 |
Showing posts with label Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Media. Show all posts
Friday, 13 March 2015
Tuesday, 4 March 2014
A slogan for International Women's Day 2014? PENALISE - PENALISE - PENALISE
"What's on your mind?" Facebook asks each time I post. Well, what's on my mind is the dreadful interview with a young-ish woman on ABC TV this morning. The young-ish woman spoke about why women are not getting a fair go in the workplace and are not well represented in the higher management positions etc ad nauseam.
Let me declare my interest. I am a 1970s-1980s feminist and to see what happens to even the most basic feminist traditions such as IWD makes me ill.
The young-ish woman enunciated a new version of failure to understand or act on the REAL problem by discussing how mentoring of women had failed but this new thing called sponsorship of women would be a huge success.
What absolute garbage!!! The problem no longer lies with women - except perhaps those women who are unable or unwilling to study and work hard to progress. A lot of women prefer stasis to playing boy's games or suffering under boys' bias.
But let's take a look at what women can do. Work hard? See Gail Kelly, CEO of Westpac. Manage family responsibilities - even multiple births? See Gail Kelly! Extend your education in a new direction? See Gail Kelly. Improve the company's bottom line? See Gail Kelly.
Gail Kelly is not alone in managing all this. She is merely (?) the most public face of what a lot of women are doing, have done, and will continue to do.
In 1984 Australia legislated the Sex Discrimination Act which in recent years has been revised without doing what needs to be done. Discrimination of any type can be difficult to prove. Discrimination on the basis of gender is particularly difficult. Penalties for such discrimination either at business/corporate level or the individual level have been, more often than not, the equivalent of being well and truly beaten with a feather duster.
The problem, in the main, is no longer a problem of women and their abilities and education. Women - generally speaking - have never been more well-educated, well-qualified, and able.
The problem lies where it has always lain - with men. The problem lies even in the second-highest office in the land - the Prime Minister's office. The problem lies, currently, in the civil discourse established by Australia's current prime minister to defeat one particular woman - but also women within his own party. What is the punishment for the Prime Minister's vilification of women? Success - that's what. He got there. His cronies got there. The media he favoured got there.
What will the young-ish woman do about that? What will the ABC Breakfast Show do about that? What will the Sex Discrimination Act do about that? What will that joke of a government bureaucracy titled the Workplace Gender Equality Agency or EOWA do about that?
Men are rewarded with real status and meaningful incomes while women are given useless legislation, a very dim government bureaucracy, a lot of lip service.
Saturday 8 March is International Women's Day. Are you spending it in a meaningful way or just going to one of the frippery type events. I suggest that there be a one word message for this year's IWD - PENALISE!
|
Tuesday, 22 October 2013
News of Climate Change
From http://letters-environmentvictoria.nationbuilder.com/
Keep climate denial on the editing room floor
In October the world's leading authority on climate science released its latest report, finding that the science on climate change was now 'unequivocal'.
In response, the LA times and now the Sydney Morning Herald have stated that they would no longer publish factually inaccurate letters denying climate science.
We call on The Age, the Australian and the Herald Sun newspapers to follow the leadership of their peers and stop publishing factually incorrect letters from so-called climate sceptics.
ADD YOUR SIGNATURE TO THE LETTER TO THE EDITORS OF THE AUSTRALIAN, THE AGE AND THE HERALD SUN
Dear Editor,
Following the Sydney Morning Herald’s decision to purge misinformation about climate science from their opinion pages, will The Age/Herald Sun/Australian do the same?
Opinion pages are among the most read of any paper. So they should be governed by the same standards of journalistic integrity applied to news reporting.
In short, errors of fact should not be published. As LA Times editor Paul Thornton put it, ‘saying there's no sign humans have caused climate change is not stating an opinion, it's asserting a factual inaccuracy.’
This is not a question of censorship but of accuracy.
On newspaper opinion pages climate change deniers have been allowed to hijack the public discourse on climate - hiding behind the mantle of ‘balance’ - and frustrating meaningful debate about how to tackle this global threat.
Enough is enough. With experts now as certain of the danger posed by anthropogenic climate change as that posed by smoking, the debate is over.
In recognition of the grave threat posed to Australians lives and property by rising sea-levels, temperatures and extreme weather events, and of the important role newspapers play in informing the public, please apply a ‘factual test’ to letters published in your paper on climate change.
Signed
Thank you for signing!
|
Wednesday, 25 September 2013
Green Left Weekly Activist Calendar - 2013-09-25
|
|
Friday, 20 September 2013
Looks like an intriguing watch on 4C on Monday night: PNG, corruption, 457 rorts, and money laundering in Oz
Preying on Paradise
Posted
(Photos by Louie Eroglu, Four Corners)
Monday 23 September 2013
A businessman in Papua New Guinea is accused of taking millions of dollars for government work that has never been completed. He is charged but released on bail. Then, using an Australian issued 457 Visa, he comes to this country and avoids justice, telling authorities he is too sick to travel back to PNG.
Crime fighters in Papua New Guinea say this type of behaviour is all too common:
"Their families are down in Australia and their property is down there. They gamble heavily in Australian casinos, they bring money from Papua New Guinea down to Australia. And the evidence is in - they use Australian bank accounts to launder PNG corruptly-obtained money."
Next on Four Corners, reporter Marian Wilkinson travels north to investigate the extent of corruption in Papua New Guinea and the apparent failure of Australian officials to play their part in tracking down stolen money. She speaks with the Prime Minister, Peter O'Neill, who tells her he's determined to stamp out behaviour that is undermining his country's future.
"Some of our own ministers have been investigated as we speak. Nobody has been protected by this government and I can assure you that we are committed to this fight that we have started..."
But how far does this commitment to stamp out corruption extend?
The Prime Minister of PNG has just announced the next stage of an ambitious plan - creating new laws that would bring the massive Ok Tedi copper mine into a financial trust that would control the country's key national assets. The Prime Minister tells Four Corners this will minimise the possibility of corrupt behaviour. Others warn this move is ill-advised and could, in fact, raise the risk of money being syphoned off.
"The danger could be that if the team decided that they really wanted to look after themselves, rather than the broader interests of the nation, they could do extremely well for themselves and the nation could be severely short-changed." Paul Barker, PNG Institute of National Affairs
Australians have a vested interest in stopping corruption in Papua New Guinea. The reality is that corruption there is indirectly costing Australian taxpayers millions of dollars. Each year the Federal Government delivers over $500 million in aid to our northern neighbour. At the same time corruption fighters in PNG claim 25 per cent of their country's budget is lost in detectable fraud. In effect, the aid sent north is being used in part to subsidise basic services when the PNG budget is being swindled away.
"I think Australia should really focus in helping us to combat corruption and to show the seriousness start repatriating proceeds of crime that are deposited in Australian bank accounts..." Sam Koim, Head of PNG's 'Task Force Sweep'
"Preying on Paradise", reported by Marian Wilkinson and presented by Kerry O'Brien, goes to air on Monday 23rd September at 8.30pm on ABC1. It is replayed on Tuesday 24th September at 11.35pm. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 on Saturday at 8.00pm, on ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners
|
Monday, 16 September 2013
Friday, 6 September 2013
Vale Elisabeth Wynhausen - professional journalist and the blogger, Betty of Bondi
Wendy Bacon has reported on Facebook
the death of the prominent journalist Elisabeth Wynhausen.
Back in 2008, Elisabeth Wynhausen did a story for The Oz on goings on in the Murray River town of Robinvale. I publish below that story. The locals tell me that things have not changed much at all since Elisabeth wrote that story.
I loved Elisabeth's recent blogging foray which she wrote as Betty from Bondi. I love the eastern suburbs of Sydney and when I lived there was a regular at Bondi from my studio in Elizabeth Bay. The colour she brought to these posts of local life in a locale she loved and was part of was wonderful and displayed a beautiful spirit. Some months ago, I emailed Elisabeth because the blog had not been updated. I received no reply. I assumed that things were not good. Seems I was right.
Elisabeth Wynhausen was a professional at her work and a delight in her assessments of the human race and its varying conditions.
~~~~~~~~
|
Monday, 2 September 2013
Melbourne Free University - Gender wars - Poetry - Media Ethics;
There's a lot on at the MFU this week.
On Tuesday (3/10) Gender Wars continues with Bombshells, a discussion of nuclear disarmament, Australian anti-war movements and the role of women and minorities in times of war and protest. Our panellists this week are Geraldine Robertson (Women's Web), Dimity Hawkins (ICAN/Reaching Critical Will) and Carole Wigg (Medical Practitioners for the Prevention of War). 6.30-8pm at Some Velvet Morning, 123 Queens Pde Clifton Hill.
Do you read poetry? On Wednesday (4/10) Bonnie Cassidy (Deakin/RMIT) talks about why she does. Like a virus or an annoying ex-lover, poetry persists: in Australia alone, there are over a dozen independent poetry publishers, and in Melbourne, at least twenty regular events for its live performance. But why keep poetry in our lives when we have novels, films and virtual fun; can it make something else happen? Exploring provocative poems from very different times and places, this seminar is for anyone curious about why and how we read. 6.30-8pm at The Alderman, 134 Lygon St, E. Brunswick.
And on Thursday (5/10) our course on Media Ethics turns to the ethics of disaster reporting withMutiny Media director, Nicholas Hansen. The disaster zone is a vortex of information, much of it spun out by first responders to a hungry media. The public has a right to know, but where is actuality amongst these hurried impressions and in whose interest is the news we receive? We'll be discussing the factors that influence contemporary disaster reporting, and issues around its consumption. How are ethics stretched in production and reception, and where are the opportunities as media speeds up and our capacity increases to talkback? 6.30-8pm at The Alderman, 134 Lygon St, E. Brunswick.
We've added some great speakers to our current courses, so check out the attached flyer for full details of what's coming up in the next 4 weeks.
Hope to see you there!
the MFU
|
Wednesday, 24 July 2013
Don't want to see Maccas at Tecoma - get your voice heard to-morrow on 3CR at Collingwood
Have received the following from Marg of Health Achievers~~~~
Above link is audio recordings of Dr. Joe's Weekly News Program
After announcements, his presentation begins at 2.30minute.
This Wednesday (24/7/13) and you can now listen to previous recordings.
His other radio program is "Talk Back with Attitude" every Thursday
between 9.30am - 10.30 - Tel: 9419-0155.
People can call and discuss issues of interest.
On today's Wednesday program Dr. Joe announced that:
On Thursday 1st August 2013 - 9.30am - 10.30am
Dr. Joe will broadcast the
" Talk Back with Attitude" program
in front of
Head Office, McDonalds
Crn 2 Smith Street and Victoria Parade, Collingwood.
If you DO NOT AGREE with McDonalds
having an outlet in beautiful Tecoma in the Dandenongs,
and
if you want to show support
PLEASE ATTEND AND VOICE YOUR WILL
THAT WE ARE IN AGREEMENT
WITH THE PEOPLE IN TECOMA STATING "McOFF" !!
Joe informs us today that protesters are threatened
with heavy fines and there are "8" injunctions
placed on some protesters.
McDonalds is threatening to move for compensation
from the protesters for "delays caused"
as a result of the ongoing protest.
This is assisted by the "Courts".
The consequences of these "court injunctions"
on community people is enormous.
Another example:
if people do not want
a radio active waste dump, uranium mine or a coal seam gas project
near their property they may be sued
for loss of income by corporations?
GIVE YOUR SUPPORT TO SHOW
THAT CORPORATIONS DO NOT RULE!
HOPEFULLY, TECOMA PEOPLE BEGIN THE PROCESS
OF A "PEOPLE'S MANDATE"
AS EVIDENCE THAT THE
MAJORITY OF THE COMMUNITY
REJECTS MCDONALDS IN TECOMA.
Pleases notice the television host plugs McDonalds
because his child received employment experience.
Unbelievable!
What I say:
the majority ingredients in the food is not fit for healthy human consumption.
Do your own research.
"A health achiever - I regularly visit Tecoma -
the "stench of this junk food outlet will interfere with the fresh air!!"
To the best of my ability I boycott unethical products.
That is my Motto!"
|
Saturday, 22 June 2013
Trying to avoid the government you deserve? The Age pontificates & joins the push for a gender biassed storming of the Bastille.
Some of us - well, an awful lot of us - are well and truly over the political storms beaten up by the Mainstream Media (MSM). Some of us want to hear strong and civil political debate and discourse. Some of us are not into bigotry and political inanity. Some of us don't respond like puppets at the end of a MSM string, ready to be jerked into movement and predictability. Some of us are sentient beings who use our sensory faculties to come to our own decisions based on reasoning and the ambitions we have for ourselves and our nation. Some of us are never polled about anything, Some of us can be the big surprise on election day.
That paragraph is a response that, to-day - Saturday 22 June 2013 - The Editor of The Age, the Fairfax daily in Melbourne, Australia has decided to tell us, the Australian body politic, how to vote in the forthcoming election.
The less senior journalists of the MSM have been baying breathlessly on the Prime Ministerial leadership and associated political polling for months now. Well, it has probably been years - ever since the hung Parliament came into being in 2010 in the Year of Our Lord. Not the first hung parliament in the history of the Commonwealth of Australia - but you could be forgiven for thinking so because of the five-minute memories and lack of research skills held by most of the current crop of journalists. Fact checking and penetrating questioning seem to have been consigned to a by-gone era.
Our political discourse has become highly uncivil and filled with bigotry, gender bias, and hatred. Perhaps a poll or some form of research that could attempt to co-relate physical violence in the wider community with the violent and hate-filled language spewing forth from the anti-Gillard camp might prove insightful.
It seems that a large proportion of our journalists have become "inept stenographers" producing "tainted journalism".
It seems to me that one could look at The Age and its political interference to-day as a last ditch attempt to influence the electorate. Perhaps the powers-that-be at Fairfax (Roger Corbett, Gina Rinehart and their allies) feel that enough has not been done by their journalists (and remember there are few of the good ones left at Fairfax these days) to influence the electorate to rid itself of Julia Gillard, to insist on the overturn of Australia's first female Prime Minister.
I would suggest to the Fairfax mob baying at the barricades to look around them; look at the company they are keeping. The Fairfax language might be polite and civil but are they lining themselves up with the following: Alan Jones; Howard Sattler, Barnaby Joyce, plus a whole tribe of hate-filled men and the women who are their acolytes?
The Fairfax language may be polite. The newspaper might have a liberal tradition. All this counts for nought because one thing is clear, clear as crystal. Fairfax have aligned themselves with the forces who want, who seek the downfall of Australia's first female Prime Minister. They cannot wait for a September election to allow the Australian electorate to decide. No - this is a gender biassed storming of the Bastille. And there is one thing more that is not being considered. If an Abbott Government trounces Labor so convincingly that it is all but invisible; if Abbott takes control of both Houses of Parliament with a huge majority, it will merely prove two things:
- Australians will have the government for which they have voted
- Australia will have the government it deserves
While the Labor Government is going to this election with a raft of good policies and a history of sound management in the hung Parliament period, there have been dastardly deeds done. The continuation of the Northern Territory Intervention; the continuation of taxpayer funding to some of Australia's wealthiest schools while poorer state schools continue to suffer are two that spring readily to mind.
You see, naive as it may seem, I am a great believer in natural justice; that we reap what we sow. All parties (and I do include The Greens, to a lesser extent, in what I am saying) have sown their own crops of weeds which are yet to be harvested. The harvest cannot be avoided. It may be circumvented for a time, it may be postponed, but there will be a harvest from which our political parties and the Australian voters cannot run.
See also
Victoria Rollison in The Australian Independent Media Network
Kieran Fitzgerald gives it to the Editor of The Age in the same fashion that The Age has given it Julia
The Conscience Vote - For the sake of the nation, the media should do its job - and please take the time to read the comments to this article. Some good discussion going on there.
See also
Victoria Rollison in The Australian Independent Media Network
Kieran Fitzgerald gives it to the Editor of The Age in the same fashion that The Age has given it Julia
The Conscience Vote - For the sake of the nation, the media should do its job - and please take the time to read the comments to this article. Some good discussion going on there.
|
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)