Grant reveals media’s failings

Saturday May 27

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This week the nation watched on as Stan Grant stepped down as Q+A host after facing a torrent of racial abuse. For Crikey, Pragya Agarwal wrote that the backlash to the presenter's commitment to colonial truths showed that racism is still rampant in Australia. Meanwhile Guy Rundle weighed in on the issue (and the progressive response to it), and Charlie Lewis considered the Murdoch media's role in all this.

Elsewhere this week Christopher Warren made the case that News Corp needs the ABC more than the ABC needs News Corp, Anton Nilsson reported on the government's gentle slap on PwC's wrist, and Cam Wilson considered how Elon Musk — who once complained Twitter had a “left-wing bias” — has transformed the platform into a right-wing haven.

Plus, can you guess the three issues Scott Morrison has broken his backbench silence for?

Read all those stories and plenty more in the latest Crikey Weekender.

Gina Rushton,
Editor

Words matter. Leadership matters. But instead the right gives us slurs and slogans

NYADOL NYUON

When leaders of political parties remain silent against the hate spread by neo-Nazis and their ilk, they're showing they haven't taken a stand.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton (Image: AAP/Morgan Hancock)

‘Share far and wide’: how the far right seeds and spreads drag storytime protests

CAM WILSON

'This week represents a swing of 98% of the population towards an openly Nazi position,' one extremist said after a drag event was cancelled due to threats.

An example of a far-right smear against drag performers (Image: Supplied)

Which three issues inspire Scott Morrison to stand up in Parliament these days?

JULIA BERGIN

The former prime minister has stood up and spoken up for the third time since he lost the top job. First for the queen, second for a censure motion, and now over the Voice.

Scott Morrison (Image: ABC)

What makes a journalist? Let’s write professional accreditation into the job

ALEXANDRA WAKE and JOHAN LIDBERG

The question of credentials arose in Australia recently when Reignite Democracy leader Monica Smit faced court.

Monica Smit at an anti-vaccination protest in Melbourne in February 2021 (Image: Nine/YouTube)

History repeats itself as Australia’s dark past is given a whitewash

PRAGYA AGARWAL

The backlash faced by Indigenous journalist Stan Grant to the colonial truths he spoke shows racism is still oppressive in Australia.

Stan Grant during his final Q+A episode (Image: ABC)

Stan Grant affair: progressives get a wake-up call, others hit the snooze button

GUY RUNDLE

The ABC can't do much about what Stan Grant's now copping, in a free society. Some of his champions have their own questions to answer. And progressives' obsessive focus on it leaves the mainstream unmoved.

Stan Grant (Image: Image/Paul Miller)

‘No lived experience’: ABC bosses pressed on failure to anticipate racist abuse ahead of coronation

JOHN BUCKLEY

A lack of diversity at executive level played a role in the ABC's failure to anticipate the racist abuse of Stan Grant, one senator has suggested.

ABC director of news Justin Stevens and managing director David Anderson at a Senate estimates hearing (Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas)

News Corp is trying to find out who did this to Stan Grant

CHARLIE LEWIS

The reverent treatment Stan Grant's Q+A sign-off received from News Corp will surprise anyone who's read anything else it's produced on the veteran journo in the past fortnight.

Stan Grant (Images: AAP/ Private Media)

Human rights abuses put aside as Australia-India relations enter new era

JOHN ZUBRZYCKI

If new ties between the nations are entering 'T20 mode', then some bumpy wickets may lie ahead.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Sydney (Image: AAP/Dean Lewins)

The ABC doesn’t need News Corp — News Corp needs the ABC

CHRISTOPHER WARREN

Like a bully in a playground, the Murdoch media in Australia has the national broadcaster cowering against its attacks. It's time the ABC fought back.

ABC news director Justin Stevens addresses the staff walkout on Monday (Image: AAP/Flavio Brancaleone)

‘Carbon footprint’ was coined by an ad guy for BP. So why do we still feel guilty?

EMMA ELSWORTHY

Why do we feel a sense of guilt for our ailing earth? Because advertising executives designed it that way, and everyone fell for it.

(Image: AAP/Darren England)

The cast has begun to assemble for the Republican carnival of 2024

CHARLIE LEWIS

Following Ron DeSantis' glitchy, poorly viewed Twitter announcement of his presidential run, Crikey looks at some key running Republicans.

Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump (Images: AAP)

PwC scandal only the tip of a chummy, collusive consultancy iceberg

BEN ELTHAM and DEB VERHOEVEN

The PwC scandal is a symptom of a much larger problem: the outsourcing of core government functions to a cartel of professional services firms.

(Image: Private Media/Gorkie)

PwC hid behind bogus legal privilege for years as it sought to stifle the truth

DAVID HARDAKER

A Federal Court decision offers context to the battle for information from PwC — one that's been raging a long time.

A PwC building in Sydney (Image: AAP/Dan Himbrechts)

‘Tone is obviously inappropriate’: read the government’s letter to PwC

ANTON NILSSON

The 'friendly' 2022 letter to beleaguered consultancy firm PwC reminded it not to use confidential government information to solicit further work.

(Image: Zennie/Private Media)

Big four’s vicious $4bn circle of government contracts and political donations

JULIAN BAJKOWSKI

The Centre for Public Integrity has released a report on this co-dependent culture as pressure builds for action against consultancies playing on both sides of the fence.

Parliament House, Canberra (Image: AAP/Lukas Coch)

A Chinese comedian’s Xi joke and the lucrative market for patriotism

WANNING SUN

Framing the punitive backlash to a comedian's joke as mere state censorship ignores many aspects of the political culture in China.

Chinese comedian Li Haoshi (Image: Tencent)

Elon Musk said the old Twitter was too political. His Twitter 2.0 is worse

CAM WILSON

The billionaire, who once complained that Twitter had a 'left-wing bias', has transformed the platform into a right-wing haven.

Elon Musk (Image: Sipa USA/John Lamparski)

Vale Tina Turner, the soul survivor who touched every era of pop

CHARLIE LEWIS

Can you imagine Tina Turner's story ever happening again?

Tina Turner performing in Los Angeles, 1984 (Image: AAP/AP/Phil Ramey)

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