Category: thus far…


semiOtic addiction…Pop Art meets the little red book

Filed under: Ai Weiwei, thus far... — 1 Comment
October 1, 2011

Even though on Boket and on a mission… Keith’s memory of the newspaper ad with the famous actor flogging expensive watches still lingered. So did the bad aftertaste of the Murdochs at the Common’s Select Committee – like mean baddies from a Frank Capra movie.  Oh yeah, and the revelations of their cosy Christmas lunches with the Tory Old Etonian PM and his obsequious predecessors.

He’d stopped over on his way to Boket…Hong Kong is semiotic addiction run wild. Prada the biggest new listing on the HKEx . Seemingly obscure Swiss watch brands adorn trams and billboards with taglines referring to ‘depuis 1786’ etc. $60,000 time pieces adorn the mandarins of new China.

Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei, is adept at using signs and symbols – the juxtaposition of iconic Coca Cola lettering hand painted onto a Ming like vase…the iconography of Chairman Mao jumbled by means of winged, flying Mao’s that are like abstract and faintly disturbing angels. Pop Art meets the little red book.

Hermes’ Hong Kong store front featuring the most dour, ordinary looking clothes and accessories of exorbitant cost. Value magnified by the semiotics of the context and brand. If the same items were in a different context, what then would be their value? An interesting experiment would be to do precisely this – to take the dour clothes, remove the labels and scatter the items among rows of other clothes in something like our Australian op shops. Any takers, folks?

Branding is akin to alchemy. The transformation of the mundane into that must have object of desire. Almost like we’re programmed to form more and more material attachments. Are we so lacking in identity that we need the object of desire to tell us who we are, to define our identity? The response may be, “oh but it’s harmless”;  “we all like nice things”…people should be free to… blah, blah, blah”. Fair enough, up to a point, but this shouldn’t prevent us from examining our own semiotic addictions and attachments.

The French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, wrote of developmental stages from infant to ‘adult’: need, demand and finally…desire. Semiotic addiction perhaps functions in reverse.

Commercial forces are permitted to influence and ultimately alter our behaviour for commercial gain. This is the intent behind many of our semiotic addictions. Propaganda has an intrinsic motivation and intent too. It actually intends to be mind altering. Its elements can be subtle and nuanced if taken at face value, rather than from a more mindful perspective. The late 80’s Reagan era crack cocaine boom coincided with the post Carter assault of market fundamentalism – accompanied by Milton Friedman’s spooky and blinkered “Freedom to Choose” Is market fundamentalism a ‘choice’ to us, its subjects? Where is the freedom to choose in a fully compliant, conformist consumerist existence? Where is freedom to choose for the homeless, the addicted and the imprisoned?

The evidence is definitely in re the awful correlation of high $GDP and epidemic rates of depression. Social isolation viewed from virtually any econometric model is found to be as toxic as smoking 20 a day.

Anyway, back to the Kikimongulat compound….

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Guantanamo…nOw open for business (contin…)

Filed under: Occupy, the fear trade, thus far... — Leave a comment
September 30, 2011

(Reuters – breaking news 30 Sept ’11) – JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of America Corp were hit with new lawsuits by investors seeking to recover losses on $4.5 billion of soured mortgage debt, expanding the litigation targeting the two largest U.S. banks.

RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) was holding £1.1 trillion in sub junk derivatives (see earlier interpretOr posts) in 2008. (Andrew Rawnsley, The End of the Party, Viking Penguin, 2010)

That’s £1,100,000,000,000.00 of other peoples’ money that was not worth ‘jack shit’.

The RBS CEO walked out of the catastrophe a very wealthy and excessively rewarded man.

Immediately following the 2008 collapse, there were suddenly 766 Ferraris listed for sale in London alone.

called to accOunt? Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blank(cheque)fein hires top defense lawyer

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Media cast doubt on whether BOlt is fully, or only partly, human

Filed under: HACKwatch, media, news, thus far... — 1 Comment

Doubt has been cast upon the status of entertainer, Andy Bolt’s humanity. Speculation of the last few days has raised fresh concerns that he may in fact be other than fully human. Despite superficial appearances, questions remain unanswered as to whether Bolt is fully or only partially human.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The suspicions that he is perhaps just pretending to be human cease to go away…

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nOt barking mad…

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September 29, 2011

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The Lost Paradise of Brendan O’Neill

Filed under: HACKwatch, media, thus far... — 2 Comments
September 25, 2011

The Weekend Australian of September the twenty fourth features another of Brendan O’Neill’s heart rending defences of the tattered image of News Ltd. Brendan is furious at “bigwigs who will poke their noses into the behaviour and morality of the media.” Given that the Murdoch press was poking their noses into other people’s behaviour and morality in a way that made it a criminal act seems to have been missed by Brendan. Here’s a tip Brendan, when you commit a criminal offence you will get noses poked in your business. Another point is that if you lie about knowing about the committing of a criminal offence that too will be scrutinised and judged by people with big wigs.

Now Brendan it is interesting that you have dredged up John Milton to complain about the paradise that you have lost.  “If then his Providence – Out of our evil seek to bring forth good, – Our labour must be to pervert that end,” Perhaps Milton did have some premonition of the Murdoch press. However, I don’t believe he had any inkling at that one man could so dominate world media and thereby politics, so pervasively and aggressive that any opposing voice is shouted down and campaigned against using not reason and debate but by personal abuse as was hurled at Cate Blanchette.

Brendan claims “Milton argued that public discussion, the battle of ideas, did not require a referee, certainly not one as powerful and biased as the state.”  This paraphrasing is a rather imaginative extrapolation from Milton’s “Let Truth and Falsehood grapple,” and “Who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?” While this is a noble statement it does not fit his argument as the Murdoch media is not prone to presenting both sides of an argument and as Brendon’s article shows nor does it stick to the truth. For example Brendon states “Not content with having brought about the closure of the News of The World, a paper read by7.5 million people, some campaigners seem to want to eradicate all publications they consider scuzzy and inferior.”

This statement is blatantly false. It was Rupert Murdoch who closed the News of The World in a desperate effort to limit the damage to the corporations credibility caused by that papers criminal hacking of phones and computers. The campaigners had nothing to do with it.

I note that Brendan presents himself as the “ordinary bloke” on the side of the man in the street. He bravely takes on the “elites” and the politicians and “celebrities’ and ‘bigwigs” and of course “academics”;  to whom he ascribes as exhibiting “eye swivelling snobbery”, whatever that is. This dislike of anyone who has intelligence or social status seems at odds with him choosing an archaic classical poet to give some credence to his defence of his master, who I might add, is clearly a bigwig.

Brendan’s ordinary bloke portrayal even goes so far as to use an identifying photo in which he has forsaken the usual business attire for the black tee shirt and facial stubble. One could easily imagine that it was snapped in his garage while he was tuning up his FJ Holden. There is a distinct odour of the Roger Ailes – Fox News resentment methodology in the Brendan O’Neill articles. Rolling Stone magazine wrote of Ailes “He takes the shame of people who feel that they are being looked down on, and he mobilizes it for political purposes. Roger Ailes is a direct link between the Nixonian politics of resentment and Sarah Palin’s politics of resentment. He’s the golden thread.”   Brendan is our own Aussie nickel plated version.

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Faded Memory of Hillary Clinton

Filed under: thus far... — 2 Comments

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the proposal “represents the firm conviction of the international community that a just and lasting peace can only come through negotiations between the parties.”

Perhaps Hillary can tell us why the US and The UK Governments and the UN  forgot to consult the resident Palestinian majority when they carved out a new country for homeless European Jews in Palestine. Those dispossessed Palestinians whose families had lived there for centuries  can only believe this is a clear double standard and another obstacle thrown up by desperate governments who have no desire for a fair resolution of an injustice they created. If Hillary does believe 50 years of negotiations are not enough, why will she not genuinely push for and impose sanctions against further theft of Palestinian land through the Israeli Government backed settlement program?

The world is now becoming aware that there is no intention to allow a Palestinian State by either the Israeli or the US Governments who are instead pursuing the gradual and stealthy elimination of the Palestinian Race to cater to the illogical demands of the extreme and fundamental Jewish groups who are in control of the Israeli Government agenda. As these extremist Jewish groups are out breeding non secular Jews at a ratio near 8 to 1 there is an urgent need for the world to deal fairly and firmly with Israel before the Middle East becomes the scene of an nuclear Armageddon.

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media should cOnvey meaning

Filed under: media, thus far... — 3 Comments
September 24, 2011

Viktor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as aHolocaust survivor. What tended to do people in, both metaphorically and… tragically quite literally as well, was:

“Mental agony caused by injustice, hurt people the most”.

This was the considered conclusion of Frankl. His antidote to tyranny, and the message that resonates still, is that regardless of our immediate concerns or despair, we must try and discover, connect with and experience meaning.

Frankl’s survival, endurance and insights have left the world a legacy of hope.

(My meaning right now, is in typing these words.)

If any of our readers wish to share their meanings, we encourage you to do so. the interpretOr is free and open and just one way of sharing meaning. It would be particularly significant if Aboriginal brothers and sisters could share their meanings with us. 

More meaning expressed will lead to more social justice and be just one small, but perhaps important, response or antidote to “mental agony” that so concerned the very wise and humanistic Dr Frankl.

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Obama Exposes US Fraud

Filed under: thus far... — 1 Comment
September 22, 2011

 

At a time when the reputation of the United States of America as an economic superpower has being exposed, it has also been totally and irrevocably exposed as supporting an unjust moral fraud. In vetoing the Palestinian bid for statehood, President Barrack Obama has taken the blindfold from the statue of Justice and placed it firmly on the eyes of the statue of Liberty.       

Despite all the pathetic excuses about Palestinians not being ready for statehood, the US veto of a Palestinian State shows clearly that American justice is not imparted without favour and that the liberty can only won by violence. For all those in the USA who have wondered what drove the appalling suicidal act of mass murder on September 11, look no further than the genocidal treatment of the Palestinian people that has gone on for a lifetime.

Even as the undemocratic and compromised UN meets to decide the fate of a people with no voice, the Palestinians continue to be imprisoned in their own land. They are subject to summary execution and collectively punished. Furthermore, every day more Palestinians are being illegally driven off their land and their homes are destroyed by the “settlers”, a nice word used to describe violent secular and largely foreign land thieves backed by a secular state with little regard for international law. All this is allowed by the UN without any meaningful action to protect the Palestinian’s human rights.

It should be remembered that in carving out a secular state in Palestine, the UN was in breach of its own charter as the people of Palestine were not polled or the will of the majority considered.

The UN is not a democratic organisation and each passing day begins to look more and more like the propaganda tool and star chamber to wrongly accuse, falsely convict and unjustly sentence those countries of the South that resist the will of the West . Each one of a select handful of superpowers can independently veto decisions made by even a huge majority of countries. It is a shameful injustice that countries that have the support of one superpower can escape sanction for terrible war crimes and be able to expand atomic arsenals without question, while other countries are bombed into oblivion for lesser crimes or even on the basis of rumours and lies.

The ridiculous proposition underpinning this tragic farce is a mirage in that very few countries including the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy France Germany, Russia, China or even Australia have had to ask permission of the UN to be recognised as states. Herein lays the essence of the problem. It is the Middle Eastern countries undemocratically carved up by Western powers and set up as compliant undemocratic pseudo states that need this fraudulent endorsement of the UN. The fundamental cause of current conflicts in the Middle East is that the wishes and rights of the vast majority of citizens in this region have been trampled on by the oil hungry superpowers for just one reason and that is to maintain their strategic control of an essential resource. When the citizens of these countries are able to rid themselves of the despots and puppet regimes installed by the West as appears to be happening right now, the West must face up to its greatest lie, that is the proposition that it supports democracy for all and that its interventions are for the common good. Furthermore, it is clear that conflict or more accurately a lack of unity between Arab states suits the Western agenda.

The people of Western nations and especially those of the United States need to wake up that their governments are betraying them and that they too are being exploited and killed on battlefields to maintain an exploitative regimen that holds back our civilisation from achieving great advances in the well-being of the people of all nations. Until we demand justice for all there will be no lasting peace and the next to be denied justice may be us.

 

 

 

 

 

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Mr Rabbit’s Conversion

Filed under: Oz Junta, satire, thus far... — 5 Comments
September 21, 2011

Mr Rabbit’s Adventures part 4

Something big has happened to Mr Rabbit. Something has made him prick up those magnificent ears and hear the universe speak to him. He has had a conversion. He has discovered compassion. It was probably the Bishop that had reminded him that like many Boat Bunnies, Jesus also came from the Middle East and that as a babe in swaddling cloth he had been a refugee.

“How would Jesus like to be sent off to Fantasia as an unaccompanied minor” he asked himself? Surely he would prefer to be sent to Gnawru. Mind you we’re not housing them in stables so what could we do with the bloody donkey? Anyway he vowed to give up trying to be meaner than Carrot Top otherwise he would end up having to share platforms with that other Carrot Top from Queensland. That would be too embarrassing even for a rabbit that wore budgie smugglers and especially because he had helped to chuck her out of the Gliberal Party after stealing her policy ideas.

So Mr Rabbit decided to discuss compassion with  Morrie Bun his Shallow Monster for Irrigation and particularly discuss being kinder to the Boat Bunnies. They devised a new kinder plan for the Gliberal Party. They would change their image. “From now on we will sound compassionate at every opportunity” he exclaimed. Let’s call a pest conference to show our new soft and cuddly outer skin to the world.

Morrie Bun could not wait, so they collected Cinder Brandies who is the Shallow Attorney General and headed out to talk to the assembled members of the debauched estate.

At first, as Bleater Grief might have put it, it all went as swimmingly. Morrie Bun had severely castigated Carrot Top for enticing the cute little Boat Bunnies to risk their lives coming to Downunder in a leaky canoe. What made Morrie Bun gnash his teeth the most, was that after enticing them to paddle all the way here she was  going to send them straight back to Fantasia on an aeroplane.

Unfortunately one of the TV pests had read the Gliberal Party policy on refugees and asked difficult questions that made Mr Rabbit wish he had read it as well. She asked Morrie Bun if the Gliberals were in fact proposing to turn the leaky canoes around and make the Boat Bunnies paddle to Undernesia and she asked isn’t that more dangerous than a plane trip to Fantasia?” Morrie Bun swallowed hard and began to sweat, while his mouth opened and shut rapidly no sound was coming out.

Mr Rabbit leapt to Morrie Buns rescue with a brilliant answer. It wouldn’t be cruel or dangerous because they would turn the canoes around outside Downunder. This would mean they had never really come here so it couldn’t be seen to be cruel. It would be as if it had never happened. Mr Rabbit was very proud of this answer because like climate denial it was at the spiritual centre of Gliberal philosophy.

 

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Conroy Inquiry a Damp Squib

Filed under: media, news, thus far... — 2 Comments
September 16, 2011

The Media inquiry proposed by Stephen Conroy looks increasingly like it is going to be a fizzog. Conroy has said he wasn’t going to inquire into media ownership as he already knew Murdoch owned 70% of Australian media and he suggested that it didn’t matter because that is the way it has been for twenty years.

Well I am glad that Senator Conroy doesn’t care that one company, indeed one man can control information all over the world and have such power that politicians fall into line with his wishes to the detriment of the citizens. Furthermore they turn a blind eye to his newspapers being involved in misinformation on a massive scale on matters of extreme importance.

Democracy cannot survive in countries where those who control information give us lies and propaganda instead of truth. How can we judge elected representatives if our judgement is based on misinformation? How can we trust politicians who have to placate media tycoons if they want to gain the seat of government?

The fourth estate has gone beyond its charter to become a quasi-level of government which bashes the elected representatives into submission to the detriment of the broader community. George Orwell was wrong about Big Brother being a government bureaucracy; it is more likely to be a huge corporation.

Each passing day our newspapers become more like paper versions of Fox News and our democratic process is pushed further into jeopardy. Fox has become the champion of extremist politicians, Muslim bashing, government hatred, character assassination and science denial. Recent studies show that Fox viewers are the most ignorant viewers in America and that the more they watch Fox the more misinformed they become. Our only national broadsheet, The Australian, is well on the way down the same path. The media monopoly must be addressed now.

 

 

 

 

 

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Stokes & Conroy: off piste (sic)

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September 15, 2011

Senator Steven Conroy enjoyed a recent skiing jaunt in the US with Kerry Stoke, early 2010 – documented even in The Australian and Sunday Times (Perth). How cosy…ohhh, we’re also correct in reporting that this occured just weeks before a $250 MILLLION cash fall awarded by gvt. to free to air networks, including C7…all a bit off piste!

We’re a bit piste off, also…

the interpretOr: media inquiry…if not nOw, then when?

The interpretOr has covered issues of the public interest since our inception a few months ago. We would ask our visitors and readers to consider whether the following perspectives that we’ve examined were offered by News Ltd, Seven Media Group and other mainstream Australian media over this same period? To cite a few interpretOr pieces thus far…

  • a series of articles on press freedom from a variety of perspectives (Obama, Reporters Without Borders…)
  • the selling of Blair’s dodgy dossier that led countries to war and the invasion of Iraq (an odious dictatorship, yet sovereign state)
  • the plight of refugees as described by those unfortunate enough to have actually fled their homeland and the carnage of the Taliban
  • the soft sell of detention centre contractor, Serco, across ‘community’ newspapers
  • the massive profits of Serco and the Ferrari fetish of its UK based CEO
  • the objective evidence sourced from Nobel Laureate economists, Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz on the causes and characteristics of economic crises and cycles
  • the exposure of the falsehood of the “Big government BAD…small government GOOD” gobbledegook….errrr, there’s no correlation
  • the evidence based conflict of interest of the ‘ratings agencies’ and US Senate 2011 conclusions and response
  • the impact of Murdoch’s incursion into the UK Times and Sunday Times
  • the connection between successive PMs in the UK, and now Australia, and Murdoch and his acolytes
  • the connection between the Gammell family, Tony Blair, George W Bush and Seven West Media
  • a satirical series deconstructing and exploring the absurdity of the status quo and appalling behaviour of Dumsfeld et al
  • to borrow a term from Chomsky…uncovery of significant evidence of “THE MANUFACTURE of CONSENT”

If most or all of the above were absent from your regular media diet, then perhaps it’s time for us, the public, to stand up and demand an inquiry into media ownership here in Australia. As stated in our ‘about’ statement….objectivity cannot serve two masters. Market based media and the public interest are not congruent.

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as newsflahed by interpretOr in August ’11…James Murdoch has been recalled by Commons select committee

Filed under: media, news, thus far... — 2 Comments
September 13, 2011

newsflash…James MurdOch to be recalled to Common’s select committee

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People Smuggler Cover Up

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The Australian Government and the Opposition are covering up for some of the worlds biggest people smugglers who are responsible for sneaking more than 90% of illegal immigrants into Australia.

These people smugglers are making millions of dollars for transporting thousands of illegals into Australia right under the nose of immigration department officers. The InterpretOr has decided to make a stand against this cruel trade by naming the people smugglers.

The most notorious of these offenders are Quantas, British Airways, Malaysian and Singapore Airlines along with Virgin and KLM. We demand the Government takes immediate action to prosecute these offenders who are bringing in around 50,000 illegals every year.

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Mr Rabbit Takes a Tumble

Filed under: satire, thus far... — 1 Comment
September 12, 2011

Mr Rabbit’s Adventures

The week that had started so well for Mr Rabbit has had a turn for the worse. After being lauded as a Master of the Universe by Brown Chin the righteous reporter who works for Rupert the Unbearable, he picked up the new edition of “The Weak End Downunder” and found he had been usurped. Brown Face had taken a shine to that Western Bunny they all called the Foreign Monster. He seemed to think Foreign Monster might take over from Carrot Top as leader. Mr Rabbit felt betrayed and made a note to ring Rupert and make a complaint although he had to concede that Brown Chin was prone to be notorious tail sniffer. To make matters worse, as the week unfolded it became evident that Carrot Top had got one over him. It turned out she was capable being even crueler than him in dealing with the homeless boat bunnies. His reputation for callousness had been overshadowed by a woman, he could easily lose support. While promising himself to improve his cruelty output he took solace in getting an even draw on climate change. While his policy was estimated to cost twice as much as Carrot Tops plan it was only half as effective. That should put a stop to the jokes about him thinking climate change meant moving to the Gold Coast.

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the lunar solution: Abbott’s innovation on offshOre refugee processing

Filed under: the fear trade, thus far... — 1 Comment
September 10, 2011

Embattled Federal Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, last night (Fri 9th Sept ’11), unveiled the Coalition’s new ‘third way’ proposal on the refugee issue.

The Lunar Solution is a dynamic and bold policy move that involves partnership between a future Coalition Federal government and private enterprise. Negotiations with Dick Bronson’s Chaste Intergalactic are at an advanced stage, with a potential funding source in the Carlyle Group. Norman Boyd’s Correct Corp are also in the mix to provide facility management and behaviour modification programmes.

“Look, “queue jumpers”, oooh errrrefugees will be processed offshore and on the Moon. This initiative is umm, bold, further secures the sanctity of our borders and is a viable alternative to the Falkland Islands, and other misguided Labour, Green and do-gooder attempts to appease the alien invasion faced by our great nation.”

To a stunned, yet clearly supportive audience of the business and media cognoscenti, Mr Abbott received an extended standing ovation. Asked at the close of last night’s event for his reaction, an emboldened Abbott stated:

“Look….quite frankly, errr…at the end of the day, I’m absolutely over the moon.”

Correct Corp’s Boyd could not be reached for comment and all a spokesperson would confirm is that he is taking a “well-earned break” somewhere in SE Asia.

see earlier interpretOr refugee pieces…

refugees are traumatised human beings, Often in distress… ;   “We knew about the Pacific Solution…Taliban were killing people, we had no choice”

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press freedOm pt 6: the United Nations

Filed under: media, thus far... — 1 Comment
September 9, 2011

21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers:

It is well recognized that the growth of the Internet has greatly expanded the ability of individuals, groups, and others to enhance their freedom of expression and their rights to seek, receive and impart information as recognized by international human rights standards. Specifically, new media platforms have made it possible for almost any citizen to communicate to a large audience; for example, bloggers around the world are challenging authorities, exposing corruption, and expressing their opinions via the Internet. These new frontiers of media have enriched news and information resources and reshaped what has been traditionally the realm of print press, broadcasters, and news agencies.

However, even as new frontiers are being forged by these 21st century media, new barriers and new attempts to block, filter, and censor information are being created. At the same time, the proliferation of the Internet, social networks, and new-generation mobile telephony raises new concerns related to privacy and security of the users.

UNESCO, as the UN Agency with the mandate to promote freedom of expression, recognizes that freedom of expression is central to building strong democracies, contributing to good governance, promoting civic participation and the rule of law, and encouraging human development and security. The right to freedom of expression applies as much to the Internet as to the more traditional forms of media—press, radio, and television. The challenge is to fully optimize the potential of the Internet and digital media while not compromising civil liberties including the right to freedom of expression and privacy.

United Nations Educational and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) 2011

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predators to press freedOm…

Filed under: thus far... — 1 Comment

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Mining squeezes broader Oz ecOnomy, report claims

Filed under: envirOnment, thus far... — 1 Comment
September 8, 2011

Greens Leader Bob Brown said the Mining the Truth report released today by the Australia Institute turns the spotlight on the industry’s self-serving rhetoric and confirms the need to fix the government’s feeble mining tax.

“Much has been said by the mining industry about the impact of the mining boom on the mining industry, but there has been far less scrutiny of the impact on the rest of the economy,” Senator Brown said in Hobart.

“Mining is squeezing out other sectors to the detriment of farmers, manufacturers, teachers, and hospitality workers. Meanwhile, some $50 billion reaped from Australia’s mineral resources – 83-percent foreign-owned – will be sent overseas as dividends to foreign owners over the next five years.”

“Under Labor’s feeble mining tax and the Coalition’s even more irresponsible prescription to let mining giants off the hook, Australians will be left at the mercy of a two-speed economy and future governments making unnecessary cuts to health, education and lacking the funding for key infrastructure such as high speed rail.”

“This new report underscores the need for the government to reconsider the Mineral Resource Rent Tax. The Greens will move to expand the MRRT, oppose the tax cut for big business while supporting tax relief for small businesses, and push to set up a sovereign wealth fund. This is the economically responsible thing to do,” Senator Brown said.

Strong world demand for Australia’s minerals has driven up the exchange rate which, in turn, has reduced world demand for our manufactured and agricultural goods as well as for our tourism and education export services.

see full report @ https://www.tai.org.au/index.php?q=node%2F19&pubid=913&act=display

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the interpretOr: media inquiry…if not nOw, then when?

Filed under: thus far... — 2 Comments
September 6, 2011

The interpretOr has covered issues of the public interest since our inception a few months ago. We would ask our visitors and readers to consider whether the following perspectives that we’ve examined were offered by News Ltd, Seven Media Group and other mainstream Australian media over this same period? To cite a few interpretOr pieces thus far…

  • a series of articles on press freedom from a variety of perspectives (Obama, Reporters Without Borders…)
  • the selling of Blair’s dodgy dossier that led countries to war and the invasion of Iraq (an odious dictatorship, yet sovereign state)
  • the plight of refugees as described by those unfortunate enough to have actually fled their homeland and the carnage of the Taliban
  • the soft sell of detention centre contractor, Serco, across ‘community’ newspapers
  • the massive profits of Serco and the Ferrari fetish of its UK based CEO
  • the objective evidence sourced from Nobel Laureate economists, Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz on the causes and characteristics of economic crises and cycles
  • the exposure of the falsehood of the “Big government BAD…small government GOOD” gobbledegook….errrr, there’s no correlation
  • the evidence based conflict of interest of the ‘ratings agencies’ and US Senate 2011 conclusions and response
  • the impact of Murdoch’s incursion into the UK Times and Sunday Times
  • the connection between successive PMs in the UK, and now Australia, and Murdoch and his acolytes
  • the connection between the Gammell family, Tony Blair, George W Bush and Seven West Media
  • a satirical series deconstructing and exploring the absurdity of the status quo and appalling behaviour of Dumsfeld et al
  • to borrow a term from Chomsky…uncovery of significant evidence of “THE MANUFACTURE of CONSENT”

If most or all of the above were absent from your regular media diet, then perhaps it’s time for us, the public, to stand up and demand an inquiry into media ownership here in Australia. As stated in our ‘about’ statement….objectivity cannot serve two masters. Market based media and the public interest are not congruent.

Comment

What Was PMs Deal With MurdOch Media?

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John Hartigan should reveal to the Australian public what the deal was done between Julia Gillard and the Murdoch media referred to on page two of the Weekend Australian. ” This has broken the deal we had”. Was this deal in the interest of the Australian public or was it a deal that protected the interest of Murdoch media from public scrutiny?

If Hartigan was promised protection from any parliamentary inquiry then we are in the same position as the appalling situation in the United Kingdom where the boundaries between police, parliament and the press have been eroded by bribery and quid pro quo arrangements that allowed criminality by the media to go unchecked.

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News Ltd CEO admits in his Own Weekend Australian that deal had been cut with PM Gillard

Filed under: HACKwatch, media, news, thus far... — 2 Comments
September 5, 2011

Recent Weekend Australian (Sept 3-4 2011, p2):

“According to (John) Hartigan (News Ltd CEO) , PM Gillard said on Monday, “this has broken the deal we had.”

Let’s just think this one through for a mo, dear readers…(in the interim, please comment away if the urge takes you). Gillard’s perspective is certainly perceptive when the same issue of the paper on p21 had Greg Sheridan drooling all over Abbott as a potential “Master of the World.”

ps. This series of newsflashes has led interpretOr contributor Keith Gray to literally explode down Skype from Boket….he’s currently grinding his teeth, getting tetchy with our organ’s stuffed border collie mascot and yelling with rosacead snarl…”Do Fartigan, Harridan et al. take us all to be total foookin’ ideeotts!!?” He’s sussed out where Kikimongulat’s compound is and is trying to get his bearings…

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breakings news: Blair gOd father of Murdoch daughter…

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The Guardian and Vogue just breaking news that Tony Blair, whilst a serving British Prime Minister, became god father to Rupert’s Murdoch’s youngest daughter. Separation of powers, anyone?

So much for the Fourth Estate.

Why this is a matter of PUBLIC INTEREST:

The following is an extract from Andrew Rawnsley’s ‘The End of the Party’. As associate editor and chief political commentator of the Observer (London broadsheet), he details the key components of how Blair contrived and sold the dodgy dossier re alleged Iraq WMD in September 2002:

“The intelligence chiefs had succumbed to the frenzied and insidious pressure from the Prime Minister and his senior staff to deliver the goods. The propagandist Campbell supervised the spinning of thin, dated and flaky material to make the threat look real, new and urgent. The lawyer Blair then further buried all the caveats and uncertainties to present the dossier with his trademark evangelical certainty. Then pro-war elements of the media inflated the claims into the scariest headlines they could contrive.” 

(The End of the Party, A Rawnsley, Viking Penguin, 2010)

             Bliar’s dossier – selling and spinning phantom WMD   

As posted previously in the interpretOr, last Christmas, British Prime Minister David Cameron had a festive lunch at the home of Rebekah Brooks,  also in attendance was her  then boss, James Murdoch…oh, and Elisabeth Murdoch and Matthew Freud too. Cosy…

the interpretOr… top global Google result for ‘Cameron’s Christmas lunch‘

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Mr Rabbit Goes West

Filed under: Oz Junta, satire, thus far... — 5 Comments

Part 2 Mr Rabbits Adventures – Mr Rabbit Goes West

Mr Rabbit recently made an important trip to Western Downunder to address his wealthy burrowing cousins at their annual digging conference. He reiterated his Party’s policies by emphasising that he ah  was against everything, especially ah anything that the audience didn’t ah support and would like a copy of anything new that was opposed by the  ah wealthy burrowers so that he could add it to his policy against everything ah as soon as possible.

At a burrow step interview Mr Rabbit was questioned by journalists about his reneging on a deal to give his old mate Bleater the key to the party’s carrot vault. Mr Rabbit said this was ah a good thing for the party because the party needed more competition “dangling the carrot and then pulling it away made members hungry for success”. This is clearly the case with Bleater who was heard to mutter that he felt like ripping off Mr Rabbit’s ears and stuffing them in his orifice, although on second thoughts I’m not sure he meant his own mouth. Mr Rabbit was clearly worried about Bleaters comments as he knew deep down despite the efforts he made to draw attention to other symbols of his virility by wearing budgie smugglers, that the main appeal he offered his party was the size of his ears.

On hearing Mr Rabbits comments Bleater said he thought he should have got the top job because he was an expert in the field of misinformation which is of course the reason behind the recent success of the party. “Having invented this type of campaigning I thought I offered a great deal of expertise to the party but after welcoming me on board Mr Rabbit has thrown me overboard without a lifebelt.”  On reflection he added “I have to concede however that he is even better at misinformation than me”. Since these comments Bleater has gone underground and cannot be contacted.

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Reading Rupert is Unbearable

Filed under: HACKwatch, media, news, thus far... — Leave a comment
September 3, 2011

Journalists of the Murdoch stable have scornfully denounced those who have suggested that “The Australian” is biased against the Gillard Government or who said it was campaigning against the government on climate change issues in an untruthful and unscientific manner. They proclaimed the editorial independence of each Murdoch paper.

For many of us the proof is in the pudding. For instance in an edition of the “Sunday Times”  in which a political journalist claimed that there was no bias on climate change, the front page of the same edition carried an attack on Cate Blanchette for her stance on climate change identical to the story found in The Australian newspaper. And universally the Murdoch media relentlessly used and reused the same nasty and inaccurate name “Carbon Cate” to undermine the credibility of her message. Can’t the “independent” Murdoch sub editors make up their own childish and nasty names?  I have also read many articles like Brendan O’Neill’s beat up in today’s Weekend Australian stoutly defending climate sceptics against slurs by  climate change acceptors but can’t remember any recent articles siding with the dominant scientific position of climate scientists.

And I don’t suppose the many articles in the same edition beating up on Julia Gillard and quoting unrevealed Labor sources calling for her to be dumped, being juxtaposed against the gaggle of positive stories about Tony Abbott means that the paper is unbalanced. Not even Greg Sheridan’s gushing article “Abbott Has Right Stuff to Master The World” would indicate a bias would it? By the way Greg I think a more accurate header would be “Abbot Has Credentials to Stuff up The World”

Murdoch media has a worldwide reputation for bias and tattiness and a study by the University of Maryland revealed that ignorance of Fox viewers actually increases the longer they watch the network. Furthermore, according to recent polls, Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of all news consumers in the USA. They are 12 percentage points more likely to believe the stimulus package caused job losses, 17 points more likely to believe Muslims want to establish Sharia law in America, 30 points more likely to say that scientists dispute global warming.

The Australian is fast becoming the broadsheet equivalent of Fox News. Reading it is bad for your sanity.

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update…Oz media link re Bliar’s incongruous friendship with George W Bush

Filed under: media, news, thus far... — 25 Comments
September 2, 2011

On 20th August, 2011, the interpretOr published a story concerning the origins of the incongruous friendship between Tony Blair and George W Bush and sourced the majority of the piece from John Kampfner of the New Statesman and other authoritative UK media sources…a Scot named Willy Gammell the mutual childhood friend of both former leaders.

The Gammell family’s Cairn Energy linked with the Bush family back in the 1950’s, and is also closely aligned with Cheney’s Halliburton and the Carlyle Group – all major beneficiaries of the invasion of Iraq. Further investigation by the interpretOr led us to discover that Willy Gammell, (the Bush/Blair mutual childhood friend) has a younger brother, Peter. 

Peter Gammell is a Non-Executive Director of Australia’s own Seven West Media – the group has interests in Australian newspapers (including the West Australian), Pacific Magazines, Yahoo 7 and the Seven Network. In addition, the group’s other media related investments include Sky News (33.3%), OzTAM (33.3%), TX Australia (33.3%).

This is not conjecture or conspiracy ‘theory’. In addition to John Kampfner of the New Statesman, these associations have been publicly documented by Russ Baker, who has written for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Village Voice and Esquire and dozens of other major domestic and foreign publications. He has also served as a contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review.

Wikipedia: In 2007, Stokes formed a joint venture with The Carlyle Group to acquire the equipment hire group Coates Hire Ltd from National Hire Ltd (over 50% owned by WesTrac).

AUSTRALIAN SENATORS HAVE BEEN BRIEFED by the interpretOr on this significant development.

THIS INFORMATION WAS SOURCED FROM THE PUBLIC DOMAIN AND IS CITED IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST.

Our earlier 20th Aug 2011 piece:

“John Kampfner was a political correspondent and commentator for the BBC and Financial Times and is currently Political Editor of the New Statesman. He has exposed the origins of the link and subsequent bond between former Prime Minister Tony Blair, and ex President George W Bush. A young George W Bush spent a summer on the Perthshire (Scotland) family farm of the Gammell family. Young Willy Gammell became a childhood and lifelong friend of George W, oh…and young Willy Gammell was also one of Blair’s closest school friends at the elite Fettes College in Edinburgh.

Truth is indeed stranger than fiction…”   Bliar’s incongruous friendship with George W Bush originated in the school playground…

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refugees are traumatised human beings, Often in distress…

Filed under: the fear trade, thus far... — 9 Comments
September 1, 2011

Those fleeing the ravages of war and persecution are deserving of democracy’s protection. The Malaysia Solution was as illogical and spiteful as demonising the victims of accidents or natural disasters. Actually, perhaps it’s even worse. That victims of war and oppression are burdened by the scorn and intolerance of people in relatively free, wealthy countries is odious.

The High Court has defended and asserted human rights – the interpretOr hopes that we may all search our consciences for a more just and humane solution.

The United Nations Refugee Convention (1951) is publicly available at http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49da0e466.html

An extract from the UN Refugee Convention asserts the human rights of refugees as follows:

“The emphasis of this definition is on the protection of persons from political
or other forms of persecution. A refugee, according to the Convention,
is someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin
owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion,
nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.

The Convention is both a status and rights-based instrument and is underpinned
by a number of fundamental principles, most notably non-discrimination,
non-penalization and non-refoulement. Convention provisions, for
example, are to be applied without discrimination as to race, religion or country
of origin. Developments in international human rights law also reinforce
the principle that the Convention be applied without discrimination as to
sex, age, disability, sexuality, or other prohibited grounds of discrimination.
The Convention further stipulates that, subject to specific exceptions, refugees
should not be penalized for their illegal entry or stay. This recognizes
that the seeking of asylum can require refugees to breach immigration rules.”

          http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49da0e466.html

See also “We knew about the Pacific Solution…Taliban were killing people, we had no choice”

No human being is ‘illegal’. To demonise the defenceless demeans us all.

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High Court of Australia ruling re Malaysia ‘Solution’: full release belOw…

Filed under: news, the fear trade, thus far... — 21 Comments

HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

PLAINTIFF M70/2011 v MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP

PLAINTIFF M106 OF 2011 BY HIS LITIGATION GUARDIAN, PLAINTIFF M70/2011 v MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP

[2011] HCA 32

Today the High Court held invalid the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship’s declaration of Malaysia as a country to which asylum seekers who entered Australia at Christmas Island can be taken for processing of their asylum claims. After an expedited hearing before the Full Bench, the Court by majority made permanent the injunctions that had been granted earlier and restrained the Minister from taking to Malaysia two asylum seekers who arrived at Christmas Island, as part of a larger group, less than four weeks ago.

The Court also decided that an unaccompanied asylum seeker who is under 18 years of age may not lawfully be taken from Australia without the Minister’s written consent under the Immigration (Guardianship of Children) Act 1946 (Cth). The Court granted an injunction restraining the Minister from removing the second plaintiff, an Afghan citizen aged 16, from Australia without that consent.

The Court held that, under s 198A of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), the Minister cannot validly declare a country (as a country to which asylum seekers can be taken for processing) unless that country is legally bound to meet three criteria. The country must be legally bound by international law or its own domestic law to: provide access for asylum seekers to effective procedures for assessing their need for protection; provide protection for asylum seekers pending determination of their refugee status; and provide protection for persons given refugee status pending their voluntary return to their country of origin or their resettlement in another country. In addition to these criteria, the Migration Act requires that the country meet certain human rights standards in providing that protection.

The Court also held that the Minister has no other power under the Migration Act to remove from Australia asylum seekers whose claims for protection have not been determined. They can only be taken to a country validly declared under s 198A to be a country that provides the access and the protections and meets the standards described above. The general powers of removal of “unlawful non-citizens” given by the Migration Act (in particular s 198) cannot be used when the Migration Act has made specific provision for the taking of asylum seekers who are offshore entry persons and whose claims have not been processed to another country, and has specified particular statutory criteria that the country of removal must meet.

On the facts which the parties had agreed, the Court held that Malaysia is not legally bound to provide the access and protections the Migration Act requires for a valid declaration. Malaysia is not a party to the Refugees Convention or its Protocol. The Arrangement which the Minister

Please direct enquiries to Manager, Public Information Telephone: (02) 6270 6998 Mobile: 0415 144 283 Fax: (02) 6270 6868 Email: enquiries@hcourt.gov.au Website: http://www.hcourt.gov.au

31 August 20112

signed with the Malaysian Minister for Home Affairs on 25 July 2011 said expressly that it was not legally binding. The parties agreed that Malaysia is not legally bound to, and does not, recognise the status of refugee in its domestic law. They agreed that Malaysia does not itself undertake any activities related to the reception, registration, documentation or status determination of asylum seekers and refugees. Rather, the parties agreed, Malaysia permits the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (“UNHCR”) to undertake those activities in Malaysia and allows asylum seekers to remain in Malaysia while UNHCR does so.

The Court emphasised that, in deciding whether the Minister’s declaration of Malaysia was valid, it expressed no view about whether Malaysia in fact meets relevant human rights standards in dealing with asylum seekers or refugees or whether asylum seekers in that country are treated fairly or appropriately. The Court’s decision was based upon the criteria which the Minister must apply before he could make a declaration under s 198A.

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called to accOunt? Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blank(cheque)fein hires top defense lawyer

Filed under: news, thus far... — Leave a comment
August 31, 2011

Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of US based Goldman Sachs, has hired Reid Weingarten from the law firm Steptoe & Johnson LLP. Weingarten is known to have represented top corporate executives who have been charged with wrongdoing, including former WorldCom chief Bernard Ebbers and also Enron executives…errr, including the latter’s Chief Accounting Officer.

Blankfein and his enormously powerful Goldman Sachs, were instrumental in the sub prime Ponzi bingo – see recent interpretOr posts… the origins and characteristics Of financial crises Their man Lloyd Blankcheque has keepered this elephant in the proverbial for a whopping great six years; I kid you not.

That’s an awful lot of time during which an awful lot of toxic debt was marketed to investors under rather awful false pretences, and with a Goldman Sachs seal of approval clenching the deals. Why not just Google Goldman Sachs archive of releases and investment advisories to get a fuller flavour.

Complicity, collusion and arrogance are the hallmarks of this particular ‘big(?) swinging dick’. Blankcheque even graced the pages of Vanity Fair magazine earlier this year, pretty happy about his leather and mahogany world.

Well, as we’ve announced earlier here at the interpretOr…”Guantanamo! Now open for business.” An orange jump suit would match his tan and we have unconfirmed reports that cage conditions are sub-prime. Hey, he could even have his own gurney…

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the origins and characteristics Of financial crises

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August 28, 2011

Jeff Madrick, Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and former economic correspondent to the New York Times, has recently published a metaanalysis of the origins, historical contexts and characteristics of financial crises.

Similarities abound, as the following quote reveals:

“Throughout history, financial crises have been generally similar to each other. An asset – land, housing, stocks, bonds and so on – rises in price, financial institutions lend to investors to buy more, and prices are driven to unsustainable levels. When the bubble bursts, investors sell assets to repay their loans, and prices fall further, often in panic.”

(Jeff Madrick, The Age of Greed, Alfred A Knopff, New York 2011)

the interpretOr also reveals that prior to the collapse of Lehman’s in 2008, Wall St had made trillions from trading sub-prime mortgages that were based on a giant ‘Ponzi’ scheme. How this was achieved was attributable to ongoing deregulation of the finance sector, tacitly permitting finance houses such as AIG and Countrywide to trade essentially unsecured mortgages to a rapacious sector – the buy-in, or incentive, was that sub-prime mortgages were subject to very high interest rates – these flimsy, high risk/high yield products were sold in bulk, providing massive, short-term and unsustainable earnings.

The ratings agencies, (see earlier interpretOr posts), S&P, Moody’s and Fitch, rated these bulk packages of very risky, partially unsecured mortgages, without elaborating on their inherent risks, weaknesses and unsustainability. European and other banks around the globe, bought into these toxic tranches and the resultant GFC was and is the outcome.

see also: the interpretOr: ratings agencies are robbing the poor, the sick and the elderly

plus…ratings agency S&P’s $2 trilliOn error and ‘race to the bottom’

also….http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/_files/Financial_Crisis/FinancialCrisisReport.pdf

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press freedom pt 5: the interpretOr

Filed under: media, thus far... — 7 Comments
August 26, 2011

the interpretOr is based on the foundations of open media, deconstructing spin and sharing perspectives. Press freedom is curtailed by many influences and forces: overt, covert, obvious, subtle. Partisan agendas presented as news; PR driven ‘news’ stories that obfuscate and omit; the invisible restrictions of the editorial nods, winks and frowns.

When media organisations are answerable to share holders and the markets, the public interest is necessarily compromised. Objectivity cannot serve two masters. When media organisations collude and offer a seeming consensus of content and treatment, there is tremendous power in their ability to shape perceptions of actual and restrict perspectives of possible.

the interpretOr has thus far been able to provide coverage across a range of significant issues without the constraints of commercial considerations. We chose to use the WordPress platform as it is free, open source and relatively user-friendly.

Many of our ‘friends & links’ around the world are using non commercial platforms too. We encourage our readers to visit these sites – perhaps the real potential of digital Renaissance lies within non commercial realms, as opposed to Facebook – its narcissism and new partnership with the odious Goldman Sachs.

Well, that’s for you to decide…

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“This is our story”: BHP profit: $22,500,000,000…for how much in royalties?

Filed under: envirOnment, thus far... — 1 Comment
August 24, 2011

Errr, that’s $432 million per week…profit.

Just remember this enormous sum the next time you see one of Australian Mining’s soft-sell “This is our story” ads.

The real story is about earth shattering profits for sod all in royalties.

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press freedom pt 4: ban jOurnalist hunting…

Filed under: media, thus far... — Leave a comment
August 23, 2011

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Bliar’s incongruous friendship with George W Bush originated in the school playground…

Filed under: news, the fear trade, thus far... — 9 Comments
August 20, 2011

John Kampfner was a political correspondent and commentator for the BBC and Financial Times and is currently Political Editor of the New Statesman. He has exposed the origins of the link and subsequent bond between former Prime Minister Tony Blair, and ex President George W Bush. A young George W Bush spent a summer on the Perthshire (Scotland) family farm of the Gammell family. Young Willy Gammell became a childhood and lifelong friend of George W, oh…and young Willy Gammell was also one of Blair’s closest school friends at the elite Fettes College in Edinburgh.

Truth is indeed stranger than fiction…

Wikipedia:

Bill Gammell was born in Edinburgh. His father was an investment banker, invited at an early age to join Edinbugh’s Ivory & Sime (which was started in the late 1800s with the formation of the British Assets Trust.) Gammell attended Edinburgh’s exclusive Fettes College where he was friends and debating partners with future British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The two have remained close friends. After Fettes, Gammell attended the University of Stirling where he obtained a BA in Economics and Accountancy.

Gammell’s father invested in US oil company Bush-Overbey, owned by future US President George H. W. Bush. The two families became friends, with George W. Bush spending the summer at the Gammell’s farm in Scotland. George W. attended Bill Gammell’s wedding in Glasgow in 1983. The two have remained close friends. When George W. Bush assumed the Presidency, both he and Blair reportedly called their mutual friend Gammell to ask his opinion of the other.

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ex News of the World Royal EditOr, Clive Goodman’s revealing letter of 2007 cc Les Hinton, then Chairman of News International

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August 18, 2011

Ex News of the World Royal Editor, Clive Goodman’s, revealing letter of 2007 (cc Les Hinton, then Chairman of News International). It states very clearly and lucidly that he wasn’t acting as a rogue operator, but had informed his media organisation (News) repeatedly:

Group Human Resources Director
News International
1 Virginia Street
London E198 1HR

March 2, 2007

Dear Mr Cloke,

Re: Notice of termination of employment

I refer to Les Hinton’s letter of February 5 2007 informing me of my dismissal for alleged gross misconduct.

The letter identifies the reason for the dismissal as “recent events”. I take this to mean my plea of guilty to conspiracy to intercept the voicemail messages of three employees of the royal family.

I am appealing against this decision on the following grounds:

i — The decision is perverse in that the actions leading to this criminal charge were carried out with the full knowledge and support of [BLANKED OUT]. Payment for Glen (sic) Mulcaire’s services was arranged by [BLANKED OUT].

ii — The decision is inconsistent, because [BLANKED OUT] and other members of staff were carrying out the same illegal procedures. The prosecution counsel, the counsel for Glen (sic) Mulcaire, and the Judge at the sentencing hearing agreed that other News of the World employees were the clients for Mulcaire’s five solo substantive charges. This practice was widely discussed in the daily editorial conference, until explicit reference to it was banned by the Editor. As far as I am aware, no other member of staff has faced disciplinary action, much less dismissal.

iii — My conviction and imprisonment cannot be the real reason for my dismissal. The legal manager, Tom Crone, attended virtually every meeting of my legal team and was given full access to the Crown Prosecution Service’s evidence files. He, and other senior staff of the paper, had long advance knowledge that I would plead guilty. Despite this, the paper continued to employ me. Throughout my suspension, I was given book serialisations to write and was consulted on several occasions about royal stories they needed to check. The paper continued to employ me for a substantial part of my custodial sentence.

iv — Tom Crone and the editor promised on many occasions that I could come back to a job at the newspaper if I did not implicate the paper or any of its staff in my mitigation plea. I did not, and I expect the paper to honour its promise to me.

v — The dismissal is automatically unfair as the company failed to go through the minimum required statutory dismissal procedures.

Yours sincerely,

Clive Goodman

cc Stuart Kuttner, Managing Editor, News of the World

Les Hinton, Executive Chairman, News International Ltd

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newsflash…James MurdOch to be recalled to Common’s select committee

Filed under: media, news, thus far... — 1 Comment
August 16, 2011

The interpretOr’s London media sources confirming that Culture, Media and Sport select committee of the House of Commons (UK) recalling James Murdoch amid revelations from jailed former News of the World Royal Editor, Clive Goodman, that “hacking widely discussed” at the paper from 2007 onwards.

“This practice (illegal phone hacking) was widely discussed in the daily editorial conference…”

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Abbott pours scorn on day and night ‘link’

Filed under: envirOnment, news, Oz Junta, the fear trade, thus far... — 3 Comments

Embattled Federal Opposition leader, Tony Abbott, has poured scorn on the ‘link’ between day and night:

“Look, it’s based on a lie. At the end of the day, the people of this country will make up their own minds on the merits of the evidence. Let’s not forget that it’s taken guts and plenty of hard work to establish that day does not necessarily follow night. It’s morally courageous to break away from the Orwellian consensus on this important issue and to speak our own inconvenient truth…”

Mr Abbott also dismissed suggestions of a causal link between his orange tan and the increased volume of uranium mining in Australia: “Inappropriate, scare mongering, at the end of the day, it’s…

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nobel laureate econOmist Joseph Stiglitz: “fiscal stimulus better for Australians than orange tan…”..

Filed under: Occupy, thus far... — 1 Comment
August 14, 2011

Joseph Stiglitz (see recent interpretOr post – “ratings agencies robbing the poor…”), Professor of Economics at Columbia University and Nobel Laureate, said the fiscal stimulus package delivered in Australia (by a Labour Federal government) during the global financial crisis was “among the best designed in the world.”

Better than the orange tan and screeching negativity of Abb on Botty (anag.), says the interpretOr.

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Abbott’s orange tan: “the worst in Australian histOry”

Filed under: satire, the fear trade, thus far... — 9 Comments

Supporters of embattled Federal Opposition leader, Tony Abbott, have tonight rallied around his orange tan. Former PM’s have been quick to lend their support and John Howard has rebutted the accusation that it’s “the worst in Australian History” by reminding attendees at the State Liberal Party conference in Perth that the issue is ‘”superficial, skin deep” and that the likes of Tonly Bliar, Silvio Berlusconi and French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, are “very effective, honourable statesmen, regardless of their orange hue.”

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press freedom pt 3: Australia as viewed by RepOrters Without Borders

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From Reporters Without Borders report re Australia (http://en.rsf.org/):

“The (Australian) government has not abandoned its dangerous plan to filter online traffic, even though this will be hard to get parliamentary approval. A harsh filtering system After a year of tests in cooperation with Australian Internet service providers, telecommunications minister Stephen Conroy said in December 2009 the government would seek parliamentary approval for mandatory filtering of “inappropriate” websites. Blocking access to a website would BE authorised not by a court but by a government agency, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). The ACMA is already empowered to issue “take down” notices to Internet Service Providers under the Broadcasting Services Act of 1992.

“It maintains a “blacklist” of banned sites without transparent processes or criteria for the bans. The filtering would target websites with “refused classification” (RC) content, a category already applied to mainstream media, and would therefore apply to content unrelated to government efforts to combat child pornography, defamation or copyright, so creating a risk of overblocking.

Topics such as aborigines, abortion, anorexia, or laws about the sale of marijuana might all be filtered, along with media reports or related medical information. The government says filtering would be 100% effective – a claim disputed by experts – but Wikileaks has revealed that the blacklist includes harmless sites such as YouTube links, poker games, gay networks, Wikipedia pages and Christian sites.

Several examples of censorship have appeared. Pages of Wikileaks content on the SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) news site were reportedly blocked, leading to a demonstration in Sydney by supporters of the Pirate Party. All the country’s main ISPs (Telstra, Optus and Primus) are thought to have formally agreed to instal voluntary filters from July 2011.

The government still hopes to introduce mandatory filtering, with the support of independent and Green members of parliament, but it does not yet have such backing. An unpopular bill Journalist Ben Grubb, of The Age newspaper, said in July 2010 the government censored 90% of an official account of a meeting about censorship with ISPs and business figures in March that year before releasing it to the media. Australian law allows full access to all government documents. Claudia Hernandez, of the attorney-general’s office, said releasing an uncensored version could have set off “premature unnecessary debate.” Deputy senate opposition leader George Brandis said the episode showed how “truly Orwellian” the government had become.

Minister Conroy has made debate very difficult by calling his critics child pornography advocates. A Fairfax Media poll of 20,000 Australians in December 2009 showed 96% strongly opposed to the bill. Internet firms, including Google and Yahoo, are against the measure and the U.S. government said in March 2010 it was concerned about the proposal, noting the importance of freedom of expression. Hundreds of Australian websites protested against the bill in a national “Internet Blackout” day in January 2010.”

(Reporters Without Borders: http://en.rsf.org/)

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press freedOm pt 2: hope vs fear

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August 11, 2011

“Early in 1982, ten months after he had taken over The Times and The Sunday Times, Rupert Murdoch went to see the Prime  Minister, Mrs Thatcher. They shared a problem: it was me. I was editor of The Times and Murdoch’s difficulty was how to dispose of me.”

 ‘Good Times, Bad Times’, Harold Evans (Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd, 1983)

Fast forward 30 years…it might be Rupert’s turn.

Harold Evans was a brave and conscientious editor of The Sunday Times when it was a great, compelling and fearless Fleet Street newspaper. Among his achievements are the creation and dynamic development of their investigative team, Insight. Using energy and talent on behalf of children stricken by latent effects of the toxic Thalidomide drug – a sleeping pill that pregnant mothers had used before the children were born, resulting in limbless babies and many hundreds with chronic deformities – the Insight Team exposed and challenged the pitiful compensation that families involved had received. It also sought to inform readers of the objective, evidence based realities of how the pharmaceutical company that manufactured and distributed the Thalidomide drug reacted to the terrible and delayed reaction of their monstrous and widely used pill. Within the scope of their investigation was intense examination and analysis of the legal machinations on this intergenerational disaster – the position of the Courts and the paucity of the advocacy on behalf of the prescribed poison’s victims. Evans and his staff were driven by the magnitude of their sense of professionalism and responsibility to society. They were acting solely in the public good and in the unadulterated pursuit of justice and recompense for suffering children and parents.

Fast forward 30 years and we’re at another turning point. The demise of The News of The World and the circumstances of its destruction are a continuation of the process that Murdoch set in motion back in ’81 with his acquisition of the Times broadsheets and subsequent dismissal of Harold Evans. That such towering newspapers succumbed to substantially diminished credibility, authenticity and authority was an incremental, and at times subtle, process. Murdoch had an agenda of intense engagement and promotion of both Thatcher in the UK and ‘showbiz Ron’ in the US, and Evans did not fit this mould, this new realpolitik. Would Evans have allowed the Insight Team to become cheerleaders for Milton Friedman and run away, unchecked corporate power? I think not.

Would Harold Evans have allowed The Sunday Times to obfuscate and mislead over Iran Contra and ignore the systematic destruction of the Roosevelt and Beveridge initiated social reforms in public health and education – defining elements of the social contract of the post WW2 era? Well, ask the victims of Thalidomide.

At one end of the chronology is analysis, context and enquiry; at the other…propaganda, churnalism and the stench of sleaze.

Hope versus fear. We deserve the former.

ps. the interpretOr encourages visitors to this site to share their perspectives on this timely and crucial subject. Please feel free to comment away…

we also wish to advise that we have a mobile compatible app that can be accessed through Android and also iPhone by simply selecting mobile site from our home page view options – no separate app download required…phew)

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