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It is pleasing that PolitiFact is able to demonstrate that foreign minister Bob Carr's claim that boat people 'are not people fleeing persecution ... they are coming here as economic migrants' is 'mostly false'. But even if Carr's claim was mostly true, how does discussion of the comparatively small number of economic migrants justify its place on the agenda, compared with issues such as the mental health of Australia's youth?
In a week of racist and xenophobic reaction to the Boston Marathon bombing, one US observer commented separately on Australia's racism, describing our country as one of the 'most comfortably racist places' he'd ever been in. Racism is a source of shame in the US, but part of the culture in Australia.
The name Charles Hughes Cousens is not one that has been canvassed during the lamentable and often tawdry debate about the Alan Jones affair, but perhaps it should have been. Cousens' ordeal as the target of a treason-baying press lies in the distant but pointed background to Jones' assault on Julia Gillard.
The voices shouting down Jones are almost certainly not those of his listeners; the people most offended by his actions, it seems, are those who have never tuned in to his show. This debacle is steeped unashamedly in politics, with the outcry reinforced by various Labor politicians and dripping with as much contempt for Abbott and his party as Jones' diatribes do for the left.
Social media has outsmarted 2GB's Macquarie Radio Network management and forced them to cancel advertising on Alan Jones' program. But it is unlikely that the collective rage against Jones' behaviour will be sustained, respectable, and ultimately effective, unless the passion is accompanied by reasoned argument.
X people work hard. Y people are natural athletes. Z people treat the world like they own it. Q people are violent. R people are drunkards. S people mistreat women. V people are queue jumpers. Racial generalising becomes racist only if we accept its false premise.
McDonald's is increasing prices for those in lower socio-economic areas, and claiming the moral high ground at the same time. But it's rising star food chain Aldi that is showing the way with its uniform pricing policy.
Mr Howard is a master of talking over people he doesn’t want to hear from. By going on talkback, politicians can appear to be available in an open and unstructured forum, reaching out over the heads of the media to constituents.
Jones' reflexes on air are assertive and territorial. A 'power of one' he may be, but he also makes a powerful appeal to the tribal in all of us. When we retreat into the tribe we lose the chance to experience of the kindness of strangers.
Known as the Queen of Radio and the Baroness of Broadcasting, Australia’s audacious first woman talkback presenter preferred to be known simply as Andrea