June 16 – 22, 2018
News
Comment
Comment
Chris Wallace
Murdoch and Trump, sons of oligarchy
“Survey the score or more biographies of Murdoch and something becomes perceptible in his core that makes him at some elemental level weirdly like Trump’s psychological twin. This creeping realisation transforms one’s understanding of Murdoch’s Fox News as something more than just the media claque for the lying, cheating United States president that it seems to be. Trump looks more and more like an acute, current flaring of a chronic underlying Murdochism, which began in Australia in the 1950s, spread to Britain in the late 1960s, and continued on to the US in the 1970s, as News Corp bought more and more of the world’s media.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Parliament fixes its focus on the election
“The giveaway that electioneering is top of mind is the urgency claimed for bills dealing with foreign interference, espionage and sabotage. Absent from the list is the long overdue bill to ban foreign political donations. Labor voluntarily gave up on that cash cow 18 months ago. The Liberals continue to have their hands out to all comers. And that includes Chinese donors – if they are still of a mind to curry favour with the governing party. Why would the Libs want to lose out on this money, estimated to be at least $3 million, when they know they are actively considering a dash to a general election?”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
Dark Mofo guest artist Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson has been a creative pioneer for decades, working across genre, time and place. Now 71 and still prolific, she continues to push boundaries with virtual reality projects. “You, yourself, your body kind of disappears and you have this incredible freedom to fly and to observe things that you wouldn’t be able to do in your body. So it’s almost like you’re as free as your imagination and you become your own imagination. It’s very, very thrilling.”
Music
‘Borrowed Verse’
An inspired project led by Brisbane songwriter Simon Munro pairs musicians with Australian poets, living and dead, to create an album of lyrical beauty
Portrait
A runner called @nobody
“Two months ago, I got a message from my housemate. Someone in Sydney was supposedly running more than 400 kilometres each week, around a single 3.7-kilometre loop in Centennial Park. Online, they were going by the handle ‘@nobody’. Their profile picture on Strava, a kind of Facebook for runners, was a stylised letter “N”. Among their stated goals: to run one metre for every person living on Earth; to run a marathon in under 99 minutes, against a world record just shy of 123; to run around the moon.”
Food
Potato terrine with Gruyere and garlic
“This potato terrine appeared on our menu over the weekend of our local celebration of the potato and such was the response to this unlikely hero that it reappeared the following week, a fate that has befallen no other entree in five years of operation. There is something strangely light about this potato terrine and it pairs beautifully with the fruit, the leaves, the crunch of the walnuts and the acid of the vinaigrette, with just the right amount of richness from the cream, eggs and cheese. It is the sum of its parts.”
Books
Life
Health
Reversing alopecia
While alopecia areata poses no long-term threat to general health, psychological effects can be severe. Will a new drug trial hold the key to reversing the condition?
The Quiz
Quotes
CRIME
“The message we would provide to all members of the community is to take responsibility for your safety.”
The police superintendent encourages people to take responsibility for their safety after a 22-year-old woman was murdered in Melbourne. Another good thing to do is not murder people.
DIPLOMACY
“Donald Trump is going to do a great job.”
The former basketballer continues to play an odd negotiator role between the United States and North Korea. In a modern twist no stranger than the summit itself, Rodman’s trip was sponsored by the cannabis cryptocurrency PotCoin.
LAW
“I don’t have a concluded view. I would wait to see the legal research and see the types of options that might be available.”
The attorney-general leaves open a New South Wales proposal to allow corporations to sue for defamation. One option is that this kind of law would make corporations even more powerful and their excesses more grotesque and you would consider it only if you hated truth and accountability.
CHURCH
“There’s nothing to suggest that legal abolition of the seal will help.”
The president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference makes a pre-emptive strike against the possibility of priests being forced to report child abuse admitted in confession. The government established a $3.8 billion national redress scheme for victims this week, each dollar a bet on how wrong Coleridge is.
CELEBRITY
“While this case was never about the money for me, I do hope to receive as much as possible to give away to charities.”
The actor loses almost all of her record damages in a defamation suit against Bauer Media, a suit entirely about money. The Court of Appeal found Wilson’s economic losses of $3.9 million to have been miscalculated and to in fact be nothing.
BIKES
“I think what’s made it very difficult for everybody involved is the behaviour of people using the oBikes.”
Melbourne’s new lord mayor announces the end of a bike-sharing scheme. Seriously, too many people threw them into rivers.
