Somebody talks to Hamas, hold the front page!

The Australian Murdoch press is so clueless. This story, appearing on page 2 of today’s Australian newspaper, is a supposed scoop: A senior East Timorese government minister wanted to advise the Palestinian militant group Hamas while employed by the World Bank. Based in the West Bank in 2006, Emilia Pires, a dual Australian citizen, now…

Murdoch down under shows how powerlesss he is

This is almost tragic. Murdoch’s Australian newspaper has spent years demonising the Greens for extremism and much else and yet despite the wise counsel of Rupert support for the party is surging. So what to do for the little Murdoch minions? Slam the Greens more, claim they are “far Left” (a supposedly problematic term) and…

Endangering “informants” in Afghanistan is a murky affair

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange talks to Fox News (!) about the Afghan war logs and provides some context to the release of classified documents and the ways in which “informants” often work: A bigger problem, according to Assange, was a project the government called the “kill or capture list”– a list of suspected terrorists that…

Demeaning Tamils on a mission

When the wolves of the tabloid press are looking for victims, rest assured they’ll always find the most powerless in society. Case study one: A Tamil refugee who went on a 23-day hunger strike in Parliament Square last year has received an apology and almost …£80,000 in damages from the Daily Mail and the Sun…

The American media and race relations on crack, smoked by Rupert

The parallel universe known as the American media. Trumped-up stories, white paranoia, Fox News inflaming and utterly devoid of true meaning. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow offers a few thoughts (and being here in New York at the moment it’s almost comical how little serious news is reported by the major TV networks, except for faux scandals):…

Comparing Murdoch to the tobacco business

Murdoch’s News Limited is a multinational, bullying monster that routinely escapes serious scrutiny. Its size convinces too many to remain silent. But there are brave exceptions: The [Australian Rugby team] Storm’s former chairman, Rob Moodie, has launched a withering attack on the club’s owners, News Ltd, comparing their ”intimidating” tactics to those of multinational tobacco…

Wash Post study on outsourcing terror (aka intelligence services)

One of the biggest stories in North America at the moment is today’s Washington Post investigation on the explosion of intelligence services since 9/11. The sheer scale and cost involved is massive. Creating fear has never been more profitable. The outsourcing of government services is taking place across the world, including Australia and yet most…

What would a progressive agenda look like?

I’ve spent the last 24 hours traveling across the world (currently in Canada) and read this fascinating 17,000 word essay by Eric Alterman in The Nation. It discusses the importance of a progressive agenda, the difficulty of achieving this in the US with so many vested interests, the disappointment of Barack Obama, lobbying in the…

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