My latest New Matilda column is about the myth of “humanitarian intervention”: Last week’s Australian withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq saw a flurry of establishment commentary on the rights and wrongs of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s decision. Former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer wrote that, “despite the problems” in the war-torn country, “Australians should be…
Showing all posts tagged Murdoch
An insignificant Iraq withdrawal
My following article appears in today’s ABC Unleashed: Retired Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, the onetime commander of US troops in Iraq, has recently released a book about his time in the country. In Wiser in Battle: A Soldier’s Story, he recalls a teleconference with US President George W. Bush soon after four contractors were…
Kill your TV
Media usage may be fragmenting but traditional mediums remain (far too) powerful: Americans — including “young people” — still get their political news from TV, according to a new study published by TV trade pub Broadcasting & Cable, and conducted by market-research firm Crawford, Johnson & Northcott, whose clients include… several TV stations. According to…
Rudd government reignites campaign against Iranian president
My following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: Antony Loewenstein, author of My Israel Question, writes: In late 2006, hardline Zionists in Israel and the United States raised the possibility of indicting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for “direct and public incitement to commit genocide” against the Jewish…
Is Iran next?
My following article appears in today’s ABC Unleashed: The fifth anniversary in March of the Iraq war should have given the political and media elite time to reflect on their actions since 2003. Virtually ignored by the mainstream media were stories such as life in Fallujah, where citizens remain mired in poverty and resentment. Despite…
Israel’s 60th birthday – what the media left out
My following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: Antony Loewenstein, author of My Israel Question and the co-founder of Independent Australian Jewish Voices, writes: “I am not a Jew”, said an Arab radio journalist in Jerusalem to the New York Times. “How can I belong to a Jewish state? If they define this as…
Defeat: Why They Lost Iraq
My following book review appeared in the Melbourne Age on April 19: On the fifth anniversary the Iraq War, The Independent’s Patrick Cockburn, the finest Western reporter in Iraq, wrote that the conflict “has been one of the most disastrous wars ever fought by Britain. It has been small but we achieved nothing . .…
Smog, Rudd and Hu Jia
My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: The international outcry over China’s human rights abuses was temporarily disrupted this week with news from Beijing that the regime was determined to manage the city’s pollution problems by halting building construction after July for two months. Unfortunately, many…
Spot the news story
My following article appears in today’s ABC Unleashed: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s overseas trip has been extensively covered in the mainstream media. From George W. Bush to Gordon Brown, the travelling journalists have given readers and viewers a running commentary of his daily meetings. Missing from the vast majority of the coverage, however, has been…
The view from the Murdoch perch
Scott Burchill, Senior Lecturer in International Relations in the School of International & Political Studies at Deakin University, comments on a Murdoch mouthpiece: Quote of the week goes to Liberal Party lunchalot and honorary Republican Party ambassador, Greg Sheridan. According to the Foreign Editor of The Australian, “Rudd will be a tremendous disappointment to the…