The relentless, farcical coverage of the “Balloon Boy” non-story by the likes of CNN and Sky shows everything that’s wrong with 24-hour news networks: too much airtime and nothing to fill it.
October, 2009
An Alvin and the Chipmunks led revival
Rupert Murdoch at his annual News Corporation meeting looks to an Alvin and the Chipmunks sequel to provide News Corporation with a Happy Christmas.
Why the wrong person always wins
As Kanye West highlighted at the MTV video awards — “Imma let you finish…” — the ones who most deserve an award are never the ones who win it. So why do we still care who wins?
The tricky business of rape reporting
When rape is reported in the media it is often tinged with blame. Why are sexual assaults only written clearly when the act is so horrific that the victim’s innocence is not in question?
How Islamabad went from boring and green to violent and mean
Islamabad in Pakistan wasn’t always known as a scene of suicide bombings and security checkpoints. NY Times journo Salman Masood looks back on the “laidback, dull” city of his youth.
Breakfast Media Wrap: Australia seeking an Indonesian solution for boat people surge
The pick of Saturday morning’s media
Pollies make terrible gardeners: let the economy grow
John Howard may have wasted the Aussie economy boom, but is Kevin Rudd now squandering the bust? This is Australia’s chance to stop the government funding the economy, writes Henry Ergas.
The image makeover that Israel didn’t want
Israel is alienating more and more of its traditional allies and its criticism of the Goldstone report — which accuses Israel of targeting citizens in its attacks last Dec-Jen — may further damage its relationship with the US, writes Patrick Seale.
The day Obama popped the question
How did Barack Obama ask Hillary Clinton to be his Secretary of State? Well, Hillary and Bill were strolling through a NY park when suddenly Bill’s phone rang…
Roadside tributes of the month
Bob Gosford shares some of the best dusty roadside tributes spotted during his recent sojourns through this Wide Brown Land.
Bartlett: The missing migration debate
The migration debate in this country continually gets derailed by such intense focus on a few thousand people, when it is a minuscule proportion of the total number of people coming to this country every year, says Andrew Bartlett.
No snow for Moscow: fighter planes on cloud killing spree
The Mayor of Moscow has turned into Mother Nature, with the Russian Air Force to be used to blast snow clouds from the Moscow sky in an effort to save an estimated A$11m on snow removal.
20-20 vision needed on 2020 vision
The climate debate as fostered by Crikey in 2009 has gone off the rails and is no longer a credible force for meaningful debate. It has joined the ranks of the political nutters, says Simon Mansfield.
Crikey Says: Murdoch works the news cycle
When it’s time to hold News Corp’s AGM over in the Big Apple, Rupert Murdoch knows exactly when to run it so it gets lost in “put out the trash Friday”. A nice way of avoiding the Aussie news.
Golly, the Hun should be black, white and red (faced) all over
A Melbourne toy shop has moved some of its products out of its display windows, and the Herald Sun was on hand to fan one of the oldest beat-ups in the book: “innocent children oppressed by PC killjoys”.
Lowbottom High Diaries: Driven by cold to the janitor’s lair
‘We are so used to the big dry that we hardly know what precipitation is.’ A cold snap has come to Lowbottom High, writes Trevor Diogenes.
Political economy: Stevens’ rate rise fever goes global
Congratulations, Glenn Stevens, for preparing us for bold rate hikes, writes Henry Thornton.
Shareholders revolt on fat cat pay
As lobbyists mull over the Productivity Commission’s draft reforms to executive remuneration rules, the first non-binding Remuneration Report of 2009 has been voted down by shareholders.
Meet Alex and Brindha: a media savvy bunch of boat people
The latest onset of asylum seekers isn’t Rudd’s Tampa, because this time the people aren’t out of sight and out of mind of the media. Will it make the public care?
Why did BHP and Rio Tinto scrap the WA iron ore joint venture?
Why did BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto scrap their plans to jointly market iron ore from the joint venture between their huge iron ore mines in the Pilbara region? Did negotiations with Chinese mills affect it?
Political snippets: Bad news for polar bears
Can we trust news that the Arctic will be ice-free in summer within about 20 years? Has Mike Rann been given the sympathy sucker-punch? Plus a look at The Crikey Interest Rate Indicator.
Media briefs: Pipe down Lindsay … Rudd labels The Oz right wing
It’s not quite the White House vs. Fox News fiasco, but Kevin Rudd has dubbed The Oz a right-wing publication with an anti-government agenda. Really?
Here’s how Rudd could resuscitate our public hospitals
In 2007, Kevin Rudd promised to fix Australia’s public hospitals if the states had not done so in a year. He would be foolish to blindly follow his National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission’s recommendations, writes David Penington.
