Coronavirus / Covid-19 Global Pandemic

[Andrew Walker]

Paddo Colt You have zero idea what I rely on. Or my info sources Quite frankly most here have shown how little if any idea of what this is all about. Now carry on with your political diatribe. I have no interest in political sides or factions.

For those asking where to look MSM is not the answer. They will lead you up the garden path. The answers are out there but you have to search for them and have an open mind about the world we live in.

[Random Rooster]

Paddo Colt 61 Where should we get the news if not for the msm? I’d genuinely like to know.

Id genuinely like to know too. Someone, anyone answer it please!!!

[rented tracksuit]

Paddo Colt You have zero idea what I rely on. Or my info sources Quite frankly most here have shown how little if any idea of what this is all about. Now carry on with your political diatribe. I have no interest in political sides or factions.

For those asking where to look MSM is not the answer. They will lead you up the garden path. The answers are out there but you have to search for them and have an open mind about the world we live in.

Cue the X Files music!

[Paddo Colt 61]

[QUOTE=The Skeez; Paddo Colt 61. Where should we get the news if not for the msm? I'd genuinely like to know.

Hey Skeez, good to hear from you. Enjoy reading your posts.

The most popular print/on line MSM banners are 9 Media and News Corp. I won't canvass the TV/Radio blatherers but all are Corporate and demonstrably not independent. Peter Costello heads up 9 (formerly Fairfax) and News Ltd has declared itself partisan (Folks might have seen Paul Kelly admitting as much on a recent Q&A but bias was/is self evident to anyone with even minimum awareness).

Now to your question, which media is independent in Australia and, therefore, more reliable or at least provides alternative views/interpretations? Probably the largest is The Guardian which has flourished since first appearing locally. Readership has grown exponentially largely at the expense of 9/Fairfax whose well educated, well off readership has deserted it in droves. My impression is, however, that the UK parent is less independent given their cowardice in deserting Julian Assange and their peddling of Israeli propaganda re Jeremy Corbyn and "anti Semitism in British Labour.

There are, however, many minor media players which are independent - some require subscription like Crikey, the Schwartz media (The Saturday Paper & The Monthly) but others are free and the very best of those, in my opinion, are "Pearls & Irritations" (johnmenadue.com.au) - this week has some cracking pieces - and Michael West (a former 9 senior writer - michaelwestmedia.com.au). Then there is the ABC which has been increasingly cowered by Government and regularly features contributions from far Right outfits like the IPA. John Menadue was a former PS head of Prime Minister and Cabinet and his contributors are former high ranking public servants, diplomats and academics who are knowledgeable and can write. Articles/comments are most engaging.

Unforch, the bulk of the community have no idea what independent means nor do they have even an atom of interest. In fact, they don't take any notice of the right wing opinionistas in their MSM though they are influenced by banner headlines of the "Kick this Mob Out" or "Gladys Steps Up" or "Enemies of the State" type. Surveys show that while the Sheeple have little or no interest, they are influenced by peers and that's how right wing rubbish disseminates so widely. It does not directly come from Ray, Jonesy, Bolt, Credlin, Amanda or any of the other hacks, it comes from BB, 08, Jaxie et al who are spectacularly ill informed but do have a attraction to the Right and are echo chambers at the barbie, the pub, the Surf Club and on sites like this. They, and others like them, are the "mate", the "good bloke", the "wise uncle" who knows heaps and saves you the trouble of thinking for yourself.

[Paddo Colt 61]

If readers would like to see absolute pap media go to Yahoo 7 where the news is total click bait rubbish aimed at a female readership. To me it spotlights the quality of "journalism" in Oz. No wonder Feminism struggles these days though even women who profess to be feminists would most likely click on who's lost 50kgs, who had a bikini malfunction or whose wedding dress was inappropriate. Mind you pap is ubiquitous and it's a diversion - a "you don't want to know about boring politics, social issues, change in any form.
The Libs are currently cooking up an Industrial Relations Omnibus Bill which aims to give even more power to the boss and far less to Unions but what the hell look over there, she lost 150 kilos in a week. Or that fruit loop KKK's had a fall - pity it wasn't fatal.

[mightyrooster]

If readers would like to see absolute pap media go to Yahoo 7 where the news is total click bait rubbish aimed at a female readership. To me it spotlights the quality of "journalism" in Oz. No wonder Feminism struggles these days though even women who profess to be feminists would most likely click on who's lost 50kgs, who had a bikini malfunction or whose wedding dress was inappropriate. Mind you pap is ubiquitous and it's a diversion - a "you don't want to know about boring politics, social issues, change in any form.
The Libs are currently cooking up an Industrial Relations Omnibus Bill which aims to give even more power to the boss and far less to Unions but what the hell look over there, she lost 150 kilos in a week. Or that fruit loop KKK's had a fall - pity it wasn't fatal.

Lol Paddo! Yes news.com.au and yahoo do my head in with their click bait headlines even a 14 year old year 9 student could write. Massive “surge’, ‘unprecedented event’ , ‘devastating outcome’. Then there’s the ‘NRL star’ does this and ‘cricket legend says that’... What the hell has happened to journalism in this country?

[redwhiteblue]

Lol Paddo! Yes news.com.au and yahoo do my head in with their click bait headlines even a 14 year old year 9 student could write. Massive “surge’, ‘unprecedented event’ , ‘devastating outcome’. Then there’s the ‘NRL star’ does this and ‘cricket legend says that’... What the hell has happened to journalism in this country?

My new year's resolution is to stop reading news sites. I am sick of reading about the C word and I think the fear mongering, mass hysteria and general panic is far more dangerous and contagious.

I think 'fact checker' as a career choice went the way of the abacus. Same with sporting 'journalists'. I just want to watch the Roosters for 80 mins with no 'opinion pieces' or 'panel experts' - there is a contradiction in terms.Anyone with a Twitter account is considered a media personality these days.

[redwhiteblue]

If readers would like to see absolute pap media go to Yahoo 7 where the news is total click bait rubbish aimed at a female readership. To me it spotlights the quality of "journalism" in Oz. No wonder Feminism struggles these days though even women who profess to be feminists would most likely click on who's lost 50kgs, who had a bikini malfunction or whose wedding dress was inappropriate. Mind you pap is ubiquitous and it's a diversion - a "you don't want to know about boring politics, social issues, change in any form.
The Libs are currently cooking up an Industrial Relations Omnibus Bill which aims to give even more power to the boss and far less to Unions but what the hell look over there, she lost 150 kilos in a week. Or that fruit loop KKK's had a fall - pity it wasn't fatal.

9Honey is just as bad PC. I agree with a lot of your above post and no wonder the Huff Post Australia didn't last. All that stuff makes my skin crawl.

[rented tracksuit]

Betoota! FMD!

[Paddo Colt 61]

[QUOTE=mightyrooster;
Lol Paddo! Yes news.com.au and yahoo do my head in with their click bait headlines even a 14 year old year 9 student could write. Massive surge, unprecedented event, devastating outcome &Then there's the NRL star does this and & cricket legend says that.. What the hell has happened to journalism in this country?

Good to see you weigh in MR. I find you, too, one of the more interested/interesting contributors. Open minded is the word.
As far as "journalism" is concerned, poor quality has been the norm here forever. Tabloids and waste of space mags have always been the people's choice - easy to understand, minimal detail and clear and definitive on all issues (always from the proprietor's POV).

Certainly the education system is a failure but it does, or it used to, do its best to elevate the thinking of the masses in the humanities. The problem was /is that the masses are largely unreceptive. Until fairly recently finishing high school was an elitist thing. The vast majority saw education as being unnecessary and even irrelevant to their lives because, historically, there has been a deep vein of anti intellectualism cultivated, indeed, by the media which used the tall poppy thing and resentment of expert opinion to dumb down its already uncritical audience.

In recent times, huge changes in the distribution of advertising income has led to rethinks of media business models and "news" often manipulated and selective anyway has been replaced by opinion, celebrity, "well being" (navel gazing) and gossip of the type that we see everywhere. Nobody could be well informed simply by consuming MSM in Australia, there is never any backgrounding on any issue.

By definition, 50% of us are below average intelligence on conventional IQ scales and a sizeable number are just above. Most of that lot derive next to nothing from their "education" having abandoned intellectual curiosity sometime in infancy. Of course that is a generational phenomenon - chronic cultural deprivation and all of the other endemic societal ills. Result - dumb, biased, nefarious media ain't gonna disappear anytime soon. Those few of us who are concerned and who take the trouble to investigate issues (and I don't mean Q-anon) need to confront misinformation whenever it is spouted by some empty head that's about the best that can be done.

[4 the all in brawl]

Betoota! FMD!

What's wrong with Betoota? I get all my news from them..

[redwhiteblue]

Paddo Colt You have zero idea what I rely on. Or my info sources Quite frankly most here have shown how little if any idea of what this is all about. Now carry on with your political diatribe. I have no interest in political sides or factions.

For those asking where to look MSM is not the answer. They will lead you up the garden path. The answers are out there but you have to search for them and have an open mind about the world we live in.

OMG Just re-watching all 8 seasons of Castle and up to season 3 episode 9

[Paddo Colt 61]

[QUOTE=4 the all in brawl;
What's wrong with Betoota? I get all my news from them..

Don't worry...MSM "journalists" have quoted The Advocate in the past thinking it was for real. The hilarious thing is that, bazaar as it is, it's not a lot different from the tabloid stuff that it lampoons which makes it so funny, or at least amusing.
It is the MSM overkill that leads people to the Advocate just as the SMH's rightward drift especially re China (and the CEO's fundraising night for the LNP wasn't a help) that drove its intelligent readership to The Guardian which started here on a relative shoe string, hired a few SMH real journalists and then did what reliable media should do - reported factually.

[rented tracksuit]

What's wrong with Betoota? I get all my news from them..

I think AW does as well!

[The Skeez]

Paddo Colt 61 Thanks for the lead. I’ve read Michael West before and will catch up with him again. Just poring over John Menadue now, a fitting accompaniment to my Sunday morning black coffee.