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Diary

Diary Australiarss

Diary

18 May 2013

Rupert Murdoch’s omnipresence in News Ltd is exaggerated by his critics. Securing two minutes of the chairman and chief executive’s time on his visits to Australia is no easy task.… Read more

Diary

11 May 2013

Moscow With the recent release of Russia’s Foreign Policy Concept for President Putin’s third term marking the re-emergence on the world stage of a more assertive Russia, it was an… Read more

Diary

4 May 2013

As the bus taking a group of us to Margaret Thatcher’s funeral left Fleet Street and followed Ludgate Hill towards St Paul’s Cathedral, I recalled standing there, in a huge… Read more

Diary

27 April 2013

Washington, DC From the windows of his cottage at the Old Soldiers’ Home, on the edge of Civil War-era Washington, Abraham Lincoln could watch the Union dead being buried in… Read more

Diary

20 April 2013

It’s now official. I was introduced on radio recently as ‘veteran journalist’. The title is not all beer and skittles, you know. Sometimes there’s not a skittle in sight. At… Read more

Diary

13 April 2013

It is a week for thinking about freedom. The death on Monday night of one of freedom’s greatest champions is an occasion for reflection on the deeper purposes of the… Read more

Diary

6 April 2013

Years of wise counsel about television studios, microphones and profanity were forgotten as I unclipped my lapel mike and swore at Mark Latham. Host Paul Murray and the other guests… Read more

Diary

30 March 2013

When Kevin Rudd arrived at Brisbane’s Riverbend Books on a sunny Saturday morning to launch For The True Believers: Great Labor Speeches That Shaped History, he was in an upbeat… Read more

Diary Australia

23 March 2013

I’m lining up to get autographs of the players of GWS Giants AFL Team at the Sydney Swans and GWS Giants Community Day in Sydney’s West — with one eye… Read more

Diary

16 March 2013

If a conservative in Canberra asserts that the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movement are fighting the same battle (crony capitalism) and that President Obama isn’t well liked… Read more

Diary

6 March 2013

Washington, D.C. ‘There’s a tremendous amount on the line [in Iraq]. If this goes wrong, of course, [neoconservatives] will be, to some degree, discredited. Justifiably so. We put forward these… Read more

Diary

2 March 2013

‘Tape recorder in bra “entrapped” union man,’ teases the headline. My partner, Peter, and I sit up in bed sipping über-strong coffee, served in beautiful china. We are looking over… Read more

Diary

23 February 2013

‘If ever I would stop thinking about music and politics,’ sang the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, ‘I would tell you that music is the expression of emotion and that politics… Read more

James Paterson appeared on Q&A, Australia's take on the British 'Question Time', last week. Image: Getty

James Paterson’s Diary

13 February 2013

The best thing about appearing on Q&A is not hanging out with Tony Jones backstage, or even appearing before 700,000 viewers on ABC1. It’s logging on to Twitter afterwards and… Read more

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Leigh Sales’ Washington diary

6 February 2013

It’s a quiet Sunday morning and I’m playing with my baby when the phone rings. My producer, Justin Stevens, has a jaw-dropping offer: the US State Department wants to know… Read more

Galapagos Diary

2 February 2013

Once everything and everyone arrived on the Galapagos Islands by accident.The volcanic upwelling that continues to create the collection of lava islands almost 1,000 km from Ecuador on the Equator… Read more

Diary

26 January 2013

Los Angeles Touchdown LA! A short layover en route to the historical citadel of American libertarianism, San Francisco, to attend the annual West Coast Australian American Leadership Dialogue. What to… Read more

Diary

19 January 2013

Back from the Kingdom and the Gulf, where I’m delighted to find Senator John McCain (Republican, Arizona) who never fails to disappoint. Opening his remarks at the International Institute for… Read more

Diary

12 January 2013

A Qantas flight to Johannesburg. Spurning the offered champagne (it was 10 a.m.) I rapidly check the list of films available on the in-flight entertainment. As usual, I’ve seen quite… Read more

Diary

5 January 2013

The Ganges flows swiftly by the Vaishali District of Northern India. As they have for centuries, the villagers who live on its banks are washing in the water. It is… Read more

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