GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG – ISSUE NO. 10
15 MAY 2009
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NANCY’S PICKS OF THE BUDGET WEEK
FRAN KELLY CHANNELS “GREEN LEFT WEEKLY” – OR SOME SUCH
Radio National Breakfast’s executive producer Tim Latham is right. Dead right. RN Breakfast is well balanced politically – despite the fact that its only regular commentator is the left-of-centre Michelle Grattan whose full-time job is as political editor of the left-of-centre Age, Melbourne’s very own “Guardian-on-the-Yarra”. Take the post-Budget interviews with the political leaders, for example. Presenter Fran Kelly asked her first question of Kevin Rudd about Malcolm Turnbull. Then she asked her first question to Malcolm Turnbull also about Malcolm Turnbull. How balanced can you get? – in an RN sort of way.
RNB scored a coup by having Kevin Rudd come on the program on Thursday to discuss the Budget. The Prime Minister took the call while in a car travelling to Newcastle. It was a live interview. So here was a real chance to ask the PM certain questions. Perhaps why Wayne Swan had not even mentioned the word “deficit” in the Treasurer’s Budget speech on Tuesday night. Or perhaps about the Budget’s projections concerning growth some years out which (allegedly) will move the deficit into surplus. But no. Fran Kelly knows what the big issue is – the Opposition Liberal Party leader Malcolm Turnbull, of course. So this was her first question to Mr Rudd:
Prime Minister, you’ve put your budget on the table. What’s the challenge now for the Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull in his Budget reply speech tonight?
Talk about a soft question.
Then, today, Fran Kelly interviewed Malcolm Turnbull. This was her first question to the Opposition leader.
Malcolm Turnbull, welcome again to Breakfast. Now you’ve offered the Government a deal. Tax smokers not the rich. Is that it?
Good question, don’t you think? So good, in fact, it could have been drafted by the Prime Minister’s Media Office. Ms Kelly editorialised that the Opposition was against taxing the rich and demanded that Malcolm Turnbull reply. She also ran the fashionable left-wing line against the private health care levy, “middle class welfare”, “the wealthy” and so on. Maybe she was channeling Green Left Weekly. The interview was replete with Fran Kelly’s leading questions and plenty of editorialising along with the occasional verballing of Mr Turnbull. A very RN Breakfast performance, to be sure.
Following the Kelly/Turnbull exchange, RN Breakfast rolled out what Fran Kelly referred to as “three esteemed members of the Canberra Press Gallery”. Namely Network 10’s Paul Bongiorno, the Daily Telegraph’s Malcolm Farr and The Age’s Michelle Grattan.
It was the familiar RNB “Political Forum” whereby everyone agrees with everyone else and a fine ideological time is head by all. Paul Bongiorno bagged the content of the Opposition leader’s speech. Michelle Grattan agreed. So did Fran Kelly. And so did Malcolm Farr – sort of. And so it went on with Mr Bongiorno interjecting from time to time to indicate his support for one or more of his colleagues.
It was all summed up at the end when Fran Kelly asked the panel who was the winner in the Budget week. The responses were immediate:
“I think the Government, frankly.” – Paul Bongiorno
“I think the Government.” – Michelle Grattan
“I think the Government…” – Malcolm Farr
That’s political debate, RN Breakfast style.
GUY RUNDLE GIVES SELF-INDULGENCE A CHANCE
Nancy was so impressed with Fran Kelly’s stellar performance that she ranked her equal with Guy Rundle – the former editor of the Marxist magazine Arena.
Is there anything which has not been written about the 2009 Budget? Well, yes. Sort of. It’s Guy Rundle’s piece in last Tuesday’s Crikey newsletter titled “Rundle: on first looking into Parliament’s home”. Just when all the Budget commentators were writing about the Budget, the left’s angry comedian – and notorious Nancy-hater (see Issue No. 2) – wrote about his favourite subject. HIMSELF.
There was, of course, a link to the Budget. You see GR travelled to Canberra on “the red-eye” early morning flight and proceeded to tell all and sundry why neither the Budget nor Canberra is important. Oh yes, he also had some views about his first visit to Parliament House – which was opened two decades ago.
The evidence suggests that your man Rundle was morphed into a word-producing enema. It seems he cannot get through a (working) day without producing 2000 words or so for Crikey – from all over the world. He’s like a non-smoking Peter Stuyvesant man. From London, to Berlin, to Canberra the former editor of the boring-as-Brezhnev-batshit Arena magazine scribbles on. And on. And on. Usually in Crikey.
Here’s the third paragraph from Rundle’s Letter-from-Canberra published on 14 May 2009:
Straight up from Sydney on the red-eye you would want something a bit more eye-catching to arrive at, for a nation’s capital. The only place we could do with a giant animal, and all there are [sic] rows of European trees, as the taxi takes you to a somnolent country town. Given the psychotic degree of importance that is attached to the minor adjustment of expenditure and receipt known as the budget some sort of ceremony should be required. A giant boll weevil? Giant dog buggering a giant trousered leg? Something like that. Didn’t even have to fight for a taxi. What sort of city is this?
What sort of written sludge is this? But it gets worse. In the familiar Rundle enema–projected stream of consciousness, there are references to Walter Burley Griffin’s incinerators, Finnish early modernist Elial Saarinen, the Australian Jewish News, Escheresque corridors, Ceausescu’s palace, an unnamed DLP senator, dumb Spanish tomato festivals and so on. Then Rundle reported on the Budget related dialogue he has heard, viz: “If we adjust the BSI’s of the CFOs then a benchmark re-jig will…this is joined-up cleverness for an AB audience…but with focus feedback on the QTDs….”
Funny, don’t you think? Especially in Budget week. In any event, it’s one of Nancy’s picks of the week, during a seven day period where self-indulgence had many a competitor. Perhaps someone should give GR a tablet. Nancy reckons someone already has.
BOB ELLIS BAGS JULIA GILLARD
Meanwhile there is post-Budget news that the Seer of Palm Beach reckons that Maxine McKew would be a better future prime minister than Julia Gillard (Daily Telegraph, 14 May 2009). Bob Ellis was reported as declaring: “She’s the most seasoned witness of politics and political discussion in the field.” Oh yes, the (False) Prophet also proclaimed that Ms McKew has the rare political skills of former US president Bill Clinton. Tell that to Monica Lewinsky.
Meanwhile MWD has heard that an emissary has come forward to discuss the possible payment of Bob Ellis’ debt of long standing (for failed wagering) to Gerard Henderson. Sure, there is now some haggling about the quantum of the debt. There is also some special pleading that the president of the “Maxine-For-PM” fan club is on tough times because he is still paying financial obligations incurred when he contested the Mackellar by-election against Bronwyn Bishop in, wait for it, 1994. [Wasn’t Moses a boy then? – Editor].
We’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile MWD would like to submit the following viewer’s question when the Seer of Palm Beach appears on Tony Jones’ Q&A program next Thursday. Here it is – from “Debtee in Phillip Street, Sydney”:
Prophet and Debtor. In these Neo-Keynesian times, you appear unconcerned about the increase in net Commonwealth debt. Could this be because you believe that only mugs pay their bills?
ABC’S LEGAL DEPARTMENT WELL AND TRULY NAILED
It took just a week to find out. But MWD can report – following last week’s story – that John Safran’s crucifixion stunt in the Philippines was endorsed in advance by the ABC’s legal department. MWD has also been informed that the public broadcaster did not have to pay any medical costs to remove nails etc from Mr Safran’s hands nor was any special insurance cover arranged. (See Issue 9).
Gee, isn’t it good to know that the taxpayer funded lawyers in the ABC legal department are on to the really big issues in this time of Global Financial Crisis? After due consideration, the legal boffins sanctioned Mr Safran’s crucifixion. As reported last week, the very same taxpayer funded lawyers approved The Chaser Boys’ stunt to fly a blimp containing a rude message directed at Pope Benedict’s XVI in Vatican City air space on Tuesday 28 April. This lot must be real (legal) goers. It’s not often that usually staid lawyers approve acts of self-harm and violations of a nation’s flight zones in just one month.
The question remains for Nancy whether the ABC legal department would approve the following stunts.
▪ John Safran to dress up as the Prophet in the Tehran CBD.
▪ The Chaser Boys’ to put a drawing of the Prophet on a blimp and fly it in restricted air space in Mecca over the Black Stone.
Certainly not – for it seems that the folks at the ABC legal department quite like having their necks attached to the rest of their bodies.
Meanwhile the word is that the powers-that-be at the ABC banned a segment from being screened on The Gruen Transfer last Wednesday. But the ABC did approve “The Pitch” segment being shown on-line. So the skit – which involves offensive jokes about black women, gays, Jews and overweight ladies – has received wide distribution.
Here is one of the “jokes” which the ABC legal department has approved for showing on the on-line version of The Gruen Transfer: “What’s the difference between Santa Claus and a Jew? Santa Claus goes down the chimney.”
It is impossible to imagine the ABC approving the distribution of a similar “joke” about Muslims. But then, as we know, ABC lawyers are fond of their throats.
SBS’S RIGHT-TO-NO
The ABC is not the only public broadcaster to exhibit double standards. It’s just two years since the ABC, SBS and others signed up to the “Right to Know Coalition”. Around this time, SBS managing director Shaun Brown and others urged publicly funded organisations to be “more forthcoming with information that is relevant and important to the public they serve”. The problem is that neither public broadcaster practises what it preaches.
The full story will be documented elsewhere. But here’s a snap-shot. MWD has requested that Paul Cutler (Director, News and Current Affairs, SBS TV) provide evidence in support of Rena Sarumpaet’s assertion on SBS World News last Sunday that Pope Pius XII (1876-1958) was “widely reviled for alleged anti-Semitism”.
While conceding that the report “could have been more carefully worded”, Mr Cutler has refused to provide any information about how Ms Sarumpaet came to the conclusion that Piux XII was (allegedly) widely reviled for alleged anti-Semitism. Rather than answer a few straight forward questions, SBS threw MWD’s request for information into the SBS complaints bureaucracy. How convenient – especially since the SBS Ombudsman is currently on leave and no matter will be concluded until at least 30 June 2009. This suggests that SBS is not committed to the Right to Know but, rather, to its Right to Say “No”.
CHRIS RICHARDSON’S BUDGETARY CHUTZPAH
Meanwhile it’s back to the Budget. Perhaps the star of this year’s event was Access Economics’ Chris Richardson – who warned his fellow countrymen and countrywomen that we live in an economic vale of tears and that governments should do more to reduce the deficit in order to move the budget back into surplus at an earlier date. Mr Richardson told all and sundry this week that the mining boom was well and truly over and that Australians should have anticipated this and not assumed that the good times would last forever. Amen and all that. According to Mr Richardson today, we all need to endure more pain since the hard times will be with us awhile. Right on and so on.
MWD and Nancy became so bored with Christopher’s 2009 Letter-to-the-Masses that a decision was made to sniff around, instead, in the 2008 Budget papers and resultant commentary. Here the stand out performer was, wait for it, Chris Richardson – with his message of increasing inflation and an exploding Budget surplus. Christopher’s 2008 Letter-to-the-Masses was just as intense and condescending as this year. All that was different was, er, the content.
Alas, deaf Nancy could not hear Tony Jones’ 2008 post-budget interview with Chris Richardson on Lateline 14 May 2008. But she did read the transcript which is worth repeating here. Here are the highlights which impressed Nancy – namely Mr Richardson’s prophecy that inflation would be higher and revenues would substantially increase over the financial year 2008-2009. Let’s go to the transcript:
TONY JONES: We have two separate projections now on where inflation is going, one from the Reserve Bank, less optimistic, and one from the Treasury, more optimistic. The Government seems to be going with the Treasury’s projection. Who is right?
CHRIS RICHARDSON: We don’t know but I fear that inflation will be worse [i.e. higher – Editor] than Treasury hopes. Remember, an absolute torrent of money is about to be dropped on Australia’s economy. It’s not just the commodity boom’s continuing, it is accelerating. And this is the biggest set of risks we’ve had in this inflation challenge so far. The Budget helps, but whether it’s helped enough, not clear.
TONY JONES: We’ve talked about this as being “rivers of gold”. This is a massive boost in the terms of trade. Have we seen anything like this?
CHRIS RICHARDSON: No, the last time we saw anything close was the Korean War when wool prices shot through the roof. My guess is that, in the last month, this commodity boom has passed that. We are seeing something that no living Australian has seen before.
TONY JONES: Wayne Swan yesterday said that he’s going to be nowhere near as lucky as the previous government when it came to revenue upgrades. Has this put the lie to that?
CHRIS RICHARDSON: My guess is, that by the time this year [i.e. 2008-2009] is finished, the Government won’t be sitting on a $22 billion surplus. It will be bigger. It will also have an economy travelling faster – more jobs, lower unemployment than they fear, but higher wages and prices and, perhaps, higher interest rates too.
TONY JONES: Alright, very hard to manage. Thanks, Chris Richardson.
So on 14 May 2008, Chris Richardson predicted a Budget surplus for 2008-2009 well in excess of $22 billion. In fact, the 2008-2009 Budget recorded a deficit of $32 billion – as revenues plummeted. So what did Chris Richardson say this time around about his (false) predictions of a year ago that revenue, employment, interest rates and inflation would increase and that the Budget surplus would be north of $22 billion. Well, nothing really. You have to admire the Access Economics supremo for his chutzpah.
OFF THE MONEY
It used to be said that the dead tell no tales. Not any more. First there was the late Kerry Packer who, when not in “the late” mode, declared that he had died and came back to life. Mr Packer’s message was that “There’s nothing f_ _ _ _ _ _ there.” Meaning that there is no after-life. Melbourne identity Sue Calwell has convinced The Age’s Diary’s Lawrence Money that Mr Packer was correct. As Mr Money reported on 6 May 2009:
After Kerry Packer went to the Pearly Gates and came back again, he had disappointing news for the religiously enlightened. “There’s nothing effing there.” Now confirmation seems to have arrived from former Melbourne supergirl Sue Calwell, who has just performed her own version of a resurrection at Francois diner in South Yarra. Calwell, the founding chief of Melbourne Tourism Authority, who bowed out of the rat race some time ago, stopped breathing and, according to bystanders, had no pulse after collapsing on the restaurant floor. “Nothing there,” she reports, having returned to the land of the living.
This is all very well. But the fact is that Mr Packer only died once – not twice. Kerry Packer lost consciousness in 1990 but did not actually die until 2005. And Ms Calwell is not dead – and has never died. MWD says that you cannot come back from somewhere you never were in the first place.
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Until next time.