The upside to the newspaper downturnThe plummeting circulation figures of US newspapers isn’t all bad news: the environment, journalistic standards and the internet may all reap the benefits. The Atlantic Wire rounds up the media pundits who still view the news-stand as half-full.
October, 2009
Tiwi forestry: 30,000 hectares of “bankrupt monoculture”
The collapse of the forestry operations on the Tiwi islands represents not just a failure of an ambitious agricultural scheme but also a failure of good corporate governance, says Bob Gosford.
Grattan: The Indonesian Solution becomes the Indonesian problem
Regardless of any slick deals that Kevin Rudd and the Indonesian president have made, Indonesian officials are angry at being used as Australia’s dumping ground and Rudd can’t guarantee children won’t be behind bars, writes Michelle Grattan.
Why Twitter’s non-existant business model is brilliant
Don’t be fooled by Twitter’s apparently non-existent business model: by inking deals with Google and Bing last week, the social networking site has shown it has major money-making potential, and its experimental approach is all part of the genius.
Video of the Day: The history of Afghanistan in three minutes
Struggling to follow the ongoing dramas in Afghanistan? Brush up on a few thousand years of Afghan history with the ever-informative and laconic Ze Frank.
Is FarmVille the next Google?
Mobile phone apps aren’t all iPee Drunk style games. The app economy is booming, with Zynga, creators of FarmVille, being touted as the next big thing, while Apple’s App Store dominates the market.
David Letterman’s boys’ club: a former Late Show writer tells all
In the wake of the David Letterman blackmail and sex scandal, one of the few women to ever write for Letterman dishes the dirt on the sexist and sexually-charged working environment in a tell-all piece for Vanity Fair
Arianna Huffington: Barack Obama is doing my job
For a President, Barack Obama makes a great pundit, says Arianna Huffington. He’s very good at uring, advocating, recommending and suggesting, but not so good at actually doing.
The dollar is not an Aussie battler
Don’t get too excited about the super cheap international holidays available right now. A weak Aussie dollar keeps our manufacturing up, our unemployment down and our exports competitive, writes Tom Elliot.
NYT publisher: Why print media is like the Titanic
When the publisher of one of the world’s most esteemed newspapers compares print media to the Titanic, it’s time to panic. So why is the industry like the ship? Because even if the Titanic had docked safely, it was still doomed: 12 years earlier, the airplane was invented. Ouch.
Oops 
The White House boosts Fox News’ ratings
All the attention the White House is giving to Fox News on other news channels seems to be backfiring: the network’s ratings have been soaring even higher since Obama officials started slagging it off in the media.
Never mind the Pacific Islands, who will save our beach houses from global warming?
The media swarmed all over a Parliamentary report yesterday about the threat posed by rising sea levels — to those who live in multi-million-dollar beachfront properties. No word on our island neighbours whose entire countries are beachfront properties, notes Bernard Keane.
Gittins: Why can’t governments make us happy too?
What is the role of government? Pollies exist to pursue our national economic growth, but our wellbeing should exist beyond a material sense. Government need to focus on social issues like problem gambling, writes Ross Gittins.
Kelly: Building the foundation of a viable nation
Infrastructure shouldn’t be a vote grabbing propaganda exercise, particularly since tough decisions need to be made to balance population growth. Rudd needs to recognised that infrastructure is more about economic reform than nation building, writes Paul Kelly.
Carney: No room for morals in the asylum seeker debate
The asylum seeker debate is a question of morality for most Australians, but for the government, it’s primarily a political issue, says Shaun Carney. Those looking to navigate the discourse with a moral compass are going to get lost.
Crabb: How will we cope with leaky boats? Don’t worry, the sea levels are rising
Yesterday’s QT focused on each party’s respective Achilles heel, says Annabel Crabb. The government talked about climate change. The Opposition ignored them and asked about asylum seekers. The government ignored them. And repeat.
Quentin Bryce goes on a $700k Security Council seat hunting safari
Governor General Quentin Bryce made an expensive trek to Africa earlier this year in an effort to help Australia score a seat on the UN Security Council — paying out $300,000 to Government officials and $64,000 on food, accommodation and gifts, according to the Daily Tele.
We’re still locking kids up
Last week, Immigration Minister Chris Evans said: “It is Rudd Government policy that no child be held in an immigration detention centre”. But on Christmas Island, 84 kids are still being held in what the government calls “temporary detention”, reports David Marr.
Future of the ABC: less broadcaster, more webmaster
The shift in the ABC’s Arts programming from TV and radio to the web heralds a much larger metamorphosis for the broadcaster, in which the web is its primary form and other mediums just exist to feed it content, writes Karl Quinn.
Abbott: Rudd is crueler than Howard
Tony Abbott labelled Kevin Rudd a “hypocrite” on the ABC’s Lateline last night for criticising the Howard government’s Pacific Solution policies on asylum seekers, while subjecting the latest wave of boat people to even tougher conditions in Indonesian prisons.
Rundle: Libs try to put on a humane, human face; fail
The Liberal Party has now cottoned on to the fact that Australians don’t like seeing asylum seekers brutsalised on their watch, and has tried to make it a campaigning point. But it’s like Martians trying to work out how the humans think, says Guy Rundle.
Torture makes the innocent seem guilty
A new study has found that the more a victim suffers during torture, the guiltier they are perceived to be — even if they don’t confess to anything — as those complicit in the nasty interrogation method try to subconsciously justify their own actions.
Facebook: We see dead people
After a new feature on Facebook created a stir by inadvertently recommending users “reconnect” with dead friends, the site has decided to “memorialise” the profiles of users who have died as creepy online tributes to the deceased.
How big is your pet’s eco-pawprint?
Uh oh. Rather than pets being a reflection of your nature loving self, cats and dogs guzzle natural resources, destroy local wildlife and add to pollution. In fact, the eco footprint of an SUV is less than that of a medium sized dog!
