Baird hounded on Facebook, will Zuckerberg ne next

Bill Shorten and the Australian Christian Lobby in lockstep over marriage plebiscite.

Keyboard warriors go after NSW Premier Mike Baird on Facebook, The Sydney Morning Herald website, Tuesday:

Mike Baird’s decision to back down on his government’s historic ban of greyhound racing was being pilloried online, even before he formally announced the about-face. Hundreds of negative comments poured on to the Premier’s Facebook page on Tuesday morning, as news of his reversal on the ban filtered out ahead of the Premier’s press conference.

Chris Kenny on the danger of making policy by Facebook, The Australian, yesterday:

Social media, without sophisticated reading or sampling, does not give you a good read on mainstream opinion. It tends to give you a loud echo from the slacktivist heart of the green-Left.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if they took to Facebook to protest against Facebook? Daily Mail, yesterday:

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg says animals taste better when you’ve hunted them yourself. Zuckerberg revealed his love for hunting and showed off his grilling prowess in a Facebook Live video ahead of the presidential debate on Sunday night. The billionaire told his viewers he was smoking a brisket and some ribs for friends who were coming over to watch the debate with him … “Things taste better when you make them yourself,” he said. “And they taste doubly better when you’ve hunted the animal yourself.”

More backflips? Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph, yesterday:

Fresh from overturning his own ban on greyhound racing, a chastened but empowered Mike Baird will move quickly to clear away another political headache — overhauling the state’s hardline lockout laws to let nightspots open later and lift restrictions on the sale of booze at bottle shops.

Some issues are more life and death. The Australian website, yesterday:

The Baird government will install nets across far NSW north coast beaches following the latest shark ­attack …

Progressives against gay marriage. Australian Christian Lobby managing director Lyle Shelton in a letter to supporters, yesterday:

We have a plan to win the marriage debate and yesterday Bill Shorten played an important and helpful role in that plan … Make no mistake, Bill Shorten is playing politics with this issue. Yet he has unwittingly given our side of the debate the gift of time.

The Opposition Leader was for the plebiscite before he was against it. The Australian, June 29:

Bill Shorten told religious leaders and Christian voters in the final days of the 2013 election campaign that he was “completely relaxed about having some form of plebiscite” on same-sex marriage …

The paper of the people. Fairfax Media websites with advice on “30 things you should never do once you hit 30”, yesterday:

Clean your own shower … hire a professional and spend the time doing something constructive with your life.

The Hamburglar remains at large. The Guardian Australia website, yesterday:

McDonald’s mascot, Ronald McDonald, is keeping a low profile in the US amid a spate of creepy clown sightings around the world. McDonald’s in New York told the Associated Press the company was being “thoughtful” … as a result of the “current climate around clown sightings in communities”.