For some bizarre unknown reason the Australian Government is moving unilaterally to join China in censoring the internet. I’m not making this up and it’s not April Fool’s Day. The Courier Mail reports that Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has hatched a $44.2 million plan to control what we read online. Internet censorship will involve two [...]
Councils oppose corruption
This takes the prize for the worst media release I’ve seen for a long time. The headline is unbelievably: “Councils oppose corruption”. Wow! Do they really? It’s from the Local Government Association of South Australia. It would be more newsworthy, of course, if they supported corruption. The introduction is nonsenical: SA’s Local Government Association has [...]
The missing billions
I wrote once before about how newspapers are nutter magnets. We’re dealing with one at the moment who is definitely in the hall of fame. I won’t be too specific because the poor fellow is obviously disturbed and I don’t want to make fun of him as an individual. But it’s interesting to discuss the [...]
Story selection vindicated
Publishing a newspaper isn’t rocket science; it’s common sense really. The influence of an editor is most noticeable in story selection and the emphasis given to particular stories. While changes to the style and direction of a newspaper might affect sales in the longer term, casual buyers are won by word of mouth and a [...]
Lawnmower warning story travels wide
I wrote earlier this month about the lawnmower story. The story has “travelled” and even come to international attention. I never published it on The Border Watch website, largely because I didn’t want to fuel a negative perception of the town. Someone scanned the story from the paper and started an email chain which is [...]
