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Talking Pictures
My week on twitter 13 May to 19 May 2013. Some pics from me, some pics retweeted by me and some pics sent to me.
Artist Martin Davies.
By Margo Kingston
March 15, 2013
Source: Sheilas
Sarah Capper, Sheilas editor: Veteran political journalist and author Margo Kingston is back! And just in the nick of time with an election year upon us.
After some time off, Margo returned to writing at the end of last year, spurred into action when she heard Opposition leader Tony Abbott attacking the Prime Minister over the so-called ‘AWU’ slush fund. In her best-selling book ‘Not Happy John!’ (recently relaunched by Penguin as an e-book), Margo examined Tony Abbott’s own involvement in a ‘slush fund’ – with the dubiously named ‘Australians for Honest Politics’ fund that was set-up to bankroll court action against Pauline Hanson. Margo reminded readers of this with articles published on the Independent Australia website, and was then further encouraged back into writing when former Webdiarist Tony Yegles created a website under the same fantastic title of ‘Australians for Honest Politics’. Welcome back, Margo!
In terms of returning to a ‘virtual reality’, she explains:
After seven years in the real world I’m back in the virtual one until the election. Once I dabbled on twitter and realised the extent of the collapse of the mainstream media as an accountability mechanism, it was inevitable. So I have deferred the final year of my nursing degree, accepted the services of the geek who created a website, and got to work with fellow citizen journos. I’m excited to be again fulfilling my vocation, this time watching the death of the old media and playing a part in the creation of the new.
We hope to publish more of Margo Kingston over this election year and link readers to articles on her new site. In this piece for Sheilas, Margo looks at what’s been making news through Twitter over the last week – click on the links below to be redirected to articles:
On March 7, Australian Women’s Weekly editor-in-chief Helen McCabe linked this post on Twitter:
‘Miranda Devine on “mummy bloggers” and the PM’
I came across it on International Women’s Day. Grrrrr. It read to me like sour grapes from a columnist who had privileged access to the former Prime Minister John Howard, and was now pissed off from feeling a little, well, displaced.
Helen McCabe is an old friend – we did the road trip chasing Pauline Hanson in her 1998 election campaign – so in response, I tweeted:
‘Why Miranda on PM dinner, Helen? Why not run someone AT dinner? ‘mummy blogger’ sexist on IWD!‘.
Vigorous twitter talk ensued, and Helen asked for pieces – which she paid for – on why the phrase mummy blogger was not OK.
Mandy Lee wrote ‘‘Why I hate the term mummy blogger’ .
Zoe Arnold wrote ‘Why mummy bloggers are so much more than their condescending name suggests’ .
Kim Berry wrote ‘Don’t call me a mummy blogger’.
To Helen’s credit, she then used her gig on Network Ten’s The Project to put the wider world in the picture.
This is what can happen on Twitter.
I felt uncomfortable watching Tony Abbott use his sister to remake his image on Sixty Minutes.
So did Shelly Horton, Sydney party reporter for the Sunday tabloid the Sun Herald. She tweeted:
‘I don’t think Tony Abbott is a reformed woman-loving gay-accepting man. I just think he’s been media trained to be polished liar’.
Her personal opinion on the Abbott interview summed it up for so many that the original tweet was retweeted nearly 500 times. Read the rest of this entry »
Chart by Andrew Kos – http://www.abcgonetohell.net
By Jim Parker
March 14, 2013
Source: The Failed Estate
Here is the Mr Denmore (Jim Parker) post referred to above, republished with permission.
Our public broadcaster is our most trusted source of news. So why does it spend so much time and money chasing cheap and predictable opinions from a small group of people who have plenty of other places to bang their tin drums?
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation received a net $840 million in revenue from the federal government last year. Its real funding has been cut 23% since the mid-1980s.
Aware of changing technology and of being required to do more and more with less and less, the broadcaster in its annual report talks about how audiences are expecting to access content wherever they are and across multiple platforms.
The annual report shows that by output, 51% of revenue from the federal government went to television, 27% to radio, 10% to digital TV transmission, 9% to analog transmission, 2% to online media and 1% to digital radio transmission.
The flagship is the still relatively bright and shiny ABC News 24, a network that according to the national broadcaster “reached” 13.1% of the metropolitan population last year. I am not sure how many of those being “reached” actually watched it, but that seems to me a fairly low figure for an institution that proudly brands itself as Australia’s only 24-hour TV news channel.
Apart from audience, it is arguable how much of the news channel features actual, you know, ‘news’. Highlighted programs include ‘The Drum’ – an opinion show on the issues of the day featuring “an ever changing panel drawn from all walks of life”. Read the rest of this entry »
By Kim Berry
March 5, 2013
EDITOR’S NOTE: Monday night dummy spit:
Next morning I see this:
I check out the dinner guests and find that I follow @allconsuming and she follows me so I DM and here’s a piece by her for us.
On Monday night I dined with the Prime Minister. This followed last year’s morning tea and then Christmas drinks with her at Kirribilli House, as part of a select group of ‘influential women in digital media’. I totally acknowledge this is a very big deal, a privilege, and pretty darn cool. But let’s back up for a moment.
I started blogging 10 years ago when I was at home with two small children, one with a disability, and in the grip of the clichéd ‘What have I done with my life’ period of angst every 30-year-old is prone to roll around in.
The early stuff is atrocious, akin to teenage diaries of misery, woe, and inexplicable vitriol. I persisted because I’m stubborn and a writer by trade. I learned pretty quickly that writing about yourself in an engaging way is actually quite difficult. See also: white, middle-class whinger.
There were a few stops and starts in those early days of dial-up, a fun year blogging with a friend, and then the last six or so at allconsuming.com.au, my own corner on the interwebs. Anne Summers called my blog ‘idiosyncratic’. Someone on Twitter said it was “peculiarly fascinating” which pandered nicely to my ego.
I am a personal blogger. I write about my life and all aspects of it which can include a LOT of baking, a fair smattering of swearing, the occasional indignation or insight, and a bit of froth and bubble.
Because I am a woman and a mother and occasionally blog about my children I am often labelled a ‘mummy blogger’. It doesn’t rile me as much as it used because the bigger blogging becomes, the more using that term to patronise or dismiss reflects on the labeller rather than the labelled.
I adore the online space. Blogging gave me a voice when I felt isolated and alone. It built a community, an international force of friendship that buoys me through the dark days and rejoices at the good. The arrival of Facebook, then Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest has only served to grow that community and I think that is pretty awesome.
Did I ever imagine blogging would see me having dinner with the Prime Minister? Absolutely not. Sure, I’m a current affairs addict and passionate about people educating themselves on the issues which form the fabric of our society – but to be in this position? To talk directly to the PM? Never in a million years.
There’s been a steady amount of sniping in mainstream and digital media forums about how we were chosen, that we weren’t from Western Sydney, and that the PM was snubbing women from the very area she was trying to win over, scoring a “Let them eat cake” kicker. Honestly, I don’t know why we were chosen. Read the rest of this entry »
By Space Kidette
Source: Satellite News Network
February 3rd, 2013
Space Kidette Note: To put this post into context, you may want to read About page.
How did I go from being Outdated Media’s biggest fanboi to a consumer openly advocating against a media’s vile product?
News vs. Opinion
The first and biggest problem for me was the almost insidious shift from fact-based news to the relentless drivel from small minded people being passed off as faux intellectual ‘opinion pieces’.
Somewhere along the line media outlets decided what consumers were clamouring for was their opinion. The who, what, when, where, why and how much of any news event often gets brushed aside, or totally ignored, in the journalist’s rush to furnish you with their personal take on events. Worse, the arrogance with which it is delivered manages to imply the audience are mindless drones who should feel privileged to perch at their feet, catching their pearls of wisdom.
News without much in the way of facts is just opinion and opinions are like arseholes – everybody’s got one. Let me make it clear. I don’t give a rats arse about any journo’s opinion. I’m quite capable reviewing and assessing facts, ascertaining their validity, conducting my own analysis and finally, determining my own view. What I want is from journalists is to deliver verified facts clearly, succinctly and in a timely manner – leave the rest to me.
Filters
It became apparent to me news was rapidly being filtered through the various lenses of political news publishers. The particular hue of the filter being applied to journalists, editors, and sub-editors varies with each outlet but is consistently cast over every article or broadcast. While I understand, and totally support, the right of any publisher to shape their news business, I will never subscribe to the belief that news businesses should be permitted to deliberately, methodically and ruthlessly shape political outcomes.
I flat-out refuse to pay media outlets to deliver to me their pre-packaged, political outcome driven opinions!
As for the ABC I believe, as a national broadcaster, their role should be to deliver the unvarnished facts. As an ideal to aspire to, the citizenry of every country should be able to access at least one news source that is devoid of opinion. In Australia we are incredibly privileged to have such a broadcaster. However the quality of political news being delivered today is questionable.
Much of the news presented is positively laden with politically affiliated opinion. Political news is distorted beyond all recognition by the many dubiously-sponsored shills and to my mind, as it stands at present, the ABC fails abysmally in its role as a trusted national news source. I can pretty much pre-empt, almost verbatim, what each political guests opinion will be!
Australia’s universities are chock-full of experts in their fields. As a country we are blessed that many of them are global leaders in their speciality. If the ABC is going to host discussions eliciting opinion, surely we should be ensuring those invited are real experts who are professional enough to discuss the matter without a cast-in-stone political bent! Read the rest of this entry »
By Margo Kingston
Source: New Matilda
December 11, 2012
Margo Kingston
I blame the ABC for my initiation to Twitter. Or rather, I thank them, because the experience has been refreshing for this disillusioned ex-journo and long-time internet refugee.
I happened to be watching ABC News 24 when Tony Abbott again confronted Julia Gillard about her role in the AWU affair on the last day of sittings for 2012. He was repeating his sole claim, that she was a criminal for allegedly misleading a Western Australian government body by letter. It was a question of character, he said. She was unfit for office. However, he didn’t have the letter in question, so there was no evidence for his claim.
I felt nonplussed, because in 2003, 2004 and 2007 I had published strong evidence that Abbott had wilfully and materially misled the Australian Electoral Commission — also a crime.
He’d done that to avoid disclosing donors to his very own “slush fund” — the “Australians for Honest Politics Trust” — money from which was used to pursue the case against Pauline Hanson for electoral fraud. The AEC had let him let away with it through inaction and a sustained cover up. He’d also repeatedly lied to the media, which, I wrote in 2003, ensured he could never be prime minister. Yet only my former colleague Mike Seccombe, writing in the Global Mail, had mentioned the matter during Abbott’s pursuit of Gillard. Read the rest of this entry »