A Big Dumb Number approach to hazard reduction burning
Today’s Australian reports that: THE Brumby government rejected a recommendation from a parliamentary committee that it triple the amount of controlled fuel-reduction burns carried out in bushfire-prone areas of Victoria just two months before the Black Saturday catastrophe killed 173 [...]
The male gaze: I see it
It’s time for the annual discussion about the lack of women in the Australia political blogosphere. But with all the talk about how women are doing political blogging – they just aren’t being recognised – why is the question never: [...]
Against generationalism; it's hard to kill zombie ideas
I’ve been running a bit of a crusade against lazy generationalist assumptions for a long time (ie ‘all Baby Boomers are x, Gen Y thinks z’.) These perennial sweeping stereotypes raised their head in Monday’s Woodstock culture wars. Recently, too, [...]
Rudd vs. The Australian
Some time ago, I made some observations on the significance of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard’s attacks on various News Limited papers, and on The Australian. The thrust of that commentary was that – the immediate antecedents of the stoush [...]
Lame claims: invoking the Reserve Bank and Treasury politically
Sometimes, in politics, it might be better to remain silent. Glenn Milne’s latest intervention, talking up a line from Liberal MP Scott Morrison, has to be one of the lamest ever political attack lines. [For those who don't want to [...]
Bushfire Royal Commission interim report
The Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission has released an interim report. The commission hasn’t made any recommendations on fuel reduction issues so far. However, it’s had quite a lot to say about warnings and the “stay or go” policy. In a [...]
Video Of The Day: from The Onion on Google and privacy
There’s been a slew of articles about Google and privacy and Google monstering poor little media conglomerates lately. Just paranoia (or competitors panic-mongering), or is there a legitimate concern regarding a looming information monopoly?
Tweaking the RET
Well, the government has split the renewable energy target from the CPRS. Perhaps a small win for the Opposition; more to the point, it’s a victory for common sense. If renewable energy targets are to be a substantial part of [...]
Attack of the one-inch-wide-and-a-mile-thicks
News reports in recent days draw our attention to that most ornery of political beasts, the one-inch-wide-and-a-mile-thick. This term describes a political grouping dedicated to a conviction or cause whose support amongst the general public can be measured in single [...]
Anonymity, blog commenting and defamation
By Mark Bahnisch on August 19, 2009
An American Court has required Google to disclose the identity of a blogger who allegedly defamed a New York model, Liskula Cohen, so that she could take an action for libel: Judge Madden rejected the claims by the blogger’s lawyer [...]
Posted in Blogging, Law, Media, Politics | Tagged andrew bolt, anonymity, attack speech, blogger, Blogging, blogs, commenters, comments, defamation, google, hate speech, identity, Jason Wilson, Law, libel, Liskula Cohen, Media, vilification, web 2.0 | 33 Responses