{"id":128322,"date":"2025-08-08T06:04:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T06:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/128322\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T06:04:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T06:04:09","slug":"pretty-bloomin-what-the-great-barrier-reef-is-a-picture-of-health-the-australian-assures-us-tory-shepherd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/128322\/","title":{"rendered":"Pretty bloomin\u2019 what? The Great Barrier Reef is a picture of health, The Australian assures us | Tory Shepherd"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Australian Institute of Marine Science\u2019s annual monitoring study came out on Wednesday. It warned that the Great Barrier Reef<\/a> could reach a tipping point where it cannot recover fast enough between major catastrophic events.<\/p>\n

The Guardian reported it as: Great Barrier Reef coral bleaching event in 2024 most widespread and severe on record<\/a><\/p>\n

The ABC: Ecosystem under distress<\/a><\/p>\n

The SMH: Record coral decline, mass bleaching<\/a><\/p>\n

The Courier-Mail: Reef in crisis: Unprecedented coral decline strikes iconic natural wonder<\/a><\/p>\n

And The Australian?<\/p>\n

Pretty bloomin\u2019 healthy: Reef defying the doomsayers<\/a><\/p>\n

The national broadsheet\u2019s Pollyannish view was illustrated with shots of smiling snorkellers giving the thumbs up.<\/p>\n

The headline on a comment piece by Peter Ridd, a former James Cook University academic now at the Institute of Public Affairs, said the reef \u201cis still doing fine\u201d \u2013 \u201cdespite having six allegedly cataclysmic coral bleaching events in the last decade\u201d.<\/p>\n

Australia should look to the US, Ridd wrote, where \u201cscientists who were once victimised and ostracised have been appointed to lead science and medical research institutions\u201d as scientific \u201cgroupthink\u201d is challenged.<\/p>\n

Ridd, a geophysicist, was sacked from James Cook University in 2018 because of what the university called \u201cserious misconduct\u201d in his criticism of fellow JCU academics\u2019 reef research but he claimed was simply exercising his intellectual freedom as an academic<\/a>. The IPA then picked him up to lead a project called the Project for Real Science.<\/p>\n

The year after that an expert panel warned that Ridd was misrepresenting robust science about the reef<\/a>. In response to the ABC\u2019s Media Watch piece on a similar situation last year, Ridd claimed it was \u201calmost certain that a warming climate will be beneficial to the corals of the [reef]\u201d.<\/p>\n

A straighter news piece in the paper conceded that the reef had \u201csuffered the largest annual declines in hard coral after being hit by the summer\u2019s cyclones and widespread bleaching\u201d as well as climate change-induced heat stress.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still a \u201cpicture of health\u201d, though, according to the headline.<\/p>\n

Bridge too far?<\/p>\n

Was it another act of anti-groupthink by The Australian and other News Corp outlets, or did they witness a different Gaza protest to the other media?<\/p>\n

Demonstrators march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge during Sunday\u2019s pro-Palestinian rally. Photograph: David Gray\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of people<\/a> turned up to protest against the actions of Israel in the war on Gaza, the civilian death toll and the widespread hunger and starvation.<\/p>\n

Most reports on the peaceful march across Sydney Harbour Bridge focused on the huge turnout, with some criticism of the police.<\/p>\n

Some outlets had a laser-like focus on a single protester who was holding aloft a picture of the Iranian dictator, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Where some saw an enormous coming together of people wanting to show their empathy and outrage, others saw sympathisers instead of sympathy.<\/p>\n

In Monday\u2019s Australian, for example, the cartoonist John Spooner depicted the march as a range of people, one carrying a bag labelled \u201chate\u201d, another labelled \u201chostages\u201d. There were signs that read \u201cLong live October 7\u201d, \u201cUseful idiots\u201d, and \u201cMake lies not war\u201d.<\/p>\n

The centrepiece was a skeletal Grim Reaper with a Hamas headband carrying a bag labelled \u201canti-semitism\u201d saying: \u201cIt\u2019s lovely to feel so appreciated\u201d, all under the baffling title \u201cpilgrims\u2019 progress\u201d.<\/p>\n

A mind of its own<\/p>\n

Elon Musk\u2019s AI chatbot Grok, which went Nazi-ish in July<\/a> on the platform formerly known as Twitter, wandered into the culture wars again this week.<\/p>\n

Grok has praised the ABC for its impartiality and said rightwing media ignored diversity reforms. Photograph: Algi Febri Sugita\/ZUMA Press Wire\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Set off by a post about burning the Australian flag, it had a crack at untangling a nuanced debate about freedoms versus accountability, and took a deep dive into the Middle East and disputes about definitions of genocide. It also referred to the \u201charrowing emaciation and wounds\u201d in pictures of children in Gaza and accused rightwing media of downplaying Israel\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

And it said the ABC was more impartial than others, and that Australia\u2019s rightwing media ignored diversity reforms and prioritised profit via sensationalism and the pro-Israel lobby influence (if that doesn\u2019t make complete sense, please ask Grok for an explanation).<\/p>\n

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Diversity of views<\/p>\n

Sky After Dark is looking to radically depart from its roster of conservative pundits to add another face who works for the Institute of Public Affairs, has Liberal party links and is promising to \u201ctackle controversial topics with no holds barred\u201d.<\/p>\n

The former Liberal candidate for Balmain Freya Leach will premiere her Freya Fires Up segment on Sunday 17 August.<\/p>\n

She has already boosted her profile and shown her appetite for robust debate through notable media appearances, including complaining about a university assignment where a rightwing character bore her first name, which she said was \u201cclearly intended\u201d to depict her (the university said it was a coincidence)<\/a>, and appearing in news stories as an \u201ceveryday woman being pummelled by Australia\u2019s cost of living crisis\u201d and complaining about taxes more than once, according to Media Watch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A bit rich<\/p>\n

The Australian has launched a new wealth section (with a new \u201cwatch and jewellery editor\u201d) featuring advice such as how to cope with changes to tax breaks for super accounts holding more than $3m<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of the stories was awkwardly juxtaposed with another showing that you need a fraction of that amount<\/a> to retire comfortably.<\/p>\n

Introducing the new section, The Australian\u2019s editor, Michelle Gunn, wrote about everyday millionaires \u201cor Emilli as they\u2019re being coined\u201d. Coined, geddit?<\/p>\n

And she pointed out that the average wealth per adult Australian was close to $800,000, which surely saw jaws drop to the floor outside Sydney\u2019s north shore.<\/p>\n

But average wealth is hardly indicative of what the average Australian is experiencing because it gets bumped up by those up the pointy end.<\/p>\n

A story from the ABC<\/a> earlier in the week revealed that there are plenty of millionaires in Australia, and the nation has the second-highest median wealth in the world at $411,000 \u2013 about half the \u201caverage\u201d cited in the Oz (although the ABC story put average wealth at $952,000).<\/p>\n

So where are all these piles of cash? Mostly in property, of course, and predominantly with the rich, with the top 10% of Australians holding 44% of the nation\u2019s wealth.<\/p>\n

The typical Australian makes about $56,000 a year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Social competition<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a slightly brighter spot in what feels like a bleak landscape \u2013 new research has found news shared on social media is more diverse.<\/p>\n

A University of South Australia lecturer, Cameron McTernan, studied Facebook posts from Australian newsrooms and found they were \u201cmuch more diverse than news shared by traditional media, with many different news sources and voices\u201d. But he also warned it was a \u201cdouble-edged sword\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile social media can provide better discoverability of news, it also competes with traditional outlets for revenue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two competing industries are struggling to find a cooperative path forward and ultimately that hurts newsrooms a lot more than tech firms, and ultimately, it hurts all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farewell to one of the best<\/p>\n

Kate McClymont described him as \u201cone of the [Sydney Morning Herald]\u2019s wittiest writers\u201d; Peter FitzSimons said he was \u201cthe best writer of hilarious light prose\u201d, and his old paper, the SMH<\/a>, said his \u201cinnovative daily column Stay in Touch helped lift the Herald into a golden age of rising circulation and influence\u201d.<\/p>\n

David Dale died this week aged 77 and is survived by his wife, Susan Williams, and daughter, Millie.<\/p>\n

\n

Vale David Dale, one of the SMH’s wittiest writers, a bon vivant & pioneer of the Stay in Touch column. As Bulletin editor, he created “The 100 Most Appalling People in Australia” list. Owner K. Packer fired him for his “gratuitous impertinence”- the very thing I will miss most.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Kate McClymont (@Kate_McClymont) August 6, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to the SMH, his column \u201cpricked the pomposity of politicians in Macquarie Street or Canberra, ran snippets of bizarre reports from around the world that usually ended up ignored in the wastebaskets of teleprinter rooms, and mixed fact, fiction, satire, gossip and humour with Dale\u2019s distaste for sycophancy that bustled the then broadsheet Herald into the 1980s\u201d. He also worked for ABC radio and 2GB Sydney, and was a journalism lecturer.<\/p>\n