A senior aide to shock jock Kyle Sandilands has erased from the web a personal hate site that featured images of domestic violence and petrol-sniffing Aborigines.
Articles by Andrew Crook 
Is Fairfax paying the price for link baiting?
Yesterday afternoon, Fairfax Media released the first edition of its “media audience report”, purporting to measure the media giant’s centrality to the news and entertainment diet of middle Australia.
ALP eyes Obama’s tech bandwagon to beat Abbott
A source inside the ALP’s national office told Crikey this morning that the Blue State Digital campaign tools forged in the fire of Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential tilt will be closely considered by Labor to extract micro-donations and online participation from a cynical populace.
AAP spiked as APN bites the hand that feeds it
Ailing trans-Tasman media conglomerate APN News & Media has ditched its contract with wire service AAP deciding instead to launch a new “group bureau” to fill the pages of its 12 daily and 60 community newspapers.
Greens to demand release of up-to-date Serco training manuals
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young will demand that Immigration Minister Chris Bowen release up-to-date versions of Serco asylum seeker training manuals, including controversial sections on the use of force.
Serco manual ‘outdated’, but Bowen won’t talk about new training docs
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen called the 2009 and 2010 Serco training manual published this week by Crikey “out-dated” and “no-longer in use”, yet Bowen, the Immigration Department and Serco have refused to detail how it has been changed.
Serco training manual: how to ‘hit’ and ‘strike’ detainees
A prison-style training manual produced by the company contracted to run Australia’s detention centres contains explicit instructions on how to “hit” and “strike” asylum seekers.
ABC Radio presenter, the voice of Katter hate ad, stood down
A currently-serving ABC Radio presenter voiced the notorious Bob Katter Australian Party attack ad roundly condemned by all sides of politics and has been stood down by the broadcaster.
Questions over Lib MP’s family business collapse
Federal Liberal MP Craig Kelly is fighting allegations he was a de-facto director of his family furniture company that is alleged to have traded while insolvent.
More managers go in News Ltd rationalisation
The ructions inside News Limited have continued with the resignations of two senior executives in Diana Eilert and Tim Sligo.
Oz editor marshals eagles to halt Manne attack
The Australian’s editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell has threatened to take legal action against the ABC to kill a column penned by Robert Manne and republished on commentary site The Drum.
Academic defends $196k grant for Rupert Murdoch polemic
David McKnight has launched a strident defence over claims levelled by the conservative commentariat over the Australian Research Council grant process that helped him publish a critique of Rupert Murdoch.
Age critic Jim Schembri on leave after being outed as dibber dobber
Controversial Age film critic Jim Schembri has gone on leave from his plum gig after a Crikey investigation revealed he had repeatedly dobbed to the employers of his Twitter critics and hinted at legal action on behalf of the newspaper.
Jim Schembri goes after fake people, too
Crikey has been inundated with correspondence following our story on Friday revealing how Age film critic Jim Schembri likes to punk your employer if you bag him on Twitter.
Sparkies blow fuse over Katter backing
The war of words in the upper echelons of the Electrical Trades Union has jacked up a notch, with Communication, Electrical & Plumbing Union chief Peter Tighe declaring war on Victorian rival Dean Mighell’s support for Bob Katter’s Australia Party.
Schembri now punks your employer if you tweet criticism
Age film critic Jim Schembri has repeatedly contacted the employers of his Twitter critics — in some cases issuing them with veiled legal threats — in an apparent attempt to shut down dissent on the social networking site.
Sydney Conservatorium of Music dean: 8yr war of words in one explosive doc
A whistleblower complaint laying bare an ALP-style factional war waged by enemies of dumped Sydney Conservatorium of Music Dean Kim Walker is being assessed by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Qld election: is there something more behind the Courier-Mail’s dummy spit?
In one of the most extraordinary media ploys ever undertaken by a mainstream media organisation, the Courier Mail announced it was ripping its reporters off Anna Bligh and Campbell Newman’s campaign buses.
Greens call for Qld Police Minister to explain Arrow Energy rent-a-cops
Greens Senator Larissa Waters has written to Queensland Police Minister Neil Roberts to demand an explanation after multinational miner Arrow Energy paid “rent-a-cops” to act as private security at a coal seam gas protest.
WikiLeaks fires back with the Global Intelligence Files
In what appears to be another iconic leak stripping bare the inner workings of the global intelligence community, WikiLeaks has this morning announced the release of five million emails stripped from the servers of shadowy private intelligence network Stratfor in what they’ve labelled The Global Intelligence Files.
Rudd’s people power: we call the electorate offices
The Australian People appear to have only partly heeded Kevin Rudd and Therese Rein’s request that they rise up to demonstrate “people power” to uncommitted ALP backbenchers, an exclusive Crikey survey of MP switchboards has revealed.
To tweet or not to tweet … Vic parliament trades blows over Twitter
Albert Park MP Martin Foley has made a forceful intervention in the Victorian Parliament’s debate over Twitter use in the chamber, calling on MPs to take “the high road of creative engagement and prevent low road of grubby censorship”.
Gillard v Rudd: the quest for the golden hatchet
As the pressure builds on Kevin Rudd before Monday’s leadership showdown, the PM’s camp will be scratching around to produce a “smoking gun” to definitively paint him as a manipulative Judas.
Medical student outrage over Queensland Health gag order
A Queensland Health “gag order” banning medical students disclosing information inside hospitals has been slammed by students, who fear a premature end to their career if they refuse to comply.
Rudd rumblings: no Left turn yet, with Vic MPs still wavering
Sources inside the federal Labor caucus have questioned the wisdom behind media reports claiming the “Victorian Left” have unanimously rounded behind Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, pointing instead to a fluid situation in which caucus members are still wavering.
