Ethical Martini

Ethical Martini now on Wordpress

2008-03-29T11:14:00.000+13:00

Ethical Martini

I have finally decided to make the move. Ethical Martini will no longer be updated at Blogspot.

If you have linked to this site, pls alter your code to point to Ethical Martini at Wordpress.

Marty

McCanns' win lesson to the tabloids?

2008-03-20T10:27:00.003+13:00

The couple at the centre of a European missing persons case have won a substantial libel suit against two leading British newspapers.

Kate and Gerry McCann, both doctors, are the parents of Madelaine McCann, the three-year-old girl who disappeared from the couple's holiday flat in the Portugese resort town of Praia da Luz in May 2007.

The case has confounded investigators. Initial reports suggested Madelaine had been taken from the apartment during the evening while her parents ate supper at a tapas bar down the road.

Then in September 2007 the Portugese police announced that Gerry and Kate were suspects in the disappearance. At that point the British tabloid press went into a frenzy. All sorts of weird stories began to emerge, including rumours that the McCann's had killed the child and disposed of her body.

The story was weird too because the McCann's had gone to the media and launched a high profile campaign to have their missing daughter returned.

The English tabloids reported all the rumours in front page splash stories and the McCann's sued.

A court has ordered the Express and the Daily Star newspapers to publish an apology and pay an undisclosed sum (rumoured to be more than half a million dollars) to the couple.

It's one thing to win a libel suit, it's another to have suspicion of murder lifted.

There are parallels here with the famous "Dingo took my baby" story from Australia in 1980. In that case the child's mother, Lindy Chamberlain, was chief suspect, she was tried and convicted, but then exonerated on appeal many years later.

In both cases the media portrayed the parents as weird potential killers who behaved in a bizarre fashion at the height of their grief.

We don't do these stories very well. The cultural meme of "folk devils" is still strong and women who don't fit the "nurture" mold are often vilified without justification.

There's another interesting parallel the reported existence of DNA evidence in the form of blood in a car used by the couple. in the Chamberlain case the forensic investigation was flawed. In the McCann case the DNA match is not conclusive.

A blast from Palast

2008-03-20T09:42:00.003+13:00

I don't really have anything of substance to add, but this spray from Greg Palast on the hypocrisy in Washington and New York over the Spitzer affair is worth linking too just for the humour in the writing and the venom in the digital pen.
Eliot's Mess

Here's a taster:

While New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was paying an ‘escort’ $4,300 in a hotel room in Washington, just down the road, George Bush’s new Federal Reserve Board Chairman, Ben Bernanke, was secretly handing over $200 billion in a tryst with mortgage bank industry speculators.

73% of HIGH INCOME Black and Hispanic borrowers were given sub-prime loans versus 17% of similar-income Whites. Dark-skinned borrowers aren’t stupid – they had no choice. They were ‘steered’ as it’s called in the mortgage sharking business.

‘Steering,’ sub-prime loans with usurious kickers, fake inducements to over-borrow, called ‘fraudulent conveyance’ or ‘predatory lending’ under US law, were almost completely forbidden in the olden days (Clinton Administration and earlier) by federal regulators and state laws as nothing more than fancy loan-sharking.

But when the Bush regime took over, Countrywide and its banking brethren were told to party hearty – it was OK now to steer’m, fake’m, charge’m and take’m.

Then, on Wednesday of this week, the unthinkable happened. Carlyle Capital went bankrupt. Who? That’s Carlyle as in Carlyle Group. James Baker, Senior Counsel. Notable partners, former and past: George Bush, the Bin Laden family and more dictators, potentates, pirates and presidents than you can count.

The Fed had to act. Bernanke opened the vault and dumped $200 billion on the poor little suffering bankers. They got the public treasure – and got to keep the Grinning’s house. There was no ‘quid’ of a foreclosure moratorium for the ‘pro quo’ of public bailout. Not one family was saved – but not one banker was left behind.

Every mortgage sharking operation shot up in value. Mozilo’s Countrywide stock rose 17% in one day. The Citi sheiks saw their company’s stock rise $10 billion in an afternoon.

And that very same day the bail-out was decided – what a coinkydink! – the man called, ‘The Sheriff of Wall Street’ was cuffed. Spitzer was silenced.

Do I believe the banks called Justice and said, “Take him down today!” Naw, that’s not how the system works. But the big players knew that unless Spitzer was taken out, he would create enough ruckus to spoil the party. Headlines in the financial press – one was “Wall Street Declares War on Spitzer” - made clear to Bush’s enforcers at Justice who their number one target should be. And it wasn’t Bin Laden.

Cheers Greg, worthy wordsmithing with a fine point.

Bouqets not brickbats

2008-03-16T11:09:00.007+13:00

I thought I'd keep readers up-to-date with the Blue Chip story from last week. I had a go at the Herald on Sunday for its front page piece about businessman Mark Bryers and his visits to an Auckland brothel.

I noted at the time that it would be interesting to see what the paper came up with this week. Well, it's a much more detailed expose of some of Bryers' and Blue Chips money trails. Much more like a good investigative piece; though still no allegations of criminal behaviour; just dodgy dealings and attempts to evade process servers.

And while I'm handing out some praise today, I thought the front page lead in Saturday's NZ Herald about the difference in pay rates for New Zealand and Chinese flight attendants on Air New Zealand international services was great.

It had all the ingredients to make me really angry with Air New Zealand. It exposed their dreadful behaviour, one could almost suggest Air NZ is being racist in its dealings with Chinese staff. Of course the airline argues it's contract is with a Chinese labour hire company and that the pay rates are about what the attendants would get in China - it's all relative, the airline says.

The story told of separate contracts that mean Chinese staff get paid a fraction of the lousy wages that the Kiwi counterparts get - even when they work next to each other on the same plane.

If you need another reason to boycott the Beijing Olympics, you know apart from Tibet, the Falun Gong, and just general nastiness of the regime, this is a good one.

A day in the life of Ashley Dupre: Celebrity callgirl to callgirl celebrity

2008-03-15T12:03:00.005+13:00

It seems that 24 hours is a lifetime in the blogosphere. Just yesterday I was defending the right to privacy for sex workers caught up in scandals and media stories.
Now I find myself being amazed again at how quickly some people can turn adversity into a new adventure.

The young woman who's found herself caught up in the Eliot Spitzer fracas now seems to be trading infamy for instant celebrity. It turns out that Ashley Dupre is a recording artist whose songs are available at Amie Street online music store for around 90 cents.

Ms Dupre's music got some random airplay on New York radio stations once she was outed by the NYT newspaper. But apparently it's not that good and failed to gain high rotation status. However, it's a good example of how people can make money from someone's misfortune. Here's a statement of great principle from radio Z100 honcho Tom Poleman:

"Z100 is all about playing what's hot, and we can't think of anything hotter than a song from the woman at the center of the scandal that took down the governor of New York. On top of that, it's not a bad song. Looks like she may have a new career; this time in music."

Not only a music career either; according to speculation in the news today Ms Dupre may well be able to parlay her brief stint in the media spotlight into a Hollywood career, or at least a "spread" in Playboy or Penthouse magazine. Perhaps she'll have to wait till after her testimony to the investigating grand jury.

No doubt more images and information about Ms Dupre will emerge soon. I expect that the gossip and trash mags will have a field day. The first nude photos should be arriving at your inbox any day now.

The story gets more interesting the further you dig. According to one version the Aime Street site was set up by Dupre after the scandal broke, which indicates she may still have some control over her own destiny.

She's also rapidly reaching 'vapid star' status on Facebook. A number of groups have been established, including Ashley Dupre for president and Ashley Dupre for next American Idol.

There are many others, including for supporters and 'haters'. I guess it never hurts to be famous on Facebook, and it also, once again, proves the cliche "there's no such thing as bad publicity".

So at the end of the day can we blame Ms Dupre for making the most of her 15 minutes?

Prostitutes, privacy and media harrassment

2008-03-14T15:38:00.008+13:00

Good things come in threes...but not it seems if you're a sex worker caught up in a high profile media broo-ha-ha.
I recently mentioned a Herald on Sunday story that outed an Auckland businessman who frequented a brothel in the city. My point then was that the guy had done nothing illegal (at least as far as the paper could report), so why was the HoS harassing him?

I got a brief reply to an email I sent to the journalist. Basically her response was "I know a lot more, but can't say anything for legal reasons." Let's see what next Sunday brings - perhaps another installment in that story.

The story also featured a photograph of a woman who, according to the caption, was a worker from the brothel in question. Her face was turned away from the camera, but she'd be identifiable to people who know her.

Now this week the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective has gone public with a complaint about an immigration department raid on another Auckland brothel in November last year when officials were accompanied by a television crew shooting for a reality TV series called Borderline which is produced by Auckland company Cream TV.

A man, who was a client at the brothel at the time, died after jumping from a window to avoid being caught on tape by the crew from Cream. Immigration officials at the time said they knew nothing about this unfortunate accident. it looks like they didn't really care either, but someone must: perhaps a family member, a child, a friend.

A former NZ Immigration Minister and now consultant, Tuariki Delamere described the raid as "Gestapo tactics".

The Prostitutes' Collective wants a ban on such ambush raids by television crews. Quite rightly, the collective's spokeswoman Catherine Healy is concerned about the invasion of the privacy of both clients and sex workers.

I think this is an interesting and important issue. Sex workers in New Zealand and many other places are doing nothing illegal if they're employed in a licensed brothel. But because of the stigma attached to the world's oldest profession (I'm sure that's just a crap cliche, but it fits here anyway) they are fair game for the media.

I think we tend to forget that prostitutes are also friends and lovers, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, husbands and wives. They are deserving of respect as much as anything and certainly deserving of their privacy.

And what's with immigration officials allowing the cameras to accompany them on a raid like this. If they're looking to uncover criminal activity (in this case perhaps illegal "overstayers", or some such), what public right do they have to agree to allowing a commercial TV production company to follow them onto the premises which are essentially private property?

The television company has no right and if they barged in without the cops or other officials there, they'd be trespassing. I'm sure any warrant issued for the raid that resulted in the death of the client did not specify "and TV crew" as a party to the affair.

These so-called reality shows, like "Border Security" and so on make me bloody angry and pretty sick too. It's a combination of trivial voyeurism and the legitimation of authority in the name of public service and entertainment.

What public service? I'm sure Cream TV is only interested in the profits it makes from such programmes. I've checked their website, no hint of an apology to the sex workers, or the dead man's family and none from TVNZ either which screens this crap.

While I'm on the topic of prostitutes, privacy and media harassment, the third story this week is about the governor of New York.

Dickwad! Caught in an FBI sting operation and wiretapped making arrangements to see a high-priced hooker. He's resigned, for the sin of hypocrisy rather than adultery, one suspects.

But the newspapers today are splattered with photographs of the attractive young woman who Eliot Spitzer is alleged to have liaised with. It seems that her privacy is not an issue for headline-hunting media pimps.

Again I draw your attention to the NZ Herald, which is carrying a photograph, but saying that it was the New York Times that outed the young woman. This is a neat media trick - wait until someone else breaks the dam then pour through the cracks fullspeed. It was the NYT (see below).

There is a public interest angle here.

The public interest in this case is in Spitzer's anti-crime public persona being contradicted by his private prediliction for under-the-table tonking. As an "Elliot Ness"-style anti-corruption crusader he should probably not consort with criminals. But that does not justify the NY Times naming the call girl, or writing a feature exposing her personal life to the world. That is just prurient self-interest on the part of the media, it does not add one jot to the public interest in this story.

Congratulations to Susan Boyd-Bell

2008-03-10T14:40:00.004+13:00

A big "well done" to my colleague, Susan Boyd-Bell, who has just completed her Masters thesis and is graduating this week from AUT. I have posted the abstract here and you can get a downloadable version by clicking on the title below.

Experiential learning in journalism education: a New Zealand case study

Susan Boyd-Bell, MEd
Master of Education

School: School of Education

Supervisor: Sue Stover , Andy Begg

Abstract:

Teaching journalism in tertiary institutions presents challenges, including how students learn to work in teams under the sort of pressure that characterizes workplace journalism. This thesis is a case study of how a group of students at AUT University, in Auckland, experienced taking responsibility for producing four editions of a student newspaper as part of their journalism training.

Based on a series of individual student interviews, before, during and after their experience, this research suggests that the key factor in their learning was their being allowed, to a large extent, the power to make their own decisions about the appearance and content of their product, while still being charged with the responsibility of ensuring it reached a highly professional standard.

The realities of life as a journalist, including recognizing the frequent need to prune, tighten or re-angle stories – even to reject them – and the vital role of co-operative teamwork, unparalleled in their other journalism studies, were driven home.

The two tutors, interviewed after the last edition, put some of the student observations into context and provided insights into the discipline involved, as teachers, in maintaining training as a priority, while ensuring production to deadline of a series of reputable and legally safe newspapers.

This case study suggests that while there are contrived aspects that cannot replicate a “real” newsroom – such as the students’ assignment to editorial roles without the status of real editors or chief reporters – the learning experience resulted not only in advances in the students’ technological skills but significant development in their critical thinking about the profession they were due to enter.

Year: 2007
Keywords: Journalism education; Experiential learning; Problem-based learning; Student empowerment; Student newspaper; Structured interviews
Language: EN

So hot. So Not!

2008-03-09T21:16:00.008+13:00

This is just a chuckle piece.

The infamous Hollywood gossip-monger, Perez Hilton is now the subject of some interesting blogonews himself. Apparently he has been IMing with Jonathon Jaxson [sic] and there's sex tapes involved.

Yuksville, chucksville, but don't look away, car crash ahead! Jaxon seems obsessed with outing gay celebrities - what's that about in 2008. It's so yesterday.

I have no comment, check it out yourself:

Perez Hilton

Sex Scandal

Celebrity Buzz The blogger's in hot water for allegedly soliciting dirty videos from a naughty young man. You can breathe easy people: The sex tape in this scandal does not feature Mario "Perez Hilton" Lavandeira, he of the freakish hair. Instead, Lavandeira reportedly solicited sex tapes from another blogger in exchange for "help."

Does this stand as a case study in the differences between "real" and "accidental" journalists - the existence of a code of ethics and the fact that most journalists would take it seriously?

Hilton and his ilk are amusing (sometimes) and gross (most of the time), but they exist in our world now.

What I take some simple pleasure in is the way that other equally dubious blogspots have responded with clear contempt. The fruit does not fall far from the tree.

If this is the future of "journalism", I will drink myself to death!

Brothel client front page news? Not

2008-03-09T19:18:00.007+13:00

An interesting read over my breakfast martini this fine Auckland Sunday. The Herald on Sunday ran a splash (admittedly below the 'fold') about a wealthy Aucklander who likes his social life a little on the spicy side: "Blue Chip man's brothel spend-up".

The unfortunate who's picture and private life were plastered across three pages of newshole (as only a splash can be plastered) is investment broker, rake-about-town and sometime property consultant, Mark Bryers.

Mr Bryers has been in the news recently about other more pressing matters - the investment vehicle Blue Chip has gone belly-up due to circumstances in the global property market and some local variations, such as the over-heated investment scene.

No doubt these events are newsworthy - after all, thousands of "mum & dad" investors (Does nobody else leave their money with shonks and sharks?) have lost their life savings. People like Charles and Lesley Rouse are upset (piss*d off mightly is perhaps a better description) that Mr Bryers and his associates are living large, while the hapless rubes who trusted them are forced to live virtually on the street.

But, does the fact that Mr Bryers likes saucy blondes and naughty redheads (often, it seems, in multiple combinations) add any real news value to the already sad story of the hardly-done-by Blue Chip investors?

Well, maybe, if one could make a solid connection between Mr Bryers' visits to the (ahem) "gentleman's club" in question [NSFW: don't click this link from the office desktop] then the revelations in the HoS could be justified. But I couldn't see any links between the Rouse's money and Mark Bryers prediliction for off-the-ledger rumpy-pumpy in the copy.

Bryers is allegedly worth $70 million (OK, so that's Kiwi dollars) but with that amount of credit, a night at the HQ (allegedly worth between five and ten $K) is hardly going to break the bank.

So, the question is: Why would the HoS consider that to be a newsworthy story? Bryers may not be full square and one has to feel sorry for the Rouses and anyone who's lost money in Blue Chip funds, but what about the separation between public interest and public curiosity or curious purience on the part of newspaper editors seeking an edge in the competitive Sunday tabloids market?

The HoS piece was also curious from another angle. In the story, the brothel-keeper is quoted several times, in one instance making veiled threats to the HoS journalist, Jane Phare, and advising her against publishing anything that identified the premises in question. What might the consequences be of this?

Has the newspaper put its staff in danger for the sake of a rakish and titillating headline?
Time will tell.

And what about the ethics of outing someone for sexual adventurism, which is legal and commonplace? If Mr Bryers has a partner, she/he might be well not happy, but it's not a criminal or social offence to visit a legal brothel and have consensual relations (of what ever vice-type) with the object of your desire.

Where do you draw the line once you start down this road? Remember recently the Australian PM was outed in The Daily Telegraph for visiting a strip club in New York while he was leader of the opposition? As the image here shows, long bows were drawn on this story too - this is an obvious digital composite.

If it was an attempt to nobble him it didn't work; what's the motive in the Bryers' case?

Off the record - Not!

2008-03-09T14:14:00.008+13:00

So another Barak Obama staffer has fallen on her perfumed sword. This time because of comments in an interview with a British journalist about Hilary Clinton.

It's not the truth of Samantha Power's comments that's in question in this case: Hilary Clinton may well be a monster. It's not even the language, everyone's entitled to at least one "fu*k" a day.

It's because she made the mistake of thinking that such juicy comments would remain "off the record". A reasonable assumption perhaps given that she told the reporter the comments were off the record.

Here's how the story was covered by the Times Online:

Ms Power made the offending remark during a trip to London this week in which she was apparently too candid about the problems facing the Obama campaign.

"We f***** up in Ohio," she told the newspaper. "In Ohio, they are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it, because she knows Ohio's the only place they can win.

"She is a monster, too – that is off the record – she is stooping to anything," Ms Power added. The newspaper described her as "hastily trying to withdraw her remark".

Scotsman editor Mike Gilson tonight stepped in to defend his use of the "off-the-record" quotes.

He said: "We have no opinion on whether Ms Power was right to quit and perhaps politics should be able to retain people with talent who are prepared to learn by their mistakes but we are certain it was right to publish. I do not know of a case when anyone has been able to withdraw on the record quotes after they have been made.

"The interview our political correspondent Gerri Peev conducted with Ms Power was clearly on an on-the-record basis. She was clearly passionate and angry with the tactics of the Clinton camp over the Ohio primary and that spilled over in the interview. Our job was to put that interview before the public as a matter of public interest. It was for others to judge whether the remarks were ill-judged or spoke of the inexperience in the Obama camp."

What happened here? It's clear from the Times piece above that Ms Power instantly regretted her comments and then added the line about them being "off the record". The question is: Did the reporter have to respect that?

Is it a case of "caveat emptor", or in this case "interviewee beware"?
As Dan Gilmor writes on his blog, Etcetera...,it would be unusual for a journalist to agree to something being "off the record" after the fact.

When I was a reporter and then a columnist, I had a rule that no public figure — that is, anyone who’d had experience with being interviewed — had the right to declare anything off the record after the fact. Now I might agree not to publish something if it wasn’t relevant, but if something was to be off the record it would be decided ahead of time.

I didn’t have the same policy with people who weren’t media-savvy. Sometimes I’d actually say to someone, “Do you realize that I what you’re telling me might go into the newspaper?” I’d let them reconsider their words.

This is a fair enough rule and perhaps Ms Power should have known better, but it's an all-too-familiar sign of what's wrong with American politics, in particular presidential campaigns, that someone should be forced to resign from their position over something as innocuous as the comments Samantha Power made in an un-guarded moment.

It's as if no one is allowed to actually tell the truth, or express a tough, forthright and honestly-held opinion.

It's faux-polite in my view. Obama and Clinton are both spending enough to wipe out poverty in a mid-sized third-world nation on their respective campaigns. There's negative commentary in the media all the time, fed by both camps.

In this case the frame of pretend-to-play-nice has been broken; some unwritten rule transgressed. I think it's a shame really; though I don't think any blame can be laid at the feet of the journalist, or the newspaper.
Live by the words; die by the words.

Of course there's plenty of commentary out there in the blogosphere

If we must teach shorthand what are we not teaching?

2008-03-09T00:03:00.004+13:00

A friend, Helen M, sent me this link to a recent piece in the US online publication, PR Weekly, it talks about how journalism and journalism education are changing in response to the convergence factor of digital technology.

It lists a whole lot of new stuff that journalism educators and students are/should perhaps be doing in the classroom.

If we continue teaching shorthand,where do we find room for new stuff? What do we leave out?

It might be tempting to argue that more practical stuff should be included at the expense of what detractors call "theory", or "media studies". But what about journalism theory?

Isn't there a place in journalism education for an intellectual discussion about the values and meaning of journalism.

To deny space for such discussions is to doom journalism education and the reporters of the future to repeat the same mistakes over and over. Self-reflection is necessary for the news industry to cope with change; so to is a willingness to embrace change.

In particular, as the industry is changing younger reporters will need new and different skills; the definition of who is a journalist is also changing.

This is not necessarily a new idea, I've written about it in Communication & New Media (Hirst & Harrison 2007, OUP) in terms of the changing reportorial community.

Now this is an even more pressing issue because of the rise of the "accidental" journalist, not just the "citizen" journalist. Do we ignore this or embrace it?

There has to be room in the journalism curriculum for these issues to be put in front of students and we also have to think of these issues in terms of our current and future research.

Who's still teaching shorthand?

2008-03-08T17:19:00.010+13:00

Here in New Zealand all journalism schools require students to be proficient in T-line Shorthand at around 60-80 wpm before they can graduate.

The shorthand requirement is mandated by the NZ Journalists Training Organisation (JTO) as a Unit Standard for the qualification the National Diploma in Journalism. The diploma is a level 5 qualification, the equivalent to the first year of a university degree.

The journalism training in the Polytechnic system follows this syllabus quite closely while the university-based courses are at level 7 (3rd year undergraduate) or levels 8/9 Postgraduate Diploma and Masters level.

The JTO is an industry-funded body and industry members of the various J-schools' advisory committees are also strongly committed to the teaching and learning of shorthand.

While it's a requirement of the level 5 diploma (worth 15 credit points) there is some debate about the suitability of making shorthand a full 15 point paper within the normal academic framework of a bachelor's degree or postgraduate qualification.

Personally I'm not convinced that shorthand is still a necessary skill for 21st century journalists. I am forming the view that it is an antiquated technology that can easily be replaced with a variety of cheap, easy-to-use and unobtrusive digital recording devices that allow for accurate transcription of quotes and notes.

Here are a number of counter arguments that I've heard and I'm keen to see some real debate about this amongst journalism educators.

Arguments in favour of shorthand
shorthand notes are a legal document that can be used as evidence in a court case
shorthand is a vital skill for court reporters because in most jurisdictions cameras and recorders are not allowed in court during proceedings; further transcripts are hard to get from court officials and they take time to be released to the media
in New Zealand reporters are paid a bonus if they keep their shorthand up above a minimum speed requirement
I think things are changing. Increasingly cameras are being seen in courts, though I understand that this is an uneven process. I also don't think that reporters are called upon to give evidence from their shorthand notes in many court cases; so this is a "just in case" type of argument in effect. Finally, the bonus is a matter of a handful of dollars a week.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that by insisting that accredited journalism schools teach shorthand (often at great expense), the industry is merely pushing the cost onto the students and the tertiary education system. maybe the employers should be paying for it; either by subsidising the j schools to teach it, or doing it in-house once they get their hands on our graduates.

I'm currently looking into this issue in other countries and I'd be very keen to hear from journalism educators and working reporters about the use-value of shorthand. I know that anecdotally some of our graduates are alleged to say things like "shorthand is the most useful thing I learned at journalism school."

If this is really the case that what are we doing? Surely the value of a good education in journalism is more than 80 wpm of T-line.

The global situation?
A quick google search turned up some interesting material about the teaching of shorthand, including this interesting prediction that it would disappear from the journalism curriculum in 5-10 years...this was in 1998:
Bernie Corbett, national organizer for Britain’s National Union of Journalists, explained that most journalism jobs there require an academic “qualification.” And, he said, most print journalism degree programs require shorthand skills of 100 words per minute.
“Currently, trainers and editors still maintain that it is an indispensable core skill,” Corbett said, “but modern attitudes are against them and I predict the requirement will be dropped some time in the next five to ten years.”

Then again, is shorthand likely to become the next battle ground between the industry and the academy? Certainly that appears to be the case in the UK where the industry training body the NCTJ has been making the argument that journalism courses are too "academic" and not "practical" enough. According to Andy Bull, a senior NCTJ official, shorthand is still an essential:
"For editors and for the NCTJ, shorthand is essential. Universities have a problem with shorthand because they see it purely as a mechanical skill. Never mind that it is hard to manage as a foreign language."
I found this quote in a blog by Steve Hill, a lecturer in electronic publishing at Southampton Solent University, where he discusses Bull's piece from the British Journalism Review. Unfortunately the full copy of Andy's piece is not available online.

I also found an Australian reference to the JSchool run by Professor John Henningham in Brisbane (Queensland). Students in his privately-run programme do get some shorthand training.

I'm keen to hear from journalism educators and reporters on this issue.
To kick off some discussion, here's the txt of an email my colleague Stephen Quinn sent from Deakin University in Victoria (Australia):

The relevance depends on what you are educating J students for. If for
a career in mainstream print media, then you could argue shorthand is needed. Many
years ago I proposed to our dean that we teach Teeline (rather than Pittman's) on
the journalism major at Deakin. She said that was the role for the local TAFE, and
not a university.

Given the dramatic drop in jobs at newspapers in the US (see my blog squinn.org for
details), and if that trend carries over into Australia, we could argue that more jobs will be available online and in other forms of new media. Then we have
to ask if shorthand is relevant, given many of the newer jobs will involve
re-purposing of content (yes, an ugly phrase but the best I have) and editing rather than reporting.

Bottom line: if educating reporters, then shorthand is still necessary. If educating
editors, debatable.

Over to you.
BTW: If you're a journalism student, I'd love to hear from you too.

Taste Test: The Journalist

2008-03-07T14:28:00.008+13:00

perhaps we can all go get one after graduation next friday as we will be qualified journos!
- bex

Hey, bex, xclnt idea to go for a drink. In our graduation drag?

But, I would recommend caution when it comes to The Journalist, or at least finding a bar with a v.good cocktail mixologist. This is not a drink to let loose around amateurs.

I had a couple earlier this week at a local bar (no names coz I don't want to upset anyone at the Brooklyn) and to be honest, I was a tad disappointed.

When I say "tad" I been bloody disappointed. The colour was good; the ingredients were pretty much top shelf- Bombay, Cointreau and Martini vermouth(s)

[Is the plural of vermouth "vermine"?]

But the mixing was ordinary. The drink was warmish, while a great Martini is chilled beyond cool and I expected a great kick, but all I got was a sweetish, warm lolly-water drink. it lacked bite and even the addition of a triple-olive stick with a twist didn't seem to lift it beyond the "gin ordinaire".

I'm sure that Frank Moorhouse and his friend Voltz would strongly disapprove of The Journalist; it would rank alongside the other "fad" concoctions and "crazy drinks" that they both detest.

However, I am not easily deterred and I intend to persist until I can make this drink my own.

On a slighlty different note, I enjoyed Moorhouse' "memoir" Martini, and at the time I thought it was a reasonably true account of some aspects of his life. So I was very disappointed to come across this old bit of news while I was googling him today.

It seems that the "memoir" may actually be a work of fiction, in the news story linked above Moorhouse refers to himself (or is it a character in the "memoir") as "the demented narrator-author".

That's almost as disappointing as a lukewarm Journalist.

A "new" Martini: The Gin and the Journalist

2008-03-04T09:26:00.008+13:00

One of the things I love about teaching is learning from my students. Hat tip to Quinn for telling me about The Journalist.

I suppose a purist would scoff, but it is a distant relative of the Martini - at least it's based on Gin and Vermouth.

It's a take on the whole dry/sweet thing and I must say I am constantly surprised at the number of bar staff who think it's OK to make a Martini with sweet vermouth - "Bianco".

Personally I find the combination distasteful, but rarely send it back. I much prefer the traditional dry Martini.

However, The Journalist is on my menu for the next Brooklyn visit.

Quinn brought me a photocopied page from his cocktail recipe book, here's the author's review of this unconventional Martini.

I've never been a supporter of unnecessarily complicated cocktails but this one seems to succeed against all the odds.

The Journalist defies convention [you're right about that mate] but is great as a palate-cleansing aperitif.

The sweet/dry theme is repeated twice, with the sweet and dry vermouth, then the triple sec and lemon juice.

Definitely a good pre-dinner drink to order at a bar, but if you're making it at home watch the measurements carefully, it's a drink that needs to be very finely balanced.

On the web you can find plenty of recipes for The Journalist, some use Curacao instead of Triple Sec. I'm sure you could substitute Vodka for Gin too. You know the rules "Choose your poison."

But what's with this glass, it just ain't right:

I much prefer the conventional frosted Martini glass, so much more refined.

If you're willing to try The Journalist, send me a note, rate it.

Here's the recipe with Curacao (from Cocktail Database), use Triple Sec and/or Vodka if you like.

The Journalist
Stir in mixing glass with ice & strain

1 1/2 oz gin (4.5 cl, 3/8 gills)

1/4 oz sweet vermouth (6 dashes, 1/16 gills)

1/4 oz dry vermouth (6 dashes, 1/16 gills)

1 dash aromatic bitters

1 dash fresh lemon juice

1 dash orange curacao

Harry Hotpants and his Crack Baby

2008-03-03T20:53:00.004+13:00

I was intrigued by the reference to a cocktail called a Crack Baby in recent stories about Harry Hotpants, the valiant prince of Afghanistan and friend of Terry Taleban.

The Crack Baby is a drink for stupid rich kids. Yes I'm prejudiced, but here's the recipe, go figure:

Crack Baby Ingredients
Ice

1/2 carton Passion Fruit Juice

1/2 bottle vodka

punnet chopped strawberries

bottle asti/ champagne

Put all the ingredients together in an electric blender and let it do the work for you! Let it mix for a minute or so then pour in a cocktail glass and drink with a straw for maximum effect!

Will get you hammered in no time!!!

On the cocktail recipe site where I got this the following list also popped up. It speaks for itself:

Other users who liked a Crack Baby also liked:

Crack Pipe

Crazy Frog

Why don't you give them a go too?

Harry Hotpants exposes himself to Terry Taleban: "I'm a f*ck*** tosser!"

2008-03-03T20:01:00.023+13:00

Now that the giddy "Oh my gosh!" pretend outrage has cooled a little I'd like to add my ten Kiwi cents to the Harry-Embargo-Imbroglio (HEI).

It seems that the English tosser who happens to be 3rd-in-line to the best paid non-job in the world is not that keen on the country of his birth. HEI's been telling anyone who'll listen - pretty much the entire world's media - that, actually, HEI hates England. In particular Harry Hotpants doesn't like English beer (he drinks something called a Crack
baby cocktail (see separate post) and HEI doesn't like the English media too much either.

From today's New Zealand Herald (and a 1000 other quasi-tabloid shi*sheets. The NZH lifted the story from The Observer):

"I don't want to sit around Windsor," HEI admitted. "I generally don't like England that much and, you know, it's nice to be away from all the press and the papers and all the general shite that they write."
England was, in fact, "poo", HEI declared.

That's a pity really. His retainers and flunkies should tell the lucky shite that thanks to the world's oversupply of trash and gossip magazines HEI's one of the most eligible rich dicks around and can get into the pants of every young 'gel' who takes his royal fancy. HEI doesn't even know that "poo" (how upper-class quaint) "stinks".

To be honest, I wouldn't lose a minute of my life worrying or being upset if HEI was topped by an IED. Apparently there's a price on HEI's head.

'Prince Harry
Is A Top Terror Target'

Updated:08:07, Saturday March 01, 2008

Prince Harry is now a top terror target after serving in Afghanistan, a radical cleric has warned.

Omar Bakri Mohammad

Omar Bakri Mohammad said the Prince, who is arriving back in the UK today, was behaving like a "big man, tough man" and that would make him a target for Islamic militants.
The cleric said the Prince had become an "ambassador of war" unlike his mother Diana who had been an "ambassador of peace".
"I think now he will be more targeted by the Taliban and al Qaeda supporters than before," he said. "It's better for him to return home.

However, let's remember that while the world's media spent far too much time fawning over this blue-blooded waste of oxygen, real people were dying in Afghanistan and Iraq. We can pause to reflect on another British serviceman who was killed on Sunday March 2:

British airman killed
in Iraq attack named

8:29AM Monday March 03, 2008
By Peter Griffiths

British airman killed in rocket attack named. Photo /Reuters.

LONDON - A British airman killed in a rocket attack in southern Iraq was named on Sunday as Sergeant Duane Barwood.
The Ministry of Defence in London said the 41-year-old from the town of Carterton, Oxfordshire, died on Friday after an attack on the British military base outside Basra.
His death brings to 175 the number of British armed forces personnel who have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.
Barwood, known as "Baz", was part of the 903 Expeditionary Air Wing of the Royal Air Force and was based at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
He leaves a wife, Sharon, and two daughters, Leanna and Rebecca. In a statement, his family said: "Baz will be greatly missed by all those who knew him.

Harry Hotpants you are a lucky and privileged bastard. Shove another Crack Baby down your sun-burnt neck instead of complaining about English ordinariness. Harry have you sent flowers to Mrs Barwood? I didn't think so, you insufferable waste of space.

We should also pause for the other victims of this senseless Imperialist adventure in which Prince Hotpants got to play toy soldiers. We need to be reminded of the hundreds who die every week in Iraq and Afghanistan whose names we are never told by the press.

Sunday 2 March: 22 dead

Baghdad: 3 bodies.

Diyala
Baquba: roadside bomb kills policeman trying to defuse it; gunmen kill civilian.
Wajihiya: roadside bomb kills 6, 2 of them children.
Buhriz: motorist is shot dead by Iraqi soldiers, after failing to 'respond to checkpoint instructions.'
Muqdadiya: 3 bodies.

Ninewa
Mosul: car bomb kills civilian.
Shabana: 2 policemen killed in clashes with gunmen.

Salahuddin
Samarra: car bomb kills 4, a child among them.

But while all this is going on, the crap media's attention is somewhere else. The photogenic action man Harry Hotpants has been discovered living a "normal" life in southern Afghanistan.

As an aside:
"Oh shi*, hold the presses!" Harry Hotpants leads 'normal life', now there's a headline you don't see every day. You little silver-coated turd; you think life in southern Afghanistan is 'normal'? You freakish little rich shi*, fu** you and your warped idea of 'normal'. A life of war and poverty is not 'normal'. You, sir, have no idea of what 'normal' is. Suck down another Crack Baby you lazy ill-begotten drunk and fu** off back to Knightsbridge.

HEE HEE HEE...Oops...

Sorry, back to the real point of this post:

A few days ago there was an almighty fuss that was heard around the world: some pissant little Australian gossip rag had broken an embargo on a story that the valiant prince had "seen action" in Afghanistan.

No, it wasn't about the princely prick getting on in a Kabul whorehouse; though it would be a better story if it was. There happened to be a jeep-load of photos and video footage of Harry with a pistol tucked into his flack jacket in really cool wrap-around sunglasses in a cool brown T-shirt and a backwards baseball cap chatting to "Terry Taleban". but I noticed with some delight that Harry and Terry were never in the same frame; though HEI did tell the media that when Terry's head "popped up", HEI fired his trusty blunderbuss for a minute or too.

As an aside: Does anyone else feel slightly uncomfortable about this veiled reference to "Towel Heads" (Terry-toweling)?

When HEI wasn't kissing Terry's babies, or getting the footman to make HEI an icy Crack Baby back in the mess, HEI was cracking off some rounds of 50 calibre machine gun fire in the general direction of the native men-folk.

"Mix me another Crack Baby, Hughes.
This damn gunnery is hot work."
Harry Hotpants on show during a secret attack
against Terry Taleban of Helmand Province.

As an aside:
Cue Monty Python music: "I fart in your general direction." Did you notice HEI looked remarkably uncomfortable behind that gun, with the regimental SM leaning over his shoulder: "Put your balls into it you useless twat." Not the right kind of show for a chap with the (purely ceremonial) rank of Coronet.

Is it just me, or did the whole thing seem slightly staged from the royal "get go"?

And why pick on New Idea, according to other media reports the story was also on the Drudge Report and on several European news websites.

The point is that the whole idea of an embargo is stupid and the media who were prepared to stick with an agreement to keep Sir Hotpants' deployment to Afghanistan secret were colluding in a restraint of trade and an ideological hoodwinking of their readers and viewers.

Buckingham Palace and the British government had a deal: Sir Hotpants' heroic (sic) stint in dusty Afghanistan would be revealed to a grateful public at a time of their own choosing; preferably when Harry was doing the horizontal Zorba with a suitably lubricated (with Crack Baby) Chelsea slapper and was safely out of the way.

Just to make sure the loyal tabloids didn't miss a beat, or a shot, a royal battalion of tame paparazzo was billeted next to HEI to film his every move across the wide brown plains of Helmand province.

"Sir, would you mind pooing in this trench, sir. We can shoot your royal buttocks from a flattering angle over here, sir."

"Make-up, more powder on the royal derriere please...and...action."

"Oh sir, it's true! Royal poo is blue, and sir, it smells divine, sir."

You think I'm being funny? No? Well, yes and no. The Telegraph story on the breaking of the embargo contained this little gem:

As part of the deal between the media and the MoD, a small number of journalists went to Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan to report.
[British defence chief] Sir Richard said: "What the last two months have shown is that it is perfectly possible for Prince Harry to be employed just the same as other Army officers of his rank and experience.

Yes, just the same as any officer with rank of Coronet with fuc*all experience, except in drinking Crack Baby cocktails and senseless rutting.

Yes, just the same as every Coronet who needs a battalion of minders tagging along in a war zone.

Harry Hotpants was never in danger in Helmand Province. He's safer there than in any Soho nightclub where he might drown in his 37th Crack Baby of that particular binge.

The whole thing was a stinking propaganda exercise designed to hit British hearts and minds with a "shock and awe" message bomb. The war is unpopular in Britain and this would have been a huge publicity coup.

I don't much care who broke this story. If it was New Idea then good luck to them. According to The Telegraph in London, the story was in New Idea a month ago and no one picked it up then. In a statement issued on Feb 29, New Idea is quoted as saying:

"New Idea was not issued with a press embargo and was unaware of the existence of one...
The story was published on Monday, January 7. Since then New Idea has received no comment from the British Ministry of Defence.
We take these matters very seriously and would never knowingly break an embargo. We regret any issues the revelation of this story in America has caused today. "

Six weeks ago this story was mentioned in NW; now they're getting blasted by the rest of the press. Actually, NW was probably dobbed in by Palace flacks as a way of giving the story a boost. How else could Sky TV and other networks have a special all ready to go with the shit-eating headline "Hero Harry Home At Last". PUKE!

The British tabloids hate to be upstaged and for an Antipodean trash mag to do it is the height of colonial bastardry. For revenge, the tabbies have been falling over themselves to gush the mush about the heroic Harry Hotpants and sections of the quality press have been rubbing their noses in it:

Earlier yesterday even The Sun found itself saying: "There's no doubt Harry has struggled with the pressures of Royalty. But Harry has found richer fulfilment serving with his mates than he ever found in the bottom of a Crack Baby cocktail.
"In place of the tipsy playboy, we saw a self-assured and mature man of action at ease with himself.''
The Daily Mirror said: "Harry, famous in the past for his partying, is a young man who has come of age, serving his Queen -- his grandmother -- and country with distinction...

The Daily Express said: "For Harry to serve his country in a combat zone will boost the morale of forces families everywhere. Britain can be extremely proud of its soldier Prince and so can the Royal Family.''

The story was heavily used around the world, and in the United States there was sometimes a little more comment added.
The New York Post said: "Looks like the Taliban is getting the royal treatment.'' And it added: "The 23-year-old royal heir, once nicknamed 'Dirty Harry' by British tabloids for his hard-partying ways, has now been dubbed 'Harry the Hero' for his role in the war on terror.''

The real point is the sycophantic coverage by the hypocritical tabloids that's vomited up on every news website since Sir Hotpants' glorious return to the country of his mother, his mother country that he hates.

As an aside:
Fuck you, Harry Hotpants; bloodsucking scion of inbred ingrates.

And to you sycophantic toadies of the tabloids:
Get a grip (or actually let go of your august organs and start thinking with your brains, not your assholes).

I'm with Peter Preston of The Observer on this shabby little story:

But phooey! Double phooey! There's no point in criticising anyone involved in this deluded little charade, because everyone acted from perfectly comprehensible motives. Harry wanted a bit of proper soldiering. The MoD wanted a warm bath of publicity on its own terms. The press loves being praised for restraint, plus getting pool exclusives of 'Hero Harry' playing 'keepy-uppy' with a toilet roll shortly after 'shedding tears for Chelsea'. But the difficulty is that this was always going to be a flaky deal, which lasted rather longer than you'd have bet at the start.

That's right, a flaky deal designed to get some good publicity for the British military machine and for dumbass Gordon Brown.

A flaky deal aimed at the gullible audience (in MoD parlance) of New Idea readers who were told this remarkable and top secret news SIX WEEKS AGO, but didn't see they'd been duped by those nasty editor-bitches.

Hey guess what, Terry Taleban (or at least his missus) must also not be reading NW. Terry and his brothers had six weeks to get to Harry Hotpants with a suicide bomb or a sniper yet the self-confessed "bullet magnet" made it home alive.

The power of the press HEI HEI HEI. It seems HEI actually blew it with his "I don't like England" comments. I think the good folk of the Home Counties should whip the hat around to buy the idiot prince a ticket back to Helmand Province. Perhaps HEI and Terry Taleban could share a Crack Baby and get drunk enough to think they'd solved all the world's problems. At least they'd be too pissed to shoot at each other.

And for those whingeing outlets who are now ganging up on New Idea, including stupid, inane and unethical gossip websites, such as Defamer.com, stop the crocodile tears. You would steal your granny's nickers for the sake of a story.

How to Stop the Fiji Regime in its Tracks when it comes for Journalists

2008-02-28T09:12:00.002+13:00

How to Stop the Fiji Regime in its Tracks when it comes for Journalists
By Dr Mark Hayes, a Brisbane-based media and journalism educator who knows the media situation in Fiji very well indeed.
------------------------------------
In Fijian, there’s a term used to describe ‘sweeping under the mat’, ‘or ‘secretive decisions’, a ‘deliberate denial of transparency and accountability’ – Vere Ubiubi (pron: Very Umbi Umbi). This is an example of how it works in practice.
The disgraceful, and quite possibly illegal and certainly in contempt of court, deportation of Fiji Sun editor Russell Hunter on Tuesday morning, February 26, 2008, is, among many other things a serious failure in crisis responding by the Fiji media.
A senior, and well known, media executive, and his family, are intimidated, and he’s kidnapped in the dead of night by a cowardly snatch squad sent by person or persons unknown. Meanwhile, a superior court issues a ‘stop order’ to prevent an apparent deportation attempt, and this is ignored by all relevant authorities and agencies. The executive is deprived of all communication, so he can’t even tell his family where he is, let alone contact his lawyer or staff, driven almost 200 kilometres at night (if you’ve driven from Suva to Nadi, even in daylight, you know that’s a very scary journey), humiliated as he’s hurried through Customs and Immigration, publically segregated from other passengers in the Departure Lounge, and bundled on to an Air Pacific jet.
The belated feeble excuses offered by senior authorities make no rational sense, and no even remotely convincing evidence to justify this action has been produced.
The Fiji media make all the expected, ritual, noises while Mr Hunter’s long gone from Nadi Airport.
At every step, we can see a cascading failure in crisis responding on the part of almost all with genuine interests in this outrage, especially in Fiji.
This is made even worse because, following on from the 2000 – 2001 crisis, and then the heroic stand some media took on the evening of the 2006 coup, the Fiji media should know how to very effectively respond to a grave governance crisis in general, such as a coup, and a specific incident such as Mr Hunter’s treatment (or other well documented harassment of several of their number over the last year or so).
On the night of the 2006 coup, the Fiji military, following the ‘book of coups’ (yes; there is one) tried to prevent the Fiji media from reporting statements from the ousted SDL government by deploying soldiers into several newsrooms. The Fiji Times and Fiji TV refused to publish looming bulletins and editions under military intimidation, and other media similarly resisted military pressure. The responses of the Fiji media that night, and into subsequent days were genuinely heroic, and amply demonstrated what principled solidarity can achieve. Over subsequent months, however, the Fiji media has revered to its usual acutely competitive habits, even when one of their own was summoned to the military camp in northern Suva and verbally threatened later in 2007. Around the same time, the leading US nonviolence think tank, the Albert Einstein Institution was seeding copies of its Anti-Coup Handbook very widely around Fiji-based NGOs.
Here’s not the place to go into a detailed exposition of nonviolent direct action, but what I am strongly arguing is that if the Fiji media consistently deployed principled, highly informed, and creative nonviolent resistance techniques and tactics, at the very least they could educate the Interim Government that it is really not a good idea to mess with them, and, when another incident of harassment occurs, deal with the ‘authorities’ like a swarm of wasps. These techniques are entirely congruent with the Fiji Media Council Code of Ethics.
Putting it another way – and Fiji must be one of the few places on the planet not to have had Star Trek on its television screens – the Fiji media needs to install individual, newsroom, and industry Corbomite Shields, so that any attempts at attack against any one of them rebounds against the attacker, with equal force. A related idea is backfire, which can be planned for, and engineered to occur when harassment occurs. Even obdurate slow learners, like the Fiji military appear to be, will sooner rather than later get the message.
Much nonviolence is informed by the proposition that dominators only wield power and thence obtain, if not eager obedience, then at least acquiescence, to the extent that their targets let them. In many important respects, the very wide array of nonviolent techniques available, even in far worse, even lethal, contexts than contemporary Fiji, are aimed at eroding and even removing a dominator’s power.
So, revisiting the Hunter deportation, at many stages, nonviolence could have been deployed to monkey wrench the intended activities of his cowardly snatch squad, and, more importantly, their even more craven and cowardly masters. Some of these techniques need to be deployed and rehearsed well in advance of possible intimidation, and some can be deployed as needed. Nonviolent resistance should by no means be a spontaneous response to pressing intimidation, as is connoted by the obsolete term ‘passive resistance’, but requires planning, preparation, and creative, principled, and courageous deployment. Finally, though, there are no guarantees of success (just as there are no certainties in warfare either).
With Mr Hunter in Sydney, the Fiji Media Council could show it remembers what a spine is for by coordinating a joint industry operation to get him back, as well as seriously investigating the whole foul and disgraceful exercise. It may be they have an ally in this exercise in the person of the Interim Attorney General.
The Council’s President, Mr Daryl Tarte, with a suitably equipped Fiji TV crew using small digital video cameras, could go to Sydney, and return with Mr Hunter, and record the whole process from the inside.
There’s another good story to report if Air Pacific declines to carry Mr Hunter because, they may well claim, he’s been declared an illegal. By whom? Under what powers or legislation, and using what evidence? Qantas, which code shares with Air Pacific, might need interrogation too if Mr Hunter seeks to travel on a Qantas ticket rather than an Air Pacific ticket, and is similarly declined passage.
A radio journalist or two, with digital audio recorders, could also be dispatched on this part of the operation. Mobile phones can be used to broadcast and photograph, even video, proceedings live as they occur.
At Nadi Airport, the plane can be met by a group of reporters equipped to report the story from the outside, including interrogating officials in the terminal, as they have choices to obey or not.
As it appears to be the case that there was a court order out preventing Mr Hunter’s deportation, some media need to track down and explain why that order was ignored, by whom, and why Air Pacific, as the carrier, also ignored the court order. Other media need to seriously interrogate the real reasons why Mr Hunter was deported, and why it was absolutely necessary to send a cowardly snatch squad to his home at night, rather than visit him at work, by appointment, as civilised authorities usually do to serve, for example, legal documents or even press releases. Are all legal documents served on all media in Fiji by similar means, and if so, why, and if not, why not, and by whom? Perhaps all Fiji media should refuse to accept all legal documents unless they are delivered to appropriate executive’s homes late at night by a cowardly, secretive, anonymous snatch squad. After all, there is now a clear and very high level precedent for this kind of activity, so what’s the problem?
Indeed, the media should seek to identify the members of Mr Hunter’s snatch squad, and expose them, because they had a choice in the matter. International law, and military regulations, fully allow for the principled disobedience of an illegal order by individual soldiers. Even military genocides occur because soldiers actually doing the killing, and civilian officials often assisting, particularly these days, ignore their consciences, and even basic training in the laws of war, and obey their illegal orders. And similarly up the snatch squad’s chain of military and civilian command, outing each and every person responsible. That’s called accountability.
A fairly well known trick to pull when one fears physical intimidation, in a bar for example, and rapid withdrawal seems difficult, is to hit the floor writhing and screaming as if one had actually been assaulted. Mr Hunter could have executed this kind of tactic in the Departure Lounge of Nadi Airport (which I know well) to draw significant public attention to his situation. It appears that another passenger on his flight was a senior US consular official who kindly lent him extra cash prior to arriving in Sydney. Excellent witnesses such as this official can be later called on in court, as well as quoted in subsequent stories.
The pressure the combined Fiji media should put on the Interim Government should be incessant, unremitting, and indefatigable, like wasps, coming at them from many simultaneous directions, seeking answers to entirely legitimate questions, chasing down angles and leads, and drawing the public into the continuing story, by engaging them actively in the restoration of democracy, monitoring power, and exposing abuses of power. That’s what the media does.
The foregoing is, by the way, entirely congruent with the principles of good governance, and media freedom, which, so the Interim Prime Minister recently declared, was ‘secure and guaranteed in Fiji’. By reference to generally accepted and internationally supported standards and principles, we assume.

Media hypocrisy over TV3 interview with crook

2008-02-23T16:58:00.007+13:00

Background note: For anyone not familiar with this story, the history can be found here. Briefly around 96 important military medals were stolen from the Waiouru army museum, including a Victoria Cross won by a New Zealand war hero, Charlie Upham. The theft was described as an "insult to the nation". After some weeks they were returned and it seems the thieves may have pocketed most of the reward money.

If you live north of the Bombay Hills take a deep whiff, if the wind's in the right direction the unmistakable stench of media hypocrisy will burn your nasal membranes.

Late last week the TV3 programme Campbell Live scored a pretty good scoop: an exclusive interview with one of the alleged suspects in the theft of some pretty important pakeha taonga.

Almost immediately the rest of the media went into a shitty tailspin, ostensibly because of TV3's unethical behaviour, but IMHO more motivated by the fact that they had not got the story.

Indeed the competition between media outlets over this story has been fierce. The NZ Herald had a couple of front page hits of its own, including the story of how a known associate of an alleged criminal gang had been bailed on serious charges for helping with the "investigation" that led to the return of the Victoria Cross and other medals.

The Herald was no doubt pissed when its previously exclusive ownership of the story was trumped by Campbell Live's interview with "Robert", one of the theives -- at least by his own account.
Until this point the Herald had pretty much had the story to itself and obviously had some good sources close to the investigation and to the alleged crims involved.

"Robert" did not appear live in the TV3 programme, an actor was used instead. According to TV3's account the interview was done on a dictaphone and transcribed. "Robert" was never on camera.

Spurred on by moralistic outrage from some media commentators, the police dutifully raided TV3 HQ in Great North Road and took statements and documents away. They had no choice really, but given their "Look the other way" attitude to other aspects of this rapidly degenerating criminal farce, we can expect nothing to come of the raid.

To his credit TV3 news chief Mark Jennings has stuck to his guns and not backed down from the interview with "Robert".

Today (Saturday) the Herald weighed in again with the ridiculous headline "TV3 attacked for re-enactment of medal theft interview". My pal Jim Tully from the journalism programme at Canterbury University told the Herald that the use of the actor had "tarnished a good news scoop". Hardly a swingeing attack. And of course the cops supplied the obligatory "tut tut" statement to go with their half-hearted "raid" on TV3 yesterday.

The real deal
Let's go back and review the media coverage of this story from day one. From the start no one was particularly concerned to catch the crooks; the real concern was with getting back the "national treasure", a bunch of rusty medals celebrating the glory of war and the myth of the ANZAC. The Herald and all the NZ media agreed it was in the national interest that the medals be returned and that the theft was a terrible blot on national pride and glory.

Bollocks. I'm not going to go into a long diatribe about the glorification of capitalist war and why nationalism is crap. You can go away and read up on that in other places. The simple point is that the media went weak at the knees and talked up the national patriotic bullshit.

What seemed to get lost in all this rhetoric is the fact that a crime was committed and no one seemed to know who the thieves were. More importantly no one seemed to care.

Then Chris Comesky, a former cop who is now a tasty criminal lawyer with form, got involved and was able to broker a deal that saw $300,000 (roughly) put into his trust account with the strong suggestion that some of it, at least, would go to the crooks for the return of the medals.

This story is a lot wierder and has a lot more dubious ethical twists than John Campbell's interview with "Robert".

A few questions that the media might like to ask:

Why have the crooks effectively been given immunity?
How did lawyer Chris Comeskey get involved and why did the police let him do the immunity deal?
What were the Herald's sources for its stories about the gang member who was released on bail and the thieves, one of whom might have been banged up Mt Eden gaol with the gang member/deal broker?
Why have the cops been so relaxed about a shady deal to protect the alleged crims in return for the medals being given back?

Web Capitalism 2.0

2008-02-23T11:48:00.003+13:00

I came across this at Andrew Keen's The Great Seduction. I sometimes disagree with Andrew but I think his analysis of web-capitalism (summed up here) is pretty accurate:

For all the glib pieties about the "democratization" of media, the truth about the Web 2.0 economy is that it's anything but democratic. That vast sucking sound you can hear is Google, YouTube et al gobbling up obscene amounts of wealth from the rest of the media business.

New claims about cancer scare at ABC Brisbane studios

2008-02-23T11:32:00.003+13:00

The Brisbane Courier-Mail is reporting that the ABC site at Toowong, which has been abandoned for the past year or more, might be contaminated with the pesticide Dieldrin.

A number of female staff have been diagnosed with breast cancer linked to their employment.

So far the ABC has spent millions on rehousing staff and has not revealed what it plans to do with the riverside site.

McCain, elections, ethics and smears

2008-02-23T10:21:00.008+13:00

I'm watching with interest the American presidential primaries. I can't make up my mind about Obama and/or Clinton. I'm inclined to argue that a vote for Barak Obama is more of a threat to the US political status quo than a vote for Hilary Clinton. It's a judgment about whether race or gender is the more volatile fault line in the American psyche.
I tend to lean towards Obama and a vote for a black man over a white woman; mainly because white women were never tortured and murdered like African Americans, or suffered under the racist and segregationist Jim Crow laws. Though of course, if you go back far enough into American history it's clear that witches were hated, feared and hunted down too during colonial times.

But today, I'm interested in coverage of the recent New York Times piece outlining some historical allegations that Republican candidate John McCain has a shaky record on conflicts of interest.

The Times has come under fire from other media, particularly the Fox network and the paper's also had over 3000 email and blog questions posted by readers. I've read the Times piece and it seems reasonably balanced to me. It's quite long and detailed, but critics say it relies too heavily on anonymous sources.

The paper justifies using anonymous sources on the grounds that the story was of great public interest and needed to be told. I have no issue with this; what I find more interesting is the question posed by a reader about the NYT's endorsement of McCain. Here's the exchange:

Why Did The Times Endorse McCain?

Q. Why did The New York Times strongly endorse Senator McCain to be the Republican Party nominee in January, if at the same time the paper was well aware of and continuing to investigate what it considered to be front-page, damaging, “un-presidential” charges?

— Debbie Collazo, Tucson, Ariz.

A. The short answer is that the news department of The Times and the editorial page are totally separate operations that do not consult or coordinate when it comes to news coverage and endorsements or other expressions of editorial opinion. We in the newsroom did not speak to anyone at the editorial page about the story we were working on about Senator McCain. They did not consult us about their deliberations over endorsements of the presidential candidates. I’m the political editor, and the first I knew of the McCain endorsement (and of the endorsement of Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side) was when I read them in the newspaper. In all of our internal discussions about the news story subsequent to the endorsement, I do not recall anyone bringing it up.

(As an aside, I think it’s fair to say that most of our political reporters would prefer that the paper not endorse candidates. Endorsements inevitably create the perception among some voters that The Times is backing a candidate on an institutional level, leaving those of us on the news side to explain over and over that our coverage is not influenced by what our colleagues on the editorial page write.)

As your question suggests, this particular situation was especially odd because most everyone in politics and journalism — including, I assume, our colleagues on the editorial page — knew we were working on a story about Senator McCain, courtesy of an item on Drudge in December. Whether that influenced the editorial page’s deliberations, I have no idea.

But it meant that there were a lot of people speculating for months about what kind of story we were pursuing and whether and when we were going to publish it. This didn’t influence the timing or the substance of the story at all, but I do think it created a situation in which opinions and battle lines about the story began to develop long before the actual story was published.

— Richard W. Stevenson, political editor

Sure, Richard, you can maintain the fiction that the newsroom and the editorial decision-making are at arms-length.
It's the dialectic of the front page. The story is too big to ignore and you've got it as an exclusive, so go for it, but don't pretend that Mahogany Row doesn't know exactly what's going on newswise and can intervene at any time.

Farewell Peter McGregor 1947-2008, revolutionary friend

2008-01-26T18:25:00.000+13:00

I was checking emails while on holidays in Bateau Bay on the NSW central coast. My brother and I had just come back from swimming at Shelley Beach with my niece and her friend. A message from Neville asking when I would be arriving in the Blue Mountains, then some sad news:
As you may have heard Peter McGregor has committed suicide. Don't have details yet. Was very sudden because I had an email from him the day before about an anti-Guantanamo demonstration. There's an excellent obit by Tony Stephens in yesterday's SMH.

In a round-about way I've known Peter McGregor for some 20 years, perhaps a bit longer. I can't remember the circumstances of our meeting; I have no doubt he would know. Most recently I'd worked alongside Peter in the School of Communications at the University of Western Sydney in the late 1990s.

We always managed to stay in touch, even though I had moved away from UWS and left Sydney, first to Brisbane and now Auckland.

I always admired Peter's dedication and enthusiasm. He was an activist and a humanist. Perhaps more of an anarchist than me, but nevertheless I will always be proud to call him "comrade".

I'm chuckling at that because it is a term of endearment among socialists of all stripes and at times can even transcend ideological and factional disputes. "Comrade" has a proud tradition and it rings with affection and strength when spoken out loud among good friends. It can be stirring in song, "Comrades come rally and the last fight let us face."

I'm chuckling because for the hard right and even the Liberal right "comrade" is a term of derision and abuse. I've been lambasted on at least one blog for using the word in every day speech. It was incontrovertibe proof of my Stalinist and anti-democratic tendencies.

I'm smiling because for some anarchists it holds similar connotations. Peter never minded me regarding him as a comrade. He was principled and non-sectarian. Peter would work with anyone for a common cause and the public good.

I have been looking for other online tributes to Peter. The first one I found was Remote Control. This is from Lynda Hawryluk; writer, educator, artist, keen disco dance, who was also a colleague of Peter's.

My last interaction with Peter was over his arrest, court case and subsequent total absolution in the whole Ruddock incident, which, in my view, brought shame on a whole bunch of individuals and instutions that I had previously thought better of. I documented his adventure here on Ethical Martini.

So long comrade, so long revolutionary friend, goodbye Pete.

Remote Control - Peter McGregor 1947-2008: 'Thanks for the dreams that I have had with many of you.'

Facebook and the news

2008-01-20T13:00:00.000+13:00

Murder victim opened her heart on Facebook - Sunday Star-Times - Sunday Star-Times

In light of recent posts about Facebook and other social networking sites, I thought it time to give a brief outline of my "theory" about this. I have mentioned previously I'm currently writing a book about news in the digital age.
I haven't settled on a title yet, but it's likely to be something like Journalism in the Age of YouTube.... I'm not sure, but the thrust is that I am writing about how social networking sites; the internet and blogging are impacting on journalism. The types of stories; the sources and even journalists themselves are caught up in this.

I just wanted here to draw attention to the ways in which Facebook, Bebo etc are now being used extensively as a "source" for reporters. Usually in the context of horrible murders, like the one discussed in the SST article linked above. In the print edition the frontpage splash is illustrated with photos taken from Sophie Elliott's Facebook page, including a photo of her with her alleged killer.
I wonder did the SST get anyone's permission, presumably Sophie's family, to use this pic, or any pic of her from Facebook? Or is the assumption that because Facebook is 'public', no permission is required, stuff can just be ripped from there without regard to privacy or copyright issues.

And what about potential contempt of court. A photo of the alleged killer - can this influence potential jurors?

then there's this piece from the SST's sister paper, Sunday News
Another horrible murder and another "news" link with social networking. In this case the brother of the murdered Scottish tourist pleading with her to come home:

Come home Karen
KRISTIAN SOUTH - Sunday News | Sunday, 20 January 2008

The brother of murdered Scottish backpacker Karen Aim had no doubt where he wanted his sister to be when he made an emotional internet plea to her just after New Year.

"Forget this glass blowing carry on at the other side of the world," Alan Aim, 23, wrote on his sister's page on the Bebo social network website.

"My Orkney road passenger transport ambitions have doubled and could do with a bit of extra resources pulled together!

"Don't reply to this, just get yourself back here."

But instead of flying back to help Alan with his tourist travel business on the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland, 26-year-old Karen stayed on in Taupo partying with friends, working in a glass-blowing gallery and settling into the Kiwi summer.

Her decision to remain in New Zealand proved fatal on Thursday morning, when she was bashed to death just 50m from her home. She told police her name with her dying breath.

The emotional tug of this is palpable. But what about the invasion of privacy? Oh, there is none. Bebo is like a public park. If you stand in the park and have a conversation, and a reporter overhears it, would you expect it to be in the next day's paper?

We haven't seen the end of this explosion of cheap and nasty news based on shameless plundering of Facebook etc.

It should be a warning to us all. In cyberspace, the eyes of the world are on you. This is a surveillance society, even in tragic death.

I am keen for readers of Ethical Martini to draw my attention to stories, from anywhere in the world, that take up the themes that might be interesting for my book. All tips gratefully acknowledged. The best way to do that might be just to drop a few lines into a comment on a post that catches your eye. Or you can email me driect at the address in the top right corner of the page.

With friends like these ... Why Facebook is not just a pretty face

2008-01-19T15:10:00.000+13:00

With friends like these ... Tom Hodgkinson on the politics of the people behind Facebook | Technology | The Guardian

This is a rather scathing and quite scary attack on Facebook. The argument that it is harmless and merely helps people connect is a myth says the author, Tom Hodgkinson. The real motivation of those who set it up (apparently a small group of Silicon Valley venture capitalists) is to promote the consume, be silent and die, ethos of neo-liberalism. Harsh? Maybe, but Hodgkinson is convincing.

Here's a taste:

Clearly, Facebook is another uber-capitalist experiment: can you make money out of friendship? Can you create communities free of national boundaries - and then sell Coca-Cola to them? Facebook is profoundly uncreative. It makes nothing at all. It simply mediates in relationships that were happening anyway.

And another, that sets out the neo-con and anti-worker philosophy behind the hugely successful site. Facebook has over 60 million members and counting.

The internet is immensely appealing to neocons such as Thiel because it promises a certain sort of freedom in human relations and in business, freedom from pesky national laws, national boundaries and suchlike. The internet opens up a world of free trade and laissez-faire expansion. Thiel also seems to approve of offshore tax havens, and claims that 40% of the world's wealth resides in places such as Vanuatu, the Cayman Islands, Monaco and Barbados. I think it's fair to say that Thiel, like Rupert Murdoch, is against tax. He also likes the globalisation of digital culture because it makes the banking overlords hard to attack: "You can't have a workers' revolution to take over a bank if the bank is in Vanuatu," he says.

but what then of the arguments that social networking increases democracy and opens up a new virtual, digital public sphere? My experience of other social networking sites, particularly American-based ones are a happy home to gun-nuts, pro-war social conservatives and wierdos.

Cruise into somewhere like Fubar (only open to members) to see what I mean. Fubar operates like an online pub, which is interesting as one of Hodgkinson's arguments is why not just go a real pub if you want to meet people and chat. In the Fubar you can meet all kinds of rednecks who proudly support the troops in Iraq. I joined for a short time to check it out; I couldn't find any anti-war ideas displayed. There's lots up pumped up soldierly-looking guys and even some pornstars pimping their wares with links from their profiles to commercial sites where you can buy their DVDs etc.

Sure, there are some ordinary folk among the 1.5 million Fubar users, but it's really a place for show-offs and voyeurs. Facebook claims to be different for sure, but how different is it really? I'm not sure, but there are plenty of wannabe pornstars there and on MySpace.

You don't have to look for them, or interact, but it's interesting how the adult industry colonises such places rather quickly.

SOS for SBS - no advertising

2008-01-19T14:59:00.000+13:00

SaveOurSBS
Living in New Zealand I am familiar with the impact of commercialising public broadcasters. Our national TV network, TVNZ, is partially funded by government, but must also accept advertising in order to pay a dividend back to the central coffers. As a result the programming is not great, the local content is patchy and the News/CAFF division is leaking resources like a rusty tub.
Don't let the same thing happen to the SBS in Australia.

I have signed a petition at www.SaveOurSBS.org to support SBS so that it is properly funded from the public purse without the need to rely on advertising. I am asking you to support this cause so that our public multicultural broadcaster may once again be able to fulfil its Charter responsibilities with high quality, multicultural and ethnic programming. ~ Please click on the direct petition link www.petition.saveoursbs.org and sign the petition there as I did. ~ In short the petition calls for the Minister to immediately require that:- 1) The SBS Board cease disrupting all programs for advertisements; 2) Amend the SBS Act to prohibit advertising and sponsorship on SBS; 3) Fund SBS so it is not dependent on commercial revenue nor supplementation from advertising; and, 4) Introduce a new system of appointments to the SBS Board that will result in Board members being appointed on the basis of merit with a strong commitment to multiculturalism and SBS independence, and, that the Board is independent from the government of the day and commercial influence. ~ The petition will be handed to the Minister soon. ~ Our public multicultural broadcaster is still under threat and your support is needed so SBS can once again be properly funded and not reliant on advertising. ~ Support public broadcasting and SBS and sign the No Ads on SBS petition (NO ADVERTISEMENTS OR SPONSORSHIP ON SBS) petition NOW before it closes. ~ Protect our multicultural broadcaster. Don't let SBS be sold out to commercialism! Click the direct petition link www.petition.saveoursbs.org and sign the petition now.

How the Pentagon Planted a False Hormuz Story - CommonDreams.org

2008-01-17T13:28:00.000+13:00

How the Pentagon Planted a False Hormuz Story - CommonDreams.org

I am grateful to my old friend Rob Elliott in Hobart for passing on this piece.

Do you remember the incident a couple of weeks ago when the Americans alleged three of their warships came under direct threat from Iranian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz? Well, surprise surprise, it ain't what it appears to be at first glance.

This piece from Interp Press Service and posted at Commondreams.org deconstructs the story quite nicely and shows it for what it was - blatant propaganda designed to boost public interest in and support for Dubya's sleazy "peace" mission to the Middle East.

Hat tip Rob, keep'em coming.

MTV sending out citizen journalists to cover campaigns - The Boston Globe

2008-01-14T15:21:00.000+13:00

MTV sending out citizen journalists to cover campaigns - The Boston Globe

This interesting snippet from the Boston Globe - MTV, home of reality TV schlock is getting into the journalism business.
They've hired a non-journalist to work on the presidential election campaign with a youth focus.
It will be interesting to see how it pans out.

Britney Spears - queen of the blogosphere

2008-01-11T14:36:00.000+13:00

There's little doubt that the story of Britney Spears' disappearance with paparazzo Adnan Ghalib is garnering a lot of attention for the fruitcake singer and her sleazy boytoy (look at me sounding like those celeb-chasing tabloid types already).

The stuff is clogging up the blogosphere and taking up precious minutes in TV news bulletins.

someone is looking to milk this shit for all it's worth. It might even be Ghalib's photo agency, Finalpixx.
The finalpixx site has "exclusive" pictures of the couple and apparently the site didn't exist a few days ago; it's been recently launched to capitalise on the notoriety of Ghalib's "fling" with Spears.

That's it, I can't write any more, but I had to do something.

summer reading #3: not for faint-hearted

2008-01-11T13:22:00.000+13:00

Is there something in the wind that might make 2008 an interesting year for progessive/left politics?
I don't put much faith in the US election system, but the "change" mantra is catching on, there's something to it.
Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton are fighting it out for the Democrat nomination, not that either of them will "change" anything fundamental about American capitalism, but the very core of politics seems to be shifting.
The neocon ascendency may be over.

I've just finished Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine: the rise of disaster capitalism and Joe Bageant's eriely amusing Deer Hunting with Jesus. I recommend both of these books to anyone who wants to understand American politics today.

Bageant's book is an insider's view of life in working class America today, in particular in the south. It's not a pretty picture; but as Orwell said, "if there's any hope at all, it lies with the proles".
Bageant is a self-taught journalist, editor and blogger who writes at "The Smirking Chimp",though when I checked on 11 Jan 08, he hadn't posted anything since July 2007. [Ah good, I'm not the only blogger-slacker].
Bageant grew up in the south and he understands the people of his community; he knows why they're obese and sick and smoke and die young and bitch about blacks etc. He pulls no punches, but he also makes the point that without these people, there will be no new American revolution. He's right about that.

On the other hand Shock Doctrine is, in one sense a more academic book. Klein thanks a small army of researchers for helping with the detail in this massive and well-written book.

Klein's thesis is simple, yet effective. global capitalism has, for the past 30 years, thrived on crisis. In fact, one of the key drivers of profit and sustaining the system is the use of shock tactics against entire nations and peoples.
It begins with psychological torture and physical torture of the body in the 1940s, and quickly moves on to show how Milton Friedman took these tactics into mainstream economics thanks to the "Chicago Boys".
Latin America was their first laboratory -- think Pinochet and the other dictators; then the shock doctrine was applied in Eastern Europe and China during the 1980s and early 1990s; but today it's in Iraq and New Orleans where the shock doctors ply their evil trade.
What I really found interesting was the excellent economic analysis of capitalism, even though Klein is not an avowed Marxist.
I was also pleased to see her writing about surveillance. Her arguments about the hollowing-out of the state and the privatisation of government functions (everything from Blackwater to reconstruction in New Orleans) and the rise and importance of surveillance for both commercial and political means, echoes the arguments John Harrison and I make in Communication and New Media: From Broadcast to Narrowcast.

The surveillance economy and disaster capitalism are part of the same reordering of capital in order to maintain hegemony. You can read more about Klein and the shock doctrine at her website

However, back to the good news for 2008. It seems the class struggle has not gone away and Klein's upbeat assessment of the resistance in Latin America was pretty convincing and I'm a real skeptic about the revolutionary potential of Hugo Chavez.

News reporting faces web challenge, warns NYT editor : CyberJournalist.net

2008-01-06T10:23:00.000+13:00

News reporting faces web challenge, warns NYT editor : CyberJournalist.net

Bill Keller, the executive editor of the New York Times, warned last week that reliable news reporting is dwindling, speaking at the Hugo Young memorial lecture in London. Keller said bloggers, internet search engines and satirical talk shows had blossomed across the world but could never replace reporting.

Bloggers and Journalists: Friends or Foes? : CyberJournalist.net

2008-01-06T10:13:00.000+13:00

Bloggers and Journalists: Friends or Foes? : CyberJournalist.net

Audio and video of the blogging panel from this year’s Society of Professional Journalists Convention:

Legal action against bloggers has skyrocketed during the past three years. While some cases have merit, most are lawsuits designed to suppress free speech. Meanwhile, journalists have sought to differentiate themselves from bloggers through self-regulation and legislation. But should they? As new organizations have begun to embrace blogs and user-generated content, the “blogging v. journalism” debate has begun to dissolve, replaced instead by a greater awareness that what threatens bloggers today may well threaten professional journalists tomorrow.

— Watch video (67.2 MB, 33:34)
— Listen to or download audio

Citizen Journalism at War

2008-01-06T10:10:00.001+13:00

Citizen Journalism at War
Video sent by 18doughtystreet

Broadcast Journalist David Heathfield's report investigating the impact of citizen journalism on war.

Vermouth, the whole truth and nothing but Vermouth

2008-01-06T09:41:00.002+13:00

I'm enjoying a bit of holiday reading, Frank Moorhouse's memoir - Martini.
I'm realising how little I actually know about this most impressive of alcoholic bevvies.

For instance: What are the correct proportions of gin to vermouth? And let's not even get started on the pros and cons of bastardised versions, what Moorhouse calls the "Crazy Drinks"; chocolate martinis and the like***

Getting back to the vermouth question: How much is too much?
There are those who believe a martini is basically gin with a threat of vermouth. In my opinion they might as well drink their gin neat. I've always been one for a generous splash of vermouth and I agree with Moorhouse that it's purpose is to smooth out, or 'sweeten' the drink.

I also agree that a martini made with sweet vermouth is a travesty, though some people like them that way.

Moorhouse says his preferred mix, and the domestic version of the martini he makes himself, is 5-1 (gin-vermouth). This seems about right to me, though I sometimes make them at three-one. And I have, on occasion, told barkeeps to make sure they don't pour the vermouth off before adding the gin to the shaker.

Partly this is the Yorkshireman in me; I've paid for a martini and it has vermouth in it; don't pour my vermouth down the sink! But also it's about the mix, the taste, the impact etc. A martini is a blend and I want to taste the blend. If I want neat gin, I'll ask for it.

Here's a recipe for those who like their martini mostly gin, with very little vermouth. I'll try this in the next couple of days and let you know what I think.

The Montgomery Martini
According to Moorhouse this is named after the British general, Montgomery, at least as mentioned in Ernest Hemingway's novel Across the river and into the trees. It is so-called because Monty was famous for never attacking without overwhelming numbers.

15:1 (gin-vermouth).

Hmmmm.

As Moorhouse writes: "My secret agenda in this book is to bring back the vermouth to the martini."
I'll drink to that!

*** I am actually partial to the fruity, choclately martini. I have previously mentioned the Musket Room in Ponsonby Road (Auckland); they have excellent Crazy Drink martini derivatives.

France’s News 24 ‘Observers’ citizen media project : CyberJournalist.net

2008-01-04T19:49:00.000+13:00

France’s News 24 ‘Observers’ citizen media project : CyberJournalist.net

Another quick entry that will grow over the next few months. At least I hope so.

Citizen journalism dominates online news in 2007 : CyberJournalist.net

2008-01-04T19:48:00.000+13:00

Citizen journalism dominates online news in 2007 : CyberJournalist.net

I will come back to this, it's the story of the year for 2007.
Professional journalists are getting the wagons in a circle, and quickly too. Is this a good thing.
This is really grist to the mill(stone) of the book I'm writing now. I said earlier last year (is it that time already) that I'd blog the book and this is the first entry.
more....later

China's net video crackdown could hurt YouTube - web - Technology - smh.com.au

2008-01-04T15:24:00.000+13:00

China's net video crackdown could hurt YouTube - web - Technology - smh.com.au

This piece from the Sydney Morning Herald today continues to mark the declining standard of human rights and free speech in China.

YouTube and other video-sharing websites are the latest to come under direct censorship. I particularly like this:

Video that involves national secrets, hurts the reputation of China, disrupts social stability or promotes pornography will be banned. Providers must delete and report such content.

"Those who provide internet video services should insist on serving the people, serve socialism ... and abide by the moral code of socialism," the rules say.

What is a "moral code of socialism"? From my understanding a moral code of socialism would allow the greatest expression of human rights, including sexual freedoms; the right to free speech and criticism and freedom of assembly and distribution of political materials.

Of course there's also capitalist morals, such as these demonstrated by a sycophantic YouTube spokestroll. The company's interest in China is to continue to keep Google and YouTube profitable:

YouTube hopes the rules won't cut it off from the rapidly growing number of Chinese residents with internet access, spokesman Ricardo Reyes said.
"We believe that the Chinese government fully recognizes the enormous value of online video and will not enforce the regulations in a way that could deprive the Chinese people of its benefits and potential for business and economic development, education and culture, communication, and entertainment," Reyes said.

If you want to know what Korea's Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il, thinks of socialist morals you can read this disturbing screed.

Summer reading, some are drinking

2008-01-04T14:41:00.000+13:00

Ah, dear reader:
It's been a long time between posts. I must say that there's a small amount of guilt attached. If one is going to blog then one must do so regularly. To do otherwise is to leave the blogosphere to others and to render oneself invisible again.

I am to begin this new year as I intend to continue - by posting on a regular basis. I'm also keen to enlist the talents of others who share my interest in politics, media and martinis.

It's also humbling to realise that the martini is more than the sum of its parts. A quick search on Amazon.com uncovers a whole genre of writing about martinis that I, a self-proclaimed afficionado, knew next to nothing about.

I stand in the shadow of some giant literary figures who have not only enjoyed drinking martinis (something I can honestly claim to share with them) but who have also written extensively of their passion.

One such is my new literary hero, Frank Moorhouse. I remember reading some of Frank's novels while at university some 30 years ago; but I didn't realise how important his work would be in beginning my own education into the rituals and rich history of the martini.

I bought my copy of Martini: A memoir, several years ago and intended to read it, but didn't get around to it. However, prompted by a friend who's just read it, I fished it out the box where it lay dormant for the past year and plunged in.

Like an ice-cold, fresh smooth martini it was pleasure from the first word. I drank in the opening essay and silently apologised to Mr Moorhouse for neglecting this masterpiece for so long.

I'm not really far into it yet, but Martini is a book to be savoured, sipped and coddled.

In the first piece, Martini City, we are introduced to Moorhouse's drinking companion, Voltz; an expert on the history and passion of the martini. The two men discuss the 'martini city' - a place where the martini is well-made and appreciated. I like to think that some of my haunts in Auckland are such places: the bars and nightspots that make my new home (I've been here a year now) a delightful place to drink a martini and enjoy the lively ambience of this Pacific-rim town.
Moorhouse also includes this wonderful short ditty from Dorothy Parker:

'I like to have a martini
Two at the very most
After three I'm under the table
After four I'm under my host.'

I clearly have a lot of learning to do and I'll start by finishing Martini and then reading some of Moorhouse's other books in which the martini is both a character, a lubricant and an anaesthetic.

Happy New Year, and "cheers"

Peter McGregor - free at last

2007-12-02T22:05:00.000+13:00

this just in from Peter McGregor,
the charges have been dropped, about time.

Hi all,
Just letting you know what has happened with my court
case.
----
Senior Constable Stuart Cosgrove wrote to me: Frid 23
Nov
> > Mr. McGREGOR, I wish to advise you that the charge
of
Enter Inclosed lands not prescribed premises without
lawful excuse brought against you in relation to an
incident that occurred at the University of NSW on 5th
July 2007 and is which is scheduled for hearing at
Waverley Local Court 6th Dec 2007, is to be withdrawn
as per request by the University of NSW.
Regards, Stuart Cosgrove, Senior Constable, Maroubra
Police Station
------------
When I then spoke to Constable Cosgrove, he said that
UNSW had only contacted the police about dropping the
charges in the last week or two. (The ‘details on the
offence/s’ are:
Unlawful entry on inclosed land….
“did without lawful excuse enter into the inclosed
lands of UNSW situate at Anzac Parade Kingsford
without the consent of Matthew JOSS (UNSW Head of
Security) and Dr Andrew LYNCH (Event Co-Coordinator)
the person apparently in charge of the said inclosed
lands.")

Many of you will remember the way George Williams and
UNSW previously refused to contact the police to
request the charges be withdrawn.(See below - (1))
Hear is what they are saying now:
”14 Nov 2007 Mr Stephen Langford,25 Comber
St,Paddington,2021
Dear Stephen,
Thanks you for your card about the charges against
Peter McGregor. I'm not sure where you have got your
information from, but we have not actually laid any
charges against Peter. Those charges were laid by the
police in regard to events that occurred outside of
our conference. In fact, we have contacted the police
now on a number of occasions indicating our own desire
that the charges not proceed. However, the police have
made it clear that it is their decision as to whether
to proceed because the charges have been laid by them
and not us.
I would not like to see the charges proceed, & if you
support that aim the approprite people to write to are
the authorities.
Yours sincerely, George Williams "
--------
Do any of you have any ideas above why the police have
belatedly dropped the charges, and/or what the
machinations have been at UNSW? For instance, Tharunka
interviewed me & George Williams, but the student
paper hasn’t even mentioned the court case…
It seems that we may have struck a blow for free
speech, and exposed George Williams & the Gilbert &
Sullivan Law School in the process.
So many thanks for your support, you don’t need to
come to Waverly Court on Thurs 6th Dec., and I will
keep you posted.

Love & rage, Peter
-----
(1) Victoria Finlay [mailto:V.Finlay@unsw.edu.au]
_Sent: Thursday, 23 August 2007 9:53 AM_To: Lo
Schiavo, Fabian_Subject: regarding Peter Macgregor

_Dear Mr LoSchiavo, __Further to my recent email
response to you on behallf of the Vice-Chancellor
regarding the arrest of Mr Peter McGregor, I would
like to add the following comments. __Mr McGregor made
a protest against the Attorney-General in the morning
session of the ‘Symposium on Law & Liberty in the War
on Terror’ on 5 July 2007. Mr McGregor was removed
from the venue by Police officers providing Mr
Ruddock’s security. They did not charge him in
relation to his protest and left the campus with the
Attorney-General. The police prosecution relates to
subsequent dealings with police and Mr McGregor
elsewhere on campus. _ _The Centre of Public Law made
the decision to deny Mr McGregor further access to the
event after he had been removed. This was after
attempting to negotiate terms on which Mr McGregor
could reasonably continue to attend the Symposium.
Essentially, Mr McGregor was not prepared to
guarantee that other speakers would not also be
disrupted. _ _The conception of the Symposium was…...

Yours sincerely, __Victoria Finlay_Executive Officer
to the Vice-Chancellor_

Neglecting the blog

2007-11-28T20:49:00.000+13:00

Dear reader, it's been a while; I'm sorry. Seriously, I have been way too busy to bother with a blog entry for quite some time.
Lots has happened, some of it quite central to my concerns about journalism and ethics. There's been some martinis drunk too. Last night for instance the old "one martini too far".
I suffered today, but feeling better now that I'm home.

The busy part of the year is over for me, now I just have to get started on the book manuscript "Journalism in the age of YouTube". Over the next few weeks I will not be so negligent. I will attend to the blog every day and post religiously (as only a level 7 aetheist can).

Meanwhile, it's spring here and the weather's improving. So much so that before too long I'll be jumping into the blue Pacific and shedding my winter fat (he said hopefully).

QUT saga, last laugh for John and Garry

2007-11-13T08:51:00.000+13:00

Ethical Martini is back after a short break that included a fun and busy trip to the USA and Canada.
While I was away the QUT saga involving my friends Garry Maclennan and John Hookham came to an end. It seems that QUT was forced to back down on every claim against the pair. John sent this message through today, which sums it up.

Dear Friends,
The saga of "Laughing at the Disabled" has now come to close (at least as far as Gary and I are concerned). As you probably all recall, we brought an action against QUT in the Federal Court. The university settled this out of court. Under this settlement we were to be re-instated, our records restored and the misconduct findings declared null and void. We were also paid $100,000 each in damages. After we accepted this offer to settle, QUT signaled its interest in settling all matters with us and we agreed to continue our negotiations. While we were considering the final offer, Garry and I decided to visit QUT to collect some personal belongings.

Unfortunately there were some ugly incidents when we attempted to re-enter the workplace. As a consequence, we decided it would not be in our best interests to return to work at QUT under any circumstances. We accepted the QUT offer which included our resignations but because of the confidentiality provisions, I am unable to discuss the terms of that settlement.

But, I have attached herewith a photograph of Gary and I with our lawyer, Stephen Kerin leaving the Federal Court building after finalising the settlement. This picture captures our joy on the brink of settlement.

I would like to conclude by once again thanking all of you for your support throughout this very difficult and very important dispute. I hope our actions have done much to further the cause of freedom of speech and academic freedom in Australia.

Amandla!

John Hookham

Civil rights protest in New Zealand - stop the terror laws

2007-10-26T07:08:00.001+13:00

DEFEND CIVIL RIGHTS
march this Saturday October 27th at 12 noon
from Aotea Square to Mount Eden Prison
For more information Civil Rights Defence Organisation

ABOLISH THE TERROR LAWS-
Socialist Worker (National Exec) statement on Crackdown

If we don’t fight to defend the “Urewera Seventeen” - the activists currently imprisoned without bail or trial - then it could be us next. That’s the simple fact that all of us who believe in social justice have to learn.

Everyone who knows someone who was arrested knows full well that these people are not terrorists. There is no way that these people were planning to kill, maim or destroy in pursuit of their political activism. So why did the cops feel the need to terrorise schoolkids, smash windows and confiscate property on Monday 15th?
It’s surely not a coincidence that that was the week that beefed-up “anti-terror” legislation was up before parliament. And the cops - and the SIS who stand behind them - were probably feeling a bit embarrassed that they hadn’t gotten to use the old legislation yet. So they wanted to give it a go.
But why do we have the “Terrorism Suppression Act 2002” in the first place? Simply put - because the Americans told us we had to.
Using the shock of the aftermath of the attacks on New York and Washington, the United States pushed the demand for “anti-terror” laws through a compliant UN in 2002. New Zealand was “obliged” to adopt these laws, or get in the bad books of the United States.
No New Zealander is on the UN’s list of terrorists or terrorist groups. But Maori activists said at the time that it was only a matter of time before these were used against Maori activists. Looks like they were right.

State violence

Some commentators - even some of those “on the Left” - are wagging their fingers at the people who are currently stewing in jail without trial or bail, saying they should have known better than to even look like they were preparing to challenge the State.
But this is a colonial nation. The New Zealand state was founded on acts of violence and dispossession of the tangata whenua. No-one disputes that. And no-one should be surprised that some Maori are not prepared to accept the status of a defeated people. Challenging the New Zealand state is their political birthright - not an act of “terrorism”.
An attitude that says that challenging the authority of the state should be enough to get you put in “Guantanamo of the South Pacific” isn’t about fighting terrorism. It’s about defining within what limits dissent and debate is “acceptable” - and enforcing those limits with ninja police breaking and entering.
There is no good reason for the “anti-terror” laws. They should be called the Terror Laws - their purpose is to sow terror in the hearts of anyone who might think of challenging those in power over us. Ordinary workers who’ve been in union struggles know that the police and courts are not the friends of anyone who wants to rock the boat.
The Terror Laws must be abolished - before they are used against any of us who doesn’t shut up and do what they’re told. We need to build the biggest possible political movement against these anti-democratic laws - and the corporate politicians in Labour and National who support them.

Doing more with less

2007-10-19T15:35:00.000+13:00

BBC announces plans for 1,800 job cuts | Top News | Reuters

The British Broacasting Corporation has just announced nearly 2000 job cuts as it moves into the digital age.
This is a great example of 'doing more with less'. They're going to commercialise and also cut back on news production at the same time as they want to expand their digital division.

Anyway, I'm out of town for a while, travelling in the US and Canada. I may not get a chance to post while I'm away.
M

Prominent Maori activist arrested in dawn raids

2007-10-15T16:13:00.000+13:00

Area sealed off in anti-terror operation - New Zealand, world, sport, business & entertainment news on Stuff.co.nz

Prominent Maori activist, Tame Iti is one of dozens of activists arrested this morning in raids across several areas of New Zealand.

Mr Iti's home was raided at 4.00 am and he was taken into custody.

Police are saying the raids were to thwart an alleged terrorist plot involving Indigenous and peace activists who had been training with live ammunition at several remote properties across the North Island.

The home of environmental activist Frances Mountier was also raided in Christchurch, but as police did not have a warrant, they were refused entry.

Civil liberties groups have condemned the raids as 'draconian'.

There's no clear picture yet of why the mass arrests have taken place, but police are saying that charges may well be laid under anti-terrorism legislation.

This media release was issued around lunchtime today, by lawyer David Small.

Spycatcher Calls Police Raids Draconian
Monday, 15 October 2007, 2:43 pm
Press Release: David Small
15th October 2007

Spycatcher Calls Police Raids Draconian and Probably Illegal

The man who successfully sued police for illegally searching his home at the time of an APEC Conference in 1996 has labelled police raids of the homes of social activists this morning as draconian and probably illegal. Canterbury University academic and spokesperson for ARENA, David Small, said the police seem to have learnt nothing from Justice Young’s judgment condemning the police for failing to distinguish between political and criminal activity.

Dr Small says that for search warrants to be legal, the police must have reasonable grounds to believe that they will find what they are searching for. These raids look much more like a fishing expedition.

Dr Small, who addressed a public meeting in Christchurch last Thursday on state security and surveillance, expressed particular concern about the use of the Terrorism Suppression Act in association with the raids.

“The public has been softened up with the threat of Islamic terrorism to give massive increases in the powers and resources of intelligence and security agencies. But it is now clear that the focus of their attention is really on social activists in New Zealand,” said Dr Small

This is exactly what happened in 1996 when opponents of the SIS Amendment Act were called paranoid for saying it would be used against local groups, and less than two weeks later, the SIS were caught breaking into an activist’s home.

“Democratic societies need free and open debate. And groups engaging in this kind of critical activity need the law to protect their rights to do so. Today’s raids have the opposite effect and are clearly designed to intimidate and silence these voices of dissent,” said Dr Small

ENDS

Free speech supports lying politicians

2007-10-08T09:11:00.000+13:00

This is basically why bourgeois law is an ass. The first amendment to the US Constitution, which is widely heralded as the best protection of free speech anywhere on the planet is now officially a protection for politicians who lie during election campaigns.

I'm not sure this is exactly what the founding fathers had in mind, but it shows you just how far things are degenerating and at what speed.
The bourgoisie - the ruling class in a capitalist system - no longer has any use for free speech, it is in fact counter to their class interests - staying in control of the economy and politics.

Now pro-capital politicians can further cement their grip on power by blatantly lying during election campaigns, safe in the knowledge that they are merely acting in the American tradition of free speech. Bastards.

This piece from Editor & Publisher give chapter and verse on the recent High Court decision.

David McSwane wins right to stay in editor's job

2007-10-08T09:01:00.000+13:00

The editor of a student paper has been allowed to keep his job after the furore surrounding a headline on an editorial he wrote.
David McSwane the editor of the Colorado State University paper, The Daily Collegian, was censured by the Board of Student Communications, but was not sacked, as had been expected.
McSwane wrote an editorial in response to the tasering of a student at a Florida university. He headlined the piece "Taser this: FUCK Bush".
Many publications commenting and reporting this story have been coy about using the "expletive", but fuck it: it's a perfectly servicable word.
Congratulations David on keeping your job.

Free Burma

2007-10-04T09:26:00.000+13:00

Take part in this action for a Free Burma!

1. Publish a posting (Bulletin Board, Forum, Blog, Social Network, Static Website…) on the 4th of October with the header: “Free Burma!”

2. Tag it if you can with “Free Burma”

3. Choose a graphic from our Graphics page and

4. Link to www.free-burma.org there your readers will find some informations about the campaign and Burma and a participant list which you can join. Even if you're a webmaster of a bulletin board or social network you will find a special Group List to join.

5. Feel free to write any additional text you want

If you have no website or blog we need you even more: Please help us to spread the word across the internet, tell your neighbours, friends or kids and first of all: Sign our list of participants!

BLOGS ABOUT THE SITUATION IN BURMA

Fuck Bush - not in this town!

2007-10-03T13:08:00.000+13:00

Student paper headline ignites US free speech row | Press&publishing | MediaGuardian.co.uk

The editor of a student newspaper at Colorado State University is facing disciplinary charges at his university for publishing an edition of the Rocky Mountain Collegian with a front page banner headline that read: "Fuck Bush".

The case has become a test of the First Amendment right to free speech and the incident caused advertisers to pull material (and money from the paper). Here's a piece of the action from Editor & Publisher:

Student officials and faculty adviser Jeff Browne told the CSU board that since the editorial ran, 18 advertisers have either called to pull their advertising or threatened to end their advertising in the newspaper, which could result in some $50,000 in potential lost revenue. Officials have said that staff would have to take an across-the-board 10 percent pay cut to make up for the losses, which cut into the $950,000 advertising budget. Browne said some staff members, including a photographer, have quit.

The newspaper maintains an office on school grounds but is self-funded through advertising.

In a written statement submitted to the board, McSwane said: "We've lost advertising dollars. While this is a blow to our organization, I would also encourage the Board to remember that advertising dollars, though crucial, should not control editorial content."

School policies governing student media state that students cannot publish obscene materials but that "indecent or vulgar language is not obscene." Landers noted that the same policy prohibits the use of obscene and vulgar language in editorials.

Personally, I think 20-year-old David McSwane is a hero. But in the blogosphere, he has friends, supporters, and enemies; in particular college Republicans.

I think it's amusing that so many Republican bloggers can get upset about one little word - a "profanity" to use their colloquial term for the word FUCK, but they can still share the love with that asshole of a president and his filthy rich chums from the Blackwater security company who are paid a billion dollars a year to terrorise and murder Iraqis.

However, it's not the first time that David McSwane's journalistic antics have got him into trouble, or rather, into the national headlines.

He scammed a great story for his high school newspaper in 2005 that led to several US army recruiters being stood down in after a sting operation involving McSwane's younger brother, a video camcorder and drug paraphenalia.

Here's more on that story from Editor & Publisher

Teen Journo Draws Fire After Army Sting

By Graham Webster

Published: July 25, 2005 4:23 PM ET
NEW YORK David McSwane had seen the military recruiters around town. He had seen them at the high school. And he knew that with recruitment rates down due to the Iraq war, they were working hard to attract new cadets. And it gave him an idea.

"I wanted to see how far they'd go to get another soldier," says McSwane, a reporter for the Westwind at Arvada West High School in Arvada, Colo. So he set up a sting investigation, posing as a high school dropout with a marijuana habit and went down to his local Colorado Army recruitment station to enlist.

McSwane, 17, knew he would have to document his conversations with the recruiters, so he taped the telephone conversations, enlisted his sister to pose as a proud sibling so she could photograph parts of the process, and asked a friend to operate a video camera across from a local head shop.

But how did McSwane get an recruiter to visit a head shop with him? Simple. The honor student, pretending to have a ganja habit he couldn't kick, went there to score a detoxifying kit the Army office claimed had helped two previous recruits pass drug tests, according to a taped phone conversation broadcast on local TV. McSwane told his recruiter he didn't know what the detox formula looked like, so the man agreed to go to the store with him.

I like this guy's style and nerve. If I had a student like David McSwayne in my journalism class, he'd have my support. So David, if you get kicked out of college, come down to Auckland, I'll find room for you here.'

Just to finish, the profanity in question is defined thus in the online dictionary, dictionary.co m

fuck [fuhk] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation Vulgar.

–verb (used with object)

1.	to have sexual intercourse with.

2.	Slang. to treat unfairly or harshly.

–verb (used without object)

3.	to have sexual intercourse.

4.	Slang. to meddle (usually fol. by around or with).

–interjection

5.	Slang. (used to express anger, disgust, peremptory rejection, etc., often fol. by a pronoun, as you or it.)

–noun

6.	an act of sexual intercourse.

7.	a partner in sexual intercourse.

8.	Slang. a person, esp. one who is annoying or contemptible.

9.	the fuck, Slang. (used as an intensifier, esp. with WH-questions, to express annoyance, impatience, etc.)

—Verb phrases

10.

fuck around, Slang.

a.	to behave in a frivolous or meddlesome way.

b.	to engage in promiscuous sex.

11.

fuck off, Slang.

a.	to shirk one's duty; malinger.

b.	go away: used as an exclamation of impatience.

c.	to waste time.

12.

fuck up, Slang.

a.	to bungle or botch; ruin.

b.	to act stupidly or carelessly; cause trouble; mess up.

—Idiom

13.	give a fuck, Slang. to care; be concerned.

[Origin: 1495–1505; akin to MD fokken to thrust, copulate with, Sw dial. focka to copulate with, strike, push, fock penis]

—Related forms

fucky, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

fuck (fŭk) Pronunciation Key
v. fucked, fuck·ing, fucks

v. tr.

To have sexual intercourse with.
To take advantage of, betray, or cheat; victimize.
Used in the imperative as a signal of angry dismissal.

v. intr.

To engage in sexual intercourse.
To act wastefully or foolishly.
To interfere; meddle. Often used with with.

An act of sexual intercourse.
A partner in sexual intercourse.
A despised person.
Used as an intensive: What the fuck did you do that for?

interj. Used to express extreme displeasure.

Phrasal Verb(s):
fuck off

Used in the imperative as a signal of angry dismissal.
To spend time idly.
To masturbate.

fuck over
To treat unfairly; take advantage of.
fuck up

To make a mistake; bungle something.
To act carelessly, foolishly, or incorrectly.
To cause to be intoxicated.

[Middle English, attested in pseudo-Latin fuccant, (they) fuck, deciphered from gxddbov.]

Word History: The obscenity fuck is a very old word and has been considered shocking from the first, though it is seen in print much more often now than in the past. Its first known occurrence, in code because of its unacceptability, is in a poem composed in a mixture of Latin and English sometime before 1500. The poem, which satirizes the Carmelite friars of Cambridge, England, takes its title, "Flen flyys," from the first words of its opening line, "Flen, flyys, and freris," that is, "fleas, flies, and friars." The line that contains fuck reads "Non sunt in coeli, quia gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk." The Latin words "Non sunt in coeli, quia," mean "they [the friars] are not in heaven, since." The code "gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk" is easily broken by simply substituting the preceding letter in the alphabet, keeping in mind differences in the alphabet and in spelling between then and now: i was then used for both i and j; v was used for both u and v; and vv was used for w. This yields "fvccant [a fake Latin form] vvivys of heli." The whole thus reads in translation: "They are not in heaven because they fuck wives of Ely [a town near Cambridge]."

(Download Now or Buy the Book)

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
fuck

a difficult word to trace, in part because it was taboo to the editors of the original OED when the "F" volume was compiled, 1893-97. Written form only attested from early 16c. OED 2nd edition cites 1503, in the form fukkit; earliest appearance of current spelling is 1535 -- "Bischops ... may fuck thair fill and be vnmaryit" [Sir David Lyndesay, "Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits"], but presumably it is a much more ancient word than that, simply one that wasn't likely to be written in the kind of texts that have survived from O.E. and M.E. Buck cites proper name John le Fucker from 1278. The word apparently is hinted at in a scurrilous 15c. poem, titled "Flen flyys," written in bastard L. and M.E. The relevant line reads:

Non sunt in celi
quia fuccant uuiuys of heli

"They [the monks] are not in heaven because they fuck the wives of Ely." Fuccant is pseudo-L., and in the original it is written in cipher. The earliest examples of the word otherwise are from Scottish, which suggests a Scandinavian origin, perhaps from a word akin to Norw. dial. fukka "copulate," or Swedish dial. focka "copulate, strike, push," and fock "penis." Another theory traces it to M.E. fkye, fike "move restlessly, fidget," which also meant "dally, flirt," and probably is from a general North Sea Gmc. word, cf. M.Du. fokken, Ger. ficken "fuck," earlier "make quick movements to and fro, flick," still earlier "itch, scratch;" the vulgar sense attested from 16c. This would parallel in sense the usual M.E. slang term for "have sexual intercourse," swive, from O.E. swifan "to move lightly over, sweep" (see swivel). Chronology and phonology rule out Shipley's attempt to derive it from M.E. firk "to press hard, beat." As a noun, it dates from 1680. French foutre and Italian fottere look like the Eng. word but are unrelated, derived rather from L. futuere, which is perhaps from PIE base *bhau(t)- "knock, strike off," extended via a figurative use "from the sexual application of violent action" [Shipley; cf. the sexual slang use of bang, etc.]. Popular and Internet derivations from acronyms (and the "pluck yew" fable) are merely ingenious trifling. The O.E. word was hæman, from ham "dwelling, home," with a sense of "take home, co-habit." Fuck was outlawed in print in England (by the Obscene Publications Act, 1857) and the U.S. (by the Comstock Act, 1873). The word may have been shunned in print, but it continued in conversation, especially among soldiers during WWI.

"It became so common that an effective way for the soldier to express this emotion was to omit this word. Thus if a sergeant sai

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

fuck
noun
1.	slang for sexual intercourse
verb
1.	have sexual intercourse with; "This student sleeps with everyone in her dorm"; "Adam knew Eve"; "Were you ever intimate with this man?" [syn: sleep together]

Free Burma! - International Bloggers' Day for Burma on the 4th of October 2007

2007-10-02T14:22:00.000+13:00

Free Burma! - International Bloggers' Day for Burma on the 4th of October 2007

This is a useful way to make blogging worth something.

You can also get up-to-date information from Burma at this blogspot spot

Chaser lot may be let off for the APEC stunt - National - smh.com.au

2007-10-02T14:08:00.000+13:00

It seems the NSW police may have belatedly received some drugs to help with their apparent lack of humour.
This report, Chaser lot may be let off for the APEC stunt , from the Sydney Morning Herald speculates that the Chaser team may well not be prosecuted for their hilarious breach the rabble-proof fence during last month's APEC bonanza in Sydney.

11 members of the Chaser team were arrested on various charges after their fake motorcade managed to breach the wall of security around the APEC leaders.

At the time the cops couldn't see the funny side, but now it seems they've been given a dose of something and had their humour restored.

Justice really.

You can see the full Chaser story here
When you see this you'll soon realise why the cops are not so keen on a prosectution. They look like real gooses here. The police case will collapse - and hopefully some asses will get spanked.

NMHRC to investigate QUT-Noonan claims

2007-09-27T14:02:00.000+12:00

Well, interesting.
In my previous post on the QUT shenanigans, there's mention of the National Health and Medical Research Council - the peak body for research ethics in Australia, possibly investigating claims that QUT PhD student Michael Noonan may have breached protocols in relation to his research project "Laughing at the Disabled".

I emailed the acting Director of Progam Assurance, Dr Gordon McGurk (see below)

Dear Gordon, I am writing as a concerned academic.

I would like to know if the NHMRC is investigating claims of unethical research practices made against QUT PhdD student Michael Noonan in relation to his thesis "Laughing at the disabled".

I understand that Mr Noonan may well have violated well-established ethical guidelines for dealing with Indigenous people in some aspects of the video work he is compiling towards his thesis. There is an allegation against him that he has possibly misrepresented May Lulu Dunne and obtained a consent form/release form from her under false pretenses, or worse.

Drs Hookham and MacLennan are facing serious misconduct charges for raising some of these issues and from my understanding of their case, they have been badly treated by QUT for blowing the whistle on what they saw as poor supervision of Mr Noonan's thesis and the ethical issues surrounding his work with both disabled persons and Indigenous Australians.

As a supervisor of postgraduate students I am familiar with ethics considerations in relation to thesis work and other research projects in Australia and elsewhere. I also know that in most cases they are stringently enforced. I can only wonder at what the breakdown was at QUT in relation to Mr Noonan's thesis.

Are you in touch with QUT over this matter and do you intend to conduct any inquiries of your own, or to cause the NHMRC to investigate this matter further?

Thanks
Martin

About an hour later I received a response:

Dear Martin

Following yesterday's revelations regarding the alleged lack of consent or ethical approval before filming Ms Dunne, I am making this issue a matter of urgency. I have put together a brief for the Chief Executive to alert him and the executive to what may have happened.

The NHMRC had planned to investigate other alleged breaches following the conclusion of the legal action between QUT and Drs Hookham and MacLennan. However, this most recent information may precipitate some action sooner than planned.

Yours sincerely

Gordon McGurk

QUT sacks academics - update

2007-09-27T10:37:00.000+12:00

I have just received this message from John Hookham regarding the ongoing disciplinary action against him and Garry MacLennan at QUT in Brisbane. You can find my previous posts on this case here.

Dear Colleagues,

Some months ago, I sent out a letter informing you about a PhD project entitled Laughing at the Disabled: Creating Comedy that Confronts and Offends. This was a project being carried out by Michael Noonan who is a PhD student at our university, Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

My colleague, Dr Gary MacLennan and I strongly objected to this project on the grounds that it set out to demean people with cognitive disabilities. We felt that the central thrust of the project was to mock and ridicule people with intellectual impairment. Furthermore, we questioned the fact that the university had given this project ethical clearance. We pointed out that the correct protocols for Ethical Research involving Humans had not been properly followed. We brought this to the attention of the university, (QUT) by writing to the Dean and by submitting a Formal Complaint to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Prof Arun Sharma.

All our objections were ignored. As a consequence we wrote an article in the Higher Education Supplement of the national newspaper, The Australian. In the article we were critical of the project, the supervisory team and the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) that approved the project.

As a result of writing this article, Dr MacLennan and I were charged by the university for Misconduct and had to face a Misconduct Investigation Committee. The Chair of this committee and the two academics on the committee were chosen by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Peter Coaldrake. We had no say whatsoever about who should be on the committee.

In my opinion, the Hearing that we faced was nothing other than a kangaroo court or Star Chamber. It seemed clear to us, from the outset, that we would be found guilty and that the verdict was pre-determined. During the process, we were not allowed to screen the film to show what we had objected to and the committee refused to view the material. This despite that fact that it was our response to the material that had prompted us to write the article. The committee also refused to examine the ethical clearance process.

In my opinion, during the Hearing, witnesses for my defense were threatened and intimidated. At the end of the Hearing, my representative, Dr Lisa Bridle, was frightened that the university might take some action against her for supporting me and immediately burst into tears.

The next day Dr MacLennan collapsed and had a nervous breakdown. He was treated by a medical physician.

The committee subsequently found us guilty of all the charges brought against us. There is no appeal process and the Vice-Chancellor decides on the penalty. There are no checks and balances in the system to limit his power. Prof Coaldrake decided to suspend us without pay for six months. He also informed us that he would be bringing a second series of charges against us.

Fortunately we were able to get legal counsel and we are currently in the process of contesting the manner in which our investigation was conducted. But we still have further charges hanging over our heads.

In the Hearing one of the charges against us was that we had misrepresented Michael Noonan's work. There was a scene in the film involving an interaction between one of the disabled men (James who is autistic) and an Aboriginal woman. This took place in a country barroom. James was told by Noonan to enter the bar and ask if there were any young women in the town as he was looking for a girlfriend. In the scene we saw, the Aboriginal woman was inebriated and embraced James.

Noonan claimed that we misrepresented him as he never intended to screen that scene in public again. But now he has put this scene up on the web and said he is very proud of it. An Aboriginal friend of ours has gone to Boulia and made contact with May, the woman in the scene. Her name is May Lulu Dunne and she is a tribal woman from the Northern territory. She is horrified and feels shame that such images of her have been put up on the web. She emphatically denies giving permission for the filmmaking and her partner supports her version of the affair. It must be said however that Noonan claims to have a release form though no one has sighted it.

QUT has a policy of reconciliation with indigenous Australians. It has also signed onto the ethical protocols for research involving indigenous Australians.

Ted Watson who is acting for May Dunne has made an official complaint to the NHMRC, which is the body charged with seeing that university research involving humans is ethical.

I and he are convinced that QUT has acted in violation of the protocols for research involving indigenous Australians. These are as follows

National Statement for Research Involving Humans

Research involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People

Six core values

· Reciprocity

· Respect

· Equality

· Responsibility

· Survival and Protection

· Spirit and integrity

The Clauses

The researcher should ensure that the research methods are respectful.

There should be evidence of support for the research project from relevant Aboriginal and Torrres Strait Islander communities and the research methodology should engage with their social and cultural practices.

The researcher should seek to identify any potential negative consequences of the proposed research, to design process to monitor them and to advise steps for minimizing them.

The research methods and processes should provide opportunities to develop trust and a sense of equal research partnerships.

The benefits… should include… research outcomes that advance the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

The described benefits from research should have been discussed with and agreed to by the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander research stakeholders.

The Statement makes it quite clear that researchers need to obtain permission from not only the participants but also the Aboriginal community. Aboriginal academics and elders have fought hard for these protocols to ensure that their people are not exploited. QUT is bound by these protocols but is clearly in violation of them here. Prof Rod Wissler has appeared on national television as a spokesman for QUT claiming that the scene with May is fine and does not breach research ethical protocols.

It is quite clear that Michael Noonan has ignored these research protocols. So not only are the disabled being laughed at in Michael Noonan's research, he has also included a comical portrayal of an Aboriginal woman, who has done nothing to merit such ridicule and mockery.

Once again I ask you as concerned academics or citizens to make clear that such practices violate our ethical code and are unacceptable. Those concerned should write to Gordon.McGurk@health.gov.au of the National Health & Medical Research Council and ask him to investigate this matter immediately.

Please also write your concerns to the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough at Mal.Bough.MP@aph.gov.au and the Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin at j.macklin.mp@aph.go.au

Thank you once again for your support.

John Hookham

This message was also sent from Ted Watson

Dear Friends,

My Name is Ted Watson. I am an Aboriginal man. I have been granted power of attorney to act on behalf of May Lulu Dunne who was filmed by Michael Noonan in the Australian Hotel in Boulia Easter 2006 as part of his PhD Project. The project was called Laughing at the Disabled: Creating Comedy that Confronts, Offends and Entertains.

In Easter 2006 Noonan took two intellectually impaired men to Boulia to find girls and to ask about the Min Min Lights. He sent them into the pub and there they met May Dunne. She is a tribal woman from the Northern Territory and is a decent caring grandmother of 52 years of age. She had too much to drink when Noonan filmed her but this is an exception for her. On Noonan's film she comes across as the stereotypical drunken indigenous woman that white people love to portray. In May's own words she tells us

"At no time was I asked permission to be filmed or sign any paper…I was hurt and shamed to see my actions shown on the internet in [the] Courier Mail newspaper website at our local library by Mr Ted Watson on Friday 14//07. I watched ABC and SBS hoping I would not be see[n] by everybody especially my people and family in a drunken way. I am upset now and want my pictures taken of the website…"

Noonan and QUT have broken all of the protocols for doing research involving indigenous Australians. We the Aboriginal people of Australia fought hard for these protocols. They are

National Statement for Research Involving Humans

Research involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People

Six core values

· Reciprocity

· Respect

· Equality

· Responsibility

· Survival and Protection

· Spirit and integrity

Clauses in the Protocol
The researcher should ensure that the research methods are respectful.

There should be evidence of support for the research project from relevant Aboriginal and Torrres Strait Islander communities and the research methodology should engage with their social and cultural practices.

The researcher should seek to identify any potential negative consequences of the proposed research, to design process to monitor them and to advise steps for minimizing them.

The research methods and processes should provide opportunities to develop trust and a sense of equal research partnerships.

The benefits… should include… research outcomes that advance the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

The described benefits from research should have been discussed with and agreed to by the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander research stakeholders.

I repeat that Michael Noonan has clearly broken all these protocols. Yet QUT set up an internal review following a complaint about his research and they found him not guilty. The academics who did this have betrayed my people and they have also shamed their own university.

May has also asked me to say that she thinks it is nasty to make fun of and rubbish people like Darren and James who do not understand what is going on. May herself is the guardian and carer of an intellectually disabled man. The Aboriginal people of Boulia were horrified when Noonan and Spectrum Organization put Daren and James into the rodeo ring and made them act being a bull and a matador so people would laugh at them. May and her family could not understand why people were being so cruel to James and Darren. But then we Aborigines have never understood why white Australians can be so cruel to other whites.

There is now an interview with me up on YouTube. The link below will get you there.

Please pass on the link to all interested parties especially indigenous groups all round the world.

We Aborigines are having a very hard time now, what with our rights being trampled on and our land being taken off us. We need help and support from everyone.

We need an apology from QUT to May Dunne, compensation for her suffering and the removal of Noonan's footage of her from the Courier Mail website.

Yours in the struggle

Edward James Watson

This is now an international issue that hopefully will seriously embarrass QUT and vice-chancellor Peter Coaldrake. Here's an interview with UCLA Professor of Philosophy Calvin Normore. He describes the suspension of Garry and John as a serious threat to academic freedom.

Can citizen media be a business?

2007-09-27T09:56:00.001+12:00

I'm really interested in this project being organised by Dan Gillmor and the Center for Citizen Media.

September 24th, 2007 by Dan Gillmor
Good news: We’re about to launch a first in a series of postings about citizen media as a business. Specifically, we’ll be exploring possible business models for citizen journalism and the processes surrounding the creation of a website.

The principal researcher and writer for this project is Ryan McGrady, a new media graduate student at Emerson College where he is studying knowledge, identity, and ideas in the information age. (See more about Ryan here.)

These postings will become elements of a comprehensive on-line guide. Needless to say, it’s an ambitious project.

Because of that, we’ll post these pieces with the initial understanding that they are works in progress—beta versions—of what will continue to evolve and improve. We hope you’ll join in a conversation about these topics, and help us make the guide better.

Which means we’d love to hear from all of you who read, write, publish, analyze, discuss, create, record, or otherwise produce or consume media. Your feedback, additions, corrections, and questions are welcome as invaluable perspectives on these broad, evolving areas. If you want to join in, please post a comment or send us a note via email or this form.

(Note: This project evolved from a collaboration with the Citizen Media Law Project at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, a project funded via the Knight Foundation’s News Challenge. Also supporting this work is a grant from the McClatchy Co.)

TV phone-in games rigged - thought so!

2007-09-27T09:42:00.001+12:00

The British broadcasting regulator, the Orwellian-monikered Ofcom (Office of Communications), has fined a UK television network two million quid after it faked the results of phone-in competitions and fleeced viewers of over 20 million quid over four years.
More from the Telegraph

In a damning ruling Ofcom said that GMTV’s “disregard” for its viewers between August 2003 and February this year could not be described as “anything other than gross negligence”.
“Over a period of nearly four years, GMTV made profits running into millions of pounds from its competitions, but had no adequate oversight of this operation,” it said.

I'm not surprised, these marketing tricks are sure-fire money spinners. In this case the winners had been picked before the phone lines were closed and at 'premium' rates too.

Old hand embraces new forms of journalism

2007-09-27T09:31:00.000+12:00

This piece from Martin Stabe's blog at the UK Press Gazette.
Veteran reporter Seymour Hersh says that online journalism is the future. This is good news after all the hyped doom and gloom of Andrew Keen's The cult of the amateur. Keen's thesis is that the Internet is killing our culture and our economics because it's too democratic and the wisdom of the mob is not wisdom at all. He makes a heartfelt plea for us to put our faith in the experts, including professional journalists. Keen argues that journalism is losing out to the cacophony of voices in the blogosphere.

It's nice to see someone of Hersh's stature actually making a cogent counter-argument

Posted by Martin Stabe on 25 September 2007 at 10:15am

When Seymour Hersh was in London in July, his appearance at City University was, with the exception of the odd quote afterwards, entirely off the record.

But this week the investigative journalist has gone on the record in a rare interview with the Jewish Journal in Los Angeles.

The Q&A piece contains an interesting exchange revealing Hersh’s views on how the web is transforming journalism, and the effect of his stories on the The New Yorker’s traffic:

JJ: New York magazine has a profile this week of Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report, and they call him “America’s Most Influential Journalist.” What have bloggers like Drudge done to journalism, and how do you think it compares to the muckrakers that you came of age with?

SH: There is an enormous change taking place in this country in journalism. And it is online. We are eventually — and I hate to tell this to The New York Times or the Washington Post — we are going to have online newspapers, and they are going to be spectacular. And they are really going to cut into daily journalism.

I’ve been working for The New Yorker recently since ’93. In the beginning, not that long ago, when I had a big story you made a good effort to get the Associated Press and UPI and The New York Times to write little stories about what you are writing about. Couldn’t care less now. It doesn’t matter, because I’ll write a story, and The New Yorker will get hundreds of thousands, if not many more, of hits in the next day. Once it’s online, we just get flooded.

So, we have a vibrant, new way of communicating in America. We haven’t come to terms with it. I don’t think much of a lot of the stuff that is out there. But there are a lot of people doing very, very good stuff.

Thanks to Mark Hamilton for pointing this out.

NSw police learn APEC lessons well

2007-09-27T09:12:00.001+12:00

NSW police have certainly learned a lot from their recent exposure to dangerous peaceniks during the APEC protests in Sydney.
This week they've put these lessons to good use in busting a workers' picket line at a factory in western Sydney.
According to media reports the riot police and plain clothes cops were involved in a brawl with workers picketing th epremises of McArthur Express Trucking at Seven Hills.

The company closed on Monday, going into recievership and owning workers money in back pay, lost wages and entitlements.
When angry workers picketed the site yesterday (Wednesday) they were attacked by the cops and a pregnant woman was pushed over.

If you ever had any doubt about the role of the police in a capitalist society, this is another example of the class nature of the system and its paid, uniformed enforcers.

police lurking in chat rooms - no place to hide

2007-09-25T17:11:00.000+12:00

This item from Radio New Zealand confirms that social networking sites are now being used in surveillance operations by police. No surprises really, such a move was inevitable, but it highlights that cultural resources that might be used by young people as a way of gaining some privacy from the prying eyes of adults are routinely hoovered up in a surveillance society.

Police to look for predators on internet chatrooms

Posted at 4:42pm on 25 Sep 2007

Police plan to search internet chatrooms and networking sites for predators or criminals.

Crime involving electronic evidence such as mobile phones, computers and CCTV cameras has increased tenfold in the past five years.

E-crime group manager Maarten Kleintjes says an electronic crime centre will enable officers to process evidence faster.

Mr Kleintjes says e-crime chiefly involves trading of illegal drugs, fraud or harrassment.

Within the next two years, officers will be treating the internet like a public space and looking for offenders in chatroomsm, he says.

Internet safety group Netsafe says not enough is being done to stop offenders and policing needs to show more initiative.

the source for this story was a news release issued a couple of hours earlier by New Zealand police public relations.

Police Electronic Crime Strategy released
2:29pm 25 September 2007
Police Commissioner Howard Broad released the New Zealand Police E-Crime Strategy to 2010, which outlines ways Police will address the use of technology by criminals and respond to new types of electronic crime (e-crime).
Presenting the strategy at the opening of the new Police e-crime laboratory in Wellington yesterday, the Commissioner said e-crime was of increasing concern worldwide.
"In New Zealand, e-crime includes traditional offending with an electronic component, such as fraud and paedophilia, and newer forms of offending such as attacks on computers, theft and software piracy."
Over the next three years initiatives will include more resources and tools for the Police e-crime response team and will see frontline Police staff with a range of tools to help them investigate and resolve more e-crime without specialist assistance.
Significant progress has already been made. Development of the Environment for Virtualised Evidence (EVE) has started. Project EVE will significantly increase the volume and range of items from which electronic evidence can be recovered, and moves the ability to interrogate evidence from forensic specialists to frontline investigators.
Mobile phone booths will enable frontline staff to obtain information directly from seized mobile phones without specialist intervention. The booths are expected to be in all Police Districts by the end of the year.
The Commissioner said NZ Police aimed to complement the efforts of other organisations involved in keeping New Zealand's electronic systems and their users safe and secure. "Police are just one interested party among Government, industry groups, and others playing a role in the security and safety of the electronic environment."
The Electronic Crime Strategy to 2010 may be downloaded from http://www.police.govt.nz/resources/2007/e-crime-strategy/

On the same day, this item from Reuters is circulating, I picked it up from The Sydney Morning Herald

Facebook predators are 'tip of the iceberg'

Saved

September 25, 2007 - 9:42AM

New York State Attorney-General Andrew Cuomo says his office has subpoenaed Facebook, accusing the social networking site of not keeping young users safe from sexual predators and not responding to user complaints.

In a letter accompanying a subpoena for documents, Mr Cuomo said a preliminary review revealed defects in Facebook's safety controls and in its response to complaints. He said the shortcomings contrasted with assurances made by the company.

Meanwhile, it seems that Facebook is also going to be snapped up by a media giant. It seems that Microsoft is interested in buying a $300 million stake in Facebook which would value the company at close to $10 billion.

I guess these guys don't really care what we do with our social networking, they realise that the law agencies will take care of any problems, and that they have a captive market of affluent teens to sell to.

Social networking brings trouble for those who look

2007-09-24T11:59:00.000+12:00

Two stories that again raise issues about YouTube and other social networking sites.

A weatherman on a US TV network has been embarrassed by some of his colleagues uploading a video of him goofing off to YouTube. this from a Sydney Morning Herald version of the story:

WBKO-TV, a station based in Bowling Green, Kentucky, said on its website that it has reprimanded weather anchor Chris Allen for "acting in a juvenile and unprofessional manner." Rick McCue, station vice president and general manager, said Allen remains an employee.

The tape was from years earlier, never aired on television and was stolen by a former employee, who posted it on the internet, according to the station, which did not name the former employee.

This second story is about the Virgin company being sued for stealing a young woman's image and using it an advertising campaign.

Details from the SMH:

A Texas family has sued Australia's Virgin Mobile phone company, claiming it caused their teenage daughter grief and humiliation by plastering her photo on billboards and website advertisements without consent.

The family of Alison Chang says Virgin Mobile grabbed the picture from Flickr, Yahoo Inc's popular photo-sharing website, and failed to credit the photographer by name.

Chang's photo was part of a Virgin Mobile Australia campaign called "Are You With Us Or What?" It features pictures downloaded from Flickr superimposed with the company's ad slogans.

A colleague of mine, whom I quote occasionally, but who doesn't want to be identified has sent the following through to me this morning. It helps to put some of my concerns intoa more theoretical context and I shall be returning to these themes in my next book, tentatively called "Journalism in the age of YouTube", but perhaps going to be published with "DIY News: Global trends in digital journalism".

Dear Learned Colleagues,

I've been very nervous about these social networking sites for some
time, but have never really put my mind to probing that unease...

This piece, from Online Opinion, crystalizes much of my nervousness...

[snip]

"On a local level, this is the growing phenomenon of “management
empathy”, where everyone at every level of the workplace now experiences
the same budgetary pressure from faceless suits. On a global level, the
hollowing out of hierarchy comes in the practice of skills and knowledge
transfer across countries according to the needs of global business,
when those with jobs in the West end up training others who will be
hired by the same firm at a cheaper rate to replace them. In these
circumstances, making friends, like with like, in cultural and regional
vacuums actually seems the worst kind of preparation for building the
alliances necessary to combat this wider structural trend.

Capitalism may have finally managed to produce an atomised workforce
that has no aspirations for living wage claims because overwork has been
normalised and an all-seeing screen binds together our public and
private identities. It is this reality that young people are preparing
for as they learn to “broadcast themselves” online. But those of us
concerned about their future must help them realise that while the
friendships they treasure on social networking sites may be premised on
a form of loyalty, the workings of capital and labour hire under
neoliberalism most definitely are not."

John Howard - War Criminal

2007-09-21T10:36:00.000+12:00

I've just received this email from my friend Peter McGregor in Australia. He's attempting to get several Australian government ministers tried as war criminals and has taken out a Citizen's Arrest Warrant against them.
Good luck Peter, you crazy diamond.

Citizens Arrest of John Howard, Alexander Downer,Philip Ruddock, & Brendan Nelson as War Criminals.

“Point of order Mister Speaker: I have a Warrant for
the arrest of John Howard, Alexander Downer, Philip
Ruddock, & Brendan Nelson as War Criminals.”

Yesterday in Federal Parliament at Question Time, an
anti-war activist confronted the Government with a
formal Citizens Arrest Warrant, charging them with
various breaches of international law. (see Warrant
below)
Peter McGregor, a retired academic from Newcastle, was
himself then arrested, & charged with ‘unlawful entry
on inclosed lands’ & taken into custody. McGregor was
calling for the Speaker of the House of
Representatives to have the police arrest the 4
Ministers.
“Just the Howard Government’s abandoning of
Habeas Corpus should make it a social pariah,
especially with those who believe in the rule of law &
human rights. Instead of people like me, the Pine Gap
4, the Talisman Sabre Peace Convergence, Rising Tide,
Greenpeace, etc. resorting to acts of civil
disobedience, it would be preferable if groups like
Amnesty, councils for civil liberties, university law
faculties, etc. practiced what they preached, and
brought formal legal charges against the Howard
Government for its War Crimes.”
“In order for evil to triumph, it is enough for good
people to do nothing."

You will recall from a previous post that Peter was arrested earlier this year at an anti-war forum for challenging Philip Ruddocks' presence on the platform. No date has been set for the trial, but McGregor will be pleading not guilty.

Here's the text of Peter's warrant.
--------------
Warrant for the Citizens Arrest of John Howard, Alexander Downer, Philip Ruddock, &
Brendan Nelson:

John Howard, Prime Minister; Alexander Downer,
Minister for Foreign Affairs; Philip Ruddock,
Attorney-General; & Brendan Nelson, Minister for
Defence
are hereby charged, to be trial by the International
Criminal Court, with:

(1) Planning, preparing, initiation or waging a war of
aggression or a war in violation of international
treaties, agreements or assurances – VI (i) Nuremburg
Principles

(2) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for
accomplishment of the above – V (ii) Nuremburg
Principles

(3) Participating in the use of cluster bombs in
contravention of the AUSTRALIAN MINES CONVENTION ACT,
1998

(4) Participating in the use of weapons of mass
destruction in breach of the GENEVA Convention
including Fuel Air Explosives which cause death by
asphyxiation

(5) Conspiring to pervert the course of justice by
(i) abandoning habeas corpus both in the domestic
'anti-terror' laws & in international policy; & (ii)
covering up or defending the use of torture & over
breaches of the GENEVA Convention, the International
Covenant for Civil & Political Rights, & the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, against Australian – and
other - citizens, at Guantanamo Bay

(6) Failing in its duty to protect Australian citizens
overseas, & conspiring to continue the illegal
detention of Australian citizens without trial or
changes for over 5 years

(7) Demonizing and incarcerating asylum seekers under
the policies of mandatory detention and fortress
Australia. Such policies contravene the legal
principle of habeus corpus and have induced undue
suffering and mental illness for detainees.

Dated this Wednesday 19th September, 2007.
Signature(s): Peter McGregor:
(mcgregorpeter@yahoo.com.au)
Issued & authorized by Citizens against War Crimes

Rathergate - not yet over

2007-09-20T17:08:00.000+12:00

Rather Sues CBS Over Exit - WSJ.com

Former CBS news anchor and the 'grand old man' of American journalism (at least since Walter Cronkite) is suing his former employer over his 2005 dismissal after he ran a story about George W Bush's national guard service that proved to be false.

Rather was caught out by bloggers who were able to show that the documents Rather relied on in the story had been faked. At the time it was widely reported as the 'death of the anchor'.

Now rather is suing CBS for $70 million. A long shot perhaps and also maybe too late to repair the damage to his reputation.

The whole episode became known as Rathergate and was a boon to the right wing bloggers and others who constantly (and wrongly) complain about 'liberal' bias in the news media.

it's only fair and balanced that I provide readers with an antidote to this messaniac rambling of 'liberal' bias. You could do a lot worse than read some of the writings of Eric Alterman, an English professor at City University of New York, ex-journo and columnist for some respected US publications.

Spies know who you talk to - surveillance society grows daily

2007-09-20T12:44:00.000+12:00

Spy laws track mobile phones - Technology - smh.com.au

The Australian government is set to introduce new security laws that would allow the nation's spy agencies to secretly track mobile phone and internet use without obtaining a warrant.

There's no doubt that this increases the amount and breadth of social surveillance that can be used against political opponents as well as potential criminal activity.

A report to the British Privacy Commissioner last year outlines the extent of a surveillance society and the development of 'pre-emptive' surveillance like that proposed in the Australian legislation.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the clock is ticking and we are now six minutes to midnight on the 'doomsday clock' to becoming a fully-fledged surveillance society.

This is confirmed by an announcement this week that Dubya wants to extend surveillance laws in the USA

no breastfeeding online - Facebook says its obscene

2007-09-20T09:33:00.000+12:00

Facebook ban incurs 'lactivist' wrath - web - Technology - smh.com.au

this is another interesting little story about social networking sites. A couple of weeks ago Facebook began revoking membership rights for some users after a row erupted about breastfeeding mothers posting images of themselves on their pages.

This is a storm in a D-cup. Ban porn, sure, but pictures of lactating mothers and their babies?

So far about 10,000 Facebookers have signed an online pettion against the ban.

One mother, Karen Speed, had her account removed permanently by the Facebook breast police.
She's writing up the saga on her blog, One small step for breastfeeding.

A group supporting the right of breast-feeding women to post their images on Facebook and to get the ban lifted on members who's profiles have been deleted as been set up.
By 18 September it had over 18000 members. Can Facebook's faceless administrators continue to ignore this protest?

Rupert gets the knife out at the WSJ

2007-09-19T17:15:00.000+12:00

Rupert Murdoch seeks $100m cuts at Dow Jones | City | MediaGuardian.co.uk

Well, despite all the protestations that he wasn't a wolf in sheep's clothing Rupert Murdoch has quickly moved to realise a profit on his purchase of the Wall Street Journal.

In a media interview he talks of saving over $100 million. He can only do that by junking the journalism.
Perhaps nude stocks and bonds traders on page 3 Rupert? Why not, it's worked for him before.
Or 'stock exchange bingo' - one lucky reader can win shares in the newly revitalised Dow Jones company, where you don't pay for any fancy overheads - like reporters.

"We've already identified the low hanging fruit will be $100m in savings," Mr Murdoch told the conference in New York, in comments reported by Reuters. "But we're about expanding revenue." Mr Murdoch added that News Corp saw "nothing in sight" in terms of buying further assets.

Thanks, Rupe, an old wolf doesn't lose its bite, just a bit of fur above the ears.

Youth - the new folk devils

2007-09-19T16:49:00.000+12:00

Media and young people - hyping up new folk devils|22Sep07|Socialist Worker

This is a link to an interesting piece by academic Mike Wayne, published in the British Socialist Worker newspaper. Wayne is a researcher in media and I've read his work, particularly on global capitalism and media forms. It is a good follow up my previous post about tasering students and how cops now think it's normal to shoot thousands of volts through people who are disturbing the peace.

In this article, Mike Wayne is commenting on new attempts to demonise young people and he's got the research data to back up his claims. In case you don't want to read the whole piece, here's a grab that sets the record straight about media coverage of youth. There's no balance here just commodified celebrity role models - spend, consume, shut up - and deviant bastards - shut up, lock up.

I have been working with a team of researchers at Brunel university looking at how young people are portrayed on television news.

Our analysis covered 2,130 news items across all the main television channels during May 2006.

We found 286 stories in which young people were the main subject of the news item. Twenty eight percent of these stories focused on young celebrities such as footballers Wayne Rooney and Theo Walcott.

This mirrored the wider role that young people play in commercial culture.

The overwhelming majority of the rest of the stories, 82 percent, focused on young people as either perpetrators or victims of crime.

Violent crime made up 90 percent of these crime related stories.

Across the entire sample violent crime figured in 304 cases. And in 42 percent of these, offenders or suspects were young people.

Yet while looming large in the popular imagination as threats

to people and property, young people themselves have little voice in news world.

Young people accounted for only 1 percent of all the sources for interviews and opinions that were on offer over the sample.

Predictably, crime was the major topic on which they were asked to speak.

These results show that even television news – our most public service orientated source of information and knowledge – is in effect turning young people into non-citizens to be feared.

This is not an argument for “good news” stories about young people, although that could do little harm.

This is about the one dimensional picture of young people’s lives which the media and news offers to us.

Where are the stories about how young people are affected by problems in housing, education, health, unemployment, parental abuse, politics and so forth? And where are even the most banal indicators in the coverage of crime that point beyond the individual person or event?

This encourages fear and condemnation rather than any understanding or criticism of some of the major political and economic institutions that are responsible for the tearing the social fabric apart.

The crisis around young people will only get worse if the quality of public debate does not get better.

Another student tasered by campus cops - what's with this shit?

2007-09-19T15:24:00.000+12:00

Student Tasered at campus forum for Kerry - CNN.com

The campus cops in the USA don't seem to be learning. They've tasered another student at the University of Florida.
Watch this video and see how the spokesperson for the uni squirms.

The guy was just asking John Kerry a question at a campus election rally. That is, exercising his rights as a US citizen. He was asking a difficult question, that the organisers didn't like.

These campus cops are asshole thugs. Why do universities employ goons like this. Surely it's not too hard to give clear instructions not to attack students in unprovoked assaults with deadly weapons.

How long till these thugs actually kill someone?

Here's another view, of course, thanks YouTubers.

What's interesting is the character asassination now going on about the student, 21-year-old Andrew Myer. According to reports published in major newspapers, including the Sydney Morning Herald, Myer is a 'trouble-maker' and practical joker. So what, that doesn't mean he deserves to get tasered. The cops are also quoted as saying that once the cameras were off Myer, he joked and laughed as he was taken off to the lock-up. What a farce.

Tasering people is now a legitimate police contact sport. Here's another clip of an incident in a police lock up. There are better ways of dealing with disturbed and emotional people. The cops are out of control.

So, you don't believe cops enjoy this shit? Take a look at this training video - they're having fun with the taser. One of the women looks wierdly like Janet Jackson - listen to her, she loved getting tasered. I guess they just want to share the love. Bastards!

a warning to social networkers

2007-09-17T10:57:00.000+12:00

There was a horrible murder in Auckland a week ago. A young man, Augustine Borrell, was stabbed in the chest outside a teener party in the fairly well off suburb of Herne Bay. An 18 year-old gave himself up to police a few days later.

It's teen death 11 0r 12 in Auckland in the last few years, there's an incident pretty much every weekend in terms of fights outside parties. On the Saturday just past a young guy was shot in the face with a pellet gun.

But what's got me interested in this story is the coverage given to an alleged confession by the stabber. According to reports in the NZ Herald, the unnamed guy posted an apology cum confession on the networking site Bebo.

Bebo has become both an online memorial to Borrell and a battleground between his friends and associates of the alleged killer. The New Zealand Herald is breathlessly reporting all of this from a perspective of Bebo's "dark side" of guns, drugs and crime.

I've had a look, admitedly a quick squiz, around Bebo and can't find the stuff that's been written about in the papers. Though, I don't doubt it's there.

A few days after the online torrent of love and hate around the Borrell stabbing, the young accused was in court charged with murder. A suppression order is in place to prevent his identity being publicised. According to newspaper reports at the time, the sites where messages were being posted about the alleged killer were taken down.

What I think is most chilling about this is the blunt warning given in the court by prosecutor, Ross Burns. He basically said that the government is able to monitor sites like Bebo and is able to trace posts.

"The Department of Internal Affairs monitors internet websites and is perfectly capable of tracing postings back to the original poster and if that happens and they are found to have breached the order then they are liable for criminal prosecution."

The other thing that's got me puzzled is why the NZ Herald has been allowed to print the text of the accused person's online apology/confession. Isn't this a case of contempt of court?

One posting, written in response to allegations about who was responsible for the murder, said:
"hey there ... i am real sory 4 tha incident ov augustine, an want u 2 know i had no intensions wat so ever 2 do so, an im not that kind of person an kuld neva du that 2 sum1 especialy 2 sumwun i dont knw an if u havnt heard iv handed maself in.and i am real real sorry, i didnt know wat hapend that nite. R.I.P augustine"

This case is a lot more serious that kids finding themselves arrested for driving stupidly and putting a video of their stunt on YouTube. I'm going to keep an eye on this case, the legal precedents are interesting. They highlight what I call the "techno-legal time gap". There's pretty much no regulation of what can be posted on social networking sites, it's suck it and see.

Martinis at the Viaduct - a welcome Tuesday break

2007-09-12T17:06:00.001+12:00

Left: F&M at Soul

Last night Helen & I entertained a visiting American colleague down in Auckland's Viaduct district.
It was a quiet Tuesday night, but that didn't stop us from showing our Missouri cousin some harbourside hospitality.

Fritz had done his homework before coming to Aotearoa. He'd seen my blog and knew that I was keen on a martini or two. We met up just after 9.30pm at Soul and proceeded to get to know each other a little better.

The Soul martinis are interesting. For a start they come in a long, narrow glass, more like a postmodern champagne flute than the traditional cocktail shape. We had the vodka version. Fritz likes his a little sweeter, so went with the bianco with a twist. Helen and I are pretty much traditionalists and stuck with the dry/dirty olive combo. I always prefer a vodka-tini after dinner. Though gin is my favourite aperatif.

It was quiet. By 11.15 Soul was closing up, but Fritz had the taste and we went in search of another venue. We ended up at a place that I think is called "Cowboy". It had a western feel and I'm sure Fritz was quite at home there (he's from the mid-west, but they had cowboys too, back in the day).
Left: F&M - Cowboy

Unfortunately we only had time for one more round - "the usual please" - before this bar shut down too.

Well, by then it was nearly 1.30am so I guess going home wasn't really too much of a disappointment.

I'm going to catch up with Fritz in his home town, Columbia Missouri in a few weeks during a trip to Canada and the USA. I'm sure more martinis will be found to wet the way.

The "dirty caper"

I also experimented at home over the weekend and came up with a new twist on an old favourite. I call it the 'dirty caper'. I like capers in salads and bolognaise sauce and so I thought they might work in a martini too. They're salty like olives, but have a taste that is both sharper and softer at the same time.
My trick is quite simple. Take your average 'sixer' (3 X olives on two cocktail sticks) and intersperse a caper in between the olives. You should always use a good gin for this. At the moment I have a bottle of Bombay Sapphire which I prefer to drink with Noily Prat, but for now a reliable and not too expensive vermouth is good enough.

Left: the dirty caper (six olives and four capers)

If you like super dirty you can even put a tsp of caper brine into the mix as you go.

The verdict: Smart, sophisticated and chic.

Who am I kidding, it was a martini: blunt, tasty and effective.

APEC - nothing of substance happend

2007-09-12T16:47:00.000+12:00

There isn't a great deal to say in this quiet week after the NSW cops were promising that all Hell would break loose on the streets of Sydney as crazed anarchists and easily-duped schoolies ran amok in a pointless protest against the evils of globalisation and the festering sore that is the occupation of Iraq.

the main rally organisers posted this calm message announcing the success of their protest action:

10,000 protesters crowded in to the Anti APEC rally at Town Hall this morning far exceeding the estimated 5000 expectations of the rally organisers. Many of those participating said they were determined to attend, galvanised by the police harassment and threats.

George St is sealed off by police vans at the Queen Victoria building blocking the rally and shoppers alike. Police have planned that these vans will serve as mobile prisons if violence breaks out. Yet the police seem to be the ones promoting the violence with displays of water cannon and riot squad mobilising. Rumours abound that undercover police agitators are likely to try to provoke incidents. Certainly police have acted in a partisan manner in their treatment of those who support the rally confiscating banner poles while, in contrast, leaving those few protesters in support of APEC alone.

The rally has reaffirmed its opposition to violence and has expressed their right to politically mobilise in a peaceful manner against the war mongering, anti-worker and anti-environment policies at the centre of the APEC gathering.

The rally is extraordinarily diverse in attendance from young and old, with placards and flags highlighting a broad range of issues from a wide range of social movements, and with the stated determination to march along the police lined route, to sit and hear further speakers before ending up with a further rally in Hyde Park.

Of course the cops said only 5000, but the Australian news reports I saw in Aotearoa said at least six to eight, possibly more. It was quite dull for the hyped-up media types who descended on the Sydney CBD expecting lots of protesters' blood to flow. At the end of the day all they could say was that the cops got it wrong and that the marchers had won the moral high ground.

In the end the Saturday protests were peaceful and only a handful of people were arrested. But what I find most interesting is this frank admission from the senior NSW cop, Commissioner Andrew Scipione, that the heavy police presence was a factor in detering people from showing up to the rally.

Despite the arrests, NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione says the majority of the thousands of protesters in central Sydney behaved peacefully.

Commissioner Scipione says the massive show of force by police and the poor weather led to today's successful outcome.

"It certainly caused numbers to dwindle, in fact it surely caused numbers not to turn up," he said.

"But more importantly, I think it was the combination of the show of force, the police were out there in big numbers, and we don't apologise for that.

"We always indicated that we would be there, in sufficient numbers to be able to act swiftly against those that broke the law.

"So was that overkill? I don't think so."

This is an outrage. Here we have the state's most senior cop, a well-paid public servant, admitting that the police presence was a political gesture designed to impact on the success of a peaceful protest march. The cops were acting as paid bullies and bouncers whose sole purpose in fencing off half the Sydney CBD and parading in riot gear with monster boys' toys including a $700,000 water canon, was to prevent a peaceful protest against international capitalism, death and destruction.

Oh, and nothing happened at APEC either. There was a piss-poor statement of concern about the environment and global warming, but no action to stop it. Why not?

Well, the interests of the ruling class are in rampant profit taking and pillage. If the environment gets raped in the process, what do they care. The armoured limos and first class air travel are perks, who actually pays for them and the damage they do to the planet is none of our business.

Bastards.

Janet Albrechtsen - why are you still here?

2007-09-12T16:35:00.000+12:00

I was alerted to this piece on The Orstrahyun blog by an item in Crikey today.
I've long maintained that Janet Albrecthsen, a senior columnist on Rupert Murdoch's Australian, was a neo-con. She's even said so herself. But her shamelss spruiking and her close ties to the Howard government are now there for all to see. By her own hand is she damned.

Thanks to Daryl Mason of The Ostrahyun for this:

A columnist for The Australian newspaper - the supposedly "balanced" and "not biased at all" flagship of the Australian Murdoch media empire - has been outed as not only a rabid supporter of prime minister John Howard, but also one that lets the prime minister know, days in advance, when she is writing an op-ed that may reflect badly on him.

Who's doing what now?

Yes. Janet Albrechtsen, a columnist for The Australian, rang John Howard's office before she had even written her column about why it was time for him to step down, to let him know what she was planning to write.

She called other ministers as well, allowing them the opportunity to try and talk her out of writing the 'Time To Go" column that supposedly "rocked the Howard government" when it appeared in The Australian on September 7.

The one thing that's missing from the Orstrahyun blog is any mention of Janet's other contentious hat. She's a faithful Howard-appointed a member of the ABC Board.

I have said before that I think this is a dreadful conflict of interest and I've suggested she should resign that position. She is a staunch critic of public broadcasting and her stablemates at the Murdoch Limited News press are vicious witch-hunters of any one vaguely left-leaning at the national broadcaster. Rupert's commercial interests in the Australian media are diametrically opposed to the vibrant health of the ABC. It would be in Rupert's long-term interests for the ABC to be shut down.

Janet, why are you still here?

"It's not funny," Scipione laments Chaser stunt

2007-09-07T17:17:00.000+12:00

The NSW police really do have to lighten up. They're now putting round the message that the boys from Chaser could have been shot by snipers during their stunt a couple of days ago. IN case you missed it, here's a TV report.

The team from the ABC's satirical show, The Chaser's War on Everything, managed to drive through two security checkpoints in Sydney, despite the heavy (overkill) police security presence and the rabble-proof fence.

A number of Chaser crew were able to get right to the InterContinental hotel where Dubya is holed up with an entourage that boasts 250 secret service guys, armed to the teeth.

After being held by the side of the road, they were taken in a police van and processed.

Now the NSW Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, is saying they could have been shot. But they weren't. What they did do is prove that the whole costly exercise (around 140 million dollars, about $24 million per day) is an expensive joke.

Scipione told the Australian media that the police snipers, located on many buildings around the city, could have opened fire. Now he's mad as hell...

"I'm angry, I'm very angry that this stunt happened, it was a very dangerous stunt," Mr Scipione said.

"The reality is ... (they) put security services in a position where they might have had to take an action no-one would want.

"We have snipers deployed around the city. They weren't there for show, they mean business, that's what they were there for."

Hey, Commish, wipe the two-day old egg of your face and crack a smile.

Showing just how thick the boys and girls in blue can be, here's a copy of the Chaser team's dummied-up security passes.

On a more serious note, the Chaser crew (11 were arrested) have been charged under the NSW special APEC security laws and could face up to six months in jail.

Bastards.

There's more at the SMH website.

You can track an earlier post on this story.

As you might expect the Chaser online news service is quick to show what's going on.

News agencies escalate IRU rights dispute

2007-09-07T17:14:00.000+12:00

Several of the world's leading news agencies have suspended their coverage of the World Rugby Cup competition about to get underway in France this weekend.

The dispute is about the rights to images and access to venues, teams etc.

AFP, Reuters and AP are all involved.

Read more at the SMH website

Robert Capa - was that photograph really real?

2007-09-07T12:01:00.000+12:00

For many years I've been talking to my students about the ethical dilemmas associated with photojournalism. One of the key case studies that we discuss is the image of a Spanish soldier at the point of death that Magnum agency photographer Robert Capa took in 1936.
In the shot the Loyalist soldier appears to be falling back after being hit by a sniper's bullet.

For years there's been controversy around this image. Some historians and journalists, notably Philip Knightley, have argued that this is a faked image. Posed by the soldier for Capa's camera.

In a review of a biography of Capa (Blood and Champagne by Alex Kershaw), Knightley is scathing in his attack on the man, and the famous image.

Let’s get the bad stuff over first. Robert Capa was a liar, a compulsive gambler, a depressive, a heavy drinker, and a womaniser (especially with prostitutes). He used people, broke promises and when he was accused of being a communist and the U.S. State Department kept his passport, he “named names”, to get it back.

At the urging of the appalling Henry Luce, the founder of Life and producer of the March of Time newsreel series, he staged Republican attacks on Fascist positions during the Spanish Civil War and filmed them, noting that they looked “more real” than if they had actually taken place. And, I maintain, he faked the most famous war photograph of all time, the Spanish soldier at the moment of death.

But the Wikipedia entry and other bloggers have suggested that it's real. The entry is quite clear on the story, but doesn't mention Knightley's criticism:

From 1936 to 1939, he was in Spain, photographing the horrors the Spanish Civil War. In 1936, he became known across the globe for a photo he took on the Cordoba Front of a Loyalist Militiaman who had just been shot and was in the act of falling to his death. Because of his proximity to the victim and the timing of the capture, there was a long controversy about the authenticity of this photograph. Historians eventually succeeded in identifying the dead soldier as Federico Borrell García, from Alcoi (Valencia) and proved it authentic. ^[1] This is one of the best-known pictures of the Spanish civil war.

This position receives some support, for example this comment from a discussion thread at photo.net:

The photo has been proved to be in no way "a set up" by the photographer, despite a claim by someone who wasn't anywhere near the place where it happened.

In a response this this, another post suggested:

I never said the photograph was a hoax. Robert Capa had asked the soldier to perform for a photograph(duck and roll I believe) when he was shot and killed(in reality)

In amongst all the discussion of cameras, lenses and focal lengths, there's some support for Capa on the photo.net site. Here's another post on a different thread that seems to support the Wikipedia entry:

Knightley claims to have proved in 1974, Capa Falling Loyalist Solider photo was faked. Well, a few years ago, the soldier was positively identified by records and family members. Knightley still refuses to accept this. A long time ago, I read his evalution and found it lacking. In addition, I believe, he did not have access to the Capa archives and never saw the original contact sheet(s) from the event. The original negative has been lost. The very best source of ACCURATE Robert Capa facts, is the Richard Whelan biography, first published in 1985.

There is a piece by Richard Whelan online that backs this story and provides more detail. This extract talks about the controversy and maintains that the image is real. However, it says here that the soldier was a Republican fighter. I thought the Loyalists were Francos' fascists. I've always thought the image was of a Republican and given Capa's political leanings I would imagine he would have been with Republican units, not Franco's.

After photographing in Barcelona, Capa and Taro went to the stalemated Aragón front, where they visited the militia of the Trotskyite POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista) that George Orwell would serve with that winter. Capa and Taro then moved south toward Andalucía. Republican forces had begun an offensive to recover Córdoba, and the Madrid government reported new advances daily, even emptily boasting that its troops had entered the city. For photographers eager to cover Republican victories, the Córdoba front was a compelling destination.

There, just outside the tiny village of Cerro Muriano, on September 5, 1936, a 22-year-old Capa made one of his most famous images, perhaps the greatest of all war photographs—that of a Republican militiaman who has just been shot and is collapsing into death.

The internal evidence of the series of photographs to which that picture belongs suggests that Capa ran down a barren hillside with the vanguard of a Republican attack, and, as they came into range of an enemy emplacement, he threw himself down and hugged the ground (as we can see from the camera angle); from there he photographed several men as they were shot in succession. “Falling Soldier” received its first publication soon afterward in the September 23, 1936, issue of Vu.

In 1975, a controversy began over the authenticity of Capa’s great photograph when O’Dowd Gallagher, an elderly British journalist of failing memory, charged that the photograph was staged. The claim was published in Phillip Knightley’s book The First Casualty: From the Crimea to Vietnam: The War Correspondent as Hero, Propagandist, and Myth Maker.

In a world always eager to believe the worst, Gallagher’s allegations spread rapidly. Refuting evidence was largely ignored. In September 1996, however, the controversy was definitively settled in Capa’s favor by the discovery of the identity of the man in the photograph—Federico Borrell García, whose death at Cerro Muriano, on September 5, 1936, is recorded in the Spanish government’s archives and whose identity in the photograph was confirmed by his younger brother, Everisto.

Through circumstantial evidence, which I pieced together while working on my biography of Capa, we know for certain that Capa and Taro were in Cerro Muriano on that day. Indeed, on the vintage prints preserved in the files of Capa’s estate with their original chronological numbering, the numbers on the sequence of pictures to which the “Falling Soldier” belongs immediately precede those of a Cerro Muriano refugee series. The numbering on the vintage prints clearly suggested that Capa made his “Falling Soldier” picture at Cerro Muriano on September 5, 1936. Capa repeatedly confirmed during his lifetime that he had made his photograph on the Córdoba front.

There is another, more detailed account of this story from Richard Whelan at PBS, written in 2002. This image purports to show the relative positions of Borell Garcia and Capa, taken from a trench on the front lines.
Here's Whelan's final thoughts on the subject, from the PBS American Masters documentary on Capa:

The arrow indicates [in the photo above] where Federico Borrell García was standing when he was shot; the X indicates where Capa was hugging the side of the gully.

There can be no further doubt that The Falling Soldier is a photograph of Federico Borrell García at the moment of his death during the battle at Cerro Muriano on September 5, 1936. May the slanderous controversy that has plagued Robert Capa’s reputation for more than twenty-five years now, at last, come to an end with a verdict decisively in favor of Capa’s integrity. It is time to let both Capa and Borrell rest in peace, and to acclaim The Falling Soldier once again as an unquestioned masterpiece of photojournalism and as perhaps the greatest war photograph ever made.

Whelan provides more photographic evidence in this piece, published in 2003.

I haven't been able to find any response to this from Phillip Knightley. If you know of one, perhaps you could let me know.

Rugby + Money = Greedhead Heaven

2007-09-07T10:33:00.000+12:00

Agencies boycott All Blacks event | Press&publishing | MediaGuardian.co.uk

I don't really care much about the rugby world cup, but I do care about the media. A number of news agencies, including some of the global biggies - Reuters, AP, Getty Images and AFP - staged a brief boycott of pre-tournament events at the 2007 Rugby World Cup because of a dispute with the IRU over image rights.
The whole area of rights and fees at these events is interesting and as everyone attempts to claw back their costs and make a profit out of global audiences (in this case rugby fans) every penny counts. So it seems.

Sport and money - a noxious cocktail of greed and robbery.

APEC satire - "not funny"

2007-09-07T10:17:00.000+12:00

APEC's surprise guest - Mr bin Laden of Canada - National - smh.com.au

Good on the Chaser crew. They managed to breach the APEC "rabble-proof fence" yesterday, but now 11 of them are facing charges to do with eluding the security operation.

The charges against them are just more ammunition for satire. This just makes the whole exercise in locking down Sydney appear that the disturbingly real and sad joke that it is.

If a couple of clowns in hire cars can breach the security wall because they don't look like feral hippies, imagine what a clever hitman like the legendary "Jackal" could do.

The goon squads are obviously not looking for terrorists, their role is to monster a few anti-globalisation and anti-war protestors into cowering submission.

Those brave bastards.

The Chaser team have a proud record of embarrassing politicians and the police. They have a worldwide fan club as you can see from this photograph. the billboard is an ad for the Chaser TV show on ABC.

More APEC commentary on YouTube

2007-09-06T17:43:00.000+12:00

There's plenty of stuff going on with YouTubers about the APEC summit in Sydney.
Here's a selection. I guess there's no way (yet) to put a rabble-proof fence around the Internet.

NSW Police organise APEC riots

2007-09-06T17:18:00.000+12:00

The Stop Bush Coalition protest march planned for Saturday has been put under a "prohibition order" by the NSW Supreme Court.
This is a legally strange decision - the march is not actually banned, but according to the ruling it will lose any "protections" that it might have had under the law. Go figure!

The police commissioner was pleased with the result, he told the ABC that:

it means if the protesters follows their original route, people could be arrested for obstructing traffic.

"They will be charged and put before a court, they could find themselves in a cell for many days," he said.

According to the ABC the police tendered evidence that if the route of the march was not changed: "a riot with an unprecedented level of violence would occur".

Yep, with the police already geared up and psyched for a rumble, there will be a riot. The police will riot with the full protection of the law.

The marchers are planning a sit down in the centre of the city, but the cops said that this is not acceptable either. At least if everyone's sitting down they're easier to punch, kick and club.

There's no doubt that the boys and girls in blue are ready to bring it on. The "riot squad" - how well monickered - is up for a bit of biff, as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald:

The commander of the NSW Police Public Order and Riot Squad, Chief Superintendent Stephen Cullen, told the Supreme Court yesterday that Sydney would face unprecedented violence during APEC and "full-scale riots" if the protest were allowed down George Street.

In a well-drilled display of scare-mongering, Sup. Cullen told the court that he expected trouble:

"Well-drilled and disciplined" members of violent splinter groups would agitate during the protests, stirring up usually peaceful marchers.

"Based upon my research, experience, current intelligence and evidence from internationally similar events - more recently G20 in Melbourne - I have absolutely no doubt that minority groups will engage in a level of violence not previously experienced in Sydney.

"Never in my career have I held such serious concerns for public safety as I do during the conduct of APEC, or more specifically this particular march".

These cops are nutters and shameless provocateurs. The irony is that there's no irony. The "minority groups" who are "well-drilled and disciplined" will all be easy to spot on Saturday. They won't be a ragtag bunch of anarchists, it will be those in the uniform of state power. Brainless thugs who will happily follow the orders of their political masters to create a specatacle worthy of the Roman colossuem.

It is, as many have pointed out, an election stunt of the most gross dimensions. Howard and Iemma should be totally ashamed of themselves.

Weapons of mass distraction - the funny side of APEC

2007-09-06T17:15:00.000+12:00

Who says cops have a sense of humour? It seems that in Sydney they don't. At least not when it comes to satirical attempts to cross the rabble-proof fence.
This story from the ABC Online. No doubt we'll hear more in the next few days:

Two stars of The Chaser's War on Everything have been detained after conducting a fake motorcade through Sydney.

Chaser co-star Chris Taylor has told ABC News Online that police have detained Chas Licciardello and the show's executive producer Julian Morrow.

Taylor says the motorcade was made up of three cars.

"A lot of people were involved [in this stunt]," he said.

"Some have been detained and some haven't."

Taylor says the crew members have been detained in their cars, while police wait for special units to arrive.

Lawyers for the ABC are also on their way to the scene.

The Chaser convoy had been dressed up to look like an official Canadian motorcade.

"No particular reason why we chose Canada," Taylor said.

He says they thought it was feasible Canada would only have three cars in its motorcade.

ABC spokesman Peter Ritchie has confirmed Licciardello and Morrow have been detained, but not arrested.

A shameless steal from Crikey

2007-09-05T16:05:00.000+12:00

I couldn't resist republishing this short editorial from today's Crikey newsletter. If you have any interest at all in Australian politics, business and media you should subscribe. As a small way of atoning for my plucking this item, here's the link to the Crikey website.

Dear Sole Subscriber,

Another sole subscriber, Crikey reader Ben Pearson, has been musing on APEC.

The ongoing campaign by police and pollies warning against ‘violent’ protests at APEC -- dutifully reported by the fourth estate -– masks the fact that all three of these actors actually benefit from a bit of public argy bargy and thus exaggerate both the threat and occasional occurrence of it.

Premier Iemma rails against ‘vandals’ and ‘violence’ to show that he is tough on law n order. Prime Minister John Howard, on the other hand, is hoping that a couple of university proto-anarchists will distract attention from the fact that APEC is nothing more than the mother of all inconveniences for Sydneyites. As for the media, they are hoping for the kind of dramatic stories and photos that sell papers. As the industry says – "if it bleeds, it leads”.

For the cops, APEC is a vision of the world as it should be. Expanded powers, new equipment, media support, and maybe a chance to try out new toys like the water cannon.

The warnings and hype about ‘violent’ protests mask another agenda in which politicians and certain elements in the media stigmatise the very notion of protest, and by creating and reinforcing an association between mass protests and violence, they seek to de-legitimise the former. Public protest is the right of all Australians. Pollies may not like it, and it may not sell many papers, but it’s part of what democracy is all about.

And we think Ben has a point.

Follow APEC from the Stuff website

2007-09-05T15:36:00.000+12:00

Tracy Watkins, political editor of the Dominion Post is in Sydney for the APEC summit and she's blogging away at Stuff.co.nz
It might be interesting to get a close-up view from "behind" the "ring of steel". Her second entry is here.

Don't fence me in - APEC security out of control

2007-09-05T13:12:00.000+12:00

From today's Sydney Morning Herald:

The Department of Education says it does not yet know how many students have skipped school to join APEC protests.

Police will be roaming trains, buses and the central business district as part of a crackdown on students who truant to join protests, the Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, has warned.

Mr Scipione again urged students to stay away from today's protest for their own safety and warned that if they were playing truant there was a good chance the police would find them and report them to their school or parents.

The NSW police have also applied to have Saturday's protest march declared "illegal". This is a sure indication that they want to up the ante. As several leaders of the "Stop Bush Coalition" have been saying in radio interviews all week, this is about trying to intimidate people from joining the peaceful protests.

But it's also worse than that, it's part of a public relations "softening up" exercise. In my long experience it's the cops who start the "violence" at protest marches. This forces those present to defend themselves or risk getting clubbed and doused with "pepper spray". All this week the cops have been stopping people, including tourists, from taking photographs of the "rabble-proof fence".

The NSW police seem to be spoiling for a fight on Saturday. By denouncing alleged "secret plots" to cause damage etc, they are preparing the general public to accept that "fact" that the cops will have a justification for thumping the bejeezus out of protestors.

The PR campaign is helped along by reports such as this one from Brisbane's Courier-Mail outlining the expensive "security" blanket that's been thrown around Dubya. Here's a sample:

On board the planes were 50 White House political aides, 150 national security advisers, 200 specialists from other government departments and more than 250 Secret Service agents.

The president's men were even believed to be bringing their own sniffer dogs.

Surely this is overkill. There's been no public announcement of any threat to Bush, but his security detail will be heavily armed. There's enough fire power here to topple a government..."hhhmmm".

And, finally, a little bit more on who to blame for the disruption in Sydney. Do you need to ask? Well, the Prime Minister knows who's responsible, and it ain't him (again)

Mr Howard blamed the fencing through the central business district on protesters threatening violence.
"It's not the fault of the guests in our country," he said.
The fence stretches from King Street to Circular Quay and from George to Macquarie streets and will keep any protesters a long way from dignitaries.
He refused to say whether there was any intelligence warning of a major incident.

Backlinks to previous posts:

dignitary protection exercise
banning orders ozzie style
another brick in the wall

Out of the Box - Audio of conference sessions

2007-09-05T11:03:00.000+12:00

Out of the Box - New Broadcasting Futures was a conference looking at the future of digital broadcasting in New Zealand and putting it into a global context.
The organisers have place audio files of the keynote presentations online: A New Future for Broadcasting Conference Schedule

APEC Security - Dignitary Protection Exercise

2007-09-04T14:36:00.000+12:00

I've embedded John Howard's APEC messge for your edumakashun.
It's fronted by former TV journalist Anne Fulwood, who's now making money from corporate spruiking.

Most of this video is Howard droning on in a drab monotone.
But have a look from about 5 minutes in, there's a great spread on security arrangements, or what Ms Fulwood calls the world's largest "dignitary protection exercise".

If that's too much, check out this anti-APEC video, it's much shorter, but packs a punch.

Banning orders - Ozzie style

2007-09-03T16:24:00.001+12:00

This is a letter being sent to people who might be planning to protest at the APEC summit in Sydney this week. It bans them from certain parts of the city, including the airport and other places.

It is issued under the terms of a special piece of APEC security legislation and says that if a banned person is found within the declared area (how they might get in given the 2.8 metre fence is not discussed), they can be imprisoned.
Under the APEC Meeting (Police Powers) ACT 2007 (NSW) an arrested person can be held without bail until 12 September. The Act specifies a "presumption against bail". This is a draconian piece of legislation, similar to banning orders in apartheid South Africa.

It seems that anyone is now a suspect in Sydney, as the Orstrahyun blog points out.

School yard surveillance - another brick in the wall

2007-09-03T14:00:00.000+12:00

Schools adopt swipe cards for toilet breaks - National - smh.com.au

Some schools in NSW (Australia) are adopting drastic measures to cut truancy and to stop students smoking between classes.

Swipe cards for toilet access and SMS alerts to parents of absent children are being trialled at some schools and there's even talk that students will be fingerprinted for identity and movement purposes next year.

Ryde Secondary College students are required to run an identification card through a card reader if they are late, need to leave early, go to the sick bay, see the principal or visit the toilet during class time. A print-out is created - featuring a photo of the student and log in and out times.

Mr Reardon said problems with students smoking when they moved around the grounds during class times, using a toilet break as an excuse, had reduced dramatically. But, he acknowledged: "We've got to be sure it's not a draconian thing."

The school will trial a fingerprinting system next year.

The company behind the technology, Academy Attendance, is raking in the profits and pushing school surveillance systems. What would happen if a parent decided their kid shouldn't be swiped in and out of the toilet during breaks, or objected to finger-printing?

How can we improve your school?
Discussions with schools has highlighted the need to improve efficiency and productivity. Academy IT Services can significantly improve existing systems.

Academy has focused its research and development towards providing a system to track student movements in and out of school. To achieve this outcome Academy IT Services is proud to provide the Academy Student Attendance System. This system is currently used by schools across Australia and interfaces with existing School Administration Systems.

Secret Squirrels outed by Limited News

2007-09-03T13:17:00.000+12:00

The Australian government, in cooperation with the NSW state government, has walled off several square kilometres of downtown Sydney in preparation for this week's APEC leaders' summit meeting.
The 2.8 metre wire mesh barricades are ostensibly to stop terr'rists from gaining access to all this important flesh on display. But a neat little side-effect is that the 15000 or so protestors who planned to demonstrate against this orgy of imperialism and war-mongering will also be kept away.
Speaking to the media about these extraordinary security precautions, Prime Minister John Howard made the following statement:

"It does represent an opportunity for this country to be displayed to the world and most particularly to our region," he said. "I see this as an opportunity for . . . this country to be paraded for the modern, sophisticated, tolerant, multi-racial society that it is."

I assume he said this without a hint of irony.

But don't worry, those fearless investigative journalists at Limited News have uncovered a "secret" plot by a bunch of anarchists to use "violence". Luckily, this dastardly plot has been exposed.

Mr Howard yesterday acknowledged the threats of violence and the response of intrusive security precautions in Sydney's CBD.

But he said if violence occurred people should not blame him or Mr Bush.

"Don't blame the police, don't blame the NSW Government, don't blame any of our (heads of government) guests, don't blame the Federal Government," he said.

"Blame the people who threaten violence."

In tolerant, multi-cultural Australia, blame anyone but the Howard government and, what ever you do, don't blame Dubya for anything.

As an aside, a quick google search soon uncovers the fact that the "secret" plan to mount a protest at APEC has been public for some months. However, not to be outdone, the Sydney Morning Herald is also carrying an APEC protest story, this time explaining how the police have been spying on organisers via email surveillance.

POLICE have spent months secretly monitoring university political groups in the run-up to this week's Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum, documents obtained under freedom-of-information laws reveal.

A unit operating in the intelligence section of the NSW Police APEC Security Command has been in contact with security personnel at Wollongong University, Macquarie University and the University of Technology, Sydney, requesting permission to covertly monitor "IMGs", or interest-motivated groups.

I'm grateful to SlackBastard for this insight and for this delightfully tongue-in-cheek send-up of the term "IMG" which means "Interest-Motivated Group", or spook-talk for protestor exercising a democratic right.

Australia’s Right to Know

2007-09-03T13:10:00.000+12:00

Australians All » Australia’s Right to Know

You know things are in a state when media executives from the major corporate players in Australia get together to make a plea for freedom of the press. The statement was signed by the following:

John Hartigan Chairman and Chief Executive, News Limited
David Kirk Chief Executive Officer, Fairfax Media
Mark Scott Managing Director, ABC
David Leckie CEO Network Seven and Chairman of Free TV Australia
Shaun Brown Managing Director, SBS
Michael Anderson CEO Austereo and Chairman, Commercial Radio Australia
Clive Marshall CEO, AAP
Angelos Frangopoulos CEO, Sky News

The group has commissioned a report into the state of the media in Australia.

At its launch the coalition signalled that it would commission an "independent study of threats to free speech and expression in this country" which would address issues including:

"the effectiveness of freedom of information laws – given that freedom of information is at risk of becoming an oxymoron
the principles of open justice and the public’s right to know how courts operate
the tendency by courts to restrict public access using broad suppression orders
the level of transparency in criminal and family law cases
the risks that journalists and whistleblowers face jail even though they are acting in the public interest
the impact of new sedition laws on freedom of expression in media reporting and the performing arts
the risk that Australians can be detained without charge and reporting of such occurrences is illegal
whether defamation laws achieve the right balance between freedom of expression and the need to protect the reputation of individuals (even allowing for recent welcome reforms that created much greater uniformity across the country); and
the need for suppression, contempt and other state based restrictions to be reformed and made uniform across the country."

It was subsequently announced that Irene Moss, the former commissioner of New South Wales government's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), would oversee the audit.

Geoffrey Robertson - Sky TV interview

2007-09-03T13:00:00.000+12:00

I posted a few days ago about Geoffrey Robertson's speech on freedom of speech and his call for a bill of rights in Australia. I'm still hunting a transcript. In the meantime you can watch a six minute interview with Robertson from Sky TV news.

TVNZ - "flawed, unworkable model"

2007-08-31T11:22:00.000+12:00

I've been in Wellington for a few days attending a couple of conferences on media and politics.
The first one at the beautiful Te Papa (national museum) was organised by NZ's broadcasting minister, Steve Maharey and was concerned with "Broadcasting Futures". The key themes were to examine the future of television in a convergent future - what many at the conference began calling the age of the "third screen".
The second was the New Zealand Political Studies Association conference at Victoria University, Wellington. There was a media & politics stream and the most interesting speaker was former TVNZ News/CAff head, Bill Ralston.
Ralston's always outspoken and he didn't disappoint. He described the TVNZ model as flawed and unworkable, mainly because of the fundamental and probably unresolvable contradiction between the public service "social dividend" responsibility imposed by the TVNZ Charter and the "financial dividend" of around nine percent a year (roughly $NZ30 million) that the national broadcaster must return to its sole shareholder, the New Zealand government.
It is this economic imperative - based on the market model of commercial broadcasting - that turns TVNZ news journos into what Ralston describes as "news clerks". This is not their fault and I disagree with notions that journalists are lazy. The real issue is resource constraints that emerge from the commericialy-oriented decisions of TVNZ's management. If you cut costs and reduce news budgets then of course there's less time for reporters to actually cover the news in anything more than a perfunctory way.
Ralston also gave some interesting insights into Board level interference into editorial decision-making and noted that the current leadership of TVNZ (with a few exceptions) comes from sales and marketing backgrounds.
The board also suffers from being short-term political appointees and the tension between the political pressures, commercial pressures, the effects of Charter responsibilities and public dissatisfaction tend to make the organisation timid in many ways. TVNZ is, in Ralston's view, often a political football and when it gets kicked around, the rest of the media takes great delight in also putting the boot in - self-serving, but expected in a competitive environment.
Ralston ended his speech with a call for yet another reorganisation of TVNZ.
This is all well and good, but as other presentations at the NZPSA conference pointed out, there's been a long history of policy failure in relation to broadcasting in New Zealand. That is successive governments have not got it right.
I tend to agree, and I think that Broadcasting Futures served to underline that policy failure is the default setting in Wellington when it comes to dealing with complex issues of diveristy, globalisation, convergence and spectrum allocation.\
Broadcasting Futures was like a curate's egg. Tasty in parts, but overall, mostly unpalatable.
Many of the sessions were dominated by the marketing guys from the large corporates who were among the key sponsors. This included an embarrassingly crass presentation on the Freeview system; a shameless spruiking of Vodafone products and a product plugging demonstration by the guy from Kordia complete with cheesy props - "cool gadgets".
There were serious issues discussed too, if you clear away all the dross. For example the funding of independent New Zealand production by NZOnAir and government subsidies to TVNZ and TV3 to get Freeview off the ground.
There was a real tension between the content makers and the platform providers and it wasn't hard to see who was in the driver's seat. The content makers are the poor relations. The embarrassing second cousins who are necessary to the overall well-being of the family, but who we would prefer to ignore and keep out of family celebrations.
The fat-pipe guys have all the aces. They have the suits and the contacts in government (both political and functionary) and they have the money.
For example, why is the analogue TV signal going to be switched off? This is a global trend in most developed capitalist economies. The arguments about better signals, or what the marketing men call "value propositions" for "customers" are one thing, but who's actually asking for it? In whose interests is it really for all of us to be pushed onto digital platforms?
It's all about marketising and commodifiying popular culture, all of our entertainment and information options and all of our political rights as citizens.
Michael Parenti is one critical scholar who has looked at this issue; in an article in Monthly Review he wrote:

Linked by purchase and persuasion to dominant ruling-class interests, ...social institutions are regularly misrepresented as politically neutral, especially by those who occupy command positions within them or are otherwise advantaged by them. What Gramsci said about the military might apply to most other institutions in capitalist society: their "so-called neutrality only means support for the reactionary side...As the capitalist economy has grown in influence and power, much of our culture has been expropriated and commodified. Its use value increasingly takes second place to its exchange value. Nowadays we create less of our culture and buy more of it, until it really is no longer our culture. "

The process of digitisation and convergence in media technologies is accompanied by a growth in the globalisation and concentration of media capital. More and more of our lives are turned into "value propositions".
A value proposition is a piece of marketing jargon that attempts to simplify a complex message into bite-sized meaty chunks of information that consumers can digest and that will help them make a decision to by your product or service. In the context of public interest media this means a conscious dumbing down of ideas and then attaching an exchange value to them - that is pricing them in a market context just like any other commodity.
While Bill Ralston might think the model of broadcasting in New Zealand is flawed and unworkable, I would go further: the whole system is broken.

Ethical Martini

Ethical Martini now on Wordpress

McCanns' win lesson to the tabloids?

A blast from Palast

Bouqets not brickbats

A day in the life of Ashley Dupre: Celebrity callgirl to callgirl celebrity

Prostitutes, privacy and media harrassment

Congratulations to Susan Boyd-Bell

So hot. So Not!

Perez Hilton

Sex Scandal

Brothel client front page news? Not

Off the record - Not!

If we must teach shorthand what are we not teaching?

Who's still teaching shorthand?

Taste Test: The Journalist

A "new" Martini: The Gin and the Journalist

Harry Hotpants and his Crack Baby

Harry Hotpants exposes himself to Terry Taleban: "I'm a f*ck*** tosser!"

'Prince Harry

Is A Top Terror Target'

Prince Harry is now a top terror target after serving in Afghanistan, a radical cleric has warned.

British airman killed

in Iraq attack named

8:29AM Monday March 03, 2008 By Peter Griffiths

Sunday 2 March: 22 dead

How to Stop the Fiji Regime in its Tracks when it comes for Journalists

Media hypocrisy over TV3 interview with crook

Web Capitalism 2.0

New claims about cancer scare at ABC Brisbane studios

McCain, elections, ethics and smears

Farewell Peter McGregor 1947-2008, revolutionary friend

Facebook and the news

With friends like these ... Why Facebook is not just a pretty face

SOS for SBS - no advertising

How the Pentagon Planted a False Hormuz Story - CommonDreams.org

MTV sending out citizen journalists to cover campaigns - The Boston Globe

Britney Spears - queen of the blogosphere

summer reading #3: not for faint-hearted

News reporting faces web challenge, warns NYT editor : CyberJournalist.net

Bloggers and Journalists: Friends or Foes? : CyberJournalist.net

Citizen Journalism at War

Vermouth, the whole truth and nothing but Vermouth

France’s News 24 ‘Observers’ citizen media project : CyberJournalist.net

Citizen journalism dominates online news in 2007 : CyberJournalist.net

China's net video crackdown could hurt YouTube - web - Technology - smh.com.au

Summer reading, some are drinking

Peter McGregor - free at last

Neglecting the blog

QUT saga, last laugh for John and Garry

Civil rights protest in New Zealand - stop the terror laws

Doing more with less

Prominent Maori activist arrested in dawn raids

Free speech supports lying politicians

David McSwane wins right to stay in editor's job

Free Burma

Fuck Bush - not in this town!

Free Burma! - International Bloggers' Day for Burma on the 4th of October 2007

Chaser lot may be let off for the APEC stunt - National - smh.com.au

NMHRC to investigate QUT-Noonan claims

QUT sacks academics - update

Can citizen media be a business?

TV phone-in games rigged - thought so!

Old hand embraces new forms of journalism

NSw police learn APEC lessons well

police lurking in chat rooms - no place to hide

Police to look for predators on internet chatrooms

Police Electronic Crime Strategy released

Social networking brings trouble for those who look

John Howard - War Criminal

Rathergate - not yet over

Spies know who you talk to - surveillance society grows daily

no breastfeeding online - Facebook says its obscene

Rupert gets the knife out at the WSJ

Youth - the new folk devils

Another student tasered by campus cops - what's with this shit?

a warning to social networkers

Martinis at the Viaduct - a welcome Tuesday break

APEC - nothing of substance happend

Janet Albrechtsen - why are you still here?

8:29AM Monday March 03, 2008
By Peter Griffiths