A Profile Of The Wittenoom Wombat

 australia  No Responses »
Sep 232012
 

From the Urban Dictionary: WOMBAT – Waste of money, brains and time One of the best profiles done on The Wittenom Wombat, or Gina Rinehart as she is otherwise known, was done by the now sadly defunct ABC TV show, The Hungry Beast. Since that profile first went to air, Rinehart has become entangled in a legal battle with her own children for control of a trust which holds the Hancock Prospecting assets. This is somewhat ironic, given that she had to go through a lengthy legal battle to gain control of it in the first place (as described in the above video). Also mentioned in the video, is the bit about Rinehart wanting to use nuclear explosions to develop open cut mines in place

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Scott Morrison And The Streisand Effect

 australia  No Responses »
Jun 142012
 

With their apology to glass jawed Scott Morrison, the ABC has illustrated perfectly the concept known as the Streisand Effect. What Is The Streisand Effect? The Streisand effect is a primarily online phenomenon in which an attempt to hide or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely. It is named after American entertainer Barbra Streisand, whose attempt in 2003 to suppress photographs of her residence inadvertently generated further publicity. Similar attempts have been made, for example, in cease-and-desist letters, to suppress numbers, files and websites. Instead of being suppressed, the information receives extensive publicity and media extensions such as videos & spoof songs, often being widely mirrored across the Internet or distributed on file-sharing networks. Mike Masnick

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Cry Havoc, And Let Slip The Dogs Of MOAR Part 1

 australia  2 Responses »
May 292012
 

In the wake of the Pyne – Ashby connections as well as the Jackson – Lawler – Abbott connections, a meme has been growing on Twitter. With each passing day, there are more revelations which make both stories reek to high heaven. The term MOAR has been adopted by the Twitterati to describe the ever growing miasma. The word ‘moar” is a combination of the words more and roar. The astute amongst you will also notice that this is part 1. The series will grow as each new revelation is uncovered. I was originally going to call this piece MOAR Pigs after the classic song by hard rock/metal legends Black Sabbath, but decide to go with the more literate (mis)quote from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar that

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Chris Uhlmann Has Made 730 A Joke

 televison  No Responses »
May 182012
 

In a previous article The Derp made note of the decline of the ABC’s flagship current affairs program 730 (Bring On The Dodgy Plumbers). When Leigh Sales left the show to go on maternity leave, sidekick Chris Uhlmann took over as host. Since then the show has gone even further downhill. All the blame for this decline is solely attributable to Uhlmann’s “interview” style. Rather than let the conversation evolve, Uhlmann seems to have a set list of questions to ask, and races through them, often talking over his guests in order to make sure every question gets asked. This makes the interviews very stilted, and often veer from one topic to another without any sense of coherence. When interviewing members of the Government, Uhlmann

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The Murdoch Virus Part 1 – The Virus

 media  No Responses »
Apr 282012
 

In this seven part series of articles we will examine the detrimental effect Rupert Murdoch’s style of journalism (The Murdoch Virus) has had on the once noble profession of journalism, as well as society and democracy not only in Australia, but also in Britain and The United States. The second part (“Hillsborough”) will look at one of the most shameful episodes in the Murdoch Empires catalogue of sins. “Outfoxed” is the title for part 3, and will focus on Fox News and its effects on US politics and journalism. Part 4 “Hackgate” will look at the ongoing scandal enveloping Newscorp in the UK, and part 5 looks at the biggest threat to the Murdoch Empire in “Murdoch And The Internet”. Part 6 (“The Right To

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Bring On The Dodgy Plumbers

 televison  2 Responses »
Feb 222012
 

“And no stories about dodgy plumbers” said a straight faced Leigh Sales in promotions for the “new look” 730 Report. This was coupled with promises to bring us stories that matter in the hard hitting style that Kerry O’Brien made the show famous with. In other words, the only change was going to be that O’Brien’s role was going to be jointly handled by Sales and Chris Uhlmann. So how did it go so horribly wrong? Well first off the flash new set delayed the launch of 730, the new name for what we all knew and loved as The 730 Report. From that inauspicious start, things went rapidly downhill. It is no secret that ratings for 730 are a fraction of the old 730

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