Why the attempted Invasion Day bomb attack exposes the worst of Australia's mainstream media + some fun subscriber updates
Cheek's recap on the week that was.
We’re barely four weeks into January and the New Year honeymoon is over before it had even begun. Venezuela, Iran, Greenland, hate speech, Royal Commissions, shark attacks, record-breaking heatwaves, climate disasters, One Nation polling, white nationalism in the streets, and an attempted bombing attack on Invasion Day protestors barely covered by the mainstream media. That’s just four weeks. It is clear that 2026 is going to keep our heart rates high and our nervous systems activated. Loving it!!
In the moments that we’ve not been ripping our hair out over the insanity of it all, Hannah and I have been planning some small tweaks to the way we deliver this newsletter. Last week, you might remember, we asked you to vote on what time you would like to see this email hit your inbox. The votes are in, and the tweak is a pretty easy one, so starting today (as you may have noticed), The Week with Cheek will send at 7 am sharp on a Friday. Unless something terrible happens, or we forget to schedule it in advance. Thank you in advance for your patience with teeny tiny team of two <3
We’ve also made a couple of tweaks to the content of the newsletter. They’re mostly cosmetic (hello new banners), but there are some more substantial changes to TWO of our regular sections.
The first is that we’re saying goodbye to our weekly Good News Story. We loved the spirit behind this, but we too often found that we were bringing you a story that was 1., actually a negative story with a silver lining, or 2., not a huge value add. So instead, we’ve decided to shift to something Cheek does best: Decoding the Discourse. The idea here will be to unpack a current point of tension in the political, cultural, or social discourse, online or IRL. Very open to your topic suggestions or requests, which you’re free to drop in the subscriber chat or our Instagram DMs at any point.
The second thing we’re changing is our Question of the Week - but we’re not ditching the interactive element. In fact, we are actually hoping that by turning this section into a Debate of the Week, more of you will be lured into the chat to have your two cents. Or kick off a (friendly) fight in the thread. Up to you!
We sincerely hope all of this will make for a better & more valuable product for our Subscribers. And it is not all we are doing to try to make you guys feel special. While capacity is a constant struggle, we’re always working to bring you Subscriber exclusives, and as a small extra, we have decided to make the Substack versions of our explainers a resource for paid subscribers only.
A final piece of housekeeping from me: we have drawn the winner of our December survey competition! A huge congrats to Isabella, who will be receiving a fun merch that includes a sex toy advent calendar from the team at Normal. A massive thank you to everyone who participated, we have gathered some incredible insights and very thoughtful feedback that will shape how we approach our content this year and beyond!!
THAT’S ALL! Enjoy the new format, let us know what you think, and we will see you next week.
Kalila Welch, editor of Cheek Media Co.
