Chris Mitchell
Robert Manne's Quarterly Essay is 40,000 words on the malign influence of The Australian on public affairs in this country. You can read an extract here and watch an interview with Manne here. Also of interest is commentary on Manne's essay from Tim Dunlop who asks "why anybody continues to take The Australian seriously" and Margaret Simmons, who writes, "Manne's most powerful accusation against The Australian is lack of intellectual honesty".
Manne presents several case studies of The Australian's bias and bullying and their war on science (with an acknowledgment to my blog) is one of them…
Chris Mitchell, defending against the charge that The Australian's coverage of climate change is biased, said:
What people do not like is that I publish people such as Bjorn Lomborg. I will continue to do so, but would suggest my environment writer, Graham Lloyd, who is a passionate environmentalist, gets a very good run in the paper."
Does Lloyd's reporting provide a counterpoint to Lomborg in The Australian? He's only just become the environment writer, so there aren't many stories to go on, but on those his record is similar to that of a predecessor, Matthew Warren.
For example Graham…
Chris Mitchell's spokesperson says:
Editor in chief Editor In Chief of The Australian newspaper Chris Mitchell has invited Canberra academic Julie Posetti to visit the offices of The Australian newspaper to observe news conference, and see operations for herself.
Mitchell's offer is contained in a legal letter send to Posetti yesterday, as part of the defamation proceedings that have become known as #twitdef.
Mitchell also seeks a written apology, denying allegations that he had ever ``conducted himself in a manner that was coercive, debilitating, excruciating or tortuous.''
Mitchell…
Given that The Australian's editor-in-chief, Chris Mitchell threatens to sue Julia Posetti, alleging that he has been defamed, you'd think they'd want to avoid defaming scientists, but the law on defamation is really only useful to the rich and powerful.
In a column entitled Radicals get rich while truth begs, regular columnist for The Australian, David Burchell defames two scientists, Phil Jones and Riyadh Lafta. He first accuses Jones of professional misconduct:
Last week the journal Nature interviewed professor Phil Jones of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, the…
THE ABC has posted the audio of Åsa Wahlquist's remarks at the conference, proving that Posetti's tweets accurately quoted her. The two five minute audios are well worth listening to for an insider's take on the toxic work environmnet that is The Australian. Look carefully at what Wahlquist has said since:
Mitchell rejects the allegation and Walhquist has also denied it, saying she has never spoken to Mitchell about climate change.
Wahlquist has not retracted or contradicted any of the things she said at the conference. I hope she expands on them at book length. Anyone know any publishers…
Congratulations to Chris Mitchell, editor of The Australian who has won
an award from the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association for journalism that promotes their interests:
In congratulating Chris Mitchell, APPEA's Chief Executive Belinda Robinson observed that "over the past twelve months The Australian's in-depth coverage of a range of public policy issues affecting Australia's upstream oil and gas industry has been of a consistently high standard. The reporting has been thoughtful, balanced, analytical, well researched and a big effort was made to ensure that all…