First of all, here's what we have for you this week:
- Killer Grabs: Quotes from around the traps.
- How News Corp became a propaganda machine for white nationalism — By Scott Mitchell and Izzy Lewis
- The Good Ones: The best journalism, opinion and entertainment for you to enjoy.
It's only been five days since a nationwide series of rallies demonstrated the growth of far-right ideology and white supremacy in Australia, dominating the subsequent political and media conversation for the entire week.
We had an enormous response to our first-hand coverage of those marches, and our analysis examining how we got to this point and what is likely to happen next.
We would love to hear any ideas or feedback at all, whether it's about the look and feel of it, what you want to read more about from us or how often you'd like to hear from us.
Meanwhile, the mainstream media has been oscillating between outright endorsement of the protests (see the front page of Seven's The Nightly below, comparing the marchers to Australian cultural landmarks like meat pies, kangaroos and Holdens...) or earnestly debating immigration levels, delivering the far-right one of their key goals of the marches.
In today's newsletter, Scott looks deeper into the role played by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is explicitly broadcasting white nationalist ideology. News Corp remains one of Australia's biggest and most influential media companies, influencing coverage at every single other outlet, and retains a disproportionate amount of influence on our politics as well.
Too many in the Australia media and political landscape are too frightened to explicitly call out News Corp for the way it is corroding our society and our culture. Scott's reporting demonstrates why that is needed more urgently than ever.
Killer Grabs
"Putin is evil. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court." — The Sydney Morning Herald's editorial, September 3.
We don't disagree, yet it's hard to imagine the Sydney Morning Herald ever describing Benjamin Netanyahu, also wanted by the International Criminal Court, this way.
"The decision was made on purely financial grounds, the board having found it no longer viable to produce the magazine ongoing." — Melbourne University Press, on why it was shutting down the 85-year-old literary magazine Meanjin.
The idea that Melbourne University sacked Meanjin's staff and shut down the acclaimed literary journal because it wasn't financially viable to continue is absolutely laughable.
Of course it isn't viable to publish a literary magazine, that's why they have been subsidised by governments and universities for decades. The point is not to create a commercial, for-profit product but to create a space where ideas and art can flourish.
You know what else isn't financially viable without subsidies? Universities!
