Powerhouse Museum move to Parramatta floodplain is 'crazy' and 'risks loss of life', flood expert warns
UK betting giant, William Hill, is selling out of its Australian
gambling operation, this country’s biggest, while it is under
investigation by the Tax Office, likely for dubious transactions exposed
here. Taxman closes in as William Hill skips the country
Jill Wran 'crushed' by plans to relocate the Powerhouse
Rogue MP crosses the floor to expose Powerhouse Museum
Rogue MP crosses the floor to expose Powerhouse Museum
EXCLUSIVE | Prison officers walk off the job
Obeid family lose lawsuit against ICAC investigators
Publishers call for new probe into collapse of media agency Hammond and Thackeray
Cummins acknowledged in his liquidation report to creditors, and later told Mumbrella, there were “one or two” indicators that insolvent trading may have taken place, a view he said was based on a “preliminary assessment” and largely surrounded a number of payment arrangements agreed with the Australian Tax Office.
Which companies are likely to be good or bad at public relations? - That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column, the community banks are likely to be good, here is one excerpt:
I think of community banks as enjoying relatively high levels of trust. Millions of Americans have walked through the doors of their local banks and dealt with the loan officers, tellers and account managers, giving the business a human face. A community bank cannot serve a region without sending out a fair number of foot soldiers. Banks tend to have longstanding roots in their communities, and a large stock of connections and accumulated social capital.Already you can see a problem shaping up, as perhaps the faster-growing, higher productivity gain companies will have less experience. And indeed often the very dynamic, big tech companies are not so good at public relations:
In turn, community banks have converted this personal trust into political clout. There are community banks in virtually every congressional district, and these banks have developed the art of speaking for many different segments of American society, not just a narrow coastal elite. When these banks mobilize on behalf of a political cause, they are powerful, as illustrated by the likelihood that they will get regulatory relief from the Dodd-Frank Act, probably with bipartisan support. They have such influence that one member of the Federal Reserve Board must be a community banker, even though few economists see much rationale for this provision.
Given their usefulness, it would be wrong to describe community bankers as a stagnant sector of our economy. Still, the same features that make them trusted and politically powerful also make them unlikely to be major sector disruptors.
Alternatively, let’s say you were designing a business that, whatever its other virtues might be, would not be very good at public relations.Which companies are likely to be good or bad at public relations?. The clincher of course is this:
First, you would make sure the business had come of age fairly recently. That would ensure the company didn’t have a long history of managing public relations, learning how the news media work, figuring out what it will or will not be blamed for, and rooting itself in local communities.
The next thing you might do is to concentrate the company’s broader business sector in one particular part of the country. That would ensure that the companies’ culture didn’t reflect the broadest possible swath of public opinion. Better yet, don’t choose a swing state such as Pennsylvania or Ohio, but rather opt for a region that is overwhelmingly of a single political orientation and viewed by many Americans as a bit crazy or out of touch. How about Northern California?
And we have been building a political system that favors the time-honored company rather than the radical innovator.
How to ensure your govt website isn't flagged as dodgy.
"Soon a popular browser will warn your website visitors if there is no secure connection backed by a valid certificate. It’s an easy fix — here’s what we did." (DTA)
The Berkman Klein Center is pleased to announce a new publication from the Privacy Tools project, authored by a multidisciplinary group of project collaborators from the Berkman Klein Center and the Program on Information Science at MIT Libraries. This article, titled “Practical approaches to big data privacy over time,” analyzes how privacy risks multiply as large quantities of personal data are collected over longer periods of time, draws attention to the relative weakness of data protections in the corporate and public sectors, and provides practical recommendations for protecting privacy when collecting and managing commercial and government data over extended periods of time
Malaysia moves to outlaw fake news
The
Malaysian government raised eyebrows this week when both
houses
passed a
bill outlawing fake news, punishable by up to six years in prison for both
its publication and sharing. Online service providers would be responsible for
third-party content, foreign news outlets reporting on Malaysia could be
affected and anyone could lodge a complaint against an alleged purveyor of
misinformation.
But
the opposition argues the government’s definition of what constitutes fake
news — “any news, information, data and reports which are wholly or
partly false, whether in the form of features, visuals or audio recordings or
in any other form capable of suggesting words or ideas” — is too vague and that
the bill was an effort to stifle free speech ahead of the August election.
Malaysia's head of state still needs to sign the bill into law, but that
is expected to be a formality since he supports the
bill anyway.
ICYMI:
Malaysia’s fake news bill is part of a larger trend of governments intervening
against misinformation. Here’s
a guide to different actions around the world.
This is how we do it
- Just because International Fact-Checking Day is over doesn’t mean you can’t learn more. Here’s a lesson plan and an online course aimed at helping high school and college students develop fact-checking skills. And a cartoon if you prefer pictures.
- The IFCN published several tip sheets aimed at honing your verification skills and best practices.
- Agência Lupa in Brazil created a Messenger bot ahead of this fall’s election with support from Facebook.
Fact-checking day highlights
- Factcheck.org solicited questions from readers on Facebook throughout the week about its fact-checking process. Then it answered them in videos on Monday.
- France 24 did segments with Derek Thomson, director of their Observers citizen verification project, and Jane Elizabeth, director of the Accountability Journalism Program at the American Press Institute, on International Fact-Checking Day. Observers also launched a verification guide.
- Ana Pastor’s startup Newtral published an Instagram video explaining the fact-checking methodology on her prime time TV show El Objetivo. The Spanish fact-checker also published a segment asking people whether certain claims were true or false.
This is bad
- Facebook finds 273 fake pages and accounts linked to Russian misinformation efforts.
- Following a shooting at YouTube’s headquarters, BuzzFeed News kept track of hoaxes about the incident.
- InfoWars identified a Massachusetts man as the Parkland school shooter, and he’s suing.
A closer look
- Why people stink at fact-checking — maybe even you.
- Fighting Facebook fakery: Will this idea work?
- Brussels fights back on fake news while India backs off.
If you read one more thing
The
Washington Post reported this week that a new study shows fake news might
have swung the U.S. election in favor of Donald Trump. But Brendan Nyhan, a
government professor at Dartmouth College, debunked
that notion, pointing to a
February column in The Upshot that warns against overblowing the political
influence of bots and misinformation.
Quick fact-checking links
More
than 75 percent of Americans think major TV and newspaper outlets report fake
news, according to a
new Monmouth University poll. But The Washington Post's Margaret Sullivan
has some
criticism of that poll. // Arizona’s AZ
Fact Check Team looks back at seven ways politicians have mangled the
truth. // Ireland’s Ferret
Fact Service is celebrating one year in the biz. // Aos Fatos’ fact-checking bot Fátima grew
to Twitter from Facebook and won an anti-misinformation challenge in
Brazil. // Here’s
how far automated fact-checking has come over the past two years — and
the obstacles still in its way. //
The International
Center for Journalists is
expanding TruthBuzz. //
How the
“teens snort condoms” non-story
went viral. //
Here’s where
philanthropy
to fight fake news is headed these days. // Fighting fake news in Mexico:
WAN-IFRA writes about Verificado
2018. // PolitiFact published an
eight-step guide to avoid falling for fake news for fact-checking day. //
Facebook has
expanded its fact-checking program to Indonesia. //
The Washington
Post’s Abby Olheiser kept
track of all the major April Fools’ Day pranks on the internet this year.
//
The EU is facing more
pushback on its efforts to counter disinformation. //
Take a look inside
Croatia’s Faktograf.
// An Indonesian cabinet member threatened
to shut down Facebook if the company doesn’t crack down on fake news before
next year’s election. // Also for Fact-Checking Day: Vera Files
created their own fact-checking
quiz and the Better Government Association shared fact-checking
tips.
via Daniel, Jane, and AlexiosIn just six weeks, there were 63 data breach notifications to the Australian Information Commissioner since the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme started.