Cirrus@Austlit

'Malcolm Turnbull spilled the beans on Kerry Packer’s secret plans for Fairfax back in 1991. So why are his memoirs so coy about this key episode?'

'Vital reasons for the rise of Reuters, Australian Associated Press and other agencies haven’t gone away'

'John Howard’s view of the Menzies years is partial in important respects, but he offers a valuable perspective on an important period'

'Tony Abbott thinks that Rupert Murdoch is one of the most influential Australians of all time and that we should support our 'hometown hero'. Murdoch, who has mainly lived in New York since 1973 and renounced his Australian citizenship in order to move into American TV, has aroused much more controversy than most hometown heroes.

'This comprehensive book traces his business career, the entrepreneurial strategies that led to his early success and his later exercises of monopoly power. It dissects his political ideas, the relish with which he approaches political campaigning, and the way he leverages political support into policy outcomes that favour his business. Some of his news outlets have been responsible for very good journalism, but have also been lambasted for outrageous sensationalism and political bias. Fox News has reached new lows in the mixing of propaganda and news and his newspapers in Australia have mainly championed conservative governments. ' (Publication summary)

'Lachlan and James Murdoch’s appointments to senior positions could help sow the seeds of unrest in the Murdoch empire, writes Rodney Tiffen'

'Fairfax newspapers are part of the fabric of Australian democracy'

'We can now start to see how the world has and hasn’t been changed by WikiLeaks' 

'For all its faults, it’s a miracle that it exists, writes Rodney Tiffen. But the Australian could be a whole lot better'