HIV headline draws complaint
News Corp has drawn the ire of New South Wales’ peak LGBTQIA+ health organisation, the AIDS Council of NSW (ACON), following a report on HIV transmission rates. Following World AIDS Day, News Corp’s internal wire service, NCA NewsWire, published an interview with HIV activist Ruan Uys, which noted that HIV education disparities in cultural and linguistically diverse communities meant there was a 21.5% increase in HIV notifications among people from those backgrounds, according to a 2024 study, despite a general downward trend over the past decade in Australia.
The headline for the story online read: “‘HIV is the least of my worries’: Australia observes World AIDS Day 2024 in a changed world”. The shorter print version, which ran on page 22 of the Daily Telegraph on Monday, ran with the headline: “Immigrants raise level of new HIV cases in Australia”.
The print version also omitted additional quotes from Uys that noted the additional “stigma and discrimination” faced by diverse communities living with HIV.
A spokesperson for ACON confirmed to Crikey that a complaint was being lodged with News Corp over the print version, but did not provide further comment in time for publication.
Nick Lawson, CEO of the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation (the HIV charity that employs Uys), told Crikey, “It is crucial that media outlets uphold their responsibility to inform the public [about HIV] without perpetuating stigma.”
News Corp did not respond to requests for comment.
IDF ‘wraps’
If nothing else, the following is a useful marker for future historians looking into the general tone of politics in the early 2020s. What could be a more logical conclusion of years of intelligence agencies, armies and police forces jumping on “cute” viral trends than an army that faces accusations of war crimes — both from international bodies and former Israeli officials — posting a sneering parody of the “Spotify Wrapped” feature, dedicated entirely to their kill count over the past year (though not as thoroughly as it could have, we note).
Clare-ing the air
Education Minister Jason Clare probably had about as much fun as anyone on the campaign trail in 2022. In his role as campaign spokesman, he was an attack dog, firing off zingers about the Morrison government thinking “climate change is when you check out the ‘April Sun in Cuba’”, and featuring “more smoking guns than a Clint Eastwood movie”. Perhaps that is why he’s apparently been spotted already campaigning around his electorate. He just bloody loves it.
“Jason Clare’s handing out flyers at Auburn Station,” journalist Alex McKinnon posted, adding another potential factor in Clare’s decision to get a headstart on the election — “the internal polling must be diabolical lmao”.
Blaxland, Clare’s seat, is traditionally one of Labor’s safest, formerly housing then prime minister Paul Keating and never drifting anywhere near another party in its 75-year history.
Yesterday’s dystopia, today
When Crikey complained earlier this week that ACMI’s new exhibition about representations of the future might have looked a bit closer at how some of our ancestors’ nightmares came true, this is what we meant.
AI startup Artisan is peppering San Fransisco with billboards like “Artisans Are Excited to Work 70+ Hours a Week”, “Stop Hiring Humans”, “Artisans Won’t Come Into Work Hungover” and, our favourite, “Artisans won’t complain about work life balance”.
Credit where it’s due. “We have a sincere and explicitly loathing of humanity and everything that makes life worth living” is a helluva pitch.