Pixelated Semantics

Red flags in the square, but not in the news

Interesting that (at 3.30pm EST) the Courier Mail's site is offering coverage of demonstrations against the moderate Federal Government's proposed IR laws, reporting from Hobart, Adelaide, Melbourne, everywhere except Brisbane, the city in which the paper is actually published. The CM uses a national News Ltd feed for "Breaking News" online, but there seems to be no logical reason why a report of the demonstration would be omitted, when a far smaller one, further away, in Hobart is included. The ABC online, in direct contrast, and to their credit, managed to report on the rally as early as 12.57pm, while it was still taking place.

For the record, King George Square (where the Brisbane rally was held) was absolutely packed with unionists, families, workers of all descriptions, probably exceeding attendance at any union rally over the last several years. Premier Beattie made a memorable short and sharp speech that had a very genuine conviction, rare for any Australian politician these days, as did Max Gillies, and others. Crowd size is difficult to estimate, but must have been at least 10,000 peacefull and concerned citizens, if not more. Even the Thin Blue Line seemed to be paying attention to the issues.

[Note: Reported the next morning in print, crowd given as 15,000.]

Item posted by AutoEditor at 3:26 pm ::