The first episode of 4 Corners' globe-girdling 'investigation' of the purported Russia/Trump conspiracy didn't cover any fresh ground. What it did was omit a wealth of essential background information, allowing host Sarah Ferguson to gabble breathlessly about the 'story of the century' that isn't

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Somehow, despite its $1.2 billion-a-year penury, the ABC sent Sarah Ferguson and crew on a globe-girdling jaunt to pursue Donald Trump's alleged 'collusion' with Moscow. That James Clapper is one of the national broadcaster's go-to informants suggests truth will be a scarce commodity

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As might have been expected, Paul Ramsay's generous bequest to establish the Centre for Western Civilisation is under attack. It seems universities need money and lots of it, but coffers overseen by cultural conservatives are beyond the pale. Why, they might be "racists"!

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Unwittingly, the latest Gonski plea for yet more support -- read "money" --  for Australian education's jargon-infested pedagogic hierarchy of bureaucrats and excuse-makers illustrates the reason why Johnny and his mates can't read. Teachers were a lot smarter in 1911

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One species’ bedlam can be endured, as those attending the Dawn Service managed to do when the rookery came alive. And the other? No matter how loudly they howl and sneer and posture for each other's approval, there is nothing worth hearing in such a parade of hollow virtue and empty souls

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The ADF's banning of bloodthirsty 'symbology' will be harder than Angus Campbell knows, not least because the RAAF flies transports known officially as 'Spartans'. If Hellenic hyper-masculinists set a poor example for the modern soldier, there is an alternative mascot

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The Fairfax press casts a monocular green eye over the Monash Forum and finds something both sinister and hollow in the ambition to see a stable grid and power prices reduced. Reading the group's manifesto before misrepresenting it was, apparently, just too much trouble

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In addition to supporting a woman who built her reputation within the arts community by defecating in rainbow hues, The Australia Council recently distributed a lot more cash to her creative neighbours. Here is a sampling of recipients from just one tranche of grants to just one electorate

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A recent address by Rupert Myer, chairman of the Australia Council, on the joy and beauty of publicly funded art set Quadrant Online to looking at recent grants in the seat of Gellibrand, where we found a woman who makes art out of her own excrement. She has just been gifted $10,000

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The play Kill Climate Deniers has opened to mixed reviews, but where there can be no disagreement is in noting the production's grant-funded progress from the mind and pen of a Canberra writer and expert in obtaining taxpayer funds. As he puts it, learn to play the arts game and "get wealthy"

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