Comments on: Time for Hartigan to save the Telegraph from itself

By: Tom McLoughlin

Tom McLoughlin — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Eric, this traverse is out of my recent gender/moral panic file for the Big Media: “Just having a look at Devine’s piece [SMH last Thursday] there is no doubt she put a pretty solid article together according to her own values, alot of cross referencing whichever side you prefer. But I blogged myself on this perfect political storm coming before I read her piece (I referred to Telegraph’s front page bugle a day later). A brewing storm with gusts of wind from various directions - Orkopoulos sentence of 9+ years earlier in the week for predation on adolscents. Moral sword play by the Labor aligned arts community at the Sydney Writers Festival on sexism as per the famous Ernies book which ran on abc tv earlier in the week. The riposte by Sydney Telegraph soon after re alleged sexism of the Defence Dept regarding false claims against Ms Zaetta. Before these hot topics were sexual morality/gender issues involving not so much Culture Wars as the Moral Panic Wars - namely SD Telegraph blowtorch on respected (female, welfare rights) defense lawyer approach to rape victims, which spun off into a gender issue about real or false harrassment claims by one Ms Vivenne Dye against CBA, (and previously allegedly against a phone co. ). Which then spun off to moral panic by SDT/Sky Tv over ABC so called abuse of ANZAC Day coverage as ‘immoral’ delay in live broadcast. And before that it was Patrick Power convicted of child p*rn supported by 40 defamation suing legal colleagues and their character references. In other words the press, especially the SDT, and Devine as a News Ltd wolf amongst the Fairfax sheep, are ramping up moral panics, and selling lots of newspapers and slagging their rivals left of Genghis Khan. Mission accomplished I suppose.

By: Chris Johnson

Chris Johnson — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

John Hartigan needs to ease out of his armchair and look up the word ‘news’ on which hangs he hangs his Sydney Daily Telegraph. It’s nothing more than tinselled, titilated irrelevant rubbish not much better than the junk mail in our letterboxes - which atleast has fewer spelling mistakes and improved sentence construction. When political correctness prevents him from detailing why the Tele’s business model has its editorial content on a downward trajectory - that’s where either the conscience kicks in or the scorn proceeds. The media is the poorer for Hartigan - his campaign on greater freedom for a trusted press - all FFS!

By: Kerry

Kerry — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Any Editor who employs persons such as Piers Akerman who week after week encourages what few readers he has ,to continually rave on ad nauseam about Kevin Rudd, Kevin Rudd, Kevin Rudd and Kevin Rudd, must be totally devoid of managerial ability. Another topic that appeals to Akermans obviously uninformed Rudd bashers is the ongoing accusation that the PM is somehow involved in the coverup and shredding of documents relating to an alledged rape of an Aboriginal ward of the state in Queensland some 17 years ago. It is beyond intelligent thinking that the tripe Akerman repeats from handouts and browsing the internet is informed journalism. Its no wonder the Telegraph is in dire straits. Incidently when on Insiders yesterday on ABC TV, Akerman was reminded it was the Tele that first ran the story of the so called sex with soldiers story. He very quickly mumbled under his breath, yes and other papers. Its time the pretender was pensioned off.

By: Carrie

Carrie — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

A quick glance last night at some of the comments on S’s DT online revealed more than half the comments were protests over either the DT’s bias take on stories or its flimsy discussion topic!! So if clicks are being interpreted as ‘readership’ allegiance - wrong. If they’re simply a measure of dollars then Hartigan and his bleating about media standards are FFS! It’s up to print industry or journalist ethics committees to elevate industry standards. But I guess if the print is like the electronic media - with all rights to the employer who’s laissez-faire about standards and carte-blanche on profit - Australia’s media will never rise above kindergarten communications.

By: Helen Evans

Helen Evans — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Speaking of trash media - we might as well throw radio into the cheap, tacky tossed salad of national communications. As Sydney’s Daily Telegraph and the SMH both dumb down, commercial radio cant keep up fast enough. Here in the regionals shopping trolley cartels have made bulk radio licence purchases and our local airwaves are now full of irrelevant rubbish for the communities they serve. This morning I’m in a two-hour traffic jam at Murwillumbah and the local radio station that broadcasts out of Sydney morning, noon and night is reporting on delays across the Harbour Bridge and train chaos on Sydney’s rail network! We don’t have a rail network (that was cut by the NSW government and we bus it from Qld to Casino). I know the Tele is dumb, but regional radio is dumber.