Telstra slams Whirlpool and “dead tree journalists” over unfair NBN coverage

By Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 02 December 2008 06:43

Strategy

Seemingly sick to death of constant attack on Telstra from “dead tree journalists” with an agenda, competitors and "geeky" Whirlpool critics, Telstra’s “Telstra-phile” Rod Bruem is taking the broom to the critics and whacking them over the head with it.

Rod Bruem, the self described “Telstra-phile” who blogs at Telstra’s “nowwearetalking.com.au” site, is sweeping up what he sees as the dead wood of dead-tree journalism in Australia, industry competitors, and the critics over at Whirlpool, and firmly seeks to sweep them into the dustbin of telecommunications history.

His latest blog post starts off by talking about last week’s “future of journalism” conference held by the Australian Journalists’ Union and hosted by Telstra in its Melbourne headquarters.

Although otherwise “pleased to be able to attend” the event, Bruem was in shock at hearing the moans and groans of the “older journalists who spoke” as they were “full of doom and gloom, lamenting the end of the world as they knew it”.

Bruem says that these older journalists held the view that “the 'traditional media model' is slowly being undermined by the internet.  As a result, journalists face huge challenges in maintaining  ' traditional standards'  for balance and accuracy.”

Bruem noted that he “chose to sit with student journalists who were live blogging at the back of the room and they couldn’t believe what they were hearing. They see a whole new world of opportunities.”

Indeed, it’s easy to agree that the Internet has changed journalism forever. No more day old, week old, month old or even two month old coverage – the Internet lets you publish content immediately, get immediate feedback, make immediate updates and corrections and reach an audience that a dead tree could only ever dream of reaching.

But Bruem questions the notion of “traditional media standards” being undermined from the point of view of being “on the receiving end of Australian media coverage”, because from his point of view, there have been very few standards adhered to in the reporting of Telstra, the NBN and Telstra’s competitors, and says that others “would probably wonder what planet the journalist’s union is living on.”

Bruem then goes on to point out what he sees as unfair inconsistencies in reports from The Australian and News.com.au, written by some of “Australia's most highly-paid journalists working at the most well-resourced newspapers” who Bruem says are “seemingly incapable of providing informed, balanced and objective commentary.”

So, what of the "geeks" at Whirlpool, and the open secret that Rupert Murdoch wants to see Telstra "broken up"? Please read on to page 2.