein… in his last book… ”˜Profits of Doom: How vulture capitalism is swallowing the world’. He’s a writer, photographer, blogger, doco-maker and always a provocateur. He’s in conversation here with… Chip Rolley, editor of the ABC’s… The Drum. The focus of…
ABCTV News24's on racial discrimination, politics and Murdoch empire
I appeared on ABCTV News’s24’s The Drum last Thursday talking about changes in the Murdoch empire, the ethics and politics of changing the racial discrimination laws and why unions are in such dire trouble in Australia:
The ethics of the US alliance
The job of US State Department favourites (journalists, commentators and politicians who routinely rehash US government talking points over war, peace and the Middle East) must be exhausting. Defending the indefensible while still being on the information drip-feed. Welcome to the US embassy, the free champagne, caviar and PR tips are in the boardroom. I…
Sources and secrets in journalism and state
Essential recent event in New York with… Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept, Laura Poitras, filmmaker and Barton Gellman of The Washington Post, talking about Edward Snowden, surveillance, censorship and brave reporting:
Triple R interview on politics of citizen's arrests
I was interviewed by Melbourne’s Triple R radio this week: On, Michelle Bennett talks to author, journalist and activist Antony Loewenstein about Western hypocricy and “peaceful citizen’s arrests”. In a column he wrote recently [for the Guardian], Loewenstein put forth a discussion-provoking argument for greater accountability of Western leaders, including pushing for a serious enquiry…
Where are books and story-telling going?
My weekly Guardian column is below: How many e-book consumers realise that some publishers, writers and distributors know an awful lot about their reading style? They have knowledge about how far into the book you’ve reached, when you get bored, which characters you like and those you don’t. Amazon, Apple and Google, along with countless…
Western hypocrisy over Russia
Brilliantly strong Gideon Levy in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: Saddam Hussein has already been executed, and so has Osama bin Laden. But all is not lost for the enlightened West. There is a new devil, and his name is Vladimir Putin. He hates gay people, so the leaders of the enlightenment did not go to…
Why progressives must fight and win the culture wars
My weekly Guardian column is published today: Australia’s reactionary culture warriors are amateurs compared to their British and American counterparts. Sack the ABC Chairman Jim Spigelman,… screams… News Limited columnist Piers Akerman. Privatise the public broadcaster,… shouts… the Institute of Public Affairs (a think-tank that refuses to disclose its funders, though the ABC still allows its spokespeople to appear).…