Australian Prime Minister Gillard wins leadership challenge

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has won a leadership challenge, 71 votes to 31, against former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Eighteen months ago Kevin Rudd was forced to resign as Prime Minister after an unexpected and sudden leadership challenge by the now Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

At the time there was no clear explanation of the reasons behind the “coup” with Australian Labor Party (ALP) ministers simply claiming that the “government had lost its way”. The move was criticised as a poor political decision damaging its future election prospects – “faceless men” were often cited as the determining influence behind Rudd’s forced resignation.

Review: Is the Internet making journalism better or worse? – by Mathew Ingram

By Glen Clancy

The rise of new media has old media caught in the crosshairs between supporting one of its most fundamental values – the pursuit of perfect information and the fostering of public debate- and fighting for its very existence.

Drastic changes in any industry will always bring resistance. The question is, how much of this resistance to online media is about the defence of quality journalism and how much of it is about the fear of losing control?

In this article, Mathew Ingram, senior writer with GigaOM.com, examines the online media debate between journalism professor Jay Rosen and digital skeptic and author Nicholas Carr hosted by The Economist.

Carr contests that the Internet is damaging traditional media and only benefits the “plugged-in elite”. The people are being starved of “hard, objective reporting”, says Carr.

Rosen relinquishes that there has been an “explosion of questionable online content” but says the Internet is improving journalism – citing the increase in contributors, distribution, and effective tools and a shift in power away from “a small number of gatekeepers”.

“The Internet is simply an accelerator, amplifying the good and the bad,” Ingram concludes. “Whether society as a whole is better off is still an open question.”

Read article here:

Is the Internet making journalism better or worse? Yes

Welcome to viral fact-checking Greg Sheridan (QandA)

By Glen Clancy

Article Review: Japan Aftermath Demands ‘Unrelenting’ Reporting by Bruce Shapiro

Glen Clancy

News worthiness can be a cruel creature.

On 11 March 2011, Japan was struck by a giant tsunami that was triggered by the fourth largest earthquake in recorded history, leaving 20,000 people dead and more than 80,000 refugees.

But the humanitarian impacts of the tragedy have been sidelined in favour of a third disaster, the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns.

In this interview, Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, says that comprehensive reporting on the ongoing humanitarian crisis is vital for human recovery.

“We’re missing more of what we need on this horrific human tragedy,” says Dr. Redlener.

Despite the catastrophic unfolding nuclear disaster, Dr. Redlener believes journalists still need to perform an “unrelenting monitoring” of the humanitarian recovery process.

This includes asking the tough questions, says Dr. Redlener.

“Who is in charge of the response? What is the plan? Are human needs recognised and being addressed? Are there ongoing threats?”

This interview alerts journalists to the necessity of ‘balance’ in disaster reporting and the consequences of abandoning the most important aspect of the story – the people.

Read Bruce Shapiro’s Article

Animal cruelty: in the eyes of the beholder

Glen Clancy

Imagine a pig. Take a moment.

Now imagine a dolphin.

What do you see?

The dolphin – and indeed the whale – has assumed an almost sacred-like status in the West, while other animals such as the pig… well, have lost out.

The Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove, airing Sunday night on ABC1, is a masterfully crafted spy-like thriller telling the story of dolphin hunting practices in Taiji, Japan. The documentary shows terrible scenes of dolphins being rounded up, netted and then slaughtered with spears.

It is shocking to see an animal, any animal, being killed. So what about the meat that makes it to the Aussie dinner plate? Does its past life get a fair hearing?

Read full article

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2860470.html

The Curious Case of Marwan Khreesat: Paul Foot’s investigations

by Glen Clancy

Journalists love a good scoop. Top political correspondents were in for a treat at the March 1989 Garrick Club lunch.

Scottish police had uncovered the group responsible for the Pan Am 103 Lockerbie bombing and arrests were imminent, the press gathering was told off-the-record by Transport Minister Paul Channon. These revelations were promptly splashed across the front page of the newspapers who had been lucky enough to be in the loop.

Syria and Iran were implicated together with a Palestinian group, the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), allegedly hired to plant the bomb disguised as a cassette recorder in revenge for a US strike on an Iranian airliner the previous year – all of which was outlined in a three-month-long Sunday Times expose.

Suddenly, eighteen months after the attack the direction of the enquiry shifted and two Libyans were indicted – based on the evidence from one ‘witness’, Abdul Majid Giaka.

Paul Foot’s decade-long investigation summarised in this article he wrote for The Guardian exposed the trial as a farce offering geopolitical strategies as motivation for the abrupt shift in suspects.

Giaka had defected from Lybian intelligence to the CIA months after the bombing but failed to inform the CIA of his alleged evidence of the attacks unitl the beginning of the Gulf War. Giaka stood to gain a four million dollar reward for his testimony.

Foot’s investigation detailed the curious case of undercover Jordanian intelligence agent, Marwan Khreesat, who was arrested by German police in possession of an explosive device shortly before the attacks. Scottish police were prohibited from questioning Khreesat who was hastily released.

An FBI summery of an interview with Khreesat was presented in the trial, “[FBI agent Edward Marshman] does not think [Khreesat] built the device responsible for Pan Am 103, as he only built four devices in Germany”. Foot exposed this statement as a sham. Khreesat had made five devices – not four – all disguised as cassette recorders, one of which was stolen.

Two months prior to the bombing when Khreesat returned from the shower to resume his work, both his associate Dalkamoni, a PFLP member, together with one of the bombs were gone.

Foots tireless analysis of the development of the Lockerbie bombing investigation is a chief example of the true essence of investigative journalism. A timely reminder of the need for critical thinking and a commitment to through research in the current media environment dominated by the almighty PR machine. 

Paul Foots summary on The Guardian

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