Talking Politics

[IanG]

‘Mortified’: New texts reveal trouble for PM

Scott Morrison’s claim that no one in his office knew about the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins has been undermined by new text messages revealing his staffer was “mortified” by the story and had pledged to take action.

www.news.com.au

 

[DavidSSS]

There is an issue in that, in part, Facebook and Google attract customers to their sites through providing news or at least providing links to news.

The news they provide is from other organisations which have invested funds into reporting the news.

But, the news organisations rely on advertising revenue, Facebook and Google are now getting most of this revenue.

So who pays for the reporting of news?

This is what the government sees as the problem but I'm not convinced that somehow forcing Facebook and Google to pay the media companies for news is going to do much to fix the problem. Certainly the media companies have not adapted to the changing world very well and we see they have various strategies: New Ltd paywall, Fairfax limits the number of articles you can view (easy to get around) and The Guardian asks for donations/subscriptions.

I suspect that the model of paying for news, for example when you pay to purchase a newspaper or a subscription, is gone. News is moving to free platforms, mind you, it has always been free on Free to Air TV, but that relies on advertising revenue.

DS

 

[Baloo]

If the allegations are true and it is proven that he knew about this incident before he said he did, then no amount of diversion from his media mates will save him. There are still plenty of independent media organisations that will bring it to light.

Heh, no chance. Morrisson will find someone to take the fall. It's never him. Remember Sports Rorts ? He made sure his Sports Minister fell / was forced onto her sword. No one tells Morrisson anything.

You've got to wonder really. If my staff failed to tell me as many important things as Morrisson's staff do, if I didn't fire them, I'd be fired.

 

[DavidSSS]

Heh, no chance. Morrisson will find someone to take the fall. It's never him. Remember Sports Rorts ? He made sure his Sports Minister fell / was forced onto her sword. No one tells Morrisson anything.

You've got to wonder really. If my staff failed to tell me as many important things as Morrisson's staff do, if I didn't fire them, I'd be fired.

You don't work in politics, in politics you keep things from the minister/PM so they can plausibly deny any knowledge.

Ministerial responsibility is a thing of the past, simply does not exist any more.

DS

 

[Ridley]

There is an issue in that, in part, Facebook and Google attract customers to their sites through providing news or at least providing links to news.

The news they provide is from other organisations which have invested funds into reporting the news.

But, the news organisations rely on advertising revenue, Facebook and Google are now getting most of this revenue.

So who pays for the reporting of news?

This is what the government sees as the problem but I'm not convinced that somehow forcing Facebook and Google to pay the media companies for news is going to do much to fix the problem. Certainly the media companies have not adapted to the changing world very well and we see they have various strategies: New Ltd paywall, Fairfax limits the number of articles you can view (easy to get around) and The Guardian asks for donations/subscriptions.

I suspect that the model of paying for news, for example when you pay to purchase a newspaper or a subscription, is gone. News is moving to free platforms, mind you, it has always been free on Free to Air TV, but that relies on advertising revenue.

DS

Fair points David. Organisations, and their employees, need to get paid. Whether the payment comes via subsriptions or advertising, or a combination of both, is a decision for the organisation. If people don't want to pay for subscriptions then don't; but don't complain when you don't get access. No one had any issue paying for hard copies of the newspapers back in the day. I still don't have an issue with it; would rather read a paper than a screen if I have a choice.

Facebook is a manipulative and controlling organisation that is interested in only one thing; social media dominance and exhorbitant profits. And they do it by casting massive undue influence over the easily manipulated and addictive younger population. Never more evident than when Zuckerburg realised that the younger demographic was deserting Facebook for Instagram so he just went out and bought Instagram. Then he bought Whatsapp. Poor Zuckers also tried to buy Snapchat but was rejected.

He is only intent on total social media monopoly.

 

[DavidSSS]

Fair points David. Organisations, and their employees, need to get paid. Whether the payment comes via subscriptions or advertising, or a combination of both, is a decision for the organisation. If people don't want to pay for subscriptions then don't; but don't complain when you don't get access. No one had any issue paying for hard copies of the newspapers back in the day. I still don't have an issue with it; would rather read a paper than a screen if I have a choice.

Facebook is a manipulative and controlling organisation that is interested in only one thing; social media dominance and exhorbitant profits. And they do it by casting massive undue influence over the easily manipulated and addictive younger population. Never more evident than when Zuckerburg realised that the younger demographic was deserting Facebook for Instagram so he just went out and bought Instagram. Then he bought Whatsapp. Poor Zuckers also tried to buy Snapchat but was rejected.

He is only intent on total social media monopoly.

I agree on Facebook, although I have to say I am not very familiar with it since I have never had a Facebook account and don't really have social media.

I still read a newspaper, it gets delivered each day. Despite the fact we could subscribe to the online version we've never bothered and have never activated the subscriber access to their site. I also find it a bit strange that people don't just go to the source, I read a few news apps and will sometimes go over to Al Jazeera for a different perspective. Still, I figure a lot of people just won't look at any news if it isn't presented to the via social media.

DS

 

[IanG]

There is an issue in that, in part, Facebook and Google attract customers to their sites through providing news or at least providing links to news.

The news they provide is from other organisations which have invested funds into reporting the news.

But, the news organisations rely on advertising revenue, Facebook and Google are now getting most of this revenue.

As I said above Google have their News App and pay media orgs for that. Facebook simply host links, it could be argued media orgs are advertising themselves on facebook. I don't go to facebook for news, its simply a by product. Why is the advertising revenue facebook and google get revenue that should rightly go to media orgs? If its a case of tech giants crowding other orgs out of the market, well thats the market in operation.

Here is a transcript of an interview on the ABC which is quite enlightening:

Galley by CJR

galley.cjr.org

Key point: "They're not "forking over their news." That's like saying if you take my picture you steal my soul. Publishers are benefitting tremendously from Google and Facebook sending them people -- audience, users, potential members or subscribers, consumers, call them what you will. In any rational market, publishers would be paying platforms the way we used to have to pay newsstands. Only Google decided from the first not to sell links in search proper and thus they never created a market value for links. For platforms to do publishers this favor of sending them potential customers, they need to give users a preview with headlines or snippets. We all know that! Indeed, I did research years ago that found the larger the sample, the better the performance of the link; our content is our best ad."

 

[Tigers of Old]

The scandals keep piling up for Scotty. Under real pressure about whether he knew about this alleged sexual assault back in 2019.

Just add it to the very long list.

A complete list of the Liberal Party’s corruption over the last 7 years

Everyone's banned so now we have to do hard hitting journalism

chaser.com.au

 

[spook]

Don't blame Facebook for the lack of news in your newsfeed. Blame the federal government, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Murdoch's Newscorp.
Faced with falling revenues due to fewer and fewer people willing to buy their crappy propaganda sheets or watch their garbage news and current affairs shows, Newscorp, Nine-Fairfax (run by Peter Costello), Channel 7 and friends have drawn up legislation for their government lackeys to pass that would force Facebook to pay those companies in order to link to their sites. These entitled, bloated, corporate entities, which have enjoyed free promotion on Facebook, which drives traffic to their sites, allowing them to sell advertising and make money, now want Facebook to pay them for the privilege of helping them make money. Imagine putting a poster for your band in a café window, and expecting the café owner to pay you for the privilege. That's basically what this is.
They're also agitating for FB and Google to have to share their algorithms with them, so they can tweak their content to stay at the top of searches, and thus get more hits.
It is ridiculous, and the only reason it is an issue is because this government owes its existence to its media masters.



And Morrison knew about the rape. But it was the month before the election, see, so...you know...what was he supposed to do but cover it up?

In the message, the Liberal staffer said they had spoken directly with a member of Mr Morrison’s staff.

“Spoke to the PMO. He was mortified to hear about it and how things have been handled,” he said.

“He’s going to discuss with COS – no one else. I flagged the need for councillor (sic) and desire to be closer to home during election.”


PMO refers to Mr Morrison’s office and COS is shorthand for chief of staff.

Ms Higgins has said at least three of Mr Morrison’s staff had knew of the alleged incident.

Explosive texts cast doubt on PM's response to alleged Parliament rape

Prime Minister Scott Morrison's timeline around learning of an alleged rape have been called into question following the publication of text messages.

thenewdaily.com.au

 

[Baloo]

Yeah, but what about Ms Higgins's current boyfriend and what about what happens in the ALP offices?

 

[Brodders17]

Yeah, but what about Ms Higgins's current boyfriend and what about what happens in the ALP offices?

People reckon Shorten was unelectable so this is what we got.

 

[DavidSSS]

Facebook and Google attract customers which they can feed advertising to by linking to news.

News outlets gain referrals from Facebook and Google which means they get more site views.

And herein lies the problem.

The solution is more difficult.

DS

 

[Brodders17]

Facebook and Google attract customers which they can feed advertising to by linking to news.

News outlets gain referrals from Facebook and Google which means they get more site views.

And herein lies the problem.

The solution is more difficult.

DS

i dont see the problem that needs to be solved, arent both profiting from the arrangement already

 

[spook]

i dont see the problem that needs to be solved, arent both profiting from the arrangement already

Murdoch wants to profit more, and his minions the Libs want to help him.

 

[Ridley]

Murdoch wants to profit more, and his minions the Libs want to help him.

The ALP is supporting the legislation as well Spook. I am under no illusion as to the motives of Murdoch and other media empires. I have no real empathy for them and I am happy to choose to read from a broad range of publications and if I want to pay for it.

But I am even more dubious of the intentions of Zuckerburg. He is intent on total social media domination globally (although he probably won't get his mitts on China). He has waged a campaign to rid himself of competition by purchasing Instagram and Whatsapp and has also made failed attempts to buy Twitter and Snapchat. He goes after the easily influenced younger demographic and melds their minds from an early age, as well as mining their data so he has it for life. His platforms play on the FOMO generations and they become very easily addicted. He is getting them young and wants to keep them for life. Let's face it he has little competition; these kids don't read Murdoch publications.

 

[Brodders17]

The ALP is supporting the legislation as well Spook. I am under no illusion as to the motives of Murdoch and other media empires. I have no real empathy for them and I am happy to choose to read from a broad range of publications and if I want to pay for it.

But I am even more dubious of the intentions of Zuckerburg. He is intent on total social media domination globally (although he probably won't get his mitts on China). He has waged a campaign to rid himself of competition by purchasing Instagram and Whatsapp and has also made failed attempts to buy Twitter and Snapchat. He goes after the easily influenced younger demographic and melds their minds from an early age, as well as mining their data so he has it for life. His platforms play on the FOMO generations and they become very easily addicted. He is getting them young and wants to keep them for life. Let's face it he has little competition; these kids don't read Murdoch publications.

That is probably all true, but it does not justify FB having to pay media outlets when links are posted, nor does this legislation address any of those issues.

 

[Baloo]

Tim Berners-Lee has come out against the proposed legislation saying it could make the internet unworkable.

“Specifically, I am concerned that that code risks breaching a fundamental principle of the web by requiring payment for linking between certain content online,” Berners-Lee told a Senate committee scrutinizing a bill that would create the New Media Bargaining Code.
If the code is deployed globally, it could “make the web unworkable around the world”, he said

 

[IanG]

Brittany Higgins Downfall parody:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1362601808363802625

 

[eZyT]

Would Australia be a better place if we told zuckerberg to *smile* off

And we got our news by visiting abc.net.au or murdoch.com

And got our pictures of kittens and babies falling off stuff from kittenandbabymayhem.com?

And if you wanted to root the girl you pashed in year 8, you go to the 20 year reunion?

*smile* hell. Zuckerbergs negotiating power is what exactly?

 

[tigerman]

Would Australia be a better place if we told zuckerberg to *smile* off

And we got our news by visiting abc.net.au or murdoch.com

And got our pictures of kittens and babies falling off stuff from kittenandbabymayhem.com?

And if you wanted to root the girl you pashed in year 8, you go to the 20 year reunion?

*smile* hell. Zuckerbergs negotiating power is what exactly?

Yep, we should tell Schmuckberg to bash his Facebook where to sun don't shine. The world was a better place when we didn't have it.