Issue 242

MICHAEL LEUNIG – MOCKING CHRIST (AGAIN) BUT NOT MUHAMMAD

What a sneering cartoon by Michael Leunig in this morning’s Age. The Guardian-on-the-Yarra’s Sandalista-in-Chief was at his sectarian best with his drawing of the Catholic Tony Abbott praying in front of Jesus Christ on the Cross declaring: “Dear Jesus – protect us from the weird Muslim death cult”. [You are right about the Sandalista Leunig. As I recall, your man Leunig turned up for an interview on Andrew Denton’s Enough Rope some years ago wearing, yes, sandals – Ed].

So how brave is Leunig and The Age’s editor-in-chief Andrew Holden running yet more anti-Catholic sectarianism in The Age? Er, not much. Christians, including Catholics, are expected to accept Leunig’s mockery of their religion – just as Jewish Australians have been expected to accept Leunig’s past moral equivalence on the Holocaust. Moreover, supporters of Prime Minister Abbott do not have a record of cutting off the heads of disagreeable journalists.

But there is another question here. Would Leunig ever draw a cartoon mocking the Muslim faith and/or the Prophet? And would Mr Holden and the Age’s editorial team publish such a drawing? Answer – an emphatic “no”. It’s yet another example of the left’s double standards – as exemplified in The Age.

But that’s not all. According to the New Testament, Christ was executed on the cross. Unlike a few Sunni Islamists of the so-called Islamist State, Christ did not go around cutting throats and parading severed heads. Leunig does not seem to understand that Christ never proclaimed a death cult. IS is a death cult – as its Sh’ia Muslim, Christian and Jewish victims would attest if they were alive.

However, for The Age’s Sandalista-in-Chief, the tragedy in parts of Syria and Iraq provides just another opportunity to sneer at Christians in general and Catholics in particular. [You must have a look at Jonathan Holmes’ recent column in The Age where he vowed and declared that The Age does not partake in anti-Catholic sectarianism. Perhaps next week. Or was this an attempt at (British) humour by your man Holmes? – Ed].

Despite Nancy’s temporary enlistment in a 5 star boarding kennel, this has been a particularly busy week. Consequently MWD is a little bit shorter than usual this week – but should return to its full glory next week.

One of MWD avid readers who noticed that Nancy’s (male) co-owner was out of his comfort zone last Wednesday, was none other the Australian Financial Review’s Laura Tingle.

Hendo and La Tingle exchanged pleasantries at the National Press Club’s 50^th Anniversary dinner in Canberra last Wednesday. The two met at Table 12 where there was some confusion about placements. La Tingle soon headed outside only to find a seat on Table 13.

That very evening, La Tingle sent out this (somewhat discourteous tweet):

Laura Tingle ‏@latingle Sep 10

So who on Gerard Henderson’s table at the National Press Club dinner switched table numbers so they could sit closer to the prime minister??

Despite her training in journalism, Laura Tingle did not bother to check the facts before tweeting away. What a tweet. In fact Gerard and Anne Henderson went to take up their seats on Table 5 only to find their names were on Table 12. There were quite a few such instances as the National Press Club seemed to suffer from a table-placement malfunction. Despite the organiser’s best intentions, the matter was not even resolved when Table 12 was re-named Table 13. Without explanation.

Yet according to La Tingle, all this was done by Hendo to get closer to the Prime Minister. Which suggests that there is nothing so vivid as a Canberra journo’s imagination.

In recent times in his column in The Australian Magazine, Phillip Adams has thrown the switch to verse and filled two entire columns with a poem based on Dorothea Mackellar’s My Country which commenced with the line “I love a sunburnt country”.

The ABC’s Man-In-Black – who is one of Australia’s wealthiest socialists – earns income from his Late Night Live program on ABC Radio National per courtesy of the Australian taxpayer and his column which appears each Saturday in The Weekend Australian. So, to support his lifestyle on his farm in Scone, your man Adams gets payment from the Conservative-Free-Zone that is the ABC and from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. An unexpected unity ticket, to be sure. Both on the wireless and in print, Phillip Adams – AO (1992), AM (1987), Hon. D. Univ (Griffith), Hon. DLitt (ECU), Hon D Univ (SA), DLitt (Syd), FRSA, Hon. FAHA – invariably writes about his much-honoured SELF. [Gee. I was honoured to read PA’s honours as set out in his Who’s Who in Australia entry – Ed].

As is well known, Phillip Adams tends to dictate – rather than write or type his columns. On this occasion, your man Adams has dictated his latest poem to Nancy for editing – pending publication in The Australian Magazine. It covers the career of the hero of Australia’s literary festivals where he receives many a standing ovation – and mentions in passing his one-time view that AIDS could not be contracted between heterosexuals.

I LOVE THIS BLOODY COUNTRY – A HEARTFELT POEM

BY PHILLIP ADAMS – AS DICTATED TO NANCY

I love this bloody country,

a land of milk and honey

where the local taxpayers

give me lotsa money

I love this bloody country

and back a leftist tone

which I feel all the time in

Aunty’s Tory-Free-Zone

I love this bloody country

plus literary wanks

Where many sandal wearers

stand up to give me thanks.

I love this bloody country

and as my memory fades

sure hope that others too

will forget my views on AIDS

I love this bloody country

but mock its Tory pollies

It’s they who often bag

my leftist-luvvie follies.

I love this bloody country

along with your man Rupert

after all he pays some bills

not to love him would be stupid

I love this bloody country

except for that fool Abbott

plus of course John Howard

it’s an anti-Tory habit.

I love this bloody country

and it requites, you see.

That’s why in my Aust. column

I always write on ME

● ON THE ESCALATOR OF LIFE WITH THE BURNSIDES

It’s been quite a time for the Burnsides of Hawthorn.

First up, Julian Burnside AO QC – as he likes to be known. Your man JB AO QC is a post-nominals user.

An avid MWD reader has drawn attention to Chief Justice Robert French AC’s recent launch of Pericleans, Plumbers and Practitioners: The first fifty years of the Monash Law School by Peter Yule and Fay Woodhouse. Julian Burnside AO QC was a graduate of the Monash Law School. This is how Chief Justice French described young Julian when launching the tome:

Monash University acquired a national reputation in the 1960s for student activism on political issues. The noise of that activism travelled across the Nullarbor. Even in Perth we had all heard of Albert Langer, who later became known as Arthur Dent. Campus-wide student action about the Vietnam War and conscription reached a peak in 1969 and 1970. The law students, however, were generally not very prominent in those activities.

There were some notable exceptions. One of them, Ray Finkelstein, later to become one of my colleagues on the Federal Court, helped to set up a New Left Group which was chronically at odds with the Maoist Labor Club although united with them against conscription. A high point of rebellion within the Law School seems to have been reached when Julian Burnside pressed the emergency stop button on the escalator in the Ming Wing and was fined three dollars. The University had discipline statutes but there was so little going on among the law students that the Faculty dissolved its Discipline Committee in 1969.

So there you have it. Your man Burnside, a graduate of Melbourne Grammar, rocked up at the Monash Law School close to half a century ago. Whereupon he was fined an entire $3 for turning off the escalator in the Robert Menzies Wing.

Clearly it was no accident that, some decades later, JB AO QC wed a certain Kate Durham. Ms Durham was the subject of a truly fawning piece in last Saturday’s Age by Suzanne Carbone.

Ms Durham told Ms Carbone how, once upon a time she, too, was a rebel. Just like “Burnside” – as she calls JB AO QC. Indeed the artist and jeweller refers to herself as a “wild child” who was expelled from school at the age of 16 for political activity. [What? Did Ms Durham’s school also have an escalator? – Ed]. [This is a correction to the issue of MWD which went out on Friday 12 September 2014. There it was incorrectly claimed that Kate Durham “was expelled from school on no fewer than 16 occasions for political activity”. Apologies.]

Let the fawning continue:

Walking through her magnificent Hawthorn home, the wife of Julian Burnside, QC, points out the art: Bill Henson, Juan Davila, contemporary Chinese embroidery and a framed relief she made of John Howard drowning on a boat.

Suzanne Carbone concluded her piece by describing the Howard-hating artist and jeweller as someone who “should be made into a doll”.

Meanwhile this is what JB AO QC tweeted last Monday at 10.56 pm, no less:

Julian Burnside@JulianBurnside : Morrison must be thrilled to see detainees die in Manus: it helps his deterrence policy: ie make Aus look worse than Taliban.

So there you have it. There’s your man Burnside in his Hawthorn mansion replete with art works. And he’s maintaining that Australia under Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison looks “worse than the Taliban”. Perhaps Kate Durham might do an art work of Abbott drowning. Can you bear it?

● SCOTT BURCHILL DISCOVERS GUN-RUNNERS ON HIS JOURNEY TO THE TIP (see MWD passim ad nauseam)

What a stunning performance by Scott Burchill on the ABC1 News Breakfast “Newspapers” segment last Tuesday.

Dr Burchill (for a doctor he is) has reached the exalted rank of Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the Burwood Campus of Deakin University. [I would have expected no more – Ed].

Asked to comment on the suggestion that the Obama administration might arm the Kurds in order to turn back the attacks by the Islamist terrorists who comprise the Islamic State, your man Burchill described such an eventuality as “arms trafficking”.

So there you have it. According to Dr Burchill, President Obama has become a gun runner. Can you bear it?

NICK DYRENFURTH FAILS TO BAIL OUT TIM SOUTPHOMMASANE

MWD Issue 241 mentioned that Race Relations Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane had declined to condemn Mike Carlton’s use of the term “Jewish bigot”. Nancy’s (male) co-owner mentioned in passing that Dr Soutphommasane (for a doctor he is) had co-authored a piss-poor book titled All That’s Left with Nick Dyrenfurth. All That’s Left contained no evidence to support the views expressed in the book – and the co-editors refused to provide any evidence for their undocumented assertions subsequent to publication.

MWD had hardly been out last Friday when Dr Dyrenfurth (for a doctor he is) sent out a tweet declaring that MWD had misrepresented his bestie Tim Soutphommasane.

Once again, Gerard Henderson asked Nick Dyrenfurth to support his latest assertion with evidence. Once again, Nick Dyrenfurth was not able to produce the evidence. Hendo’s email to Dr Dyrenfurth is set out below. If the Monash University academic stumps up the evidence – you MWD readers will be the first to know. But don’t hold your breath.

Gerard Henderson to Nick Dyrenfurth – 9 September 2014

Dr Dyrenfurth

My attention has been drawn to the tweet below which you sent out at 4.20 pm last Friday – shortly after the publication of my Media Watch Dog Issue 241 – viz:

Nick Dyrenfurth (@dyrenfurth) 5/09/2014 4:20 pm

Gerard Henderson has defamed @timsout His remarks were about Carlton’s @smh suspension not jewish bigots. I too was agnostic re punishment.

Your tweet was in response to the following comment in MWD Issue 241, viz:

It promises to be a great feat. On Sunday 7 September, Tim Soutphommasane (Australian Race Discrimination Commissioner) will deliver the 2014 B’nai B’rith Human Rights Address at the Moriah College in Sydney before an essentially Jewish audience….

Dr Soutphommasane appeared on ABC 1’s The Drum on 6 August. He was asked about Mike (“I’ll pour the gin”) Carlton’s Sydney Morning Herald column on the Israel/Gaza column which was illustrated by an anti-semitic cartoon.

Asked about Mr Carlton’s aggressive emails to his critics – which included the term “Jewish bigot” – the Australian Race Discrimination Commissioner responded: “Look, I’m an agnostic on this.”

On Sunday, your man Soutphommasane’s topic is titled “Walking in the shoes of others: Empathy, Courage, Imagination”. Yet the speaker is agnostic about the use of the label “Jewish bigot” as a term of attack. Which suggests that the Australian Race Discrimination Commissioner lacks empathy, imagination and courage when it comes to responding to Mike Carlton’s rants. It’s difficult to imagine Dr Soutphommasane not criticising the use of the term, say, “Muslim bigots”. It’s called a double standard.

I know that you have a record of hopeless scholarship – writing papers with no footnotes/endnotes and no bibliography and refusing to support your assertions with evidence when you are challenged to document your sources.

Your tweet last Friday met your (lousy) standards.

The fact is that Tim Soutphommasane did say that he was “agnostic” towards Mike Carlton’s abuse of his Sydney Morning Herald readers. Contrary to your assertion, I did not defame Mr Soutphommasane last Friday.

These are the facts. Dr Soutphommasane appears on The Drum on the evening of Wednesday 6 August 2014. The Australian of 6 August carried a collection of Mike Carlton’s tweets which included the following:

From: Mike Carlton <smhcarlton@gmail.com>
Date: 28 July 2014 7:17:21 AEST
To: Yury

Subject: Re: Irrelevant

You’re the one full of hate and bile, sunshine. The classic example of the Jewish bigot. Now fu_k off.
Best wishes

Mike Carlton

Columnist, The Sydney Morning Herald

This is what Tim Soutphommasane had to say in response to The Australian’s report:

Ellen Fanning: Tim, if I can come to you. It’s clear he’s [Mike Carlton’s] not sorry for calling some people “loony Likudnik racists” or “demented Likudniks”. Is it a crime to be cantankerous?

Tim Soutphommasane: No. And commentators, you would hope, will be cantankerous and controversial, that is part of their brief as commentators.

Ellen Fanning: Should he have quit? Or been forced to resign, do you think?

Tim Soutphommasane: Well, that’s I think a decision that Mike Carlton took, in this case –

Ellen Fanning: What’s your view?

Tim Soutphommasane: [continuing] And obviously Fairfax decided to take some action against him. Look, I’m agnostic on this. I think that – I can understand that people would take offence at his column. They took more offence at the cartoon that accompanied his column. In this case, you have a complicating factor in the fact that you had the columnist writing to readers in a way which the newspaper believed was unacceptable for a columnist to do.

The transcript makes it plain that Tim Soutphommasane said he was “agnostic” about the abuse with which Mike Carlton responded to Jewish and non-Jewish critics. As was widely known at the time, this included the term “Jewish bigot”. Later in the program, Tim Wilson specifically condemned Mike Carlton’s “deliberately divisive comments”. It is impossible to imagine that Dr Soutphommasane would be “agnostic” about the term “Muslim bigot” if used by a right-wing columnist. That’s a double standard.

It would be professional for you to correct your erroneous comment with respect to me. However, precedent suggests that when your errors are drawn to your attention you go into denial.

Gerard Henderson

FEATURING JOHN SHIELD AND MICHAEL CLANCHY CONCERNING MALCOLM FRASER & AUSTRALIA IN WORLD WAR II

This overwhelmingly popular segment of Media Watch Dog usually works like this. Someone or other thinks it would be a you-beaut idea to write to Nancy’s (male) co-owner about something or other. And Hendo, being a courteous and well-brought up kind of guy, replies. Then, hey presto, the correspondence is published in MWD – much to the delight of its hundreds of thousands of readers.

There are occasions, however, when Nancy’s (male) co-owner decides to write a polite note to someone or other – who, in turn, believes that a reply is in order. Publication in MWD invariably follows.

As hundreds of thousands of avid readers are aware, The Guardian Australia’s deputy editor Katharine Murphy put out the following tweet on 6 June 2014 at 4.33 pm – when that issue of MWD was “hot off the press”. Here is Ms Murphy’s tweet: “Without in any way wanting to breach anyone’s human rights or free speech – why do people write emails to Gerard Henderson?” It’s a very good question. Thankfully, not everyone follows Katharine Murphy’s wise counsel.

Gerard Henderson’s appearance on the ABC 1 Insiders program last Sunday led to considerable correspondence. Especially with reference to Hendo’s comments (i) criticising Malcolm Fraser’s bagging of Tony Abbott for (allegedly) being a Christian for only an hour a week and (ii) supporting Robert Menzies’ decision to deploy Australian forces to the war against Nazi Germany in 1940 and 1941.

Let’s hear from a couple of Hendo’s willing correspondents:

● JOHN SHIELD AND GERARD HENDERSON

John Shield to Gerard Henderson – 9 September 2014

Hi Mr Henderson

I was surprised by your comment on The Insiders on Sunday when you referred to the anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War. You seemed to imply that the dispatch of Australian troops in January 1940 worked then, and therefore why wouldn’t we send armed forces personnel to Iraq now.

For my sins, I teach Year 10 History at Darwin High School – following the Australian Curriculum History course mandated by the federal government (both Labour [sic] and Conservative are at fault here).

One of the depth studies is The Second World War. I approach this by asking the question, were they as good as the first Anzacs?

The simple answer is no – because Australian involvement in the war was of limited strategic value.

The 6^th, 7^th and 9^th Divisions fought in Africa and the Middle East. This was a sideshow at best – the 7^th Division managed to embroil themselves in Syria fighting the Vichy French – that worked. It also really worked for the 320 men killed in a pointless campaign in Greece.

Of course the 8^th Division went off to Singapore where they surrendered and one in three died as POWs.

Lets also not forget the 5000 or so RAAF aircrew killed over Germany in the Bomber Command campaign that has largely been seen by historians as wasteful and strategically of little value.

Oh, and Kokoda was completely unnecessary and the Americans simply used the Australians as “mopping up” cannon fodder.

I am not impugning the bravery or courage of these service people – I am simply saying to say that the Australian military experience in the Second World War didn’t work. We lost approximately 30,000 men and women in the service of Churchill’s imperial delusions and the creation of an American Pacific.

I welcome your comments.

Kind Regards

John Shield

History Teacher

Darwin High School

Gerard Henderson to John Shield – 12 September 2014

Mr Shield

I refer to your email of 9 September 2014 concerning my comments on Insiders last Sunday with respect to the Second World War.

I am genuinely surprised that you chose to boast about what you teach – if “teach” is the correct word – your Year 10 students in Darwin.

According to you:

▪ Australia’s involvement in the Second World War was of “limited strategic value”.

▪ The Second Australian Imperial Force’s involvement in North Africa, the Middle East and Western Europe in 1940 and 1941 is deserving of mockery.

▪ All Australian air-crew in Britain in the early 1940s were attached to Bomber Command. This is incorrect as is the implication in your email that the air war against Germany was a waste of time.

▪ Australia’s resistance to Japanese forces in New Guinea was “completely unnecessary”.

You conclude your email by asserting that Australia “lost approximately 30,000 men and women in the service of Churchill’s imperial delusions and the creation of an American Pacific”. In other words, they all died in vain.

What’s missing from what you claim to teach your Year 10 students is any reference to Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan. Fancy that. Yet the war in Europe commenced after Germany invaded Poland and the war in the Pacific commenced after Japan attacked the United States.

In January 1940 Robert Menzies deployed Australian forces to the war against Germany. The Second AIF engaged Germany, Vichy France and Italy and achieved some important military successes in North Africa and the Middle East. Sure the Greek campaign did not work – but others did. You seem to be suggesting that Australia should not have made a contribution to defeating Adolf Hitler on land or sea or in the air – at a time when the Soviet Union was allied with Germany and the United States was neutral. This was the position of the Communist Party of Australia between August 1939 and June 1941.

Certainly the 8^th Division surrendered in Singapore in 1942. But you seem to be suggesting that Australia should not have opposed Japan after its attack on Pearl Harbor. Despite the fact that the defeat of Allied navies in the early 1940s would have led to Japanese hegemony over the Pacific, including Australia.

In your letter you overlook the fact that it was Neville Chamberlain – not Winston Churchill – who declared war on Germany in September 1939. When Churchill became prime minister his aim was the defeat of Germany. He had no so-called “imperial delusions” at the time.

As to the creation of an American Pacific – well, the overwhelming majority of Pacific nations welcome the United States’ presence in the Pacific today.

If what you tell me you teach Year 10 students is correct, then you appear to be indoctrinating your students with a leftist line.

It is true that, unlike the First World War, in 1939-1945 Australian forces did not engage the main enemy on the main field of battle. But Australians certainly made a contribution to the defeat of Axis powers in 1945. Moreover, the defeat of Germany and Japan in 1945 was in Australia’s national interest.

Gerard Henderson

● MICHAEL CLANCHY AND GERARD HENDERSON

Michael Clanchy to Gerard Henderson – 8 September 2014

Dear Mr Henderson,
I remember well the sectarianism in the 50s and 60s and I am so thankful that this rubbish tip of Australian history has been rarely, if ever, revisited in the circles I mix in the last 50 years. I suspect a couple of younger generations would have no idea that such division even existed, so far it is now off the radar.
I do worry, however, that many of the political products of elite Catholic schools are now displaying a very odd form of upward social aspiration and a corresponding lack of empathy towards the socially excluded in our society.
As a product of a Jesuit education myself, I well remember the gentle priest making the class read aloud and study ever [sic] line in the Gospel of Mathew [sic].
Yet daily I witness the likes of Kevin Andrews, Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey, Christopher Pyne, Andrew Robb, Mathias Cormann making it their very life’s work to dispossess the poor and withdraw equal opportunity. A lot of people are now quietly asking the question – what is it about this cruel and judgmental group of Catholics who are so out of step with the Jesus gospel.
In my humble opinion, I think Malcolm Fraser has the right to allude to this question without the implication that he is stirring up trouble between Catholics and Protestants. He may nowadays hate the Liberals but that is something very different to sectarianism. And, I do think it would be instructive for the LNP to re-read Mathew [sic], despite the separation of Church and State.
I would appreciate your considered views.
Sincerely

Michael Clanchy

Gerard Henderson to Michael Clanchy – 11 September 2014

Dear Mr Clanchy

I refer to your email concerning my comments on Insiders last Sunday re Malcolm Fraser and anti-Catholic sectarianism.

I disagree with your comment that anti-Catholic sectarianism is “off the radar”. In my view, it has returned in recent decades – as part of a broader hostility to Christianity – and finds particular expression on the ABC and in Fairfax Media.

I note that you are concerned about a “lack of empathy towards the socially excluded in our society” – and mention such products of “elite Catholic schools” as Kevin Andrews, Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey, Christopher Pyne, Andrew Robb and Mathias Cormann. You assert – without evidence – that this group’s “life’s work [is] to dispossess the poor and withdraw equal opportunity”. By the way, Andrew Robb and Kevin Andrews did not go to “elite Catholic schools” and Mathias Cormann was educated in Belgium. For the record, I have no idea how the Abbott government has dispossessed the poor or withdrawn equal opportunity.

It’s interesting to observe that it is invariably Catholic Coalition MPs who come in for criticism for being, in your words, “cruel and judgmental”. What about Catholic Labor MPs?

▪ What about Paul Keating who, when prime minister in the early 1990s, introduced mandatory detention for asylum seekers? Mr Keating was educated at De La Salle College in Sydney.

▪ What about Bill Shorten who was a Cabinet Minister when Labor introduced off-shore processing and detention for asylum seekers? Mr Shorten was educated at Xavier College in Melbourne.

It’s quite a while since I read the Gospel of Matthew. It’s also quite a while since children, women and men drowned at sea, at the hands of criminal people smugglers, en route to Australia – due to the allegedly “cruel” attitude of the Abbott government.

Malcolm Fraser, as prime minister, never faced the problems of unlawful boat arrivals which the governments led by Paul Keating, John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott had to deal with. During the Fraser government, the overwhelming number of asylum seekers who arrived in Australia were processed off-shore and arrived in Australia with valid visas.

Mr Fraser might well read Matthew 7:3. You know, “Why botherest the mote that is in thy brother’s eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” The quote, with respect to Mr Fraser, is from the St James Bible.

Best wishes

Gerard Henderson

Until next time – keep morale high.

“The unhinged but well spoken Gerard Henderson….”

– Bob Ellis, Table Talk blog, 10 August 2014

“Gerard Henderson and Nancy are awful human beings.”

– Alexander White, Twitter, 25 July 2014

“This is my regularly scheduled “Oh Gerard” tweet for every time he appears on #insiders”

– Josh Taylor, senior journalist for ZDNet, Twitter, 20 July 2014

“…that fu-kwitted Gerard “Gollum” Henderson….”

– Mike (“I’ll pour the gin”) Carlton, via Twitter, 12 July 2014

“[Gerard Henderson is a] silly prick”

– Mike (“I’ll pour the gin”) Carlton – tweeted Saturday 27 June 2014 at 4.15 pm, i.e. after lunch

“If Gerard Henderson had run Beria’s public relations Stalin’s death would have been hidden for a year and Nikita [Khrushchev] and co would have been shot”

– Laurie Ferguson via Twitter – 22 June 2014 [By-line: Mr Ferguson is a member of the House of Representatives who speaks in riddles.]

“[Gerard Henderson] is the Eeyore of Australian public life”

– Mike Seccombe in The [Boring] Saturday Paper – 21 June 2014

“Without in any way wanting to breach anyone’s human rights or free speech – why do people write emails to Gerard Henderson?”

– Katharine Murphy, Twitter, Friday 6 June 2014

“[Gerard Henderson is] an unhinged prick”

– Mike Carlton, Twitter, Thursday 12 June 2014

“There’s no sense that Gerard Henderson has any literary credentials at all.”

– Anonymous comment quoted, highlighted and presumably endorsed by Jason (“I’m a left-leaning luvvie”) Steger, The Age, 31 May 2014

On boyfriend’s insistence, watching the notorious Gerard Henderson/@Kate_McClymont Lateline segment. GH: What an odd, angry gnome of a man.

– Benjamin Law, via Twitter, Thursday 17 Apr 2014, 11:21 pm

Can’t believe I just spent my Thursday evening with a video recap of Gerard Henderson. I’m a f-cking moron.

– Benjamin Law, via Twitter, Thursday 17 Apr 2014, 11:23 pm

“[Gerard Henderson is an] unhinged crank”

– Mike Carlton, via Twitter, Saturday 29 March 2014, 4.34 pm

Complete stranger comes up to me: that Gerard Henderson’s a xxxxxx.

– Jonathan Green via Twitter, 8 February 2014

“[Gerard Henderson is] a sclerotic warhorse, unhelpful to debate, unwilling to think…a wonderful study in delusion…ideologically-constipated.”

– Erik Jensen, editor of Morry Schwartz’s The Saturday Paper [forthcoming], 23 November 2013

“The last time Gerard Henderson smiled was in 1978, when he saw a university student being mauled by a pitbull.”

– Ben Pobjie, via Twitter, 13 October 2013 [Editor’s Note: Mr “Why Can’t I Score an

Invite on Q&A?” Pobjie is wrong. In fact, the year was 1977 and the dog was a blue-heeler – like Nancy]

“I think Henderson is seriously ill. There’s enough there for an entire convention of psychiatrists.”

– Mike (“I’ll pour the gin”) Carlton (after Pre-Dinner Drinks tweet to Jeff Sparrow), 8 October 2013

“Wrong, you got caught out, off to Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch Dog for you!”

– Tim Wilson tweet to Jonathan Green and Virginia Trioli, 8 October 2013.

“Nancy as ever will be the judge”

– Jonathan Green to Tim Wilson and Virginia Trioli (conceding to the arbitral authority of Nancy), 8 October 2013

[Gerard Henderson’s analysis of the ABC] is absolutely simplistic.”

– ABC managing director Mark Scott talking to ABC presenter Jonathan Green on ABC Radio National Drive, 2 May 2013.

“Oh my God; you’re as bad as Gerard Henderson.”

– Dr Peter Van Onselen (for a doctor he is), The Contrarians, Sky News, 20 September 2013.

“The nation mourns Gerard Henderson. He’s in perfect health.”

– Phillip Adams, via Twitter, 2 July 2013 (favourited by Virginia Trioli)

“Old Australian saying. ‘He wouldn’t know a tram was up him unless the bell rang’. Wholly appropriate to Gerard Henderson”

– Phillip Adams, via Twitter, 7 May 2013

“I said publicly once that I thought that Gerard’s views on the ABC came not from his brain but from his spinal cord”

– Tim Bowden as told to Phillip (“I was a teenage Stalinist”) Adams, Late Night Live, 11 June 2013 – Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday.

“Gerard Henderson is a crank”

– David Marr at the 2013 Sydney Writers’ Festival (as reported by Mike Carlton)

“The great Australian media nutter Gerard [Henderson is an] ungrateful bastard”.

– Mark Latham, Q&A, 10 June 2013.

“[Gerard Henderson] is a moral dwarf …Gerard, pull your head in”

– Professor Sinclair Davidson, 24 April 2013.

“[Henderson] You are mad. In the 18th century you would have been caged, with the mob invited to poke you with sticks.”

– Mike Carlton, 5.23 pm (Gin & Tonic Time) 25 March 2013

“I like to think of Gerard [Henderson] as the Inspector Clouseau of forensic journalism”

– David Marr, ABC News 24 The Drum, 21 March 2013.

“[Media Watch Dog is] not a moan, more of a miserable dribble”

– Peter Munro, 21 March 2013

“You are a fool, Henderson, a malicious and mendacious piece of shit… Now F_ck off”

– Mike Carlton, 11 March 2013 (Hangover Time).

“[Gerard Henderson is] an internet pest”

– Dr (for a doctor he is) Jeff Sparrow, 26 February 2013.

Jonathan Green: “Nancy, will be taking notes, I suspect”

Michael Rowland: “Nancy…yes. We’ll get a nice write-up on Friday. Good morning as well, Gerard. Thanks for watching, by the way.”

– ABC 1 News Breakfast, 18 October 2012

“Gerard [Henderson] is a complete f-ckwit”

– Malcolm Farr, via Twitter, 29 June 2012 (circa pre-dinner drinks)

“What a haughty flapping half-arsed buffoon he [Henderson] is”

– Bob Ellis on his Table Talk blog, 8 May 2012 (before breakfast)

“We’d better be careful what we say, just in case Gerard’s offsider pooch Nancy is keeping an eye on us for his delightfully earnest Media Watch Dog”

– Tom Cowie of The Power Index, Crikey 20 January 2012

“Henderson…What a pompous, pretentious turd you are.”

– Mike Carlton, Saturday 13 August 2011 (after lunch)

“Go to the Sydney Institute Media Watch Dog website to marvel at [its] work”

– Mark Latham The Spectator Australia 11 June 2011.

Media Watch Dog – “disgraceful”, “sick”

– Professor Robert Manne, April Fool’s Day 2011.

“Before going further can you write to confirm that these emails are private correspondence and not for publication”

– ABC News Radio’s Marius Benson, 11 March 2011. He did go further – see MWD Issue 86.

“I realise this makes me practically retarded, but until five minutes ago I thought Nancy was Gerard Henderson’s wife, not his dog.”

– Byronbache via Twitter, Monday 7 February 2011

“Gerard Henderson is big enough to take care of himself, but that doesn’t stop us worrying about him from time to time. Lately it’s Hendo’s tendency to self-harm that has us losing sleep. For example, peruse the correspondence he’s published in his latest Media Watch Dog blog… There’s a part of us that just wants to ask: “Hendo, are you OK?”

– James Jeffrey’s “Strewth!” column, The Australian, 8 November 2010.

“Media Watch Dog on Fridays…is a sort of popular read in the Crikey office”

– Crikey’s Andrew Crook on ABC 2 News Breakfast, 24 September 2010.