Dancing in the streets ... Were journalists so busy reporting bad news from Iraq that they missed the hunger for democracy on display in the elections? Does President Bush have a point when he says progress in Iraq has been overlooked? And how much of the president's unpopularity overseas is driven by a hostile press? We'll ask "New York Times" columnist Tom Friedman. Every reporter working in Iraq deserves a Medal of Freedom
Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Tested Loyalties
Newhouse News Service D.C. bureau chief Deborah Howell, who, while an editor at the St. Paul Pioneer Press in the 1970s, was married to the majority leader of the Minnesota State Senate. To this day she handles calls from distraught reporters who fall in love with politicians. "I wouldn't recommend it to anyone," she says. "It's fraught with fraught, you know?"
In his final column for The New York Times, former Hollywood reporter Bernard Weinraub included a startling confession: That perhaps he should have stopped writing about the film industry after marrying a powerful studio executive.
"Clearly, I stayed too long on my beat, clinging to a notion that I could sidestep conflicts of interest by avoiding direct coverage of Sony," he wrote last Sunday of his 1997 marriage to Amy Pascal, who would later become the chairwoman of Sony Pictures.
• Don't fall in love with politicians, editor advises journalists [Journos' concern: What if people don't want us anymore?; NSW English Teachers Association president Wayne Sawyer's extraordinary remarks in a teaching journal have sparked a heated debate about the appropriateness of pushing politics in the classroom and the responsibility of teachers to adhere to the principle of impartiality You failed your voting test, kids ; It is often assumed that elections in nations with long-standing democratic processes, such as Australia, Canada, Britain and the US, are ‘free and fair’ Australian electoral law: ‘free and fair’? ; Smothered by the security blanket & christmas decorations: Risk, responsibility and the role of government]
• · Marc Perrusquia of the Memphis Commercial Appeal used documents filed in a court case to report that “State Sen. John Ford received $237,000 over two years from a business partnership yet didn’t disclose the venture on annual legislative conflict-of-interest statements required by state law.” Conflict of interest: via Scoop
• · · Federalism of Errors: A woman living on the edge of oblivion In his second "state of the state" address at the Exodus Foundation at Ashfield Mr John Brogden said his own family had been touched by mental illness. Brogden pledges action on 'mental asylum' jails ; The OECD experience in the quest for equitable health care systems: lessons for Australia Generous options to ‘go private’ ; Guide to International Refugee Law Resources on the Web; Paul McGeough finds that it costs only $260 to obtain a fake pass through most of the security checkpoints in a city at war. Passport racket blows hole in Baghdad's security net
• · · · The handshake between Tony Blair and Libyan Dictator Muammar Gaddafi (choose your spelling) stuck in the throats of a lot of people, not least the families and friends of those who were murdered on Pan Am 103 by Mr. Gaddafi’s people. But we’re going to have to live with it whether we like it or not. Blair’s Libyan Visit – We Don’t Have to Like It, Just Accept It
• · · · · One of the world's wealthiest men in his own right, Gaddafi is in Australia talking investment, and the list of suitors is bound to be long and relentless. Occupying his time will be trade talks with the Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, and a string of Australian investors from the oil, gas, tourism, agriculture, racing and cattle industries.Muammar Gaddafi ; Google: Libya’s Blood Money Moves to Revive Oil Industry; Axis of Spying
• · · · · · Dennis Glover: Like a brood of baby crocodiles flushed down a suburban toilet, these ideas have taken a subterranean journey through the sewers and emerged fully formed on main street, to devour the unwary. Listen to the punters from marginal electorates on talkback radio, read the reports of political focus groups, talk to your cab driver; they’re all repeating the opinions, boiled down to a populist essence, of some right-wing intellectual. ; Suzy Balogh, Athens 2004 Olympic Trap Shooting Gold Medallist, and champion marathon swimmer, Susie Maroney, are urging people to give blood this summer. Both athletes were shocked to learn that while 80% of all Australians will need blood or blood products during their lifetime, only 3% of the population regularly donate blood. Susie Maroney and Suzy Balogh see red over blood donations ; [The tsunami that devastated South-East Asia was much bigger than was first believed, reaching heights of 30 metres, the size of a 10-storey building, and speeds of 13.7 metres a second. The more we look, the bigger the tsunami gets ]
