Fairfax

September 2012

September 2012 Editor's Note

By John van Tiggelen

Quality journalism may be several things, but it is not the hunt for an imaginary Order of Lenin medal. In 1996, a few months after John Howard replaced Paul Keating as prime minister, the editor of Brisbane’s Courier-Mail, then still a broadsheet, unleashed his senior reporters to dig up Manning Clark, the late, left-leaning historian. Clark, according to claims by a gloomy poet, had once

Lachlan Murdoch and News Corp

The Reluctant Son

By Paola Totaro

Seven years ago in New York, the heir apparent to one of the world’s most powerful media conglomerates walked out on the family business. Lachlan Keith Murdoch, eldest son of Rupert, and already the deputy chief operating officer of News Corporation, was fed up with his father’s meddling and his patronising lieutenants. He’d had enough of being dismissed both in America, by Fox News cre

February 2012

Lord Monckton and the Future of Australian Media

By Robert Manne

In July 2011, one of the most extreme climate change denialists, Lord Monckton, accepted an invitation to take a trip to Australia – a country that matters greatly in the struggle against global warming because of its vast deposits of coal. According to several reports, his trip was funded by Gina Rinehart, the coal and iron ore billionaire, now one of the wealthiest people on the globe and the devoted daughter of the Western Australi

The Rise of the Sports Betting Industry

Caught in the Game

By Jonathan Horn

Like his brother, Reverend Tim Costello is an Essendon supporter. He was watching the game on television and it left a sour taste. “There’s no question that if the bets get big enough, people will start throwing games,” he tells me. “When there’s so much money at stake, the corruption follows inexorably. While gambling is a part of life, there’s

The Future of Fairfax

Crises of Faith

By Margaret Simons

Perhaps the worst journalists are believers too – so convinced about the importance of their mission, their own special place as communicators of the Word, that they do awful things in their arrogance. Journalists can lack respect for the laity, otherwise kn

The Cult of Green

By Paul Barry

In the four years BBL was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), Phil Green and his team of tyros harvested more than $2 billion in fees from the bank’s satellite funds and other operations, and paid themselves almost $1.2 billion in bonuses. Gr

The Hard Stuff

By Malcolm Knox

It was a recession; that’s my excuse. A friend got me a job interview with the world’s second-biggest management consultancy. A man and a woman sat me down in a conference room. They seemed barely older than me, children somehow left in charge of the shop. The inter

A Short History of the Media Future

Mash-up

By John Birmingham

The formal library, in contrast, has none of this. Occupying the centre of the original house, its one nod to modernity is a rather groovy white lampshade hanging in the centre of the room. The vast and intricate web of optical fibre and wiring, which forms a

Death Notice

By Benjamin Law

The story goes like this: Ernest Hemingway, master of literary economy, is challenged to write a narrative in 10 words or less. Hemingway, of course, comes up with a heartbreaker in six. “For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.” It’s also been strongly rumoured, however

David Marr’s ‘The Henson Case’

Unsettled

By Sebastian Smee

The Demise of The Bulletin

Packed It In

By Gideon Haigh

On the morning the Bulletin finally closed, Thursday, 24 January 2008, editor-in-chief John Lehmann went for a haircut. There were bound to be television cameras; he might as well look his best. Lehmann was right. The news crews duly came, but they camped out

The story of the millionaire’s factory

Who’s Afraid of Macquarie Bank?

By Gideon Haigh

The future of journalism as a public trust

War of Words

By Eric Beecher

"I don't want Rupert Murdoch to decide what belongs in the Wall Street Journal news pages. The essence of a great newspaper is independence, even from its proprietors and shareholders, and Murdoch, in the final analysis, hasn't come down on that side."- Peter Osnos, the Century Foundation"The Journal succeeds as a business property because readers trust it,

Editor's Note

By Sally Warhaft

‘Is that the truth, or is your News Limited?' Last month, while this magazine celebrated its second birthday, Australia's pre-eminent media group, Fairfax, spiked a story profiling Wendi Deng Murdoch that one of its editors had commissioned. We don't yet know all the facts behind the Fairfax decision, but we do know that Rupert Murdoch owned a 7.5% share at the time the story was disowned.Austr

The Real World

By Charles Firth

A few years ago, I was asked to speak at the Screen Producers Association Fringe Conference, in Byron Bay. I can't remember what my area of expertise was, but I do remember one television executive who specialised in getting shows ‘to market'. She explained

Fred Hilmer’s 'The Fairfax Experience'

Read All About It

By Gideon Haigh

Disconnect in the Fourth Estate

Media Circus

By David Salter

Jonestown

By David Marr

"I think that is so outrageous," brayed Andrew Bolt. We were sitting in the armchairs of the ABC's Insiders, cameras rolling, the morning after chunks of Chris Masters' Jonestown began appearing in the press. Bolt's voice was steady and angry. "I've read the excerpts that the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age ran from this book. They all focused on his sexuality and the fact that he was a teacher