GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG – ISSUE NO. 52

7 MAY 2010

IN THIS ISSUE

● David Buckingham’s Political Appointments Overlooked on RN Breakfast

● New Feature – A Trioli Moment: Juanita Phillips’ Book Advertised on Advertising-Free ABC

● Catherine Deveny’s War on the Suburbs – Now Headed for a Public Broadcaster Near You?

● Verbal Sludge at the End of your Screen – Q&A’s Twitterers’ Analysed

● Nancy’s Pick Of The Week – Deborah Cameron’s Fawning Question to Wayne Swan – Or was it a Job Application?

● History Corner: Robert Manne Links Tony Abbott to Bob Santamaria – But Neglects his own past as a Santamaria Admirer – Read Nothing Much about the Latter in the May 2010 Issue ofThe Monthly

● Yet Another Lazy Journalistic Howler – This Time in Ben Hills’ Biography of Graham Perkin

● The Cliché In The Room – An Elephant’s Perspective (Continued): Gongs to Phillip Williams and Greg Hoy

STOP PRESS

Breakfast With Buckingham – But Without Full CV

What a contribution by David Buckingham this morning on ABC Radio National Breakfast in defence of the Rudd Government’s proposed resources rent tax. Mr Buckingham was introduced by presenter Fran Kelly as a former executive director of the Minerals Council of Australia and a former executive director of the Business Council of Australia. Fair enough.

But not one mention that Mr Buckingham was appointed secretary of the Environment Department in 1992 by the Keating Labor Government in Canberra and as Agent-General for Victoria to the United Kingdom in 2004 by the Bracks Labor Government in Melbourne. Strange really, because it’s rare that a conservative appearing on the ABC who gained appointments from Coalition governments is not so branded. Perhaps the RN Breakfast team was short of time this morning.

NEW FEATURE – A TRIOLI MOMENT

ABC Pauses – For A Word From Its (Non) Sponsors

This (brand) new occasional segment in Media Watch Dog is devoted to bizarre media happenings capable of evoking the kind of gesture which ABC2 News Breakfast presenter Virginia Trioli engaged in following her interview with National Party Senate leader Barnaby Joyce late last year. The inaugural segment is devoted to the ABC and advertising.

Here’s what ABC managing director Mark Scott had to say in a letter to The Weekend Australian – published by Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited – which was printed on 13-14 September 2008:

Your implicit suggestion that the ABC should consider taking TV advertising would, if implemented, trigger widespread civil insurrection: from millions of angry viewers and voters to heads of commercial media organizations like your own, worried at their own revenue loss as a consequence.

And here’s what the ABC chairman Maurice Newman told The Australian on 26 April 2010:

I would be totally opposed to the ABC having advertising.

And here is the advertisement for ABC TV News Presenter Juanita Phillips’ book, titled A Pressure Cooker Saved My Life (ABC Books, 2010), which is currently being run on ABC TV:

From ABC Books, A Pressure Cooker Saved My Life by ABC News reader Juanita Phillips. A practical guide on how to have it all, do it all and keep it all together. From ABC shops, centres and ABC Shop on line.

The text is accompanied by an image of the cover of Ms Phillips’ tome – along with a pic of the gorgeous author. All very bizarre. Especially when it is remembered that ABC Books is now owned by HarperCollins, a News Limited company – and Mr Scott maintains that if the ABC carried advertising News Limited would become upset.

Truly a Trioli Moment.

[Insert JP Book cover] Jaunita Phillips’ book cover – as advertised on the (advertising free) ABC.

CATHERINE DEVENY – BONED BY THE AGE, DESTINED FOR AUNTIE?

And so it has come to pass that the leftist stand-up comedian Catherine Deveny – who was hired by former Age editor Andrew Jaspan to become a sit down leftist columnist for The Age – has been sacked. This was announced twice by Age editor Paul Ramadge in “The Guardian-on-the-Yarra” last Wednesday. At the bottom of a letter containing a critique of Ms Deveny as a columnist, the following Editor’s Note was printed:

Catherine Deveny’s column will no longer appear in The Age. Ms Deveny’s comments on other media are not in keeping with the standards we set at this newspaper.

Then at the end of the space where the Deveny column used to appear each Wednesday, the following comment appeared:

Catherine Deveny’s column will no longer appear in The Age. A new writer will be introduced in coming weeks.

Here’s hoping. After all, Catherine Deveny’s rantings in The Age over recent years has provided lotsa copy for Media Watch Dog (See Issues 5, 6, 23, 26, 28, 32 and 38) and The Sydney Institute Quarterly (See March 2008, August 2008 and December 2008).

In the end, Ms Deveny was brought down by the content of her contributions to Twitter. On Anzac Day Ms Deveny’s tweets included such musings as:

– Anzac Day IS a glorification of war. They didn’t die for us but because they were risktaking testosterone fuelled men with a pack mentality.

– I adore men. I hate bullies, homophobes, thugs, racists, misogynists and rapists in the name of war.

– Men only enlisted to fight for the money, for the adventure or because they were racist.

On 28 April, The Age published a column by Richard Cooke, a writer for The Chaser, headed “Deveny learns the Anzac art of futile attack” with a break-out which read “Catherine goes Over The Top with troops, and shoots herself in the foot”.

Catherine Deveny should have seen that Richard Cooke’s piece had editorial approval. But she plowed on with a series of tweets during the Logies awards on Sunday. In a competitive field, her most offensive tweet was directed at 11 years old Bindi Irwin. It read:

– I do so hope Bindi Irwin gets laid

The reference was to Bindi Irwin, the 11 year old daughter of the late Steve Irwin.

This was one tweet too many. Few newspapers can afford to employ a columnist who advocates under-age sex, or what the Americans would term statutory rape. When the criticism commenced, Catherine Deveny ran the familiar defence that her comments had been “taken out of context”. It is not clear in precisely what context that Ms Deveny’s comments would be acceptable. It seems that The Age’s star, and highly paid columnist, did not understand that advocating that an 11 year old girl “gets laid” would be inappropriate in any context.

Needless to say, many a rationaliser emerged to say that Catherine Deveny had done nothing wrong. MWD’s favourite was Meanjin editor Sophie Cunningham, who wondered out loud on PM last Wednesday about whether this was a “gender issue”. Umm. Just imagine what Ms Cunningham might have said if, say, Piers Akerman or Andrew Bolt had expressed the wish that Ms Deveny’s 11 year old daughter “gets laid”. Umm.

The real case against Catherine Deveny turned not on her bad taste – or even the lack of content in her highly opinionated material – but in her contempt for Age readers. Born in the then lower socio-economic suburb of Reservoir, Deveny moved to Coburg and became an inner-city snob who just loved to sneer at those who live in the suburbs – particularly housewives who took their husband’s name and religious believers. She mocked shoppers in Northland Shopping Centre whom she claimed were mostly without teeth, and depicted the Chadstone Shopping Centre as being replete with dead-eyed wage slaves.

Ms Deveny’s contempt for the suburbs was summed up when she wrote – in mocking tone – in The Age on 6 August 2008:

I can’t tell you how often I seriously wish I were living in some outer suburb content with signed and framed football jumpers on the wall, no book shelves and a coffee table covered with remote controls, happy to read romance novels over my Cup-a-Soup.

It would not surprise if Catherine Deveny ended up with a gig on the ABC. She fits the leftist inner-city mind-set that prevails within large parts of the public broadcaster. Certainly MWD needs Ms Deveny and all her fact-free rants and all her contempt-fuelled sneers. Particularly on Friday mornings when MWD is looking for content.

Q&A’S TWITTS – WHY BOTHER?

While on the topic of Twitter, set out below are the tweets which Q&A executive producer Peter McEvoy saw fit to put on TV screens last Monday. It makes you wonder about the program’s twitterhood. The key topics were the Rudd Government’s proposed resources rent tax and the now delayed emissions trading scheme. The panel comprised John Symond, Senator Penny Wong, Senator Nick Minchin, Senator Christine Milne and Paul Howes. Here we go:

  • sounds like when the mining company is doing well is exactly the time to take more tax – jazglo
  • Three senators… This’ll be fun – ToddStephen
  • Aussie John for Best new talent Logie next year – WorkingClassDan
  • John Symond for PM! – Tree_Hands
  • A real communist would nationalise the mines. Then the country would keep ALL the super profits – Matt_Kunkel
  • Sounds like Minchin has a job lined up past politics… Anyone else see him heading up Rio Tinto or BHP? – ActionPete
  • then why no double dissolution penny? – jameskf987
  • Overheard: “I voted for change in 2007 and all I got was John Howard Lite” – oberonsghost
  • Can’t wait to hear Christine rip into Penny on this one – MaryAzize
  • Penny you failed to deliver on your great moral challenge of the generation. That is all. – ScottDriscollAu
  • Penny Wong and Tanya P such understated women don’t get fired up and answers are well constructed –
  • Why can’t we just leave the coal in the ground except for australias use – usernamedsam
  • Tax those greedy polluting mining companies to the hilt. The world doesn’t exist for investors – dbvalentine
  • Minchin bolts early… – ChrisJamesHare
  • Why is it that reform from one side means “the world is gonna end” on the other!? – BocklbnBock
  • Carbon tax – go, go, go – portantwas
  • Greens talking about strong action on climate change – but voted down the legislation in the Senate. – RobSaysWot
  • Carbon tax equals loss of jobs. But super profits tax doesn’t? – stafo86
  • Climate change is going to hurt, you can’t get away from it. Some pain now or a lot of pain later? – pereginan7
  • Who cares about climate change when Australia can afford air conditioners. – secretcamera
  • Great question from the young scientists – mountainmoss
  • Why aren’t we skilling up workers in “green” industries so we can export our skills and industries in the future? – liam_b
  • I can’t wait to see Mr Aussie selling land on floating ice sheets from Antarctica – SimonReidy
  • Australia should be setting an example! Stand up and be counted – webdepartment
  • Nick Minchin may have heard of Climategate but has he not heard of Troy Buzzwell? – ProfessorFunk
  • Welcome back to the turnaboutbull – pc0
  • Malcolm Turnbull is still better than rAbbott – njptower
  • John Symonds is hardly an impartial commentator on the issue of housing affordability – peregrinan7
  • John wants kids to start saving for their aussie home loans at high school – garglebutt
  • If anyone wants to give me experience in having $500, 000 I’d be happy to help – TheamazingKim
  • Overpopulation! Finally someone has named one of the core problems. – emilychat
  • I was extremely disappointed when a congestion tax was not upheld from the Henry report – Chrismurphy101
  • The govt missed an opportunity to make major changes to tax

Yes folks, that was it. What a load of tripe. Yet Q&A decided that this was the best of its twittered material – and worthy of being shown on the taxpayer funded public broadcaster. Really.

NANCY’S PICK OF THE WEEK

Deborah Cameron’s Stunning Fawn

This week’s choice is a no-brainer (whatever that might mean). Step forward ABC 774 presenter Deborah Cameron, who asked Wayne Swan such a friendly question on Wednesday that the Treasurer was taken aback. Let’s go to the audio tape.

Deborah Cameron: If Treasurer Wayne Swan was a snooker player, this would be his World Championship. Yesterday you saw that young Australian play like a demon to win, and that’s what the Treasurer has to do. The cue is in his hand, the balls are all laid out on the green baize. Now will he pot the black, or will he sink the white? The big mining companies are against him, but what the point of a tax system if the richest don’t pay the most?

For anyone worried about superannuation, Mr Swan is a champion, and that’s where the miner’s special levy tax will go. The superannuation and investment industry endorses the idea of the wealth of Australia being shared around.

So imagine now, Wayne Swan in a pool hall. There’s a long way to go until the final frame. The Henry Tax Review is behind him, the Budget is next week, the election campaign trail is ahead and all the promises that he will need to make with that. Will the pot be black? Good morning Treasurer.

Wayne Swan: What an intro Deborah.

What an introduction, indeed. Who needs a media adviser if a minister gets questions like this.

Later that morning, Deborah Cameron referred to mining magnate Clive Palmer as “corpulent”. Ms Cameron ignored some of Mr Palmer’s more bizarre claims such as his description of Wayne Swan as a “communist” and focused instead on the mining executive’s waist-line. MWD is interested in determining whether Deborah Cameron refers to weight-challenged females as corpulent – especially those of the hand-holding “I feel your pain” kind. [Who could you be referring to here? – Ed].

HISTORY CORNER

Professor Manne Doesn’t Believe In Santa Any More

There was a time when it was good manners to let sleeping dogs lie. But Nancy’s repose has just been interrupted by the arrival of the May 2010 issue of The Monthly.

Robert Manne is chairman of The Monthly’s editorial board. It so happens that Professor (for this he is) Manne has written the cover story for The Monthly’s May 2010 issue titled “On Your Bike Tony Abbott” – and featuring a colour photo of the Liberal Party leader on a bike, dressed in lycra. Apparently Ben Naparstek, the youngish editor of the magazine, believes it is big news when Robert Manne bags the Liberal Party leader. [Was young Naparstek still in primary school during Professor Manne’s decade long attack on John Howard? – Ed.]

In his article Professor Manne identifies himself as a “higher-tax social democrat”. You know the type – increase taxes and send some extra money to La Trobe University, Bundoora. He also embraces his now familiar eco-catastrophist stance – declaring that “Abbot must know that if the climate scientists are right, there is a chance that the very future of the Earth is in peril”. Okay. But if the Robert Manne’s interpretation of “the scientists” message is accurate, surely it’s time to stop producing carbon emissions in publishing, say, The Monthly. Just a thought.

Robert Manne concluded his Monthly article by calling for the Opposition leader’s defeat at the 2010 election.

….I fervently hope, for the sake of the country and also for the sake of the Liberal Party, that later this year he [Abbott] leads the Coalition to a crushing defeat. And that the nation can then say, in a single voice, “Tony Abbott, on your bike!”

Robert Manne’s position is hardly news. Tony Abbott replaced Malcolm Turnbull as Liberal Party leader on 1 December 2009. Writing in The Australian on 4 December 2009, Manne made a number of bizarre predictions about the by-elections for the seats of Bradfield (in Sydney) and Higgins (in Melbourne) which were to be held the following day. The learned professor described Tony Abbott as the Liberal Party’s “troglodyte-in-chief” and declared that “the Liberal Party has imploded in a way no mainstream party in Australian politics has managed since the Labor split of 1954”. Good prophecy, eh?

Professor Manne also told readers of The Australian that the Greens’ candidate Clive Hamilton “may poll well in Higgins”. He didn’t . Manne also predicted poor results in Bradfield and Higgins leading to “the destruction of the Liberal Party”. In fact, there was a swing to the Liberal Party in both seats.

In his December 2009 article, Manne played the religious card – maintaining that “very many Australians will not vote for a Catholic party leader whose religious convictions fashion his politics”. Robert Manne was chairman of The Monthly’s editorial board in 2006 when it ran Kevin Rudd’s influential essay on the German Christian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The La Trobe University professor however, seems to accept that many Australians will vote for an Anglican party leader (i.e. Kevin Rudd) whose religious convictions fashion his politics. But, alas, consistency was never Robert Manne’s forte. See The Sydney Institute Quarterly March 2008 and ­December 2008.

In his current Monthly essay, Manne consciously links Abbott with the Catholic political activist B.A. Santamaria (1915-1998) who was a player in the Labor Party Split of the mid 1950s. According to Manne:

As a young man, Tony Abbot was influenced by the most radical version of the relationship between Church and State, and the conception of the role Catholicism – not merely Christianity – ought to play in shaping politics that this country has ever witnessed. Shortly after defeating the communists in the trade unions, Santamaria wrote to Archbishop Mannix. He told Mannix that his followers would soon “be able to implement a Christian social program in both the state and federal spheres. This is the first time that such a work has become possible in Australia and, as far as I can see, in the Anglo-Saxon world since the advent of Protestantism”. With Santamaria and his followers, the desire to redeem the realm of politics with a Catholic social program was never entirely absent.

B.A. Santamaria’s letter to Dr Daniel Mannix, the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne was written on 11 December 1952 and was first revealed by Gerard Henderson in his book Mr Santamaria and the Bishops, which was first published in 1982. In other words, Manne has been aware of Santamaria’s attitude to Church and State, circa December 1952, for around three decades.

Readers of The Monthly might get the impression that Robert Manne – who now defines himself as a “left-wing secular humanist” – was and remained opposed to B.A. Santamaria. Not on your nelly. In fact, during the final years of Santamaria’s life, Robert Manne was something of a barracker for the late Catholic political activist who founded the National Civic Council – as the following examples demonstrate:

▪ On 7 October 1991 Robert Manne was a guest speaker at the 50th Anniversary Reception of the National Civil Council. He shared the platform with Archbishop Eric D’Arcy, Bishop (as the then was) George Pell and B.A. Santamaria himself. Robert Manne dished out the flattery with a trowel – declaring that “Bob Santamaria is one of the great post-war Australians” and maintaining that “he has proved himself, over 50 years, an unequalled political strategist, whose analyses have displayed an almost Cartesian clarity and penetration”. (Robert Manne’s full speech in praise of Bob Santamaria was published in News Weekly, 26 October 1991).

▪ In his edited collection titled B.A. Santamaria: Running The Show – Selected Documents: 1939-1996 (The Miegunyah Press, 2008), Patrick Morgan revealed that Robert Manne was co-operating politically with Santamaria in the early 1990s. Indeed Manne was a member of a group – which included Santamaria and the La Trobe University academic John Carroll – which favoured economic protectionism and which was promoting former prime minister Malcolm Fraser as a possible leader of a new political party.

Needless to say, Robert Manne did not advise Monthly readers of his own one-time association with B.A. Santamaria when warning Monthly readers about Tony Abbott’s one-time association with B.A. Santamaria. Which suggests that one of the problems with history is that it tends to be written by historians like Professor Manne.

CORRESPONDENCE

Ben Hills’ Howler In Tome On Former Age Editor

Nancy’s owner reckons that he spends ten per cent of his time correcting errors made about him by lazy academics and journalists who make false allegations without fact-checking.

The most recent example of such inaccurate, unprofessional journalism is contained in Ben Hills’ biography of the late Graham Perkin, which was published last Monday. Gerard Henderson sent the following email to Ben Hills and his publisher Henry Rosenbloom on Wednesday. As at the time of pushing the MWD upload button, neither Ben Hills nor Henry Rosenbloom had responded. It’s called denial.

Set out below is the (so far) one-way correspondence:

Email to Ben Hills from Gerard Henderson – 4 May 2010

Dear Mr Hills

I refer to your recently published book Breaking News: The Golden Age of Graham Perkin (Scribe, 2010). At Page 413, in a chapter titled “The Spencer Street Soviet”, you wrote:

Even today, there are right-wing commentators such as Gerard Henderson who sneer at the paper as “The Guardian on the Yarra” or “the Spencer Street Soviet” and who hold The Age at least partly responsible for the election of the only Labor government in the 34 years between Ben Chifley’s defeat and Bob Hawke’s victory.

This is a complete falsehood. You cite no evidence whatsoever for your assertion that I am one of those “who hold The Age at least partly responsible” for Gough Whitlam’s election in December 1975. Clearly Scribe did not engage a fact-checker before publishing Breaking News.

▪ The fact is that I have never expressed such a view – either publicly or in private. There are some (journalists like you included) who believe that journalists (like you) can determine the outcome of elections. I don’t hold this view. Yet readers of Breaking News may come to a different conclusion.

It is mere self-importance for you to claim that there was a swing to Labor in Melbourne in December 1972 at least partly because voters did what they were advised to do by The Age. In any event, even if it had not won seats in Melbourne, Labor would still have won the 1972 election.

▪ The fact is that I never criticised The Age when Graham Perkin was its editor.

▪ It’s true that I did coin the term “The Guardian on the Yarra” with reference to The Age. However, I used this term to describe the fashionable leftist stance taken by The Age during the editorship of British-born Andrew Jaspan. As you will be aware, Mr Jaspan had his contract terminated by Fairfax and, as far as I am aware, he has not secured a senior position in the media since then.

Andrew Jaspan’s key editorial decision while at The Age was to engage leftist stand-up comedian Catherine Deveny as a weekly columnist. She used this position to sneer at Age readers who lived in the suburbs, who were believers, etc.

▪ For the record, I did not use the term “Guardian on the Yarra” to describe The Age during the editorship of Michael Gawenda – Andrew Jaspan’s predecessor. How could I? After all, in March 2003 – during Michael Gawenda’s time as editor – The Age editorialised in support of Australia’s involvement in the invasion of Iraq by the Coalition of the Willing.

It is worth noting, however, that in his book American Notebook: A Personal and Political Journey (MUP, 2007) Michael Gawenda acknowledged that “the default position of most” of The Age’s journalists “was on the left”.

I am happy to stand by comments which I have made or written. However, I do resent being verballed. Your allegation about my position on The Age and the election of the Whitlam Labor Government is a willful falsehood. What are you and/or your publisher going to do to correct such unprofessional, inaccurate and lazy journalism?

Yours sincerely

Gerard Henderson

cc: Henry Rosenbloom

Publisher

Scribe Publications Pty Ltd

 

THE CLICHÉ IN THE ROOM OR IS IT CUBICLE? – AN ELEPHANT’S PERSPECTIVE

Gongs Awarded To Philip Williams And Greg Hoy

This week’s gong is shared by 7.30 Report journalists Philip Williams and Greg Hoy.

Mr Williams told 7.30 Report viewers on Wednesday, with respect to the British election:

The herd of elephants – in fact the entire zoo – in everyone’s room is a budget deficit so large only the most savage cuts to public services can deal with it and no party is spelling out exactly what will go.

Mr Hoy told 7.30 Report viewers on Thursday, with respect to the National Broadbank Corporation:

The accounting logic goes that if the NBN cost qualifies as investment rather than spending – he presto – it won’t be reflected in next week’s budget deficit figures. But there remains a big elephant in the cubicle – Telstra.

Until next time then.