“In denial” applies more widely than the demise of Dear Leader and Dear Party; it encompasses the whole context of new media. With most of the world’s newspapers on-line, the savvy, the well-educated, the political junkies - and students, from kids doing primary-school projects to postGrads, read from “papers” around the world. Even ABC’s venerable Peter Crundall says he starts the day by reading the world’s papers on-line, and in this regard, he’s not even an unusual member of generations brought up on “papers”. Dennis Shanahan’s first post on Rudd’s European trip was hilariously inaccurate; and for over a day (but mostly two or more) no MSM reporter picked up on the kudos Rudd gained by insisting that Chinese Torch Relay guards would be kept under control, their roles limited to Torch Relighting. It was all over the blogsphere before bone-lazy MSM journos travelling with the PM reacted. I admit to having a ball saying so (with quotations & URLs) in numerous “comment” spaces. DOH!

A decade ago, state broadsheets were still dedicated to Serious News; today, only The Age & SMH try to be. TheOz sold its soul to brown-nosing Howard, & Tom Switzer turned good critical-investigative journalism into “OpEd” pro-Howard gush. Over that decade, the WWW grew from a seedling just rising from the frustration of making coffee while one’s computer saved a few pages and coding in frustrating HTML to today’s Blogs, Boards & multi-media YouTube & streaming (if, that is, one has fast broadband) while paper journalism dumbed down into tabloid gush. Janet A, Piers A, Bolt, Blair, Milne, Overington, etc etc are not journalists, not even hacks; they’re not even the print equivalent of “Shock Jocks”. At best they’re Vanity Opinionists.

If I want journalism - or to know what (besides celebrity gossip)is happening beyond these shores - I click on my fave UK, USA etc on-line papers (oh to have an Oz paper with journos of the calibre, but not necessarily the political stance, of The Independent’s). I also click on ABC’s “Unleashed”, with its broad sweep of writers, opinions and interactive comments; but I spend most time on blogs like this, New Matilda, Blogocracy, OzForums and so many others - usually to browse, sometimes to post, occasionally to have a good argument. The journalism is usually what good journalism should be; the comments range from stimulating & incisive, through inane & rabid troll, to wonderfully funny.

Thanks for a stimulating challenge, mercurius! Long may ye STIR!

Sure, they have plenty of other techniques. The main ones are copying and pasting press releases and stories from news feeds. Then there are the investigative techniques like asking each other what they think about the stories, or asking politicians what they think about the stories, or writing stories that are purely speculative and then asking each other what they think about the speculation.

Ken @ 16, absolutely bollocking spot on, in a laugh-out-loud-then-sober-up-and-cry kind of way.

yes, soooo old-fashioned.
I think he was the same chap I heard on ABC radio yesterday. He said in the hardest-hit area, a very young Chinese girl approached his cameraman, and offered him a packet of 2-minute noodles. Touching indeed. A human story, told quietly and directly. Parents burning the clothing of their dead children on the banks of the river, before departing.

The “spin” story seems to be that after 1 week of open reporting, the head of Xinhua Newsagency read the riot act, and coverage in China has now become bland and happy.

(Like in Canberra, except they didn’t require to be chastised by Xinhua. It just came naturally to our Aussie jokers.)

Sure, they have plenty of other techniques. The main ones are copying and pasting press releases and stories from news feeds. Then there are the investigative techniques like asking each other what they think about the stories, or asking politicians what they think about the stories, or writing stories that are purely speculative and then asking each other what they think about the speculation.

Hell, reporters are regular bloodhounds.

There was a bloke on last night’s ‘7.30 Report’ with a story from the centre of the China earthquake. It took me a while to realise he was actually reporting news, just like in the old days. No spin about the problems the earthquake had created for the Chinese government or the implications for the US presidential campaign … just straight reporting of what had happened.

I turned it off. Boring as.

There are plenty of big things in the works in Canberra. Some departments were given 1 month or 3 months from the date of the elections; others were given 6 months from the start of sitting this year.
I understand the government knew they were in a holding pattern until rates peak within days of the election, hence the focus on the second half of this year.
As per the Possum theory of Rudd government, the decisions and actions will go unnoticed unless the journos start talking to people instead of waiting for a ministerial presser

Road accidents are always so much more fascinating than road works.

Why interview backbenchers at all?

I don’t remember the airways post Keating overflowing with interviews of former Ministers, but perhaps my memory is faulty.

It SEEMS like habit - the mobile phone number under ‘Foreign Affairs’ is still set to Alex’s number and noone’s got around to changing that.

I would also think that Rudd isn’t encouraging anyone to rectify the situation, either.

a) train wreck, as skepticlawyer said
b) announcements of inquiries and talkfests may not give much meat to dissect [but I’d like to see a dissection of the current TAX system, how it’s changed since 1970 (say), what effects the Asprey Inquiry (circa 1974) had - if any]
c) laziness
d) editors looking for “human interest”/ celebrity/ TV / fashion angles?
e) lack of contacts
f) lack of imagination
g) ALP MP’s, Ministers much more disciplined than in the past {under the Blessed Gough, Ministers rolled in Cabinet sometimes tried to whip up support in Caucus to get a decision reversed: leaking on the scale of golf course sprinklers}
h) public servants still in awe, not leaking yet?
i) or public servants jockeying for favours

But I agree, it’s been a dull NEWS year so far.

OTOH plenty of cheap laughs from the Coalition of the Willing: some of them getting very willing indeed.

Hard to pick a winner, but the anti-Ted Baillieu website has to be a finalist.