Lachlan Murdoch drops case against Crikey.
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Saturday Apr 22
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As you’ve probably already heard, yesterday Lachlan Murdoch, billionaire CEO of Fox Corporation, withdrew his defamation case against Crikey publisher Private Media. To quote our CEO Will Hayward and chairman Eric Beecher: “We are proud of our stand”. You can read their full statement below.

When John Safran asked his friend and radio co-host, the late Father Bob Maguire, how he stayed open-hearted to “all manner of outcasts”, the priest responded: “‘You don't have to like people to love them”. As Australia mourned his recent death, Charlie Lewis reflected on Maguire's remarkable life and how our politicians lack his moral consistency.

Also this week, Guy Rundle and David Hardaker dissected key Labor figures' relationships to AUKUS, Maeve McGregor considered whether Justin Trudeau was right to call Anthony Albanese a progressive, and Wanning Sun explained why the Australian media won't change how it writes about China.

Meanwhile on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, Julia Bergin took us inside one of the Yes campaign's online yarning circles, and Anton Nilsson and Cam Wilson revealed details of the No campaign's advertising and fundraising push.

Find all those stories and plenty more from the team in today’s Crikey Weekender.

Thanks for your support,
Gina Rushton Gina Rushton,
Editor
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Lachlan Murdoch drops defamation case against Crikey
CHARLIE LEWIS

Murdoch's lawyer John Churchill issued a statement this morning saying he had filed a notice of discontinuance.

Lachlan Murdoch (Image: AAP/AP/Evan Agostini/Invision)
‘We are proud of our stand’: a statement on Lachlan Murdoch withdrawing his case against Crikey
WILL HAYWARD and ERIC BEECHER

A statement from Private Media CEO Will Hayward and chairman Eric Beecher.

 
Yes, Colbert, our name is funny — unlike this bit of racist cringe comedy
CHARLIE LEWIS

Stephen Colbert's famously a bright guy, so it's surprising that in a segment mentioning Crikey, a gag using First Nations culture was given the green light.

Composite of a monologue from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (Image: CBS/YouTube)
 
Father Bob Maguire’s remarkable life was defined by a moral coherence our politicians lack
CHARLIE LEWIS

Vale Father Bob Maguire and the way of the world that goes with him.

Father Bob Maguire in 2021 (Image: AAP/James Ross)
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Australia’s template-led opinion pieces cause harm and reject nuance
ESTHER ANATOLITIS

Outrage triggers and centring writers in debates that aren't theirs are eroding our capacity for sophisticated debate.

Composite of headlines of recent opinion pieces published in The Age/SMH (Images: Adobe/Age/SMH)
 
Daintree, Dan and the HWU: the real scandal is the contempt for working people
GUY RUNDLE

Victorian Labor funnelled money to a hands-off 'training authority' controlled by the state's most corrupted union. Dissolve the HWU!

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews (Image: AAP/James Ross)
 
‘We’re not getting any mining money’: how the No campaign is funding its experiments on voters
ANTON NILSSON and CAM WILSON

No campaign leader Warren Mundine says fundraising has been 'pretty full on' but won’t say who’s chipped in.

The Recognise a Better Way's No campaign video featuring president Warren Mundine (Image: Recognise a Better Way)
Yes camp announces more online yarning circles to learn about the Voice
JULIA BERGIN

The Uluru Dialogue is using the First Nations' concept of a yarning circle to teach Australians the ins and outs of a Voice to Parliament.

Pat Anderson AO (Image: AAP/Steven Saphore)
 
AUKUS: Labor goes to war — against itself
GUY RUNDLE

Anthony Albanese's commitment to the deal is driven by demands of the foreign policy elite, and the endless factional war with Bill Shorten.

Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten (Image: AAP/Lukas Coch)
 
The Murdoch-Dominion deal: from post-fact reality TV to a Looney Tunes reboot 
CHRISTOPHER WARREN

The legal processes in this defamation action have laid bare the flaws of the Fox media model, and its reputation may have taken a fatal hit.

A protest against Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation in Melbourne, 2021 (Image: AAP/James Ross)
 
Labor must abolish Work for the Dole before it destroys more lives
JEREMY POXON

The call to end the Work for the Dole program is deafening. Why isn't the government, the supposed party of labour, listening?

Employment Minister Tony Burke (Image: AAP/Lukas Coch)
 
Was Justin Trudeau right to cast Anthony Albanese as a ‘progressive’?
MAEVE MCGREGOR

Is Labor led by 'Albanese the progressive', or is it rather 'Albanese the conservative'?

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (Image: AAP/Lukas Coch)
 
Fortunes of war: why the Australian media won’t change how it writes about China
WANNING SUN

Australian journalists have adopted a 'cold war' mindset on China. And as it turns out, warmongering may be a sound business strategy.

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong and former prime minister Paul Keating (Images: AAP)
Is it time Australian news organisations sent reporters back to China?
MICHAEL SAINSBURY

Australians are missing out on having on-the-ground news from China as its dominance in the region — and the world — grows.

People look at a copy of the Global Times in Beijing, 2023 (Image: AAP/AP/Mark Schiefelbein)
 
The grey man: just who is Richard Marles, the Labor power in charge of Australia’s US alliance? 
DAVID HARDAKER

Despite the sharp differences in background between Marles and Anthony Albanese, the two men are in lockstep when it comes to AUKUS.

Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles (Image: Zennie/Private Media)
 
The YIMBY movement is shaking up Australian politics amid the housing affordability crisis
BENJAMIN CLARK

The call, both in Australia and overseas, for well-located, affordable urban housing is growing louder, but the NIMBY resistance movement still carries a degree of clout.

NSW Minister for Housing Rose Jackson (Image: AAP/Bianca De Marchi)
 
ABC to continue using Twitter despite ‘government-funded media’ label
JOHN BUCKLEY

The label warns users that the account 'may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content'.

(Image: ABC/Twitter, AAP)
 
Assange campaign escalates pressure after Wong pressed on jailed reporter in Russia
JOHN BUCKLEY

The Assange campaign has called on the government to leverage AUKUS talks next months to negotiate the WikiLeaks cofounder's release.

Julian Assange in 2019 and Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong (Images: AAP)