A note on understanding opinion polls, some thoughts on trolls and links to other news and views

We should get much less excited by Newspolls. If 'true' 2PP is 53 then more than 1 in 3 samples are 52 or less. Likewise 54+. pic.twitter.com/w9uxsKyNap

— Ben Phillips (@BenPhillips_ANU) February 5, 2018

PM Malcolm Turnbull’s new secrecy laws fly in the face of principles he was once acclaimed for - Daily Telegraph

MALCOLM Turnbull has introduced authoritarian laws to “criminalise ordinary journalism” that fly in the face of principles he won worldwide acclaim fighting for in the Spycatcher case against Margaret Thatcher’s government.
The Prime Minister has come under fire for his proposed secrecy laws — introduced amid the historic marriage equality celebrations on the final day of Parliament last year — which threaten a 15-year prison sentence for journalists or editors who are given classified documents not deemed by the government to be in the public interest.

Media complicit in the rise of political trolls - Eureka Street

... a new political method. It's not designed to advance any particular policy position, the routine of conventional politics. The point of this new politics, this politics of the social media age, is trolling: the simple art of using rhetoric and political acts to provoke a reaction.Suddenly a lot makes sense. Tony Abbott makes sense. Donald Trump makes sense. So much of social media makes sense.The politics of the new right is a deliberate, calculated provocation. This is strategic of course, playing to an angry base while upping the ante of political rhetoric, marginalising opposing voices by pushing them to greater extremes.This is a political position only made possible by the acquiescence of a media class caught between worlds, a media that trades on its historic reputation for fairness and a pursuit of objectivity while acting often to push a political line, either because of its own political convictions or purely for populism and profit.

Theresa May orders legal review of social media behaviour - Financial Times

Theresa May will warn on Tuesday that social media is too often “exploited and abused” as she orders a Law Commission review into whether the law is fit for purpose into behaviour on the internet. ... She will promise a new “social media code of practice” and also a new regular transparency report to track companies’ progress in stamping out online abuse.

The polls bell for thee, Malcolm - The Spectator

The Prime Minister is deeply unpopular with much of the Liberal Party base, pundits keep telling us, yet he is the preferred Prime Minister 45 points to opposition leader’s 31 per cent (first Newspoll of 2018). This is not surprising, since Malcolm Turnbull is seen as Labour-lite and many Labour voters seem to prefer him to Bill Shorten.

Libs splash training cash as Nick gets Greek on Gardner - InDaily

The state Liberals have put political heat on Labor’s vocational training travails with a $100 million commitment to create more than 20,000 new training places. ... Liberal Education spokesman John Gardner was on hand for the announcement, but his mind might have been in his north-eastern seat of Morialta, where Nick Xenophon was unveiling his SA Best candidate ... Capping off his candidacy with a $1.5 million commitment to an upgrade of Athelstone’s Eastern United soccer ground, Uraidla-based former teacher, BBC journalist and “digital education consultant” James Sadler declared himself a “fair, I think 50-50” chance of snaring the vulnerable seat, much of which falls within the Hills footprint occupied by NXT’s federal Mayo stronghold.

Nunes Played the Press Like a Fiddle. Why Do Journalists Keep Falling for This Trick? - Mother Jones

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the Nunes episode is how effectively it followed the playbook of contemporary disinformation campaigns. A few months ago, my colleague Denise Clifton dug up an extraordinary RAND Corporation study that found a distinctive pattern to Russian propaganda, repeated in many settings and countries.