Thousands of people around Australia marched this past weekend to express their dissatisfaction and disgust with the Abbott government.
Sydney #MarchinMarch going off! Belmore Park totally full! 20000 or more hard to tell! #auspol pic.twitter.com/3egnN57E3M
— DavidW2035 (@DavidW2035) March 16, 2014
If 30000 people marched through the middle of Melbourne for right wing policies there'd be wall to wall Murdoch press coverage for WEEKS
— Emily McAvan (@emiliawrites) March 16, 2014
Post this everywhere cause you won’t see it on the news…RT @alexanderwhite: #marchinmarch on Spring St. pic.twitter.com/kGVMt0Lokq
— Viviene Tuckerman (@VivienTuckerman) March 16, 2014
This is why I am here! #MarchInMarch Sydney pic.twitter.com/JMpCTpwL1v
— Anita Heiss (@AnitaHeiss) March 16, 2014
What news story/commentary/analysis has grabbed your attention 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!).
Categories: ethics & philosophy, media, parties and factions
QOTD: on the blaming of progressive scolds/shamers for the rise of Trumpists 
QOTD: @DigbyParton on who Americans trust less than politicians 
Media Circus: USA Convention Season Edition 
Media Circus: Australia votes 2016 
Hoyden About Town 
False equivocation is the tactic du jour, it seems –
I think there was supposed to be a local chapter of the March in March here in WA. Mind you, if I went by the local media, I’d be saying “the what?”
No coverage on the ABC. (The ABC in Perth is very much a lower-paid sub-bureau of the media arm of the WA Liberals, so this isn’t particularly surprising).
No coverage in The West Australian (or at least, nothing in their online feed – I stopped buying the hard copy version years ago).
I sincerely doubt there was any coverage in the Sunday Slimes (Sunday Times – Rupert Murdoch’s big paper in Perth), but I’ll be honest enough to admit I haven’t gone looking.
So if a political protest occurs and nobody covers it in the media, has it really taken place?
Our own Chally has an important piece up at Global Comment, which is being promoted as ‘Editor’s Pick’, about people with disabilities being held indefinitely in prison in the Northern Territory. No surprise that this is disproportionately being used against Aboriginal people. There’s a Change.org petition up to address the specific case of Roseanne Fulton, and they’re asking for people to follow-up by calling the NT Chief Minister. This one needs some noise.
The NT govt appears to be responding to the petition and is making noises about bring Roseanne Fulton back to the NT from WA so that she can reside in purpose-built accommodation for people with intellectual disabilities.
***
In other news re Bolt vs Langton/ABC etc, this column from 2011 is worth revisiting: Andrew Bolt: Australia’s least accurate columnist? – the court finding that he’d made claims that were “grossly incorrect” and “significant distortion of the facts”.
@marrowing has upset #Mamamia by tweeting quotes from Mia Freedman’s book, as she read it.
Yes, I saw that and was one of the many ozfemmosphere tweeps who responded positively to @marrowing and scathingly about Mia Freedman’s claims to feminiist activism. I’m sure she believes herself to be personally feminist, but as one of my tweets said, monetising women’s insecurities isn’t feminism.
Yeah I missed the actual even because sick, but the fallout is interesting. It is a bit hard to claim you are being attacked when somone is tweeting your words verbatim.
Adding a SotBO: I know that Mia Freedman has received a heap of abusive misogynist shit online in response to being an outspoken woman, and that given her high media profile it probably never goes away entirely, it just comes in waves depending on what she’s doing lately. That stuff will always be wrong, but that doesn’t mean that her opinions and actions are beyond substantive feminist critique.
Good article in the Hoopla from @Drag0nista on opinion polls:
@Brocklesnitch makes good sense about Fred Phelps (Westboro Baptist Church)
Megpie71, there was a march here in Perth on Sunday and by all accounts it was very well attended. I heard that between 2000 – 4000 people were there. I would have gone but for the fact that my head is still a snot-production factory, but I know a few people who went. FB page for the Perth March https://www.facebook.com/marchinmarchperth2014
The event in Perth wasn’t well publicised beforehand though. I only heard about it by accident on the morning when it was too late to go. I did see photos via Facebook after it was over and expected it would be covered in the news broadcasts. I was surprised at the lack of coverage on ABC1 in Perth – of both the local March and those in other states – and sent them an email about it. In their reply they said neither they nor their interstate colleagues received prior notification that it was on and they didn’t hear about until it was over which could explain the poor coverage all round. Not making excuses for anyone but now I think about it they may have a point. If it had been widely promoted I would have expected to have heard about it and I didn’t.