Is Australia becoming more hostile to journalists?
Yes. There were two raids this week against ABC and against a journalist's home related to stories published from leaked government documents. Now it's legitimate to investigate a leak. It's usually done on the leak side, not on the journalist's side. It just seemed a massive overreaction in the method. And we've seen similar raids in France this spring in Northern Ireland. I find it concerning that this is coming from liberal democracies and what we're seeing is that as the public discourse against journalists gets more and more hostile the Overton window of what is acceptable behavior from democracies on the press is just shifting further and further away from freedom of the press. I find that concerning.
Should the New York Times allow its reported on opinionated cable shows?
So not according to their leadership. They pulled a reporter from The Rachel Maddow Show this past weekend because they consider it to be too far on the left. Now I appreciate and sympathize with The New York Times desire to maintain their reputation. It just seems in several recent decisions that they think they're in a gentlemen's war with reasonable people - lined up on the field when everyone else is fighting a guerrilla war. So it's honorable but in the end you lose. So I think you know put your reporters on every show that will have them as long as they don't edit your words out of context and then just trust your reporters to share the facts and be truthful.