Media ownership: lefties good, conservatives bad

Global wail

The hypocrisy of the media knows no bounds. Whilst the liberal elite have been hyperventilating over Gina Rinehart’s purchase of a share in Fairfax, with Left-wing media outlets such as the Silly Moaning Herald and Crikey publishing acres of copy criticising and smearing as only the Left can, there is a deafening silence when Graeme Wood, founder of travel website wotif.com and bankroller of the Greens, rounds up a bunch of ex-Fairfax and ex-ABC journos to launch, er, a media organisation.

The excellent blog Bunyipitude has exposed this hypocrisy beautifully:

The incantation worked, Monica Attard’s portal finally opened and allowed The Professor to slip in and find …. why leftists love Malcolm Turnbull, the scourge of air conditioning, why Occupisants need to make more noise, and how Bob’s little boy, Eric Ellis, is eating Europe. (Ellis deserves a nice jaunt, by the way. He must be exhausted after churning out the sophistries needed to elevate Wayne Swan’s reputation with a 32-quid tin plate and the title of the World’s Hottest Treasurer.)

This is revolutionary stuff. Brave, courageous, daring to go where only the Phage [The Age], Silly [SMH], The Conversation, SBS, The Drum, Q&A, Lateline, New Matilda, Lavatorius Pronto [Larvatus Prodeo], Crikey and poor Margo have gone before. (source)

Wonderful. And there’s plenty more:

THE Globular Mail isn’t impressing the pros. No comments, no links to source material, and its crab-like sideways crawl is rated a huge annoyance. Here is one observation from the Technology Spectator’s critique:

If Global Mail readers wish to provide feedback or comment or add to a story they must email the publisher. “Please note that while we appreciate all feedback, we do not guarantee all letters will appear on the website,” proclaims the site – as if it’s readers had dipped nib into ink and crafted their comment on parchment. The Global Mail’s stated desire to step back from the “breathless 24/7 news cycle” is admirable and should help ensure a high standard of quality. But applying old media models that drive one-way conversation to a new media platform won’t help the Global Mail build a loyal following.

Also interesting is author Chris Palmer’s news that patron Graeme Wood owns most of Hunted Media, the outfit responsible for the Global Mail’s, er, innovative horizontal design. So, not only does Wood list the “impartial” Global Mail as his email address on forms declaring seven-figure donations to the Greens, he also is supporting the site out of one pocket and slipping the development cash into another.

If Gina Rinehart begins to make her presence felt at Fairfax, we can expect to hear lots of luvvie suggestions that the company be wrested from her control and run as an employee co-operative. Few luvvies have to balance books, pay taxes or meet a weekly payroll, but they always imagine their unique brand of competence would see things done better. This may be because luvvies enjoy nothing so much as a good meeting, but their compulsion to rabbit on in the company of the like-minded is a topic for another day.

They should keep an eye on the developing, gold-plated debacle that is the Global Crab and think again — if they have ever thought before, that is. (source)

I highly recommend a bookmark.

UPDATE: And of course the Leftard lemmings at GetUp! are in on the action as well… see here.