Television networks deserve their licence fee rebate in the face of tighter operating conditions and competition from the non-commercial ABC, writes media markets watcher Roger Coleman.
February, 2010
Media briefs: Parochialism at News Ltd, Hamas rounds up journo, reporting suicide
News Limited has named Australia’s foodie capital — and the winner depends on where you live. Plus more gold from the NT News, the debate on reporting suicide and other media news of the day.
Clarke to hang on in NSW — thanks to the moderates?
“Religious Right” leader in the NSW Liberal Party David Clarke is under fierce attack from one-time protege and now Federal MP Alex Hawke. Some unlikely allies might save him.
Russian jet adds to Joint Strike Fighter already-on-the-nose dilemma
The failings of the Joint Strike Fighter program are obviously, although Australia is yet to raise the issues with the US. Will Australia lead, or continue to be led by the nose into a project that is beginning to stink badly?
Possum: Labor better off net in primary vote stakes
What is happening now with these relatively low Labor primaries about 40 of late is the same thing that actually caused Kevin Rudd to overthrow Kim Beazley for the leadership.
Political snippets: Crikey picks the Newspoll
The Coalition had a dream run over summer, yet today’s Newspoll shows them improving only marginally, Australians still believe in climate change, and how snow means a hotter world.
10 years of comments: the inside story on Crikey’s readers
If we’re celebrating Crikey’s 10th birthday, it’s probably more than fair to celebrate the people that make Crikey what it is — our readers.
Happy birthday from … ABC managing director Mark Scott
Over the next month, Crikey will be publishing birthday messages from a few prominent Australians — today it’s ABC managing director Mark Scott.
Q&A: the ABC’s soapbox
The ABC’s Q&A is becoming a lobby for professional barrow-pushers, hardly representative of about 98% of the population — like last week’s “teen who skewered Rudd”, who turned out to be a Young Liberal uni student.
Altona means nothing for Brumby in November
Ignore the Herald Sun’s classic “radical Greens are holding us to ransom” trope about Saturday’s Altona byelection. The Greens did not emerge with the balance of power and it’s too early for a Hun election scare campaign.
Daily Proposition: A wine that’s good in its own write
Here’s one bottle of white wine that goes so much easier than some of the over-the-top-with-fruit, mouth-stripping blends from across the ditch in New Zealand, writes Michael Vaughan.
Guy Rundle: Greece, the birthplace of the second wave of the GFC
The European Union has given Greece until the end of February to tell it what it already knew — that its accounts are Swiss cheese.
Video of the Day: NZ is 100% cheesy
Years before Lord of the Rings and the 100% pure campaign made New Zealand the globe’s hottest holiday destination, New Zealand tourism marketed itself as a hotbed of sexy dancers in gold sequins, huge mullets, eyebrow-raising while drinking cocktails and exotic cuisine.
Tips and rumours: Tips and rumours: Hanson off to party with the English right-wingers?
I’d like to bet that Pauline Hanson is off to live in England at the personal invitation of this new far right-wing party, says one Crikey tipster. Plus, the hacking of the government’s APH system.
Crikey Says: Steaking a claim against chick pea-chomping vegetarians
According to The Oz’s editorial on Saturday, we should eat more meat to save the environment. Is this seriously the coverage of climate science from the national broadsheet in an election year?
Abbott hearts the NSW Right, Rundle on the 2nd GFC, Altona means nothing, 10th birthday fun 
The Vatican’s Top 10 albums of all time
The Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, has named its Top 10 rock albums, including The Beatles’ Revolver and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon. No Cradle of Filth?
Calling the world’s poorest
India’s biggest mobile phone company, Bharti Airtel, is moving in on the blossoming African mobile phone market. It’s not always easy to wring out profits from poor countries, so can it replicate its Indian success?
Fashion bloggers are the new black
The latest must-have accessory in the fashion world isn’t a pair of heels or even tighter pants (thank god): it’s a blog. Vogue editor Anna Wintour now sits alongside bloggers at catwalk shows, while 13-year-old fashionistas are making the old guard look positively daggy.
PHOTO GALLERY: Avatar aliens protest for Palestine
At least the weekly West Bank protesters worked the Avatar media obsession to their advantage, dressing up as Na’vi to draw parallels between the film and their lives in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Rudd vs. Gillard vs. Abbott
The latest Newspoll and Essential polls surveyed voters on whether they’d prefer Julia Gillard to Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister, and who they’d vote for in a face-off between Gillard and Tony Abbott. Possum Comitatus breaks down all the results.
Can the internet kill Rupert Murdoch?
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is adept at hiding his many business failures, writes Michael Wolff, but MySpace — and Murdoch’s lack of internet savvy — is proving to be his biggest public disaster.
