History is, or should be, about the past. Two of the more common historical howlers involve projecting contemporary values and habits on to the deceased and theorising about positions the dead might have taken if only they were alive. The most recent victim of bad history is the Liberal Party founder Robert Menzies (1894-1978). Writing [...]
GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG ISSUE – NO. 283 21 AUGUST 2015 The inaugural issue of “Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch” was published in April 1988 – over a year before the first edition of the ABC TV Media Watch program went to air. Since November 1997 “Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch” has been published as part [...]
The debate over what some call same-sex marriage and others marriage equality is hotting up at the top levels of Australian politics. On Wednesday, Labor’s Senate leader Penny Wong referred to Tony Abbott as “stuck in the past” and “yesterday’s man”. About the same time, Bill Shorten described Eric Abetz, leader of the government in [...]
The ABC board’s decision, announced on Thursday, to move the Q&A program from its television section to its news and current affairs area amounts to a victory of sorts for the Prime Minister. Tony Abbott effectively demanded this in correspondence with ABC chairman Jim Spigelman in the wake of the controversy that followed the decision [...]
GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG – ISSUE NO. 281 7 AUGUST 2015 The inaugural issue of “Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch” was published in April 1988 – over a year before the first edition of the ABC TV Media Watch program went to air. Since November 1997 “Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch” has been published as part [...]
B A (Bob) Santamaria rejected, at various times, high honours offered by the Commonwealth of Australia and the Vatican. Yet Santamaria was a legendary figure in both church and state — symbolised by his state funeral in March 1998 attended by prime minister John Howard and archbishop Franco Brambilla, the Pope’s representative in Australia. I was [...]
GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG – ISSUE NO. 280 31 July 2015 The inaugural issue of “Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch” was published in April 1988 – over a year before the first edition of the ABC TV Media Watch program went to air. Since November 1997 “Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch” has been published as [...]
GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG – ISSUE NO. 279 24 JULY 2015 The inaugural issue of “Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch” was published in April 1988 – over a year before the first edition of the ABC TV Media Watch program went to air. Since November 1997 “Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch” has been published as part [...]
Anyone who learns history courtesy of the modern media could well get the impression that, without the king in Buckingham Palace and the pope in the Vatican, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime in Germany would not have been able to start World War II. Such hopeless history has the effect, intended or unintended, of getting Joseph [...]
GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG – ISSUE NO. 278 17 July 2015 The inaugural issue of “Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch” was published in April 1988 – over a year before the first edition of the ABC TV Media Watch program went to air. Since November 1997 “Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch” has been published as part [...]
