Media Challenges: Guardian Australia's Lenore Taylor at Progress 2017

Lenore Taylor, award-winning journalist and editor of Guardian Australia, gave a lightning talk at Progress 2017 in Melbourne on 7 June.



Lenore outlined some of the challenges facing the media, both old and new. In particular Google and Facebook are soaking up advertising revenue and have become publishers of news not just tech companies. However, they do not have the same accountability as other news organisations. Online advertising supports often false or fake news that goes viral but:

It increasingly difficult, extremely difficult, to fund the in-depth policy journalism or political journalism or investigative journalism that holds politicians to account or gives voters the information that they need in elections to make informed choices.

Lenore also discussed their new membership model for revenue raising.

The two-day event was organised by the Centre for Australian Progress.

More video from #progress2017 here.

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What's the bottom line we should demand of our State Parliamentarians?

A couple of Letters to the Editor in Melbourne's Bayside Leader local 'free' weekly newspaper. It's part of Rupert Murdoch's Herald Sun chain.

A case of old media meets new media, perhaps.

'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' or perhaps just a little bit disgusted with how low the bar is set in Sandy. A pity that politics drives us to clichés.

Don't miss the rest of my coverage of the Sandringham Campaign for the 2014 Victorian State election.

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Faces in the crowd: Melbourne #MarchinMarch

The Marches in March continue to glow with controversy. Never did so few gather so many, without engaging the usual suspects of the old media, the political parties, NGOs, the unions and the activist groups. There had to be a dark side to these events. The people can’t have minds of their own! Or if they do they must be warped!

Tim Dunlop has joined the fray with a post at The Drum: Rage against the mainstream

The fact is, the media's lame response to an estimated 100,000 citizens showing up on the streets around the country is indicative of a deeper malaise: the rules of news have changed, and increasingly legacy media companies have neither the capacity nor the wit to operate in the new environment.

His target was the Sydney Morning Herald’s Jacqueline Maley.

Tim’s piece follows Lyndon Morley spirited offence at Independent Australia in support of his sign RESIGN DICKHEAD! He was replying to Andrew Bolt’s slanted reporting at the Herald Sun. Bolt was comparing the remarks about Abbott with those of Alan Jones about Julia Gillard. As usual he saw red: "But who will apologise for the parade of hatred in today’s March in March?" He found what he was looking for, of course.

I’ll leave jousting with the black knight of bigotry to Lyndon.

Matthew Donovan tackled The Daily Telegraph’s Tim Blair over what he called “delusions and blind or wilful ignorance” on AIMN on Wednesday. His message: “I will not let you smear the good people who marched”.

I’ll just stick to what I saw and heard in my hometown. To flip the record, I’ve compiled some offcuts that didn’t make my original video piece on the Melbourne #MarchinMarch, not for the signs of the times but for the faces of the people:

One of the more appealing aspects of the Melbourne march was the signs. By and large, they were not offensive. Some seemed to have gone to extremes to be polite:

Kindness matters!

Not Happy Tony.

We Can Do Better!

Cowdy Songs Not Cowboy Govt.

Careful Now!

Wake Up Australia!

In fact most were homemade and some appeared to be the handy work of people more accustomed to writing letters-to-the-editor, pamphleteers rather than sloganeers:

Human Dignity Is Independent of National Borders. We must Always Defend the Interests of the Poor and the Persecuted.

Arbitrary Governments Use Arbitrary Detention.

The longest read:

MR ABBOTT AHD HIS GOVERNMENT HAVE SAID
NO TO CLIMATE CHANGE AND SCIENCE
NO TO MORE WOMEN IN CABINET
NO TO THEIR OWN EDUCATION PROMISES
NO TO THEIR OWN NBN PROMISES
NO TO THEIR OWN HEALTHCARE PROMISES
NO TO REFUGEES
NOW WE SAY NO TO YOU MR. ABBOTT!!!

Many were decidedly to the point:

Tony Abbott Worst PM in Australia’s History.

Wanted for Crimes Against Humanity and Our Planet.

No More Racism, No More Bull, Australia’s Nowhere Near Full!b>Welcome Asylum Seekers and Refugees.

No Justice, No Peace.

Some were a tad obscure:

Viva la Evolucion!

This one had two sides:

Dirty Coal. Clean Wind

Very few signs that I saw were truly offensive or in bad taste. This exception was timeless and certainly open to the charge of not being focussed:

Fuck the Police

It probably wouldn’t resonate with Bolt quite like ‘Fuck Tony Abbott’ T-shirts did.

Monday's Media Watch looked at a coverage paradox, namely how the old media both ignored and condemned the marches. Paul Barry picked up the threads:

A bevy of right-wing columnists have accused the ABC and Fairfax of failing to condemn some vicious anti-Abbott placards, carried by a handful of marchers.

But it was not just the Right that was unhappy with the way the March in March was covered.

Many protesters felt that 31 marches and tens of thousands of people deserved far more attention.

[This is a crosspost with the Australian Independent Media Network.]

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Fresh Air: Back to Campaign Fundamentals

After watching the self-parody on ABCTV 7.30 on Monday, I’ve made a decision.

I’ve been following the media and politics for more than half a century. The advent of the internet has enabled the average punter to document and critique the media's role in day-to-day news coverage and opinion, and election campaign coverage in particular. Increasingly I’ve become one of those critics.

Reluctantly I’m withdrawing from the field until after the Federal election and leaving it to the growing band that have been inspired by bloggers such as Grog’s Gamut and Mr Denmore.

It’s time to get back to some campaigning fundamentals. Elections should be about vision, policies and programs. The focus should be on past and present achievements, options and promises, the skills and expertise of candidates, the quality of the leadership.

Paul Keating famously said, “when you change the government, you change the nation”. It also changes our international role: at the UN, in climate change forums etc. The election should be about the choices we have and the kind of nation and world we want.

Those interested in the game rather than the result can salivate over opinion polls, leadership speculation, personal attacks, fancy public relations and spin. It should not be about standup comedy, glib lines and media stunts. Politics is too important to be just another reality show as part of Planet Hollywood.

Those who try to hold the media accountable when it dresses up regime change as news and entertainment as analysis have a vital job to do. Please keep it up!

Just bowing out of covering the media circus, blow by blow. Not political discourse itself. Will leave Tony Jones, Chris U, Leigh Sales, Kochie and Karl, Michelle and Laurie, Piers and Andrew to the rest of you.

I’m enjoying the fresh air already. I’ll be lurking on the policy patch. It’s the deep end so it’s not crowded. Most of the media would be out of their depth. (Love a mixed-metaphor!)

PS. Of course, media concentration and public broadcasting are public policy areas that remain inbounds.

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Australian Media Fuelling Doubt with Speculation Specfest

It hasn't taken ABC Radio National's Breakfast program long to get back to normal. Its bleak view of the world in general and Australia in particular was in full swing this morning.

Presenter Fran Kelly and Michelle Grattan, daily guest from Fairfax's newspaper The Age, shared their usual specfest about the national political scene. They hit a new low, discussing the speculation that there may be further ministerial resignations from the Gillard government before the 14 September election.

The analysis: "it is fuelling doubt". It's all about perceptions: "impressions of chaos", "perceptions have taken over". As Kelly noted, Grattan's article on Saturday argued that "JULIA Gillard's problems with her reshuffle will be how it is perceived".

By whom, the press gallery? I'm sure they're not using terms such as "sinking ship" or "spinning out of control". On ABC Tv news, Greg Jennett offered this gem when introducing Gillard's press conference with the two retiring ministers: "These are the melancholy days of governing". An "emotional" event in the PM's words, a sad day. Why the hyperbole, with an emotive, negative and inaccurate word like "melancholy"?

Just who is fuelling doubt?  What was the origin of this speculation? Michelle's take on more resignations: there are "none known about. The government probably doesn't expect anymore". BUT "you never know what happens".

There aren't even the usual anonymous party sources or leaks used as justification for this kind of beat-up.

You can listen to their segment here.

This kind of negativity goes hand-in-hand with the constant talking-down of the Australian economy. If you believed the gloom on Breakfast and other ABC programs, you'd have sold all your shares months ago and slashed your financial wrists.

Another Fairfax journalist is grappling with this problem. Economics editor Ross Gittins wonders:

It's long been clear from polling that the electorate doesn't regard the government as good at managing the economy. 

Why this should be so is a puzzle.

At least Ross usually tries to counter this perception. The headline might well be a factor: Why voters believe the economy is in trouble

Another Fairfax publication, the Australian Financial Review, joined in the specfest in
Gillard feared leadership tilt. According to Phillip Coorey and Laura Tingle:

Fear of sparking a leadership ballot at the end of last year was a key ­reason Julia Gillard delayed until last week the decision to reshuffle her cabinet.

Or did she? Later the article gives the game away. It clearly contradicts itself under the sub-heading MEDIA SPECULATION:

While the Prime Minister did not think there was a likelihood of an actual challenge, media speculation at the time was stoking unrest.

Perhaps Phillip and Laura took turns to write paragraphs.

Apparently, the Insiders managed to get to policy matters 47 minutes into the hour long TV show. I'll rely on twitter as the source. It's as reliable as "you never know what happens"!

Anyway the current specfest is a substitute for the usual mindless speculation about the date of the election or the Kevin Rudd challenge meme. When there is no challenge or likelihood of one, the journos have to dance around it, creating their own smoke.

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From Watergate to Ashbygate: how the press makes sausages

From Watergate to Ashbygate. Thanks to the Geek Institute @geeksrulz for this timely video.

"Front Pages on Slipper Scandal. Our esteemed media at work. From Watergate to Ashbygate. A study in how the press makes sausages. Our own Australian Watergate."

Anyone who is not very concerned about the Australian media's coverage of Federal politics, is not paying attention.

If you've been offline for a few days, as I was earlier in the week, or have been relying on my usual sources/suspects The Age and The ABC, then here are a couple of new media analyses that may help:

From Mr. Denmore (Jim Parker) who looks at the general malaise - The Failed Estate: Send in the Clowns

From Sortius is a Geek exploring Tony Abbott's spin about the strange time gap in the publication of his first media release: 10 HOURS OF BULLSHIT

Anyway it doesn't matter because Michelle Gratttan, Chris Uhlmann and the press gallery have told us that it's a no-win situation politically. In fact, if you watched Friday night's ABCTV 7.30 program, you'd know that the real villain of the the week is not James Ashby, Mal Brough, the shonky lawyer or one of the many Liberal party dissemblers. It's the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. How dare she ask for the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, to be held accountable. Or even just to tell the truth.

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Twitterville: Political Paralysis Before Leadership Vote

From my latest Global Voices post:

Australia’s governing party will decide between current Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the one she deposed in 2010 Kevin Rudd. Following months of speculation, Australian Labor Party parliamentarians will vote after a very self-destructive confrontation this week.

As well as bloggers such as Lavartus Prodeo and their legions of commenters, tweeters have taken to the task with gusto. #respill has been the tag of choice for many whilst the somewhat bizarre #kevenge seems to capture the mood of many others in twitterville.

...A new pro-Rudd user appeared @Vote4Rudd which asks, “Follow us if you want Kevin Rudd back!” Despite Kevin’s supposed popularity it had only 141 followers after two days.

...Parliamentarians who have not yet indicated how they will vote are being hounded on twitter. Journalists such as @ABCNews24’s reporter Latika Bourke seem relentless. After stalking Anthony Albanese MP for days she live-tweeted his whole radio interview
Australia: Political Paralysis Before Leadership Vote

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Climate Action: Let’s Swap Fear for Facts

Thank goodness the carbon price phoney war is nearly over. Hopefully fear will be replaced with facts after the government’s Sunday announcement of their carbon emissions scheme.

The Federal Opposition has a lot to answer for. Tony Abbott’s partisan performance over carbon pricing reflects the quality of his leadership, rather than that of the economists he attacked recently. He has been busy bad mouthing them in a manner reminiscent of his calling climate science ‘crap’. He has been prepared to say and do whatever will help him to gain power.

Fortunately, the real work has continued. With perfect timing, Melbourne University hosts a major 3-day conference next week about the implications of global warming: Four Degrees or More? – Australia in a Hot World.

It is a great shame that Australia’s response to the climate change challenge has become centred on ideological positioning by opportunist Abbott and populists such as Barnaby Joyce and Alan Jones.

The same is not the case in the United Kingdom where both sides of politics accept that the science is in and urgent action is necessary. The Department of Energy and Climate Change website has an unequivocal warning about greenhouse gas emissions: ‘Unless action is taken to reduce GHG emissions, there is a high risk of global warming well beyond a 2°C increase since pre-industrial times. This would have significant impact and could lead to severe, and possibly irreversible, damage to ecosystems and natural processes’.

The world is in the process of choosing its climate future and all governments must be held accountable for real, substantial action not just rationalisations that can be sold to the voters. That includes our own governments, including the State level. The choices we make should not be based on misinformation, deliberate sowing of confusion or economic fear mongering.

Our current situation is beyond reasonable doubt: the world is warming, humans are major contributors through greenhouse gas emissions, the consequences will be serious and for some catastrophic, the international community is taking action. In addition a low carbon economy, rather than being a drag on Australia’s prosperity, promises a more healthy nation in many senses of the word.

Ross Garnaut, who recently attacked the mainstream media for their ‘crude’ and ‘distorting’ coverage, is one of the presenters. It will be interesting to see what coverage they give his and other contributions to the ongoing policy debate. Keynote speaker Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Chair of the German Government's Advisory Council on Global Change and other international contributors, should bring some very welcome sober and rational perspectives.

Let’s hope that Garnaut and his fellow presenters get the amount of coverage that the Lord Monckton generates with his attention-seeking travelling circus. It’s more hope than expectation based on the last couple of years of media mischief.

*           *          *          *         *           *          *          *

Please help to fund my Climate Change citizen journalism project - Climate Change: Facing the Fourth Degree

Click on the image for details:

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Julie Bishop: Still Not Deputy Leader of the Opposition

Heard Julie Bishop being referred to as the Deputy Leader of the Opposition yet again yesterday. It was ABC News reporting on the North Melbourne Grand final breakfast.

Perhaps we can forgive a sports journalist for getting it wrong. Google "grand final breakfast julie bishop deputy leader of the opposition" and a long list of offenders appears:

The Age
Daily Telegraph
Brisbane Times
MTR1377
4BC
Sydney Morning Herald

Ignorance is Bliss! Will the Real Alternative Deputy PM Please Stand Up? (Wednesday, July 21, 2010)

No wonder no one, especially the Independent MPs, takes Warren Truss seriously. Perhaps if they did, Tony Abbott would be Prime Minister, either at the ballot box or the negotiating table.

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AM Fails PM's Q&A

ABC Radio National's AM program this morning was politics-as-entertainment at its worst. Its coverage of Prime Minister Julia Gillard's appearance on the ABC TV's Q&A last night was dismal.

They mentioned all the non-core aspects: her marital/childless/atheist status, the ranga, the former Labor leader's behaviour, her voice. Anything but policy! The audience asked many testing questions on key election policies such as refugees and climate change. Lolita O'Donoghue's final question about the lack of any coverage of indigenous issues went uncovered by AM.

Not good enough.

It was followed by a very soft report about grey nomads and the election from a caravan park in Forbes. AM seems to have an identity crisis. Is it hard hitting journalism or a lifestyle program.

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Progressive Oz Blogs

Looking for some lively election coverage that goes beyond media obsession with leaks, polls, fashion and trivia? Here are are few websites to follow, if you aren't already:

Hoyden About Town

Grog's Gamut

North Coast Voices

Duckpond

The Political Sword

Larvatus Prodeo

Cafe Whispers

This list is far from exhaustive but these sites have lots of good links.

If you find a telling post, share it far and wide across the blogosphere.

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Iraq a Mistake: Ex Australian Defence Forces Chief

Was I dreaming last night? I watched the launch of ABC News 24. The beat-up by Chris Uhlmann was predictable. A scoop! Rudd weak on national security! Pity it lacked detail, relied on anonymous sources and the confidentiality of the National Security Committee. The highlight was former Defence Forces Chief Chris Barrie’s confession that the Iraq war was a mistake in that it had distracted us from fighting the real threat in Afghanistan. That should have been headlines today. We were told in the report that John Howard never missed a meeting and that the Deputy PM chaired in his absence.

I can’t find the transcript or video of the rest of Uhlmann’s interview anywhere on the web. If it had been said by a senior British military head, it would lead all today’s bulletins: Failure of Afghan War Liberal Mistake! Howard Dropped Ball on Afghanistan!

If anyone locates it, please let me know.

There is a reckless silence in the mainstream media about the Afghanistan war. I wonder if it will get a mention on the Leaders' debate.

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The Ass Has Bolted

Without comment!

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Laurie Oakes: Please Confirm or Deny

We were returning to the Herald Sun in my taxi. John Gorton’s 1970 half-Senate election campaign launch at Springvale Civic Centre had just finished with a group of anti-war demonstrators being freed from the paddywagons. They had been arrested during the PM’s speech when some Young Liberals attacked them after they had displayed cardboard coffins.

My passenger, a very young Laurie Oakes told me that he had threatened to make the police frontpage news on the Sun newspaper if they didn’t release the protesters. Anyway that’s not the real story. Any journalist can find themselves part of the story even if it’s supposed to be against the code of ethics.

What really stunned me was his next revelation. At the 1969 Federal election Gough Whitlam had soundly outgunned Gorton who just scraped home on DLP preferences. The Prime Minister had seemed tired and jaded. Rumours about his drinking and female philandering had become common. Laurie explained why he thought this was the case.

His inside information was that Gorton had believed that he had a terminal illness and dropped his bundle. The diagnosis had been wrong and he was back on track. As history shows, his political revival didn’t last long. He did mange to live to ninety and was always a colourful character.

I emailed Laurie Oakes a couple of years ago, asking him to confirm or deny this story. I also indicated that I might publish this tale one day if I didn’t hear otherwise. Now I don’t know what a citizen journalist’s code of ethics might allow but I was just a cabdriver in those days.

Perhaps Laurie was just trying to impress his driver with a couple of tall stories. Perhaps one or both is true.

Laurie, please confirm or deny the Gorton revelation.

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Decline and Fall: Vale Kevin Rudd

When we left for five weeks in South America in mid-April, Kevin Rudd seemed to be cruising. The economy was performing spectacularly. Even the battered Climate Change strategy was still on the horizon – we’d get some sort of deal with the Greens after the election. Despite Tony ‘the jock’ Abbott’s energy, the opposition were still looking like losers. The loudest critic was the Victorian Labor Premier John Brumby over the proposed health reforms.

While we were away the Prime Minister apparently went into self-destruct mode. The Emissions Trading Scheme was scuttled. The budget was judged as lack-lustre but politically safe. Then we heard the first mention of the Resource Super Profits Tax on BBC World News. The word courageous seemed too weak. Despite the tax’s obvious merits, a Whitlamesque fight to the end with the multinational miners was the last thing we needed.

Not long after touching down in Melbourne, I attended my local ALP branch. In an election year, there were only two others in attendance: one a student in his 20s; the other pushing forty years party membership like myself. The gloom matched the fast approaching winter. Thinking that the health reform was still unresolved, I was surprised to hear that agreement had been reached with the Labor States and only Western Australia were holding out. A big win for Rudd, I incorrectly assumed.

This sense of the government moving on to the next issue with business either unresolved or unheralded became a regular theme.

In the month since then, Kevin Rudd imploded. He became post caricature or satire. The more he said, the more voters stopped listening. Even in my extended Labor family, it was hard to find anyone who was not depressed by his seeming paralysis. Or his inability to articulate a way forward.

The government had lost the environment vote and not all of it was coming back in preferences. It seemed impossible to sell the company tax cut and improved superannuation that are the flipside of the mining tax. The hypocrisy of the taxpayer funded advertising submerged the debate about the merits of the proposal.

A relentless media campaign against Rudd and general fixation on opinion polls was extremely enervating. There was little solace that most polls still had Labor in front. We were presented with the bogey of winning the two-party-preferred vote but losing the marginals. 1998 revisited. Hints that party polling confirmed this, added to the gloom.

The PM had lost not just the mainstream media, the natural allies of the mega miners and conservatives, but also faced a very disillusioned blogosphere. The infamous internet filter wasn’t helping either. Ironically Minister Conroy’s peace deal with Telstra felt like the beginning of resurgence. A government that was being portrayed as doing nothing but spend money had also squeezed Paid Parental Leave through the Senate. Tony Abbott’s expensive alternative had split the Liberals and Nationals but no one seemed to care.

I couldn’t watch the ABC’s Australian Story on Monday night promoting Julia despite my admiration for her. The trap was set. Still a challenge seemed unthinkable.

Today was a very sad day. Kevin is a compassionate person with a strong social conscience. He had exhausted himself at Copenhagen trying to get a better result on combating global warming.

The political cynic in me feels that the billionaires and right wing factionistas are running the country. Little consolation that they have produced a feamle PM from the left – something the rest of us would have found extremely difficult to achieve.

The political realist feels that today’s events were unavoidable. That the nerd experiment in leadership had failed. Like Gough, Kevin was just too far removed from the rest of us, at both an intellectual and an interpersonal level.

The political idealist hopes that Julia Gillard will make one of our best Prime Ministers. Despite a heavy heart, like many of my relatives I do feel re-invigorated tonight. We’re ready to defend our piece of Labor history. The vandals are at the gate.

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Update: Is Kevin Rudd the Victim of Media Group Think?

An update of yesterday's political rant is now available at theangle.org:

Is Kevin Rudd the Victim of Media Group Think?

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Warren Truss for Deputy Prime Minister. Not!

The ALP is leading the coalition for the fourth poll in a row. Perhaps we can get back to some real political debate now. Most of the opposition spin is about Rudd doing nothing. It is Nationals leader Warren Truss's (who?) only line. And in a week that gave us Paid Parental Leave and the Broadband deal with Telstra.

Barnaby Joyce should be figuratively horsewhipped by the media for his attack on Rudd's whoring with pimp pollsters. Is that the only way he can keep himself in the spotlight?

Lenore Taylor's remarks on ABC Breakfast this morning, that as Rudd and Swan were planning their economic stimulus package, the media were consumed with Costello's leadership ambitions, were very revealing. It is hard to take the mainstream media seriously, given their lack of depth or understanding.

Today's headlines should be about the split in the coaltion over parental leave, given their decision to oppose Tony Abbott's proposed scheme.

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Steve McCurry's Iconic Images

If only words could capture the lives of people in the developing world as well as Steve McCurry's photography. A picture is worth a thousand clichés about the human condition. His iconic 1985 Afghan Girl, of twelve year old Sharbat Gula for National Geographic, is one such image.

We were lucky enough to see an exhibition of Steve McCurry's photographs at the Centro Cultural ;Borges in Buenos Aires' Galerias Pacifico recently.

More at Th!nk3.

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Global Voices Loud and Strong

The Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010 is concluding after four vibrant days in Santiago, Chile. If you're looking for something beyond the MSM, Facebook and Twitter, join us at the global conversation: Global Voices.

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Talking Morocco for Global Voices

Moroccan blogger Hisham Khribchi of Talk Morocco talks about his writing as part of the BBC's SuperPower project. He is a regular on Global Voices.

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