Sophie Black

Has anyone told Minns about this other massive disruption and inconvenience?: www.news.com.au/entertainmen...

Google has called off its Parliament House event tonight just hours after the Albanese Government announced YouTube would be in the teen social media ban.

Google said it's "out of respect for the grieving families" which appeared alongside the PM today.
www.crikey.com.au/20...

This is such an inspiring story. At a time when so many feel powerless, these students have made real change

How our newsroom plans to cover the 48th Parliament People in power are not our friends, and should never be given the benefit of the doubt.

How does our newsroom continue to assess and challenge this government, in a way that informs but still challenges our readers? Firstly — pull no punches, @sophieblackwords.bsky.social writes.

Are You Experiencing Posting Ennui? Sharing casual moments from our lives on social media doesn’t seem to make sense the way it used to.

“The presence of normies was what made social media worth tuning into. In their wake, like detritus on a once busy beach, there will be only dry corporate marketing, A.I.-generated slop, and dreck from thirsty hustlers…” www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...

The plot against vaccines Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his allies have hit on a way to undermine immunization.

Kennedy will “do everything possible to destroy the vaccine infrastructure.”

If you don't already, watch Colbert. He is a man with no more f*cks left to give. And it's glorious.

Check out this song parody from last night's show: Mike Johnson Delays House Epstein Vote Until September

'Background use only': How Labor justifies its silence on Gaza to the media Labor's response yesterday to mass starvation in Gaza was to condemn a Greens senator for mentioning it. Then it tried to spin itself as the victim.

As more evidence emerges of mass starvation of Gaza, Labor’s response was to condemn a Greens senator for holding up a sign. It then sent out an on background email seeking to shape the story. @keanebernard.bsky.social reveals Labor’s spin www.crikey.com.au/2025/07/24/l...

Scoop: @cameronwilson.bsky.social reveals a key component of the teen social media ban was sliced out to get the deal over the line. The crucial change made “no fucking sense”, as one insider put it, and turned the law into something that will “probably now lead to more harm than good”.

'Background use only': How Labor justifies its silence on Gaza to the media Labor's response yesterday to mass starvation in Gaza was to condemn a Greens senator for mentioning it. Then it tried to spin itself as the victim.

Never mind dying babies, what about Senate decorum? Crikey reveals how Labor sets its priorities when it comes to genocide in Gaza. @keanebernard.bsky.social writes.

With a few months until the teen social media ban, there's some concern that parents might expect too much from the policy.

The parents I spoke to, some who pushed for a ban and others who didn't, say they're happy for any help to get teens off social media.
www.crikey.com.au/20...

Rewriting civil rights, entertainment journos at war, and the Daily Mail's wishful thinking Plus Martin Luther King Jr. would have hated DEI, apparently.

Good tips hunted down by Cochon Truffier today www.crikey.com.au/2025/07/22/f...

“With reference to the findings of the governance review, we are told that it was all just “a series of missteps, assumptions and missed opportunities”, like that time you were late for a job interview after losing your car keys down the couch.

This simply isn’t credible.”

The terrors of toytown: Sydney quakes in the shadows of entertainment and gambling egos Sydneysiders should stop pretending they live in a serious city. It's run by the entertainment-gambling industrial complex, and it stinks.

Sydney is a cesspit. Discuss. www.crikey.com.au/2025/07/03/s...

Labor promised to consult on its Big Tech levy by early 2025. It hasn't Could Donald Trump's shirtfronting of Canada over its now-ditched digital services levy have anything to do with Australia's stasis?

As the Albanese government blows through its deadline to begin consulting on a proposed new levy on digital platforms, Australian news executives are watching with alarm as Canada dismantles its digital services tax on American technology companies...
www.crikey.com.au/2025/07/02/l...

Flow chart of the "fossil fuel spin cycle" showing the 5 narratives the industry shifts between: 1. We keep you safe, 2. We make your life work, 3. Economy vs. Environment, 4. We're part of the solution, 5. We're a great neighbor

I've been talking about this for years but the fossil fuel industry has five key narratives, they haven't changed much in decades, and they just shift between them/combine them depending on what is happening in the world. Made a quick and dirty flow chart to illustrate it:

A year into the Melbourne experiment, Kyle and Jackie O bleed listeners while ARN coffers shrink According to new figures, ARN are bleeding advertising revenue as the Kyle & Jackie O Show continues to fail in Melbourne.

The Kyle and Jackie O Show’s parent company, ARN, is bleeding ad dollars as the show struggles with listeners. @daanysaeed.bsky.social reports.

On how A.I. can transform media consumption: Reading the A.I. summary — I think it can be useful. I think it has a powerfully inoculating effect. Like, I think long-form, lots-of-episodes TV is a waste of time. But it’s very tempting, right? You watch an episode and you’re like, “Oh, geez, I really want to know what happens here.” And so I discovered a couple of years ago, obviously, that the solution is you immediately go to Wikipedia and read the entire summary of the season, and then you’re cured of the desire to watch any more episodes. So there is a therapeutic benefit to A.I. summaries.

Really a sad way to go through life www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/b...

Care of the Federal Court, the email trail of internal ABC correspondence exposed more than just the executives' “state of panic”…. it also revealed that a number of the complaints centred on a Crikey investigation…

“Having helped drive the Liberal Party into its electoral grave, Abbott and Advance have decided they might find riches there, now taking its sustenance from the dead, not just its ideas.” Killer line, @theshufflediary.bsky.social

“One can only imagine how it would have felt to listen to the ABC’s lawyers explain it no longer disputes the existence of “a Lebanese, Arab, or Middle Eastern race”, while literally wearing Middle Eastern success stories on your shoulders.”

What can newsrooms learn from the ABC’s ‘state of panic’ on Lattouf? Readers expect us to hold our nerve, and back our reporters in pursuit of the public interest.

Opinion | "Australia’s public broadcaster should set the standard for robust journalism, and crucially, backing the people who produce it," writes Crikey's editor-in-chief Sophie Black.

On the Lattouf judgment: I didn't fully appreciate how the complaints that led to her unfair dismissal were centered around our reporting on Sydney Opera House protest (which ABC execs said was "journalistically sound"). I stand by the reporting & glad to see today's decision.

"...hopefully this verdict draws a line in the sand as far as managerial overreach is concerned.”

*Democratic Party hastily commissions a study to figure out why so many people preferred the attractive, energetic, charismatic guy with the fun name to the disgraced vampire*

A very inspiring piece from @ketanjoshi.co: what we can learn from naturalists, and zombie
ants, about asking extremely reasonable questions about Ai

Expert resigns from teen social media ban tech trial advisory board over concerns 'There's been some questions raised about the way that this trial was constructed,' said one of the trial's former stakeholder board advisory members.

An expert advising Australia's teen social media ban tech trial has resigned.

"I think there’s been some questions raised everywhere about the way that this trial was constructed and the process of it,” Qoria managing director Tim Levy told Crikey.

www.crikey.com.au/20...

Some of these lines on Iran seem familiar? Treat yourself to some classic Iraq war talking points with your trusty time travel pilot, @theshufflediary.bsky.social

“The point of enforcing this social media ban is that we can’t trust people to be honest about their age. But when it comes to the government’s proof for a world-first claim that it’s possible to verify people’s ages? Trust us.” Great piece by @cameronwilson.bsky.social

Monkey paw! Careful what you wish for, Australia. @cameronwilson.bsky.social on how much we want the teen social media ban, even though we don't really understand how it'll work and haven't really engaged with the details ...