Hypocrisy adds insult to injuries
March 19, 2014
By former Media Watcher Richard Ackland (PS: Deb Richard was his produceer)
Even on a good night, watching the ABC's Q&A can do your head in: the scripted questions, the inane set-piece responses from politicians, the suffocating level of political debate and ideas.
So it required extra doses of fortifying Prozac to sit through the whole show to get to an apology to Melbourne's professional provocateur, Andrew Bolt.
For journalists to be demanding apologies and suing for defamation is undignified and embarrassing. The licence to dish it out has the associated responsibility of being able to take it. If it's good enough for racial minorities to cop a bit of abuse in the media, there should be a rule under the journalists' code of ethics that reptiles, who can defend themselves in print, the internet or on air, should not sue for defamation or insist that people apologise to them. News Corp wants to be rid of the offend, insult and humiliate provisions in the Racial Discrimination Act - at the very least. They haven't extended their campaign to amending or repealing the Defamation Act and monetary awards for damage to reputation and hurt to feelings.
What should you do when someone suddenly stops responding to your emails?
Hot on the heels of "phubbing", when people play with their smartphones and ignore those around them, there's a new passive-aggressive cyber phenomenon called "e-snubbing".
To summarise the results of their study, Automated Social Hierarchy Detection through Email Network Analysis, the more important you are, the quicker your emails get answered.
E-snubbing occurs when one party unilaterally and without explanation decides to pull the plug on a business relationship that is conducted mainly or exclusively online. It seems to have reached epidemic proportions, raising the question of how to avoid experiencing it in the first place and how to best respond when it does happen. At least Enron Collapse was good for study