Discussion starters for this year-end edition of the circus:
- The various year in retrospective pieces dominate the news shows while most reporters take a holiday break – what are they missing right now? Have you found any particular retrospective compilation particularly engaging?
(I quite liked Forbes’ Lump of Coal Awards For The Worst Fiscal Ideas Of 2012, at least in part for the conclusions I disagree with.) - Fiscal cliff fiscal cliff fiscal cliff fiscal cliff, fiscal cliff fiscal cliff fiscal cliiiiii-iff!
- The mass demonstrations in India calling for more effective policing and stronger penalties against rapists are becoming calls for the application of the death penalty to the six suspects currently in custody following the vicious gang rape in Delhi.
“The real problem is the conviction rate, the delay in the administration of justice, the lack of sensitivity of the police with dealing with such matters, the lack of security in the city,” said Jayati Ghosh, a professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, who was present at the protests in New Delhi. “Last year, the conviction rate in New Delhi for those who appeared in court for rape cases was less than 5 percent. The problem lies in the certainty of punishment rather than the severity.”
The current law imposes a maximum of life imprisonment for gang rape, but now that the victim has died from her injuries, the death penalty becomes a legal option as the charges are upgraded to murder.
What’s piqued your media interests lately?
As usual for media circus threads, please share your bouquets and brickbats for particular items in the mass media, or highlight cogent analysis or pointed twitterstorms etc in new media. Discuss any current sociopolitical issue (the theme of each edition is merely for discussion-starter purposes – all current news items are on topic!).
David Pope’s political cartoons have been delighting me lately. He won a well-deserved award this year for them.
A woman’s perspective on growing up in New Delhi and the effect of the constant threat of sexual assault on her psyche: The Subjugation Capital
I haven’t followed up on it, but Margo Kingston was talking on twitter about the ABC’s ‘the year that was’ coverage and thinks that it is interesting and depressing that the ABC talked about the Slipper matter but didn’t mention that Ashby’s case had been thrown out of court.
Ross Gittins: The four business gangs that run the US (and why they love deregulation)