New York Times: tales of punishment and satisfaction
Crikey yesterday:
The New York Times’ expansion into Australia hasn’t been without hiccups, with some believing the Times’ approach has alienated some Australian readers.
Jack the Insider on The Australian’s website yesterday:
With great sound and fury, the NYT recently opened up an office in this Wide Brown Land and the results have been odd, to say the least. It’s hard to know who the Australian articles are written for. Are they for Americans to glean a greater understanding of a land so far away they couldn’t care less about it, or are they written for the meagre number of Australian subscribers who signed up during the US presidential election, only to forget to unsubscribe after all the votes were counted?
Furthermore:
The overall reporting seems to indicate that Australia is a wonderfully curious place full of many fine people who sadly are a little stupid and more than a bit racist. A bit like Louisiana plucked out of the bayou and dispatched to the Southern Ocean. Look, we probably should avoid the silly and pointless arguments about whether Australia is more or less racist than the US, but as a person who has travelled widely in the US, I would be obliged to conclude that when it comes to the racism stakes, the Americans are a good eight lengths ahead at the 400 and show no sign of slowing down at the turn. There may be some uncomfortable conclusions to be drawn about our own experiences with race, ethnicity and the largely unresolved issues with the First Australians but the last time I looked Australians don’t feel the need to don the white manchester and set fire to a cross to make a point.
Headline on the NYT’s weekly “Australian letter” on Wednesday:
That low hum of racism.
Back to Crikey:
A subscriber to the NYT found it interesting to receive this email boasting of the paper’s gongs at the Society of Publishers in Asia’s awards. It includes a mention of one of the Times’ biggest forays into Australian news: “These stories were not only award-winning, they also led to real-world results. Case in point: as a result of the reporting in ‘Australia’s Offshore Cruelty’ by Roger Cohen, the Australian government agreed to pay more than $50 million to those it has abused.’ While the Grey Lady’s op-ed on Australia’s offshore detention program was stirring, we’re sure the many Australian news outlets that have been campaigning on the issue for years wouldn’t feel that the government’s recent settlement with asylum-seekers in Manus Island was all down to The New York Times.
But at least the NYT illuminates. From the paper on March 30:
NSW stands for New South Wales, the state that includes Sydney.
Tell us what you really think. Jacob Greber unloading a bit in The Australian Financial Review yesterday:
Tony Abbott must sleep well at night. Not for him the 3am acid cold sweat of bitter self-reflection over how galactically bad his two years as PM were. As he told us on Thursday his “biggest regret” was “not more robustly challenging the nuclear no-go mindset” of what should propel the nation’s next generation of submarines. Apparently that’s it. His biggest regret. Submarine engines … The more he “wrecks, undermines and snipes”, the more the entire Liberal party and its National Party partners are seen in the eyes of voters as unfit for office; the more the polls will suffer, the more this seems like a rubbish rerun of a rubbish movie we’ve all seen before.
How it’s done. Stephen Conroy on Kevin Rudd in February 2013:
For somebody to be engaged in destabilising and giving Tony Abbott a chance to win the last election is an absolute disgrace.