LamestreamMedia

One of the oldest jokes in Australian political journalism is to look at photos of the annual Midwinter Ball fundraiser held in Parliament House and reaffirm that politics is, indeed, show business for ugly people. Obviously, we would never stoop that low, because we have more important things to talk about.

Charlie Pickering’s attack on Grace Tame is a test for the ABC Charlie Pickering gave the ABC's most unhinged critics, who want to abolish the ABC, exactly the ammunition they wanted. Staff cannot understand why he did it.

For the past few weeks, we’ve been critical of the lack of any kind of co-ordinated response from the media industry to Pauline Hanson’s war on press freedom. From blanket bans on outlets she doesn’t like, to calling The Guardian’s Sarah Martin a “nasty bitch”, Hanson made it clear that, despite being the most popular politician in the country, she doesn’t really believe in the concept of the fourth estate being part of our system of democratic accountability and scrutiny.

The Australian Press Council is probably one of the least well known and understood institutions in the country, but it’s played a significant role in undermining the public’s faith in the news media. How so? Well, it’s generally pretty reluctant to fulfil its core mission, which is to regulate the print media. The reason why becomes more apparent when you realise it’s actually an entirely voluntary organisation that is self-funded by media outlets it’s supposed to regulate.

Last Saturday, an investigation by the Wall Street Journal revealed that the UAE carried out dozens of its own attacks on Iran, from the very first days of the war. This is not what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the public when he deployed the Australian military to the UAE. “There's been no attack from the UAE against Iran,” he told reporters at the press conference announcing the deployment.

Tickets to our live shows featuring guests like Ben Lee, Tony Armstrong, Grace Tame, and more are on sale now. Charlie Pickering doesn’t owe the ABC everything, but he does owe it a lot. His first regular media gig was as host of Triple J’s Drive program back in 2001, a position he landed after being invited by Wil Anderson to do guest spots on Breakfast.

Last weekend, as Gaza’s starvation crisis dominated most front pages, The Weekend Australian instead featured a story under the headline: “Jewish editor’s take on ABC bias”. The Australian’s article included allegations the ABC had been biased against Israel since October 2023, citing the network airing interviews with Nasser Mashni from the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network and the Jewish Council of Australia’s Sarah Schwartz as evidence.