...

Twitter provides a platform for what we might call "monitorial citizenship" — that is, the ability for ordinary people to talk directly to the powerful.

This is upsetting for the News Establishment because, for the past 200 years or so, they have been the principal gatekeepers — in a privileged position of mediating between the rulers and the ruled.

They were treated to a rare glimpse inside the halls of power – the first Press Gallery was established in the Palace of Westminster in 1803 – and in return, they were expected to massage the more brutal pronouncements of the powerful and provide for the “manufacture of consent”. The mainstream media has played a supporting role ever since; agreeing to keep some secrets to protect the state and legitimising the consolidation of the two-party system.

It was his observation of the Westminster Gallery that prompted this acerbic jab from Oscar Wilde:

"Journalism has carried its authority to the grossest and most brutal extreme. As a natural consequence, it has begun to create a spirit of revolt. People are amused by it, or disgusted by it... But it is no longer the real force it was. It is not seriously treated."

Until recently, mainstream media accounts of political machinations were not open to direct challenge. The public had to pretty much accept as gospel whatever the journalists wrote.

Now that has changed and no amount of whining from the News Establishment is going to put that genie back in its box.

The monitorial citizen in a democracy is described by Michael Schudson as a person outside the dominant political structure, who feels a responsibility to monitor what powerful institutions do and to get involved when they feel power is being abused.

Schudson is no “post-Christian” leftist. He is a respected, bespectacled professor and himself aligned with the most News Establishment New York establishment, Columbia School of Journalism. Yet he is able to see what many of our own – vastly anti-intellectual in outlook – news media refuse to see.

The power of the News Establishment is waning; monitorial citizens are taking to social media to clapback at the mistakes, misjudgements and misleading inferences that mainstream reporters make routinely.

The inestimable Mr Denmore summed it up nicely on his blog, The Failed Estate, in a piece called ‘All media is social’:

The public isn’t stupid. Much of the criticism they are expressing on social media about journalists reflects a sense of frustration that the issues they are their families care deeply about (like climate change or stagnant incomes or our treatment of refugees) are not advancing.

Quite.

 

Read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/twitter-wars-...

 

termini ludos politicus...? The end of political games...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=122&v=1efOs0BsE0g

 

 

The British, Australian, Ecuadorian and US Governments have made an ad about Julian Assange’s arrest and it’s surprisingly honest and informative!
-*- Ways you can support us to keep making videos: -- Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/TheJuiceMedia --
Tip us on PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/thejuicemedia --
Tip us in Bitcoin: 1HMPK1zFCLopAvNEvR3aehFU1tSvHeWkTS -*-

CREDITS -- Produced by Patrons of the Juice Media -- Written & created by Giordano for The Juice Media -- Performed by Ellen x Voice by Lucy and Maria Paula (Ecuador) --
Thanks to Lizzie, Micah, Scott, Clinton and Dbot for expert advice -- Thanks to Adso, Damian and Matt-N for script feedback -- Soundtrack by TwoMountains https://audiojungle.net/item/acoustic... -- Outro beat by Mozart x Eric Parsons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6JBB... -*- KEY SOURCES & READING -- US Charging Document: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pre... -- Excellent overview here by Glenn Greenwald and Micah Lee: “The U.S. Government’s Indictment of Julian Assange Poses Grave Threats to Press Freedom” https://theintercept.com/2019/04/11/t... -- Also excellent: Matt Taibbi, “Why the Assange Arrest Should Scare Reporters” https://www.rollingstone.com/politics... -- Trevor Timm, “The Case Against Julian Assange Is a Threat to Journalists Everywhere” https://medium.com/s/oversight/the-ca... -- Guy Rundle: “Assange is in the dock, but it’s investigative journalism on trial” https://www.crikey.com.au/2019/04/12/... -- Statement by Assange’s lawyer: https://www.democracynow.org/2019/4/1... -*- TRANSLATIONS -- French by Julie -- Dutch by Jonas Maebe -- Serbian by Tamara -- Dutch by Jonas Maebe -- Turkish by Antigone09 -- Danish by Mabeli -- Czech by Jaromír Karmazín -- Finnish by Max L -- Farsi by Bruce

 

Caption author (Hungarian)Solinu
Caption author (Italian)Soft
Caption author (Slovenian)Aljaž Tepej
Caption author (Portuguese (Brazil))ErickSoares3

CategoryComedy


Did I say read from top...
See also:apparently their errand friends killed jesus 2000 years ago for the same reasons...

If there has been anything more lacklustre than this Government and its shallow election campaign, it has been the reporting of the travelling press pack.

Two days ago, the ABC’s Dan Conifer tweeted a picture of a red truck, with the following caption:

‘PM jumps in a truck and honks the horn.’

Important stuff. Just like their breathless reporting of beefy, ogreish Morrison kicking a football; or chopping wood; or digging a hole; or swinging a hammer; or just standing, leering, near people actually trying to get some work done.

On Tuesday, the one-eyed press vultures went into overdrive after Scott Morrison was attacked by a doped-up hippy carrying an egg. This assault was so frightening and brutal, the egg reportedly didn’t even break — or even crack. Many might think hitting someone with an egg is a relatively mild form of protest. According to IA’s cursory research, there have been relatively few egg fatalities recorded in Australia’s political history.

But, nevertheless, according to Bevan Shields from Nine (Fairfax) it was a “disgrace”. And in the sanctimonious tone adopted by mainstream media journalists ‒ even ones barely out of short pants, like Bevan ‒ when they are obliged to correct the errant behaviour of the lowly unwashed, he added:

‘I wonder if the same people who are suggesting this is no big deal would say the same had it happened to Julia Gillard…’

They say the past is a different country, but for Australia’s media, it may as well be a different universe. The fact is, lots of political leaders have had harmless things thrown at them and lived to tell the tale. John Howard had a pair of old boots thrown at him on ABC Q&A, but, sadly, he managed to dodge them. As for Julia Gillard, she was viciously struck by a vegemite sandwich on the campaign trail in 2013. And, when it comes to eggs, in 2010, in WA, Gillard was egged by a 55 year-old man — although the ova missed her and hit a female police officer in her security detail.

 

Read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/pm-clown-boy-and-his-travelling-circus-ten-reasons-why-the-show-must-not-go-on,12657

 

 

Read from top.

 

Mind you, the egg episode could have been a false flag... You know "softly hit the PM with a hard boiled egg, so that it makes him look like a victim, but does not mark his very expensive suit". Worth 2 points in the polls. Had the egg been gooey, from a battery farm half-dead hen that make fragile eggs, one would have believed that the attack was genuine. 

As an official conspiracy theorist, I tend to believe the episode had been pre-arranged, considering Scummo did not even turn around forthwith.

 

Read from top.

read also: more bullshit from adman scummo... in leadership failures designed to fudge the australian carbon dioxide emissions...

 

Speculation over PM Malcolm Turnbull's dethroning has picked up speed, but the exhumations may uncover more than intended.

JUST WHEN you thought it was safe to go back into the graveyard, the exhumations have resumed.  

The disinterment of the events of 2018 – the persecution and assassination of Malcolm Turnbull – are now being laid bare on the table of the morgue, ready for forensic autopsy.

The overture for this macabre symphony was from Foxtel’s David Speers, in his two-part special, 'Bad Blood, New Blood.' But then came a swift fanfare from The Australian’s editor at large, Paul Kelly, anticipating a cacophony of forthcoming books on the same theme.

 

Read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/mungo-maccall...

 

Malcolm may have been "good intended" but he failed miserably in controlling the ratbags that now have the floor... He should have stayed out of plotlitics (yes — plotlitics) altogether. He would have saved millions of his own cash and protected his reputation as a savvy man — a reputation now not worth a Scummo fart.

Now we really don't care about Malcolm and his bleeding political ulcers. He killed off the NBN, which should have been a massive bonus for Australia with bps speed of up to 1000. You're lucky if you get 10 on a busy night, even if you have hooked up on the super-fast 45 bps! Yoohoo... He should have told Abbott to take a blood bath, back then, when he SHOULD have known he was doing the country a disservice… 

Our only chagrin is that he got replaced by worstest morons...

 

 

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