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Stephens, David: ‘The Australian War Memorial is happy to let your opinion stand as it is’

Stephens, David

“The Australian War Memorial is happy to let your opinion stand as it is”: the Memorial’s response to recent posts on the Honest History website‘, Honest History, 22 February 2016

Commentary on recent response from the Memorial to Honest History’s articles on the Memorial’s use of John Schumann’s song ‘On every Anzac Day’ and on visitor numbers to the Memorial and to its website. The article concludes that the Memorial’s response (quoted in the title to this post) is ‘a rolled-gold example of the first instinctive response of many organisations to critics: “don’t give the buggers any oxygen!”‘.

The article goes on: ‘Mature organisations … ones that are confident of the strength of their case in the marketplace of ideas, avoid primitive knee-jerk responses. They engage vigorously with people who hold different views.’

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