gatewatching

1. It’s very difficult to stop people watching a television programme that’s been broadcast in another State, even if you’ve banned it, and even if it might prejudice court proceedings. (Bloody Internet.)

2. It’s very difficult to keep a Prince’s wherabouts under wraps when the media are globally networked, even if his life depends on it. (Bloody Internet. Bloody New Idea.)

3. It’s very difficult for Attorneys-General to back away from regulation that frames gamers as children, even if everyone knows that it’s in large part an adult market, and even if, in any case, any fourteen-year-old can acquire any game (or movie, or song) they want. (Bloody Internet. Bloody Family First to please. Bloody Senate.)

government, media celebrity, gaming, government, journalism, law, media

Goodness me. There’s a bit of a stoush on the Oz’s website! Janet Albrechtsen wrote a column earlier this week that gave out some advice to Kevin Rudd, and claimed victory in the “Culture Wars”, or argued that they were still going on, or something like that (It’s honestly a little bit hard to tell). Paul Keating has replied today, fairly intemperately, to a side-swipe he recieved in Albrechtsen’s column, and it’s a bit of a companion-piece to his posthumous pot-shot at Paddy McGuinness in the Fin a couple of weeks back (which is still behind the pay-wall, so no link). If it’s less discomfiting for the reader than the McGuinness diatribe, it’s probably because Janet is still very much alive, and able to defend herself.

Anyway, we’ve been in enough trouble for our alleged partisanship lately, so I’ll leave the rights and wrongs well alone, although I will say it’s all pretty entertaining whichever way you slice it. Also, perhaps I’ll risk remarking that there is something to be said for this comment on Albrechtsen’s summoning of the dreaded elites:

Albrechtsen, for her own part, of course, was not part of any elite. The ear of a prime minister and a cabinet for a decade, which finally enjoyed control of both houses of parliament; membership of a clique of journalists, sharing common cause, with unfettered access to the opinion pages of the broadsheet newspapers of the country - nothing elitist about that.

The main reason I’m posting though is to ask a couple of questions. Bear in mind that it’s up there on the Oz website, and that people are commenting furiously, whether they’re supporting PK or JA. The question is: has a current or former Prime Minister ever had an opinion piece published in this manner before, in a “blog-like” format, with the facility for immediate and copious feedback from members of the public? (Be good if people could think of prior examples)

Secondly, does anyone think Keating should start his own snark blog? What could the title be? My nomination is “unrepresentative swill”.

UPDATE: Niall’s take bringeth some more funny.

UPDATE #2: Others take sides in the match of the day. Hangover is barracking for PJK, as (perhaps predictably) are some commenters over on this LP Thread. And justice for all takes a more even-handed approach. I only found one so far that is sticking up for JA, but I’m not going to link to it because the blog as a whole seems excessively concerned with the fate of “the white race” - yowsers!

UPDATE #3 Janet comes back. Honestly it’s just like Gladiators.

UPDATE #4 Like Ken in the comments below, Jason Soon over at Catallaxy is not exactly supportive of Janet, but thinks Keating’s ego is the main player in this stoush.

blogging, government, media blogging, celebrity, government, journalism, media

As Posted on the ABC’s Opinion Website last Friday - we’d welcome further comments.

Many of the dust-ups so far between bloggers and the mainstream media (MSM) in Australia have concerned comment, not news.

The kinds of spats we’ve written about previously have been over who exactly has the mortgage on punditry about established stories, social issues, opinion polls and the like.

Occasionally the MSM’s resistance to the blogger commentariat can be less than rational, but they often get the final word with the accusation - containing more than a grain of truth - that bloggers “don’t break stories”, and are simply parasitic upon the news-gathering activities of established outlets.

The problem with this claim is that when big stories come, parts of the mainstream media can often appear negligent in their pursuit and treatment of a story, and more and more often they’re coming off second best to other, new kinds of news media.

Read more…

blogging, media blogging, celebrity, journalism, media