Why I quit my job as a national newspaper editor to be a bloggerWhy would any self-respecting journo leave their job as an editor at one of the US’s largest national newspapers, the LA Times to work for media gossip site Gawker? To be part of the nation’s “cultural conversation”.
Archives
From stone throwing kids to online activists: the e-Palestine movement
Palestinians have figured out one the most effective methods of mobilising the youth: bringing their activism online. They foster an international diaspora and avoid the traditional Hamas and Fatah tensions and talk in chat rooms. Can they mimic the success of Obama’s online campaign?
The blockage in our skilled migration pipeline
Tens of thousands of highly skilled would-be migrants are living in Australia, unable to contribute their skills to the country’s labour force due to bureaucracy and bad policy. The government happily accepts their application fees, but offers little in return.
How we’re still stuck in a Berlin Wall mindset
East and West Germany were the ultimate economic science experiments, a government controlled economy next to a free market, the free market emerging victorious. But is this black and white look at economics what got us into this GFC mess?
The great atheist debate
Is there an atheist schism? Ophelia Benson explores the different disagreements amongst atheists, from those who just want to not believe and shut up and those who wish to preach the atheist movement. Is there an ironic war brewing?
Memo PM: how to solve the asylum crisis, more trouble at Melbourne Uni, Rundle on Kelly 
No sex education in China = 13 million abortions
A new found sexual liberalism is occurring behind closed doors and under the sheets of students in China. Unfortunately, sex education hasn’t developed as quickly, resulting in a whopping 13 million registered abortions every year.
Why Murdoch wants to destroy the NY Times
News Corp’s Wall Street Journal is stepping-up its New York coverage, and it’s all part of Rupert Murdoch’s single-minded plan to strike a massive blow against the liberal world by buying-out or destroying the NYT, says Michael Wolff.
Crikey Says: Clash of the media titans at Media140
A certain slack-jawed wonderment ran around the room at yesterday’s Media140 conference in Sydney, when a senior News Ltd journalist rose to spruik the vested corporate interests of her employer…
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: The fast train to nowhere
Crikey readers on why Airbus hasn’t killed the fast train, the government’s Telstra swashbuckling, border protection (or lackthereof) and Rosemary Stanton gets into a food fight.
Morning Market Report: Wall St up 204, Dow up 211
Better than expected economic numbers gave the market a boost last night, with Wall St up 204 and all S&P 500 major sectors closing up. The domestic market is up 61 today, while the Aussie dollar is up to 91.06c.
Insider trading: 14 more, including Octopussy, arrested on Wall St
Wall Street’s biggest insider trading fiasco is growing, with another 14 arrested overnight in charges involving $US33 million in illegal profits. Will this be the scandal to define the noughties’ boom and bust?
RBA lifts growth forecasts as economy on the up and up
The Reserve Bank has lifted its growth forecasts for the Australian economy and made it clear that interest rates will rise as the economy resumes its expansion.
Rupert’s pay-up model for newspapers on the back-burner
Amid all the throwaway lines and bullish spin, Rupert Murdoch and his executives always bury some truths in their comments about quarterly profits. Yesterday’s quarterly profit announcement was no exception.
Media briefs: Separated at birth? … Murdoch’s Moby Dick
It’s celebrity lookalikes, with everyone’s favourite toupee wearer, Bert Newton. Is he more Alfalfa from Little Rascals or Darth Vader unmasked? Plus, how are interns faring the the current media world?
Murdoch and Ramsay join for MasterfuckingChef
Rupert Murdoch is getting into bed with Gordon Ramsay to make Masterchef for the American market. Will Ten swoop in to make sureit doesn’t fall in to the hands of Nine?
Memo Rudd: an asylum solution
Bernard Keane offers the Prime Minister a few thoughts on how to resolve the Oceanic Viking stand-off.
Hey Victorian government, leave Britney alone!
A Britney Spears concert is presumably a mass of gyrating, fireworks and lip-syncing. But the Victorian government wants concert goers to be made aware when music isn’t technically ‘live’. Do we really need to be protected?
Lowbottom High Diaries: ‘Bludge’ day? Not bloody likely
The Monday before Melbourne Cup Day is now a normal day. Try telling the kids that, writes our long-suffering school teacher Trevor Diogenes.
Why wear the fox hat at the Oaks, I asked?
When Bart’s filly swooped down that long Flemington straight to claim the Group One fillies’ prize, no wonder the Oaks Day crowd stood and cheered, writes TP Maher: They’d taken the poisonous short odds quoted by those legalised vampires in the betting ring and they were happy.
Wankley Awards: Photo galleries of drunk people at the Melbourne Cup
Apparently people get drunk on the public lawns at the Melbourne Cup. Who knew? There is no news in this, just a ritualised annual tabloid photo-gallery parade of shame, vulnerability and intrusion. But try telling that to the Hun.
The ABC and Australia’s strategic policy — playing our part
ABC insider Wart Snall reports on Mark Scott’s proposed expansion of the ABC’s international presence. What part should the ABC play on putting Australia on display?
Political snippets: A neighbourly disinterest
Two of Australia’s near neighbours are close to a state of war and what can you read about on the home web pages this morning of Australia’s newspapers? Not a word at all about the frightening deterioration in relations between Thailand and Cambodia.
