Inner west Sydney seat has long been safely held by the PM – but potential changes to copyright laws are angering its large creative community
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The prime minister is facing growing discontent within his own electorate as creatives push back against the federal government’s proposal to allow AI companies to scrape everything Australians create online.
Anthony Albanese’s seat of Grayndler in Sydney’s inner west is home to more than 3,000 cultural and creative businesses, and 10% of its workers are employed in cultural and creative fields – compared with 4.2% nationally.
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© Photograph: Liz Ham/The Guardian
© Photograph: Liz Ham/The Guardian
© Photograph: Liz Ham/The Guardian
Dozens of leading Democrats — many of whom have railed for years about the GOP and the Trump administration as a “threat to democracy” — are universally silent when asked to respond to a cynical attempt to confuse Republican voters on Alaska’s senatorial ballot.
The post Report: Dozens of Democrats Silent on Alaska Election Rigging While Calling GOP a ‘Threat to Democracy’ appeared first on Breitbart.
On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Alaska Democratic Party Chair Eric Croft commented on the ballot stacking controversy in the state’s U.S. Senate race and said that he thinks Alaskans “know to bring a gun to a gunfight. And,
The post Alaska Dem Party Chair on Ballot Stacking: People Want Officials to ‘Use Every Tool’ appeared first on Breitbart.
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On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that Democrats currently don’t have the spine to stand up to far-left socialists and “what they’re saying is, we want a big tent.” Kid Rock said, “Democrats are like,
The post Maher: Dems Don’t Have Backbone to Stand Up to Crazies appeared first on Breitbart.
A constitutional crisis broke out in Warsaw on Friday evening as politicians reportedly physically clashed at the offices of Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal amid accusations of a “coup d’etat” by the globalist government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The post ‘Coup D’état’: Polish Politicians Physically Clash as Globalist Tusk Gov’t Seeks Forceful Takeover of Constitutional Tribunal appeared first on Breitbart.
Friday on MS NOW’s “All In,” Florida Democratic Senate Candidate Angie Nixon said Republicans are volunteering and donating to her campaign. Host Chris Hayes said, “Donald Trump, of course, was, you know, in Florida today. He attacked you, as he always
The post Angie Nixon: Republicans are Volunteering and Donating to Our Campaign appeared first on Breitbart.
Democratic U.S. Senate and House candidates in Texas and Iowa are highlighting endorsements from self-described Republicans in the final days before the midterm elections, but voting and campaign finance records obtained by Breitbart News reveal that several of those supporters have previously participated in Democratic primaries, donated to Democratic candidates, or publicly endorsed Democrats in earlier elections.
The post Exclusive: ‘Republicans’ Backing Talarico, Trone Garriott Have Histories of Supporting Democrats appeared first on Breitbart.
Watching the broadcast news networks report on campaigns makes you think they’re not creating news as much as they’re trying to make the political weather. On every day, in every way, they labor to place the blackest clouds over the heads of President Donald Trump and the Republicans. Good news is not news.
There is no balance of good and bad. Any hint of neutrality is despised as "normalizing" Trump. Nonpartisanship somehow becomes partisanship. So, resistance against Trump is the norm. A Media Research Center study of the 2024 campaign from July 21 through Oct. 25 found ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts punished Trump with 85% negative coverage. Meanwhile, the Democrat nominee, Kamala Harris, received 78% positive coverage. One choice sounded like doom, and the other was painted as hope and joy and "vibes."
With that kind of stark difference in tone, does that sound like news, or campaign advertising?
HUGH HEWITT: LEGACY MEDIA LEFT HALF OF AMERICA OUT. FOX NEWS LET THEM IN
Leading the themes two years ago was the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, including Trump’s insistence that the 2020 election was rigged – 47 minutes of coverage. Another 30 minutes was spent amplifying claims that Trump is a "danger to democracy" and/or a "fascist."
It's happening again in 2026. The Media Research Center just found ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts from Sept. 28 to Oct. 26 gave Trump and the Republicans almost 57 minutes of negative coverage on the evening news, while the Democrats received almost 19 minutes of negative coverage – a three-to-one ratio. That math could be a little misleading, since the bad scandal news for Democrats, like the immigration agents raiding the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., came wrapped in framing against the Trump administration for doing this in the closing weeks of an election. (These results came before the new eruption over "Decoy Dan" Sullivan in Alaska.)
It was the same pattern on the formerly taxpayer-funded "PBS News Hour." From Sept. 1 to Sept. 30, the GOP received 94% negative spin, to 6% positive. The Democrats received far more balanced coverage – 53% negative, 47% positive.
No one would say the network news should avoid negative news. Consumers inherently don’t trust happy news any more than they trust gushy positive campaign commercials. Stubbornly high gas prices and a lack of a decisive victory in the Iran war aren’t positive stories. But the overwhelming tone of news coverage should force viewers to understand these broadcast network stars aren’t neutral referees, calling balls and strikes. They’re throwing beanballs at the Republicans.
BROADCAST BIAS: NETWORKS SHOW FRANCE BURNING BUT HIGHLIGHT ‘PEACEFUL’ PROTESTERS
Inside the broadcast network news bubble, democracy is mentally associated with the Democrats, autocracy with the Grand Old Party. If the Republicans show party unity, that’s a failing. They are weakening democracy by not weakening Trump. When the Democrats show party unity, that’s not controversial at all.
In fact, the elitist media help enforce party unity. Republicans dissenting from Trump quickly draw positive media attention. "Lifelong Republicans" who endorse Democrats get promoted as the zeitgeist. Democrat dissenters would be ignored and gain no advantage.
The growing radicalism of the Democrat party and its Democratic Socialists of America faction, and what they plan to do if they gain a majority in one or both houses of Congress, have not been serious topics. If the voters are casting ballots for Democrats because of the economy, do the Democrats have an actual solution? The networks weren’t focused on what happens next.
Anyone perusing social media can see the Democrats salivating at more impeachments of Trump, and maybe an impeachment for Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., not to mention some very aggressive hearings into how the Trump family is personally prospering in Trump’s second term.
TERRY MORAN SAYS NETWORK REJECTED HIS BIDEN HEALTH STORY AFTER HE WITNESSED PRESIDENT’S FRAILTY
During President Joe Biden’s presidency, the broadcast networks obsessed over the House’s Jan. 6 hearings, including incessant live coverage, even in prime time hours. In the last two years, House oversight hearings into subjects like Biden’s use of the autopen and his declining mental fitness, were largely ignored. Republican hearings aren’t news. Democrat hearings will surely be big news – again.
The networks have focused most of their attention on Trump’s rallies, often noting that when he campaigns in red states, it’s a sign that Republicans are anxious about losing in states they should be winning. If former President Barack Obama campaigns in a blue state, like appearing with radical Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, that’s not painted as desperation.
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PBS reporter Liz Landers oozed on Oct. 26: "Former President Barack Obama brought his own firepower to the trail, rallying Democratic voters in two Midwestern battlegrounds on Saturday, telling crowds in Michigan and Ohio that Trump was responsible for rising costs because of the war with Iran."
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Trump canceling rallies in the closing days of the race is drawing negative coverage. When he rallies, it’s negative. When he moves to "tele-rallies" from Mar-a-Lago for a larger audience, that’s also negative. ABC’s Jonathan Karl warned, "Trump lashed out at a reporter who asked if he was sick of traveling." Most Republicans are sick of the network news manufacturing nightmares for their party on a daily basis.
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Over 20 years ago, back when I was editor in chief of the print edition of Reason, I commissioned a cover that pretty much summed up my attitude toward elections. This was for the October 2004 issue, which would run a bit before John Kerry squared off against George Bush in the presidential election. It prominently featured head shots of both major-party nominees wearing what might charitably be called shit-eating grins. Above them ran the all-caps headline "THE GOOD NEWS IS ONE OF THESE GUYS WILL LOSE." Below them ran the parenthetical phrase, also in all caps, "THE BAD NEWS IS ONE WILL WIN."
The cases against Bush and Kerry were made in two feature stories (which still hold up; read them here). God, they were both terrible candidates, weren't they? The Bush administration was funding the War on Terror through all sorts of budget fakes, had stupidly invaded Iraq, and was credibly accused of goosing the old color-coded threat assessment system to secure re-election. Kerry not only resembled Frankenstein's monster, he campaigned about as effectively, scaring villagers with his unconvincing flip-flops on issues big and small. He offered at best "an echo, not a choice" at a time when America deserved better.
That cover and stories weren't simply some exercise in above-it-all virtue signaling, a show of libertarian purity over the grubbiness of retail politics. They were and are a reflection of how I feel about elections, which I vote in reliably every two years (and sometimes more). As someone who has never voted for a winning candidate at any level, nothing would please me more than to be able to cast a ballot for a major party politician who might actually have a chance at victory. I'm a principled small "l" libertarian, but that doesn't mean I'm a tough vote to win. All you have to do is be in favor of limiting the size, scope, and spending of government. But it turns out that neither major party ever seems to nominate politicians at any level who come close to following that groove. Which is depressing as hell.
But things can always get worse, right? I live in New York City, which means my major-party choices for governor are the Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul and Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman. Hochul recently won the honor of being ranked as the absolute worst governor in America by the Cato Institute in its new edition of "Freedom in the 50 States," which "grades governors on how well or poorly they have advanced both economic and personal liberty in their states." Blakeman, the current Nassau county executive, boasts an unimpressive political record and has never been within 10 percentage points of Hochul. I would like to vote for the Libertarian candidate but there isn't one, partly because the legislature in 2020 made it virtually impossible for a minor party to gain access. Per the Libertarian Party's suggestion, I will write in "none of the above" as a protest.
It's not simply the Empire State that consistently creates elections that are either foregone conclusions (as of this writing, the prediction-market Kalshi has Hochul with a 96 percent likelihood of winning) or that pit two crummy candidates against one another. For 20 years, I lived in Ohio, where the governor's race is a dog's breakfast buffet of terrible, rotten choices. Democrat Amy Acton, whose record as Ohio's health director during COVID inspired the nickname "Dr. Lockdown," is likely to win because she is running against Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, a uniquely unlikeable and underqualified candidate. Ramaswamy, who have never held elective office, was already flailing before he released an ad featuring Acton's estranged mother that virtually all commentators agree is a new low in political campaigning. However bad the ad itself is was, Ramaswamy's initial doubling down on it and then further vocal support from President Trump and Vice President Vance have all but killed his chances. At least if I still lived in Ohio, I'd be able to vote for Libertarian candidates.
The same would be true in Texas, another state I lived in. The Republican Senate candidate is current Attorney General Ken Paxton. He was handpicked by Donald Trump, who used his influence to force out the incumbent Jon Cornyn, who would have also certainly sailed easily onto victory. Instead, James Talarico is likely to notch the first statewide win for a Democrat in Texas in over 30 years. If I still lived in Texas, at least I could cast a ballot for Libertarian Ted Brown, who might cover the spread.
Yet that is small beer, isn't it, especially in a country as vast and varied as America? It shouldn't be this hard to find candidates who support "free minds and free markets" and who might actually win their races for local, state, and federal office. Democrats and Republicans started this year at extremely low levels of voter appeal. According to Gallup, 27 percent of us identified as Republican and 27 percent identified as Democratic, with a record high 45 percent identifying as independent.
The midterms, which are looking extremely good for the Democrats, might kickstart a movement among Republicans to shift course toward a more libertarian position, especially since Trump's second administration has made government corruption the single-biggest issue on voters' minds. Combine that with longstanding, negative attitudes toward big government and the libertarian turn makes even more sense.
I've been voting since the early '80s and despite decades of frustration, I'm looking forward to voting for a winner one of these years.
The post For Libertarians, Election Day Is the Cruelest Day of the Year appeared first on Reason Magazine.
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© Nic Antaya for The New York Times
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