Posts in "Arts"

Twenty-six years ago Lady (Mary) Fairfax granted me one of the few interviews she ever did to discuss her purported role in the then decimation of Fairfax, the oldest media company in the world. Following her death this week her story bears repeating. It is one for the ages. http://davidleser.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Mary-Fairfax.pdf

All of us as journalists are grappling with new ways to tell our stories and this is arguably one of the most exciting acts of reinvention to date: Stories for the Stage … everything from comedy and culture to crime and politics; from the back blocks of Brisbane and highlands of Papua New Guinea, to …

Many introverts don’t know this but they are often the most powerful people in the room. Through their silences, their non verbal cues and their comfort in their own company they are able to draw others in with a quiet and irresistible magnetism JONES MAGAZINE INTROVERT STORY

This is the live press conference of Midnight Oil announcing its “Great Circle 2017” world tour on Sydney Harbour. It comes from the band’s Facebook feed and starts 30 min 55 sec in. Enjoy https://www.facebook.com/midnightoilofficial/

Forty three years ago I applied to be the lead singer of Midnight Oil. Needless to say I didn’t get the job, despite singing Jethro Tull’s Locomotive Breath completely in tune. They gave the job to the other guy because he could actually dance and sing. Today, however, after more than four decades of heroic …

Okay, I’ve joined the new social media. My Facebook is up and running. Twitter is tweeting. My blog is blogging. My smart phone is smarting. The old telephone keeps ringing. The fax has stopped working but the email inbox is a tidal wave that King Canute can’t stop. It reminds me of why I was …

Here’s my recent chat with George Negus on ABC North Coast radio with Joanne Shoebridge. We discussed media ethics in the wake of the Craig Thompson affair, and the collapse of the old business model in funding investigative journalism.

As Julian Assange awaits a British Supreme Court challenge to his extradition to Sweden this story looks at the early life of a computer wizard who became one of the most wanted men in the world. Nearly two decades ago in the hills outside Melbourne Julian Assange would go to sleep in the early hours …

I have been sitting in a bottle of aspic for the past ten years, curing and pickling in the world of heritage journalism. Social media? Who needs it. Facebook? Forget it. Twitter? For narcissists and Liz Hurley’s parrot. Okay, I’m washing myself down, stepping – gingerly – towards the 21st century. It feels like someone …