GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG

ISSUE – NO. 786

7 August 2026

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THE LATEST

  • The ABC throws in the towel to Gina Rinehart – after close to a month

The farce that is the taxpayer public broadcaster continued on Thursday, 6 August.

In an ABC Update last week, MWD commented on the failure of Hugh Marks, the ABC’s managing director and editor-in-chief, to make a decision about Episode 6 of Race Around the World. It featured a short film by Kate McGuinness which concluded with a scene in which a character declared that businesswoman Gina Rinehart should be sodomised and murdered.

When complaints were made about the propriety of this scene, along with calls for an apology to Ms Rinehart, the ABC defended the film as satire but advised that it had been sent to Fiona Cameron, the ABC Ombudsman, for assessment.

This was a ridiculous response. Mr Marks gets paid around $1 million a year to make decisions – not to send off difficult matters to an ABC staff member for a decision. In this case, the ABC Ombudsman.

As it turned out, Ms Cameron issued her report at 1.10 pm on 6 August. She found that the Race Around the World program did not breach ABC editorial standards. Cameron maintained that the “satirical treatment” in Kate McGuinness’ film “provided editorial justification for the content and the segment did not breach the ABC Editorial Standards relating to harm and offence”.

Then at 1.24 pm Hugh Marks, in his capacity as ABC managing director, issued a statement stating:

The ABC refers to the film in a recent episode of Race Around the World referencing Mrs Gina Rinehart AO. While the Ombudsman has found that the film did not breach the ABC’s editorial policies, the ABC acknowledges the episode has fallen short of community expectations. The ABC apologises to Mrs Rinehart and to anyone else affected or upset by the publication of the film. As part of our review of this matter, we have considered whether the guidance in the ABC Editorial Policies adequately reflects current community expectations. We have also considered whether the relevant guidance sufficiently distinguishes between news and non-news content. As a result, the ABC will amend its guidance as it applies to violence. The film has been edited on the ABC’s platforms to remove the relevant material.

So, it took the ABC close to a month along with a legal threat to issue an apology to Gina Rinehart. Now the ABC managing director has set up a review about the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster’s Editorial Guidelines. The ABC does not need revised editorial guidelines. It needs a managing director and editor-in-chief who is prepared to run the ABC and to prevail over the staff collective – or soviet – that is the ABC.

So far, Mr Marks has failed to demonstrate that he has the courage to do so. As to the taxpayer-funded Race Around The World program, MWD’s film adviser has provided a review. See the segment titled “A Letter from our Far North Queensland Media Correspondent”.

[I note that Ian McGarrity had this to say in The Australia’s Media section last Monday about your man Marks. McGarrity was one-time deputy to the head of ABC TV.

The item has now been referred to the ABC’s independent ombudsman, Fiona Cameron. Presumably she is examining whether the short film transgressed any internal ABC editorial rules or guidelines. As if this is some form of judicial process, Marks’s spokesman says the ABC can make no further comment until the ombudsman’s adjudication is complete.

But Cameron is not a judge. Her examination is not a court case involving some concept of sub judice. And the guidelines against which she is undertaking her task are like the laws of cricket: verbose, interweaving, complex and quasi-legal. I know because I helped write the first version along with Bruce Donald, the ABC’s head of legal at the time under then chairman David Hill.

There isn’t a paragraph in those guidelines that says what should be obvious to any editor-in-chief: that a crappy gratuitous element, which probably breaks no laws but nevertheless is likely to offend or repel probably 80 per cent of the audience and be welcomed as a clever artistic input by virtually none, should have been aborted at birth.

Does Marks really need Cameron, who to my knowledge has not been a journalist or a filmmaker, to tell him McGuiness’s item should not have gone to air while including the Rinehart element?

A good analysis, don’t you think? – MWD Editor.]

 

  • ABC TV’s 7.30 gives free kick to the Greens

On Thursday 6 August, ABC TV’s 7.30 ran a report titled “The NSW Liberals face an ICAC inquiry”. The reporter was Adam Harvey. This is what he had to say early in his report:

Adam Harvey, Reporter: In a time of social change the Liberal Party was in power nationally and in New South Wales and its leaders embraced some progressive causes. But inside the party there was disquiet about its direction. One group of young men took a stand motivated, partly, by their Christian values. They called themselves the Reformers and they hatched a plan to take back their party branch by branch. Initially they were hugely successful, running events, with conservative speakers like Tony Abbott, Miranda Devine and Alan Jones. They recruited more than 1000 members to the Liberal Party. The Reformers’ efforts were supported by prominent right-wing Liberal MPs like Concetta Fierravanti-Wells and Anthony Roberts as well as wealthy conservatives, like hotelier Michael O’Hara….

And so it went on. With comments by Adam Harvey and extracts from the ICAC hearings including counsel assisting and witnesses. None of Harvey’s report was favourable to the Reformers who were depicted as dishonest Christians.

But, wait, there was more. Greens Senator David Shoebridge was interviewed by Harvey – and three extracts were shown on 7.30. No Labor, Liberal or Nationals parliamentarians were interviewed. Nor was any lawyer, academic or commentator. Just a Greens senator. Moreover, Harvey did not challenge any word that Shoebridge said – which focused on fanging “conservative Christianity and very conservative economics”.

This is yet another example of the taxpayer funded public broadcaster boosting the Greens.

  • On ABC Radio National, Monica Attard calls on the media to boycott Pauline Hanson with the support of ABC’s Sam Hawley

ABC Radio National aired ABC News Daily on Thursday 6 August. Presenter Sam Hawley interviewed former ABC journalist Monica Attard, who presented ABC TV Media Watch in 2006-2007, about Pauline Hanson. The left-of-centre Attard is currently a professor of journalism at the University of Technology Sydney. The topic was One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson and her relationship with the mainstream media.

Discussion turned on to Senator Hanson’s decision to exclude the ABC, The Guardian and The Age from her press conference in Melbourne early this week to announce One Nation’s candidates for the Legislative Council in the Victorian State election on 28 November. Hanson is of the view that all three left-of-centre media organisations do not report her fairly. However, the Senator has said that, sometime in the future, she would consider lifting her selective media bans. Needless to say, all journalists can follow Hanson’s media conference online but questions cannot be asked of Hanson by the likes of the Guardian, ABC or Nine in this format.

Comrade Hawley agreed with Comrade Attard – and Comrade Attard agreed with Comrade Hawley – that Hanson’s actions are a threat to democracy and “out of Donald Trump’s playbook”. Overlooking the fact that no American president has been more available to the media than President Donald J. Trump – who often takes on his media antagonists in interviews and at media “doorstops”.

And then the learned professor said this:

Monica Attard: I mean, if Hanson gets away with banning reporters from media organisations who are prepared to do that kind of reporting, that critical reporting, then all she is getting is favourable coverage from media organisations that she likes, like Sky [sic], for example. And even though, you know, Sky [sic] doesn’t have a massive audience, it does have strong social media presence. Which means that One Nation’s message is reaching Australians absent the critical analysis. And that is problematic.

Maybe. Maybe not. But what is “problematic” turns on the fact that UTS’s Professor of Journalism Practice and co-director of UTS’s Centre for Media Transition is not aware that Sky News Australia transitioned to News24 on 27 July.

And then there was this exchange:

Sam Hawley: So is there then, Monica, any way to stop this? How do we ensure that One Nation does face the scrutiny it should, ahead of this Victorian poll in November – but also, of course, ahead of a federal election in a few years’ time?

Monica Attard: It’s hard to imagine, for example, Sky News [sic] reporters walking out in protest at her banning ABC reporters or Guardian reporters or Nine Media reporters. But, as I said earlier Sam, I think the only way at this point in time is for journalists to band together and boycott her. Leave her to the penetration she has via social media.

How about that? Comrade Attard proposed – and Comrade Hawley did not disagree – that Senator Hanson should be boycotted and censored by the mainstream media. All in the name of democracy, you see. What a load of absolute anti-democratic tosh served up on the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster.

For the record, Media Watch Dog believes that it is unwise, albeit not undemocratic, for Senator Hanson to ban what she regards as antagonistic journalists from her media conferences. It would be smarter for her to follow John Howard’s approach and confront media critics. When prime minister, Howard did well out of taking on Kerry O’Brien, the ABC’s 7.30 presenter. Sure “Red Kerry” was a Howard antagonist – but the then prime minister prevailed in most, if not all, of their exchanges. This was a positive outcome for John Howard since he got his message direct to viewers – many of whom would not have liked “Red Kerry”.

  • Rampart founder Joe Aston envisages canonisation for the living Alan Joyce as Saint Self-Worth

The late Irish businessman Tony O’Reilly once said, ironically, that the “Irish are tops for humility”. Certainly your man O’Reilly – who was sometimes described as flamboyant – had an ego as tall as, well, the Rock of Cashel.

Media Watch Dog was reminded of this when reading Joe Aston’s review of Alan Joyce’s recently released autobiography, Riding the Jet Stream in the Australian Financial Review last Saturday. As avid readers are well aware, the Irish Australian Joyce was tops for hubris when chief executive of Qantas between 2008 and 2023.

Now your man Aston, who heads the subscription publication Rampart and a one-time winner of MWD’s hugely prestigious Five Paws Award, is what you would call an Alan Joyce-antagonist. This was evident in Aston’s The Chairman’s Lounge, published in October 2024, as well as in his AFR review in which the following comment appears about Joyce:

The act of writing a memoir is a sure indicator of vigorous self-worth (especially having already co-operated extensively with a 2023 biography), and everything in Joyce’s book is a cantilever for his hero fantasy. We learn he was lifted out of poverty by education and his parents’ sacrifices, like so many millions of others. I don’t really care if the Joyces grew up in a hole in the road – Tallaght’s answer to the Four Yorkshiremen – any more than I care whether baby Andrew Forrest was suckled by a Yamatji wet nurse.

Now Ellie’s (male) co-owner was contemplating giving the Rampart founder a Five Paws Award for his hit-job on the former Qantas CEO – until he read this bit of Astonism:

That is not to deny Joyce and his executive team due credit for skilfully reducing the airline’s cash burn under unbelievable pressure [due to the Covid pandemic], but every airline chief executive on earth did this and didn’t expect to be canonised by the Pope for it. Qantas stayed alive (and received less government support than most of its global competitors), but so did Air France-KLM, American, ANA, BA, Cathay Pacific, Delta, Lufthansa, JAL, Singapore, United, Turkish, and many others.

Say It Ain’t So, Joe – as the saying goes. Say that a Rampart staffer wrote about this canonisation and the Pope. As you may recall, Young Joe was educated in a Catholic school in Hobart and should know better.

If Young Joe had paid attention during religion classes, he would know that to qualify to be canonised as a saint in the Catholic Church you have to be, er, DEAD. Or in modern parlance, you have to have “passed” – whatever that might mean.

Maybe that Alan (“I was born poorer than thou”) Joyce expected to be canonised while alive. But MWD doubts that even the Joyce ego is as large as this. So, with respect to Joe Aston’s lack of awareness about how saints are made, MWD can only say: Can You Bear It?

  • The Sydney Morning Herald has one rule for itself and another for Sydney’s Catholic Weekly

There has invariably been a whiff of anti-Catholic sectarianism about the 195-year-old Sydney Morning Herald – commencing in its early days as Fairfax and now as part of Nine newspapers.

Gerard Henderson recalls one time senior Sydney Morning Herald journalist Max Walsh (1937–2022) saying that he was the first-ever Catholic cadet journalist to be employed by Fairfax – and only because of the shortage of labour in the mid-1950s. In the old days, Fairfax was a “Rockchoppers (to use NSW terminology) Free Zone”.

As avid readers will be aware, the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is conducting an inquiry into New South Wales Liberal Party funding. Catholic Schools NSW is to be called before ICAC. The public hearings have been going on for two weeks – with more to follow. On Monday 3 August, the SMH‘s CBD column (which has little to say about what’s going on in the Central Business District of Sydney or Melbourne) had this to say under the heading of “Catholics miss Reformers”:

Despite intense media interest in the NSW corruption watchdog’s inquiry into a group of young Catholic political apparatchiks allegedly funnelling money from Catholic Schools NSW to their factional group, the Reformers, via sham invoices, the church’s very own newspaper, The Catholic Weekly, didn’t see what all the fuss was about. While other newspapers – this one included – splashed stories about the ICAC’s inquiries across their front pages, the Catholic Weekly’s top stories on Sunday included the tale of Archbishop Fisher’s papal award recipients, a story on a men’s support group at St Michael the Archangel in Belfield (where LGBTQ activists were pelted with stones a few years ago), and a piece about artificial intelligence and evangelisation in Manila. But no mention of the Reformers….

How about that? CBD’s co-authors Mostafa Rachwani and Fiona Byrne reckon that The Catholic Weekly should report about all Catholic matters. Which raises the point – should the Sydney Morning Herald report about all matters Sydney Morning Herald?

MWD mentions this because Ellie’s (male) co-owner remembers a certain incident involving a Sydney Morning Herald editor of recent memory.

Does anyone recall that in the lead-up to the May 2025 election Bevan Shields, who was then editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, headed off to New York to celebrate his 40th birthday along with a group of comrades? He joined a gang of 40ites including Malcolm Turnbull’s former chief media adviser Daniel Meers.

And where did the “Happy Birthday” 40-year-old stay? MWD hears avid readers cry. And the answer is, in a condominium in the 32-storey building The Century, at Central Park West and 63rd Street – which is owned by Lucy and Malcolm Turnbull (aka the Peter Dutton-antagonist of “Miserable Ghost” fame).

On 19 April 2025 James Madden wrote this in The Australian:

A common view expressed in the [SMH] newsroom in recent days was disbelief that Shields – who is only due back in the office in the final few days before the May 3 election – thought it appropriate that he spend the final weeks of the campaign in luxury digs owned by one of the most outspoken and high-profile critics [Turnbull] of one of the candidates running for prime minister [Peter Dutton]. The Australian sought the views of Shields’ superiors, Nine CEO Matt Stanton and executive editor of the company’s metro mastheads Luke McIlveen, but neither was willing to comment on the editor’s decision to accept the hospitality of Mr Turnbull. As recently as Thursday, while Shields was holed up in Mr Turnbull’s condo, the former prime minister sought to take the wind out of the Opposition Leader’s attack on Labor’s consideration of changes to negative gearing.

And did the Sydney Morning Herald report that Bevan Shields, its editor, was staying at Malcolm Turnbull’s Big Apple digs during much of the May 2025 election campaign? The answer is “No – Not on your Nelly”. And here’s another question: Can You Bear It?

[No. Not really now that you ask. It would seem that the Sydney Morning Herald will not report on stories that are unfriendly to SMH. But it believes that The Catholic Weekly should report on such stories that involve Catholics. An unpleasant double standard, to be sure. – MWD Editor].

  • Nine’s Jacqueline Maley criticises the NTs administrator’s past – without any supporting evidence

On Insiders last Sunday, discussion got around to Luke Gosling, the Labor MP for the Northern Territory seat of Solomon. He has been charged with assaulting the Northern Territory Administrator David Connolly — who was appointed by the Northern Territory Country Liberal Party government in February 2026.

Sydney Morning Herald journalist Jacqueline Maley decided to talk about the NT administrator when appearing as a panellist on ABC TV’s Insiders last Sunday:

Jacqueline Maley: There’s been a bit of reporting about the character and the background of the administrator as well, who, you know, a lot of people wouldn’t have known that he’s sort of like a governor. So, he’s supposed to be statesman-like, and I suppose above the political fray. And certainly, one of the one of the reports that I read this week about his previous social media posts described them as racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, and bigoted, which is, you know, he’s covering all bases there.

David Speers: So, there’s some background there.

Jacqueline Maley: There’s some background, and it’s almost, I don’t know if that’s playing into the [Albanese] government’s decision here that they feel like he’s not exactly a clean skin or he’s not a sort of um, what do you call it, a sort of innocent victim.

David Speers: Well, that may well be their thinking but once you’re charged by police.

Jacqueline Maley: Yes. 100 per cent.

David Speers: With a criminal charge of assault, you think something needs to happen.

It’s not clear precisely what Maley was getting at. But the NT administrator’s alleged background is — and should be — irrelevant to the fact that someone has been charged with assaulting him. But Insiders presenter David Speers did not contest Comrade Maley’s gratuitous comments about Mr Connolly – based on one anonymous report. Can You Bear It?

  • SMH Letters Page runs 7 out of 7 letters attacking Tony Abbott

As avid MWD readers are well aware, this segment has been looking at correspondence to the Sydney Morning Herald which the Letters Editor decides to publish. Invariably, on political matters, all – or nearly all – letters are hostile to political and social conservatives.

On Monday 3 August, the SMH ran front page coverage of Tony Abbott’s criticism of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) for becoming involved in internal Liberal Party squabbles. It was titled “ICAC a Lib faction hit job, says Abbott”. The report by Paul Sakkal, commenced as follows:

Tony Abbott, the Liberal Party president and close ally of Opposition Leader Angus Taylor, has accused the Independent Commission Against Corruption of overstepping its remit by becoming involved in an “internal party squabble”. Abbott, whom Taylor picked as federal president in May, described the religious-right Reformers group as a group of enthusiastic young Christians with a strong sense of mission, and argued there was no suggestion of self-enriching corruption….

The former Liberal Party prime minister also said that there “seems to be a level of incredulity directed against people’s Christianity” with respect to ICAC’s current inquiry into the NSW branch of the Liberal Party.

On Tuesday 4 August, the SMH’s Letters Page led with this heading “Abbott confuses his morals and ethics”. All seven letters published criticised Abbott. Len Keating of Balmain East referred to certain Christians as “these people”. And Merona Martin of Meroo Meadow ran the anti-Catholic trope against Abbott alleging that he believes that “the end will justify the means”. And so it went on. No other view was published. And the SMH boasts that it is “Independent. Always.” and that its Letters Page is balanced.

Tell that to the Marines – as the saying goes. The Sydney Morning Herald is about as balanced as the taxpayer funded public broadcaster – that is, the ABC. However, Nine’s management along with the SMH editor’s lack of self-awareness is evident in this instance. Can You Bear It?

This segment is sponsored by the late Queensland Heeler working dog Jackie (2016-2023) who, sadly, died at a relatively young age. Like Queensland Heeler Nancy (2004-2017), who runs Courtesy Classes for MWD from what the psychic John Edward terms “The Other Side”, Jackie has decided to help MWD by monitoring predictions about The End of the World – also with a little help from your man Edward. Here is her first notification of a prophecy of The End Of The World Is Nigh genre – this one due to Artificial Intelligence or AI.

  • ABC’s Sam Hawley & Berkeley’s Nate Soares predict the end of humanity in two years’ time due to AI

On Friday 31 July on ABC News Daily Sam Hawley interviewed Nate Soares. He presents as a safety researcher, is the co-author of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies and president of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI) at Berkeley, California. [Enough said, surely. – MWD Editor.]

Let’s go to the transcript where Comrades Soares and Hawley seem to suggest that The End of the World is nigh.

Nate Soares: We’re looking at sort of an AI run civilisation, just like how humanity runs the planet now, because we’re the smartest. We’re looking at AIs running the planet. And if they don’t care about us and they take all the resources for their own computers and don’t leave any resources for us, we’re looking at the potential extinction of the human species.

Sam Hawley: Oh my gosh! And that really does sound like a science fiction movie.

Oh my gosh! Indeed. And then, in the wrap up, there was this:

Sam Hawley: Well, just tell me then, Nate, given everything that we’re seeing right now – in your view, how quickly do we need to move on this?

Nate Soares: I mean, we need to move fast. And it’s not because we know that we only have a little time left. It’s because we don’t know how long we have left…. You know, we should not gamble civilisation on us still having two years left. And we should be trying to stop it now, even if odds are that we probably have two years.

So there you have it, per courtesy of the taxpayer funded public broadcaster in Australia with a little help from the American Prophet Soares. Humans will be probably extinct by the Feast Day of St Ignatius of Loyola in 2028.

[For God’s sake, don’t tell the Sydney Morning Herald. It will surely use the feast day of the founder of the Jesuits coinciding with the end of the Human Race as yet another opportunity to sneer at Catholics. Until the SMH becomes extinct on 31 July 2028 in so far as the human species is concerned according to Prophet Soares. – MWD Editor.]

MWD SPECIAL – WHAT AI SAYS ABOUT THE LATE CANINE JACKIE

Lotsa thanks to the avid MWD reader who put the word “Gerard Henderson’s dog Jackie” into AI and passed on this remarkable result:

The dog named “Jackie”—who belonged to Australian political commentator Gerard Henderson (and was frequently featured in his Media Watch Dog column)—died on Friday, 12 May 2023.

(Note: It appears you may have blended the names of Australian radio host Jackie “O” Henderson and columnist Gerard Henderson. While Gerard Henderson’s rescue dog was named Jackie, radio host Jackie O Henderson’s famous cavoodle is named Sadie, and she is still alive.)

About Gerard Henderson’s Dog, Jackie:

    • Breed: Queensland Heeler (rescue dog adopted from Gunnedah in 2017).
    • Role: Co-owner and comedic contributor to Gerard Henderson’s weekly Media Watch Dog blog via The Australian, where she was jokingly credited as holding a “Dip. Wellness” and possessing a “pomposity detector” to critique the media.
    • Cause of Death: She passed away peacefully after a short illness at nearly seven years old

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That’s reasonably accurate. Except that Jackie was never a co-owner of anything and her exact qualifications were Dip Wellness, The Gunnedah Institute. Also, Gerard Henderson writes for The Weekend Australian and his MWD blog is now on the News24 website. As to Hendo and O Hendo, MWD hopes this will help with respect to canines.

The Late Jackie – a dog of Queensland Heeler Breed

The present Sadie – a non-dog who identifies as a pompous cavoodle

 

A Letter from our Far North Queensland Media Correspondent

Gerard,

I know you are very busy and have not had time to sit through Race Around the World. I attempted to do so with my dog Crozier and found myself somewhat confused.

Most of the discussion of the ABC’s program Race Around the World has been around the deranged comment made by contestant Kate McGuinness about Gina Rinehart. McGuinness did issue a public apology before the ABC did:

The sense of humour featured in each of my films on the Race Around the World program is farcical. In no way was it my intention to promote violence. My writing is cartoonish and always satirical. Unfortunately, jokes do not land with everyone. Its purpose was never to be taken literally. I apologise to anyone I’ve offended.

Although to me, that sounds less like an apology and more like “I’m sorry you didn’t understand my art”.

There has been less discussion on why the ABC is funding such a thing at all while constantly crying poor about budget cuts.

Just like the original the ABC is rebooting, the stated goal is for the filmmakers to make 10 films in 10 mystery countries across 100 days. They’re reviewed by regular judge John Safran and two rotating guest judges. When the original series aired in 1997, digital handycams were new technology. Social media now exists and filmmaking equipment is widely accessible – no one needs the ABC to have their work seen.

As far as I can tell – Crozier was not a fan of the program and often demanded I change the channel to the World Dog Surfing Championships on ESPN – the films are a mix of serious documentary, experimental films and light-hearted travel content. One contestant, Lucinda (who is already an established internet personality), is mostly producing social media style travel videos. When there is an endless supply of similar content on YouTube already, it is hard to see the justification for this being funded by the taxpayer. The aforementioned Kate McGuinness has overall leaned more toward artsy experimental film than traditional documentary. (Which unlike travel vlogs are more often taxpayer-funded, because no one really watches them).

The feedback from one judge is often undercut by another judge (see below) so who even knows how valuable the feedback is. Some of the episodes also highlight the issues with amateurs being encouraged to make “serious films” in a hurry. In episode 8, Kate travelled to Romania. She interviewed some locals who talked about life under communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, interspersed with silly clips of Kate doing things like failing to rake hay.

Nicolae Ceaușescu was the leader of Communist Romania from 1965 until his overthrow and execution in 1989. Under his brutal regime, the Romanian people suffered shortages of food, heat, electricity and medicine. Children languished and died of starvation in overcrowded orphanages. Political dissidents were imprisoned and tortured by the secret police.

John Safran appropriately questioned the tone of Kate’s film:

John Safran: Yeah, I was in two minds. I really liked the genre bending of the fact that it started off genuinely funny. Like that was a really funny opening. And then it’s emotional, and crying and hearing something tragic. Like I kind of liked it, but again, it’s such a balancing act, I’m not saying don’t do it, but it is such a balancing act. Like imagine if you went into a remote Aboriginal community and were intercutting, you know, this kind of comedy with them telling some tragic story. Suddenly, I reckon you wouldn’t do that.

Guest judge comedian Nina Oyama disagreed, interrupting and mocking Safran’s point. Oyama for her part was a big fan of the film, saying: “And yeah, I think like that tension between the, like, is you know, capitalism and democracy better than communism? That is such a good question. And the fact that at the end of it all, it sort of doesn’t matter cause life sucks”.

It wasn’t clear to me that was the message of the film. Regardless, it is fair to say that life sucks less for someone flying around the world on the taxpayer’s dime than it did for Romanians who suffered under Ceaușescu’s rule.

The budget for the program has not been made public, but sending 6 people to 10 different countries – including expensive countries to visit such as the USA – would be costly. It is sad to see the ABC make cuts to news and current affairs while pumping money into this sort of inessential light entertainment – a show that most people would not even be aware of if it weren’t for the disgusting comment made about Gina Rinehart. I will soon be relocating myself and Crozier to Austin, Texas, and there was a time when I would have missed the ABC. Not anymore.

John Safran, Nina Oyama & Todd Sampson

 

Crozier

 

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Until Next Time – Keep Morale High.

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