GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG – ISSUE NO. 319
10 June 2016
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 of The Sydney Institute Quarterly. In 2009 Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch Dog blog commenced publication.
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. Between November 1997 and October 2015 “Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch” was published as part of The Sydney Institute Quarterly. In March 2009 Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch Dog blog commenced publication.
- ECan You Bear It? ABC News 24; Wendy Squires; Fran Kelly; Kristina Keneally; Jon Faine & Paul Murray
* * * *
MICHAEL SMITH’S NEW YORK TIMES FAWN. YAWN.
What a stunning performance by former Age editor and current director and CEO of Inside Public Relations, Michael Smith, on ABC’s News Breakfast program this morning. During the “Newspapers” gig – on 10 June – your man Smith decided to focus on three articles written by American left-liberal New York Times columnist Roger Cohen – on 23 May, 26 May and 30 May. That is, ten days ago and well beyond the contemporary 24/7 news cycle. In any event, let’s go to the transcript to see what Mr Smith had to say:
Michael Smith: I often look to foreign correspondents to get a different perspective on what’s happening in this country – and vice versa too. Australian foreign correspondents abroad can get a different perspective on the countries they’re working in. They tend to look at the forest rather than the trees. Whereas, you know, we get tangled up in the branches and leaves.
The New York – not many papers overseas now can afford to have fulltime correspondents in Australia. The New York Times has sent one of their best foreign affairs analysts, Roger Cohen, to Australia. The stories and the selection of the topics – the topics that are reflected overseas, this is how overseas see [sic] Australia. His first piece was saying: “We’re doing anxiety, we’ve lost the mineral boom, we used to have wool, gold, agriculture; everybody’s wondering what’s next.”
Virginia Trioli: That was a really good piece, actually. I’d never thought about it in terms of anxiety. It was very, very nicely done.
Michael Smith: Yeah and he’s wondering whether Australia is ripe for the sort of politics that have riven America and Europe in recent years. He also talks – second topic was the cruelty, he says, of offshore processing. And the third topic, the dichotomy between Australia having the world’s biggest organism, which had been bleached to death, while having the world’s – we’re the fourth largest coal exporter. And yeah, they’re interesting views from overseas.
Yeah, how frightfully interesting. Now here are some facts:
▪ The New York Times did not send Roger Cohen to Australia. He was invited Down Under by the left-wing stack that was the 2016 Sydney Writers’ Festival. See MWD Issue 310. In other words, Mr Cohen made it to Sydney per courtesy of the taxpayer subsidised SWF.
▪ Michael Smith’s assertion that Richard Cohen’s trio of articles demonstrates “how overseas see [sic] Australia” is tosh. Absolute tosh. Mr Cohen is just one of the NYT’s conga line of left-liberal columnists and journalists.
▪ In his three articles, Roger Cohen only interviewed like-minded leftists in Australia. Namely, Madeline Gleeson and Steven Glass on asylum seekers, Tim Flannery on climate change and David Smith (of the left-wing United States Studies Centre) on Australia’s state of (alleged) anxiety. It was as if Mr Cohen entered an ABC-like Conservative Free Zone.
▪ Contrary to Michael Smith’s hyperbole, the Great Barrier Reef has not been “bleached to death”. However, if it is being bleached to death Australia could do nothing to stop such a phenomenon – since Australia is responsible for just 1 per cent of total world emissions.
▪ In his article “Australia’s Offshore Cruelty” (23 May), Mr Cohen made no reference to the estimated 1200 boat people who drowned between 2008 and 2013 while trying to enter Australia unlawfully.
▪ In his article “Coral vs Coal” (26 May), Mr Cohen did not tell his NYT readers that Tim Flannery’s predictions that Australian cities will run out of water have proved totally wrong. In short, Tim Flannery is an all-too-fallible eco-catastrophist.
▪ In his article “Australia Does Anxiety” (30 May), Mr Cohen did not point out that under the Abbott/Turnbull government Australia has grown at around 3 per cent – a performance more impressive than that of the left-liberal Obama administration.
And Michael Smith reckons that the left-liberal Roger Cohen has much to tell us about “what’s happening in this country”. Turn it up. Go back to spin-doctoring. And so on.
THE GRATTAN INSTITUTE’S PERSONAL CONTRIBUTION TO THE BUDGET DEFICIT
Is it possible to get through one 24-hour news cycle without seeing or hearing or reading the oh-so-loquacious John Daley of the taxpayer subsidised Grattan Institute?
Yesterday morning, the Sydney Morning Herald’s lead story carried the news that the Grattan Institute executive director Dr Daley (for a doctor of some sort he is) and two others had warned that the consequences for Australia’s AAA credit rating would be deleterious if a Labor government has bigger budget deficits than the Coalition over the next four years. And last night John Daley was banging on to David Speers on Sky News about the need to reduce government expenditure.
Well, here’s MWD’s modest proposal. For an immediate cut in spending, the Commonwealth Government should promise to provide no more taxpayers’ funding for the Grattan Institute – and Dr Daley should be encouraged to give back all the taxpayers’ moolah which the Grattan Institute has received so far.
This would benefit the Commonwealth and Victorian governments alike – since the Grattan Institute was funded from a handout of $15 million each by the Rudd Labor government in Canberra and the Bracks/Brumby government in Melbourne.
But what about your man Daley’s contribution to the public debate? – MWD hears you cry. Well, if the Grattan Institute’s information is as useful as John Daley and his Grattan Institute mates claim, they should be able to sell their (intellectual) wares in the market place.
As it stands now, John Daley is using government expenditure to warn against the risks of increasing government expenditure. A case of Daley-in-Grattanland meets Alice-in-Wonderland.
ABC NEWS 14 – NOT 24
Gerard Henderson stayed at the The Quest last Saturday pending his appearance on last weekend’s ABC TV Insiders program the morning after the night before.
The accommodation was fine. Except that The Quest does not provide newspapers and does not have Sky News. Hendo finds it difficult to get by without Sky News or Fox News. But he decided not to let stress prevail and elected to turn on ABC News 24 for the 6 am news instead.
Only to find that ABC News 24, former managing director Mark Scott’s self-declared greatest initiative at the taxpayer funded public broadcaster, is not 24 hour service at all. In fact, on Sunday, ABC News 24 gets out of bed at 8 am. Can you bear it?
WENDY SQUIRES’ EMOTIONAL SUNDAY LIFE TWISTER
While on the topic of The Quest, last Sunday Hendo headed out in the Melbourne early morning cold to buy a copy of The Sunday Age (aka “The Green Left Weekly of Melbourne Town”) and the Sunday Herald Sun. On return to his room, he thumbed through Fairfax Media’s Sunday Life magazine, which comes with The Sunday Age.
Soon there was weeping-over-coffee as Hendo read the traumatic life and times of Wendy (“Yes, I’m a leftie”) Squires who writes – or, rather, emotes – regularly for Fairfax Media.
You see, as Ms Squires declared on Sunday , she wears her “vulnerabilities openly”. This encourages others to open up and reveal their vulnerabilities – and more besides – to the Fairfax Media columnist. To wit.
٠ A friend told Ms Squires about the “friend’s partner’s penis size [and] sexual specialty”.
٠ As a result, when Ms Squires sees “the person in question” she has “visions of their genitalia [and] fondness for spanking”. Oh yes, there are also “abandonment issues” at play in this instance.
٠ Ms Squires tells friends that she would “rather not know such personal information” but somehow ends up “au fait with confidences that should remain clandestine”. This “annoys the bejesus” out of her. How about that?
٠Somehow or other, this reflection leads Ms Squires to reflect about “respect” and “trust”. Having admitted that she is “au fait” with personal information about others, Ms Squires declares that she gets “upset and paranoid” on hearing of personal information about herself.
٠ Ms Squires equates those who dine on her “insecurities” as “simply supping on schadenfreude”. What?
٠ There follows a statement that the Fairfax Media columnist is “drawing a line on so-called friendships that entail me having to lie”. You see, Ms Squires has been told by a male friend that he is having an affair with a married female former colleague of hers. Really and truly. Apparently both parties in this affair are using Fairfax Media’s columnist as a cover. Go on. [Unfortunately, she did. – MWD Editor]
٠ Now hear this. Ms Squires is having none of this – and has told the cheating parties so. And they accused Ms Squires of a lack of loyalty – to them.
٠ After all the confusion, Wendy Squires’ column concluded: “Game of Twister, anyone?” [Er, no thanks – MWD Ed].
By the way, the finance-strapped Fairfax Media is paying good money for such emotive sludge. Can you bear it?
FRAN KELLY AS (ACTIVIST) JUDGE
Isn’t it beaut that Fran (“I’m an activist”) Kelly is back to her activist form. Let’s go to the transcript when Ms Kelly interviewed Finance Minister Mathias Cormann on Wednesday concerning the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s decision to take action against the National Australia Bank concerning alleged interest rates rigging:
Mathias Cormann: It’s important to note that these alleged events took place between 2010 and 2012 under the period of the previous Labor government, incidentally when Bill Shorten was the Minister for Financial Services. Since then we’ve had the Financial Systems Inquiry, there have been various inquiries through the Senate. We don’t need more inquiries. We need to ensure that a well-resourced regulator with the appropriate powers can take effective action and that is precisely what ASIC is doing.
Fran Kelly: But, as you say, these events occurred not once – they occurred around 50 times between June 2010 and December 2012. ASIC is acting on them now. It suggests that this was a long time coming to ASIC’s attention and action, doesn’t it?
How about that? ASIC’s case against NAB has barely commenced. And ABC Radio National Breakfast presenter reckons the NAB is guilty as charged – before the court has even heard any evidence. Note that Ms Kelly did not say that the events allegedly occurred. According to her they did occur – on 50 occasions.
Now here’s an idea. Why not junk the legal system and have Fran (“I’m an activist”) Kelly as prosecutor, judge and jury. Can you bear it?
[For the record, Ian Rogers – managing director of Banking Day – appeared on Ticky Fullerton’s The Business on the evening of 8 June and said that he did not believe that ASIC’s case against the ANZ, Westpac and NAB was strong. Ms Kelly, apparently, knows better. – MWD Ed]
KRISTINA KENEALLY CHANNELS ROSS CAMERON
While on the topic of electronic media stars, has anyone been watching much Sky News of late? It seems that the gorgeous Kristina Keneally is channeling the not-so-gorgeous Ross Cameron in the rant-to-camera stakes.
Ms Keneally was at it again on Wednesday night after the People’s Forum in Brisbane. MWD cannot remember a word KK said. But doesn’t she do a cool finger-point. Can you bear it?
JON FAINE FIRES UP THE HYPERBOLE
Breaking news indicates that Jane Garrett has resigned as the Victorian Emergency Services Minister. This follows Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ decision to support the United Firefighters Union in its dispute with the primarily voluntary Country Fire Authority. In other words, the UFU has achieved a total victory over the CFA (which was backed by Ms Garrett).
Flash back to last Wednesday when the following comment was made on ABC Radio 774’s Mornings with Jon Faine:
Jon Faine: There’s a sort of a truce declared amongst the protagonists in the issue that’s galvanised so much of political debate in Victoria over the last week. The Firefighters dispute with the CFA. It’s almost like they’ve declared a truce on the Western Front and they’ve taken 24 hours where each side can bury their dead. But where to from here? Well, we’ll try and look into the crystal ball.
In fact, no truce was declared in the Victorian Firies battle of 2016. However, literally millions died or were wounded on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918. Yet, your man Faine reckons that the parties in Victoria needed time to “bury their dead”. How hyperbolic can you get? Can you bear it?
PAUL MURRAY FORGETS HIS OWN CENSORIOUS BEHAVIOUR
While on the topic of Sky News, consider what Paul Murray said on Paul Murray Live on 30 May viz: “The thing I like about Sky News is – I don’t care who works here as long as, you know, we’re able to fight back. That’s the main thing for me.”
This is the very same Paul Murray who – with his bestie Derryn Hinch – made numerous recklessly false statements about Gerard Henderson concerning Cardinal George Pell. What’s more, Messrs Murray and Hinch – gutless wonders that they are – refused to give Hendo a right of reply.
And yet your man Murray vows and declares that he wants everyone to have a chance to “fight back” on Sky News. Except apparently, on Paul Murray Live and Hinch Live when it comes to Gerard Henderson. Can You Bear It?
[Er, no. I note, by the way, that Mr Murray is using Sky News to boost his bestie Derryn Hinch’s campaign in the Senate election in Victoria. What about the other candidates? – MWD Ed]
STEP FORWARD DERRYN HINCH
The tweet below was sent out on 3 March 2016 by the former Sky News’ Hinch Live presenter, and current Justice Party candidate in the 2016 Senate election, Derryn Hinch.
Hinch’s Hunch. Cardinal #Pell will offer resignation on June 8, his 75th birthday, and on health grounds will be accepted.
— Derryn Hinch (@HumanHeadline) March 3, 2016
Hinch’s Hunch. Cardinal #Pell will offer resignation on June 8, his 75th birthday, and on health grounds will be accepted.
As is the custom, Cardinal George Pell offered his resignation to Pope Francis on 8 June. All cardinals/archbishops/bishops in the Catholic Church are required to offer their resignations on the day they turn 75 years of age. The Pope decides whether or not to accept the resignations.
As Tess Livingstone reported in The Australian on Wednesday, the Pope has already indicated to Cardinal Pell that he wants him to see out his five year term as Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy. This expires in February 2019.
As usual, Hinch’s Hunch was a Hopeless Howler. That’s (Hinch) Life.
IN WHICH A COLD MS HARMER READS AN INSENSTIVE TEXT TO AIR
Wendy (“I’m just an old fashioned socialist”) Harmer presents Mornings with Wendy Harmer on ABC Radio 702 in Sydney.
She is a resident of Collaroy on Sydney’s Northern Beaches which has been damaged by storms in 1944, 1967, 1974 and 1998. And again this week. Despite the fact that Wendy Harmer is a resident of Collaroy, she has been (until this week) a consistent opponent of the construction of sea walls to preserve property and roads near Collaroy Beach.
Despite this history, Wendy Harmer read the following grossly insensitive tweet to air on Tuesday – as thousands of residents on Australia’s East Coast were facing disaster and some had died:
Wendy Harmer: Mark says. “Aren’t people strange? They get all upset and cry baby about a few previously privileged home owners who have a house damaged by a storm. Gee. They live damn near the beach. Who would have guessed that would happen. What a shame people don’t get as upset about all their fellow Aussies who are homeless who don’t have a roof above their head at the moment. Very selective morality.” Says Mark.
Verily, a Wendy Harmer Moment. [You must return to this topic next week. – MWD Ed].
ROBERT MANNE & PETER FITZSIMONS REMAIN UNDER THE BED
There has been huge interest in the state of MWD’s rewards for information. Nancy’s (male) co-owner has received many an email along the following lines:
Dear Hendo
I am genuinely worried about your (potential) financial state. Has either Robert Manne or Peter FitzSimons stepped forward to claim the reward concerning them – $20,000 and $10,000 respectively. If you have to pay up, how will you feed Nancy?
Concerned
RSPCA Kennels, Yagoona, NSW
In fact, both The Learned Professor and The Red Bandannaed One have remained silent. By the way, thanks to the avid readers who picked the John-Laws-Style-Deliberate-Mistake in last week’s issue. The total reward offer to Mr Manne is $20,000 (not $30,000). But even if the offer were $30 million, the Learned Professor could not produce the (alleged) document.
Also, Peter FitzSimons has not claimed the $10,000 on offer to the Australian Republican Movement if he can provide evidence to support his assertion, in Fairfax Media, that Cardinal George Pell “lives in a $30 million mansion in Rome. Now here’s an announcement. To coincide with the Queen’s birthday, Hendo is happy to increase the reward to $20,000 for information about Cardinal Pell’s (alleged) $30 million mansion in Rome. This money is to go to the Australian Republican Movement.
All this is discussed in this week’s not-to-be-missed “Correspondence” section.
Robert Manne has not claimed $20,000 reward
Peter FitzSimons – has not claimed $10,000 reward which is now increased to $20,000
Nancy has not a worry in the world
ABC REMAINS MUTE ON THE TIME WHEN THE ABC SHIELDED PEDERASTS AND A FORMER ABC CHAIRMAN CALLED FOR AN UNDERSTANDING OF PEDERASTY
The one-time Catholic priest Gerald Ridsdale is perhaps the most notorious pedophile in Australian history. Ridsdale’s offences were overwhelmingly committed against young boys. In short, he is a pederast.
Ridsdale’s criminality was at its height in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s – as documented in testimony to the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
In Australia, ABC presenters, producers, journalists and editors have been to the forefront of drawing attention to clerical child sexual abuse, particularly within the Catholic Church. Yet no one at the ABC has chosen to report that the taxpayer funded public broadcaster once welcomed pedophiles into its studios. Likewise, no one at the ABC has reported that a former ABC chairman once did not oppose pederasts. A disturbing double-standard, to be sure.
In July 1975 Professor Richard Downing, who was appointed ABC chairman by Gough Whitlam’s Labor Government on 1 July 1973, told the Sydney Morning Herald that Australians should “understand” the urges of pederasts and added: “In general, men will sleep with young boys” (SMH, 19 July 1975). In 1975 the current ABC chairman Jim Spigelman was either Prime Minister’s Whitlam’s senior adviser on media policy or Secretary of the Department of the Media. He transitioned from the Prime Minister’s Office to the Department of the Media during 1975. In other words, during 1975 Jim Spigelman was the Whitlam Government’s senior adviser on media policy – including the ABC.
On two occasions, Mr Spigelman has declined to distance the contemporary ABC from the support for pederasty once proclaimed by one of his predecessors as ABC chairman. He claims that, as ABC chairman, he is not in “apostolic succession” to his predecessors.
This is a reference to the Catholic Church’s teaching that the spiritual authority extended by God to the first pope, Peter, extends through all of Peter’s successors. Jim Spigelman’s position is that, unlike in Catholicism, there is no link between one ABC chairman and his predecessors.
This is just a rationale for avoiding handling an inconvenient truth. Namely, that when pedophilia was at disturbingly high levels in Australia in the mid-1970s, the ABC chairman defended an ABC program that gave a soft interview to pederasts and told Australians to accept the reality of pederasty. H.W. Arndt and Nicholas Brown point out in their entry on Richard Downing in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Downing opposed censorship and believed that the public broadcaster should deal directly with sexuality, violence and obscene language.
No ABC journalist would accept that the Catholic Bishop of Ballarat today can or should distance himself from the statement or actions of the Catholic Bishop of Ballarat in 1975 (when Ridsdale was committing criminal acts). Likewise, no journalist would accept that the managing director of James Hardie Limited today can or should distance himself or herself from the statements of the managing director of James Hardie Limited in 1975 (when the company manufactured asbestos).
However, Jim Spigelman – with the apparent support of the ABC Board – simply goes into denial when reference is made to the taxpayer funded public broadcaster’s grossly irresponsible behavior of four decades ago.
The ABC and Pedophilia: The Background
The story of the ABC’s one-time support for pedophilia is documented in K.S. Inglis’s This Is The ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Commission 1932-1983 (MUP, 1983). Professor Ken Inglis, a long-time supporter of the ABC, was given access to ABC files. The matter was also referred to by Gerard Henderson in his column in The Weekend Australian on 15 March 2014 – see here. – and over the past couple of years in Media Watch Dog.
As is documented in This is the ABC, the self-declared Marxist Allan Ashbolt (1921- 2005) commenced stacking the ABC with young leftists in the 1960s and 1970s. This group was called at the time “Ashbolt’s kindergarten”. Its members included Jon Cassidy, Malcolm Long, Marius Webb, Liz Fell and Mark Aarons. Ashbolt was a producer in ABC Radio at the time but his influence extended into television. He was an admirer of totalitarian communist dictators, in particular Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam.
In a sympathetic obituary published in the Sydney Morning Herald, David Bowman described Allan Ashbolt as a “radical activist” aligned with the Labor left of the day.
In 1975, there was an ABC program titled Lateline, on what is now termed Radio National, which fell within Ashbolt’s area of responsibility. On 14 July 1975 Lateline devoted an entire program to the topic “Pederasty”. The program was described by the ABC as follows:
Pederasty, as defined by the Penguin English Dictionary, is the homosexual relationship of a man with a boy. The subject usually creates feelings of revulsion and disgust with most people. The issues raised by such relationships are discussed by three pederasts.
That’s right. Allan Ashbolt’s Lateline program invited three self-declared pederasts into the ABC’s Sydney studio to discuss their sexual preferences. As K.S. Inglis reported, pederasty was discussed “without any criticism beyond what the contributors offered of each other, as when two attacked the third for treating boys as mere sex objects”. The program’s presenter, Richard Neville, offered no criticism as the three pederasts discussed their criminal offending against young boys. In his 1970 book Play Power (Jonathan Cape), Richard Neville had boasted of having a “hurricane f-ck” with an underage school girl. He was in his late 20s; she was a mere 14 years old.
As the left-wing weekly newspaper The National Times reported on 21 July 1975:
During an episode of Lateline on the ABC’s respectable second network, three men described with relish their sexual relationships with teenage boys, and a teenage boy described his relations with older men.
One fascinating aspect of the program was the interaction between the participants. Two of the pederasts turned against the third, and attacked him for treating his boys as “sex objects”. As the teenage boy on the program described in detail his first experience with a man, one of the pederasts began to moan.
At the time, the Lateline presenter Richard Neville told The National Times that two of the pederasts who appeared on the program were personal friends of his and added: “I realised that I had known a number of pederasts for years and had no understanding of their sexual experience”.
Neville also said that, after the “Pederasty” program was recorded, he played it to other Lateline staff members. It was agreed that one part, a graphic description by one of the pederasts about anal intercourse, should be edited out: “There was some soul searching about that, but it seemed to me that the comment was awkward, artificial and would have attracted all the attention if there was a fuss.”
Richard Neville also declared to The National Times that the pederasts in the program were not “child molesters” since the boys were willing participants in the sexual activity. In 1975, the Lateline presenter held the view that eight-year-old boys could willingly give consent to 50-year-old men. This was – and remains – a shocking statement which attempted to rationalise the crime of child sexual assault.
Lateline: “Pederasty” Program: The Reaction
As K.S. Inglis explains in This Is The ABC, the “Pederasty” program “was bound to give offence”. And it did. Critics included the Reverend Fred Nile (of the Festival of Light), the Very Reverend Lance Shilton (the Anglican Dean of Sydney) and the Most Reverend Thomas W. Muldoon (the Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney). The Lateline program was also criticised by such secular institutions as the Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun – both published by John Fairfax Limited.
As This Is The ABC makes clear, ABC managing director Talbot Duckmanton and his deputy Clement Semmler disapproved of the pederasty advocacy on Lateline. However, ABC Chairman Professor Richard Downing (who was to die suddenly on 10 November 1975) did not oppose either pederasty or pederasts. On 19 July 1975, the Sydney Morning Herald published a letter titled “ABC head defends the Lateline show”. It was signed “(Prof) R. Downing, Chairman, Australian Broadcasting Corporation.” The key paragraphs were as follows:
I hope the ABC will always be adventurous, innovative and informative in its programming. We should not on the other hand seek to go so far and so fast that we are forced instead to retreat. With these reservations, the phenomenon of pederasty seems appropriate for public discussions in a society which, if it is to be open, democratic and responsible, needs also to understand the diverse natures of the people who compose that society.
In the case of this program, advance warning was given that people who might be offended by it should switch off. I am sorry that this warning itself should be condemned by some critics as titillating and likely to encourage voyeurism. The ABC does not seek to offend but only to enlighten. To quote from a report to the British Independent Broadcasting Authority: “Society may remain civilised only if the individual learns to abhor the results of uncivilized behaviour – even though the learning process can be upsetting to him.”
So in July 1975 – speaking in his capacity as ABC chairman – Professor Downing declared that the phenomenon of pederasty was “appropriate for public discussion in a society which, if it is to be open, democratic and responsible, needs also to understand the diverse natures of the people who compose that society”.
Professor Downing’s call for Australians to “understand” pederasts ignored the fact that in 1975 – as now – pederasty was a crime in all Australian jurisdictions. The ABC did not give the identity of the three pederasts to NSW Police and it appears that ABC personnel destroyed the tape of the Lateline program when the controversy commenced. On 19 July 1975, the Sydney Morning Herald also quoted Richard Downing as saying: “In general, men will sleep with young boys and that’s the sort of thing the community ought to know about”.
The ABC Refuses to Address it’s One-Time Advocacy of Pedophilia
Professor Downing’s public call for Australians to “understand” urges of pederasts and his statement that “men will sleep with young boys” was spoken on behalf of the ABC. But it has never been repudiated by any of Richard Downing’s successors. Including the current ABC chairman Jim Spigelman, who was in a position to know about the controversy in 1975.
On two occasions, Gerard Henderson asked Mr Spigelman whether he would distance the ABC from the statements on pederasty spoken by Richard Downing – one of his predecessors. Mr Spigelman not only declined but also appeared to regard the matter as a joke – as the correspondence published below demonstrates.
It is a matter of record that, at the very time when Gerald Ridsdale was raping young boys in the Ballarat diocese, the ABC chairman of the day was calling on all Australians to “understand” the urges of men (like Ridsdale) who commit such criminal acts. Yet Jim Spigelman AC QC feels no need to express any sense of regret for the fact that the one-time ABC radio program Lateline gave comfort and approval to pederasts and that the one-time ABC chairman Richard Downing supported the Lateline program.
Gerard Henderson to Jim Spigelman – 3 March 2015
Dear Mr Spigelman
As you will be aware, over recent years ABC presenters, producers and editors have taken a detailed interest in instances of child sexual abuse. This is particularly so with respect to the Catholic Church – but also some government institutions, the Anglican Church, the Salvation Army, sections of the Jewish community and more besides.
In all instances ABC personnel have demanded the highest of standards concerning anyone who has or had a duty of care with respect to children who were sexually abused along with public figures who commented on this issue.
As you are no doubt aware, on 19 July 1975 – in his capacity as “Chairman, Aust. Broadcasting Commission” – Richard Downing wrote to the Sydney Morning Herald calling on Australians to “understand the culture” of men who wanted to have sex with young boys. Professor Downing wrote in part:
…the phenomenon of pederasty seems appropriate for public discussion in a society which, if it is to be open, democratic and responsible, needs also to understand the diverse natures of the people who compose that society….
I wrote about Professor Downing’s 1975 public call for Australians to “understand the culture” of pederasty in my Weekend Australian column on 15 March 2014. I have also documented the matter in my Media Watch Dog blog (Issues 216 & 233) and the issue is covered in Ken Inglis’This is the ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Commission 1932-1983.
My question is this:
٠ Professor Downing – one of your predecessors as ABC chairman – once called for an understanding of pederasty in his official capacity as ABC chairman. Are you prepared – on behalf of the ABC – to renounce the view expressed by Professor Downing in 1975? If not, why not?
I am sure that the ABC presenters/journalists/editors would call for the Archbishop of Sydney to condemn such a comment if it had been made by one of his predecessors only four decades ago. Bear in mind that a young boy who was sexually abused by a pederast in 1975 would be less than 50 years of age today.
I would appreciate a response by close of business on Wednesday 4 March 2015.
Yours sincerely
Gerard Henderson
Jim Spigelman to Gerard Henderson – 4 March 2015
Dear Mr Henderson
I can think of nothing polite to say about your suggestion. I will content myself with the observation that mine is not an Apostolic Succession.
Yours sincerely
James Spigelman
Gerard Henderson to Jim Spigelman – 4 March 2015
Dear Mr Spigelman
I refer to your letter of 4 March 2015. Thanks for your prompt reply to my email of yesterday.
I was surprised at the supercilious nature of your response – especially in view of your past role as the Chief Justice of New South Wales. I assume that your reference to the “Apostolic Succession” is an attempt at a joke with respect to the fact that I was baptised a Catholic. It’s just that I do not find child sexual abuse as a suitable topic for attempted humour.
These are the facts – as confirmed by Ken Inglis’ This is the ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Commission 1932-1983 (Melbourne University Press, 1983) along with my own research.
In July 1975, the ABC Radio program Lateline aired a program titled “Pederasty”. Three self-confessed pederasts were interviewed on the program. Moreover, as Dr Inglis had written, the ABC presenter did not offer any criticism of his pederast guests’ criminal activity in having sex with underage boys.
Subsequently, in his formal capacity as Chairman of the ABC, Professor Richard Downing wrote to the Sydney Morning Herald (19 July 1975). He essentially defended the program and called on Australians to “understand the culture” of men who have sex with boys.
Contrary to the implication in your letter of 4 March 2015, I did not state that your role as ABC chairman is in the nature of “an Apostolic Succession”. As you will be aware, the concept only applies to the popes who succeeded the first pope (Peter). It does not apply, for example, to archbishops of the Catholic Church who succeed other archbishops. And I have never heard the term used with reference to various chairmen of the public broadcaster in Australia.
You state that you “can think of nothing polite to say about” my suggestion that you should publicly renounce the view expressed in 1975 by Professor Downing in calling for an “understanding” of men who sexually assaulted boys – in the name of the ABC.
This is an extraordinary statement from the chairman of the public broadcaster – whose journalists have accused churches, government institutions and other organisations of having at least some responsibility for the deeds of and/or statements by their predecessors.
Are you saying that the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney should say nothing if it were revealed that his predecessor, some four decades ago, had called for an “understanding” of clerical pederasts?
Are you saying that the chairman of a public company – say, James Hardie Limited, has no responsibility whatsoever for the actions of and/or statements by his or her predecessors with respect to asbestos over the past four decades?
Around the time the (then) ABC chairman Professor Richard Downing called for an understanding of “the culture” of pederasty, Catholic priests in the Ballarat diocese and lay teachers at Knox Grammar School were raping young boys.
As the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has revealed, child sexual assault of both boys and girls was widespread in clerical, governmental and secular institutions in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Professor Downing’s 1975 statement as ABC chairman supported such criminality with respect to boys.
However, rather than state that the view publicly expressed by the ABC chairman in 1975 was wrong, you have elected to go into denial and throw the switch to attempted humour (your reference to the “Apostolic Succession” refers).
You should be able to do better than this – I very much doubt that your predecessor Maurice Newman would have treated this matter with such evident disdain.
Yours sincerely
Gerard Henderson
Gerard Henderson to Jim Spigelman – 27 May 2015
Dear Mr Spigelman
I am writing to ask if you have changed your mind concerning the ABC’s past call for an “understanding” of pederasty. Or whether you still hold the view that the current chairman is not responsible in any way for the public statements of any of your predecessors when speaking as ABC chairman.
As the former Fr Gerald Ridsdale told the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse this morning, in the 1970s and 1980s he was raping young boys in the Catholic diocese of Ballarat.
As you are aware, in the mid-1970s ABC Radio Lateline devoted an entire program to interviewing three pederasts. No criticism at the time was made by the ABC presenter of his guests’ criminal behaviour. The Lateline program presented the raping of young boys as acceptable behaviour.
When a controversy emerged, Professor Richard Downing wrote to the Sydney Morning Herald on 19 July 1975, in his official capacity as chairman of the ABC. Professor Downing wrote that the “phenomenon of pederasty seems appropriate for public discussions in a society which, if it is to be open, democratic, and responsible needs also to understand the diverse natures of the people who compose that society”.
As you will be aware, Professor Downing’s official statement as ABC chairman in 1975 was akin to saying that what he called “the phenomenon of pederasty” is appropriate in modern societies and that men who have sex with young boys need our understanding. No ABC chairman would ever make such a statement today – and yet you have so far declined to distance the taxpayer funded broadcaster from Richard Downing’s appalling public statement.
Professor Downing seemed unaware that, at the time he made this statement as ABC chairman, pederasty was a crime in all Australian states and territories.
In case you have not seen it, I have attached a copy of Professor Downing’s letter. As I am sure you are aware this controversy is covered in Ken Inglis’ book This is the ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Commission 1932-1983.
I assume that you are familiar with the matter since you were a senior adviser to Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and subsequently became secretary of the Media Department during the time of the Whitlam government. As you know, Richard Downing’s tenure as ABC chairman took place within the period of the Whitlam government.
The unpleasant fact is that, speaking as ABC chairman, Richard Downing called for an “understanding” of pederasts like Ridsdale – without being refuted by Mr Whitlam or any of his ministers.
Let me know if you have changed your mind.
Yours sincerely
Gerard Henderson
cc: Mark Scott AO
Managing Director
ABC
Jim Spigelman to Gerard Henderson – 28 May 2015
Dear Gerard
I have not changed my mind.
Jim
Gerard Henderson to ABC Board members – 28 May 2015
Dear Board members
I have attached a copy of my most recent letter to ABC Chairman Jim Spigelman AC QC along with his reply.
As you may or may not be aware, the ABC chairman continues to decline to distance the ABC from the public broadcaster’s previous support for an understanding of pederasts during the chairmanship of Professor Richard Downing.
At a time when various churches, secular organisations and government departments are expected to renounce past approaches to the handling of paedophiles, the ABC remains resolute in refusing to renounce the truly appalling statements made by Professor Downing in his official capacity as ABC chairman in 1975.
As the evidence to the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse reveals, there were a large number of pederasts committing crimes in Australia against young boys when Professor Downing wrote his infamous letter to the Sydney Morning Herald (this is also attached in case you have not seen it).
In view of Mr Spigelman’s refusal to distance the ABC from Professor Downing’s comments (in defence of an ABC program which sympathetically interviewed pederasts), I will continue to raise public awareness on this matter.
Best wishes
Gerard Henderson
Postscript
For the record, no member of the ABC Board has dissented from Mr Spigelman’s position that the ABC chairman today has no responsibility of any kind for what his predecessor, and the ABC, itself did and said four decades ago. But ABC Board members preside over ABC, programs where ABC journalists demand that leaders in churches and businesses have some responsibility for the actions of commission and omission of their predecessors.
And now for a Scoreboard Update:
[table id=18 /]
REMEMBERING, YES, WHEN AUSTRALIA WAS AT WAR WITH FRANCE
On 3 May 2016 the Australian Financial Review – in its wisdom – published this letter from a certain Gale Treadgold from Burradoo, NSW, titled “Never at War with France”.
Christopher Joye’s article “The biggest white elephant in history” (April 30) would have had more credibility if he had been a little more balanced in his assessment of the pros and cons of selecting the French firm DCNS’s proposal to supply Australia’s next fleet of submarines.
I won’t attempt to address all his arguments, some of which undoubtedly have merit on strategic, logistical and technical grounds, but I would like to draw attention to a couple of his assertions that I thought were particularly unhelpful. He provides no basis for referring to the “notoriously fickle French”; apparently unaware of long-standing and productive relationships the Australian Government has had, with, for instance, the French nuclear industry.
Mr Joye also reminds us that France’s external security service blew up the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland waters. I’m not quite sure what that is supposed to prove, but it may be worth noting that France is the only one of the three contenders for the submarine project that Australia has never been at war with.
What a load of absolute tosh. Sure, Australia fought on the side of France during the First World War (1914-18). But not so during most of the Second World War. France surrendered to Germany on 17 June 1940 and Nazi Germany occupied the Northern Zone of France.
However, in the Southern Zone, the government in Vichy, headed by General Petain, continued as the legitimate government of France until mid-1944. The Vichy regime was the legitimate successor of the Third Republic, which existed up until the German invasion. This has been acknowledged in recent years by the French government along with French historians.
The Second Australian Imperial Force engaged Vichy French forces on the field of battle in the Middle East and North Africa in 1941. Indeed, Roden Cutler, later to become Governor of NSW, lost a leg in conflict with Vichy French forces in Syria in June 1941. There was also tension between Australia and New Caledonia, then under the control of the Vichy France administration.
So the suggestion that Australia “has never been at war with France” is simply wrong.
This Australian War Memorial photograph shows Roden Cutler after receiving his Victoria Cross in Sydney in June 1942. On the left of the picture is the Governor-General Lord Gowrie. Lieutenant Cutler lost his leg fighting against the Vichy French in Syria the previous year.
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 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. There are, alas, some occasions where Hendo sends a polite missive but does not receive the courtesy of a reply. Nevertheless, publication of this one-sided correspondence still takes place. For the record and in the public interest, of course.
As MWD 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 – not even Ms Murphy herself (See MWD Issue 297).
GERARD HENDERSON AND ROSS FITZGERALD
Early in the week Professor Ross Fitzgerald – Hendo’s friend and (male) co-owner of Maddie – issued a call-out inviting all supporters of the Australia Sex Party to tell the world that two Catholic nuns had defaced a ASP poster in Collingwood. This led to a correspondence between the two blokes on the ASP’s attitudes to Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. Here we go:
Ross Fitzgerald to Gerard Henderson – 4 June 2016
Nuns defacing Sex Party poster.
Please spread the word!
Ross
Catholic archdiocese defends nuns defacing Sex Party poster
The Catholic archdiocese of Melbourne has defended the Missionaries of Charity after a photograph emerged purporting to show two nuns from the order defacing a Sex Party poster calling for the church to be taxed and marijuana to be legalised.
The party’s leader, Fiona Patten, said the pair seemed “hell-bent” on tearing down the words “tax the church” from a pole in Collingwood. “Our policy to tax the church is fair and reasonable, especially where it applies to the church’s profit-making businesses,” she said on Friday. “If the nuns would like to visit me and confess, that will be an end to it.”
The Sex Party said it had confirmed the women were nuns from the Missionaries of Charity. An image of the women was posted on Instagram two days ago and the Sex Party released it and another photograph to the media on Friday.
The Catholic archdiocese of Melbourne’s media and communications director, Shane Healy, said interfering with election posters could not be condoned. “[But] no one should be at all surprised that sisters of the Missionaries of Charity, established by Mother Teresa of Calcutta to feed and support the poorest of the poor, would be taking offence at the policies of the Sex Party,” he said.
During the last New South Wales election, Sex Party signs were removed from a church that was being used as a polling booth, reportedly because church workers believed they were the work of the devil. The Missionaries of Charity have been contacted for comment.
The Guardian, June 4, 2016
Gerard Henderson to Ross Fitzgerald – 6 June 2016
Ross
Lotsa thanks for your “Nuns defacing Sex Party poster: Please spread the word”.
I’m not too sure to whom I should “spread the word” about this heinous crime – since The Guardian is already on the case. And rightly so.
Here we have two Missionaries of Charity nuns – apparently of Indian birth – defacing a Sex Party of Australia’s “Tax the Church” poster. In Collingwood, no less.
How shocking. Surely there has been no worse crime in the Sandalista Land of Collingwood or Fitzroy or Brunswick this century.
No wonder Sex Party supremo Ms Fiona Patten MP is all steamed up about this outrage and demanding an apology.
In my view the nuns, if apprehended, should get 5 years with hard labour. Sure, this will stop them from tending to the poor, the homeless and the sick (including AIDS sufferers). However, perhaps Fiona and your good self could take over the duties of the Missionaries of Charity in this instance – after all it would only be for half a decade. I’m sure Ms Patten and Professor Fitzgerald could do a great job cleaning up the vomit (of others).
As to the taxing of the Catholic Church – well, why stop there? Why not tax the Rationalist Society, World Vision and 1 Million Women as well? And when will the Australian Sex Party put up a “Tax the Mosque” poster in, say, Lakemba? Over to you.
Best wishes
Gerard
Gerard Henderson
Ross Fitzgerald to Gerard Henderson – 6 June 2016
Thanks for your email Bro.
And thanks very much for arranging tomorrows Fred Nile v Ross Fitzgerald function at The Sydney Institute. It could be a lively night!
Without wishing to sound like St Teresa, as a sober member of Alcoholic’s Anonymous for over 46 years, I’ve spent a bit (if not a lot) of time cleaning up other people’s blood and vomit – both at AA meetings and sometimes in potential member’s homes!
Re the taxing of the Catholic Church – I definitely don’t stop there. As the Australian Sex Party’s lead Senate candidate for NSW, I advocate that all religious institutions – Christian and non-Christian – should be taxed….not just churches. This includes taxing all Islamic, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and other religious Institutions which run profit-making businesses.
And why should secular businesses like Dick Smith Foods have to pay the tax that a religiously-connected business such as Sanitarium doesn’t have to pay?
Please tell my second favourite dog Nancy that, as always, this reply is on the record too
Fond regards
RedfernRoss
(Prof Ross Fitzgerald)
Gerard Henderson to Ross Fitzgerald – 6 June 2016
Ross
Thanks for your note.
Good to hear that you are an out-and-proud vomit mop-up kind of guy. But is Fiona Patten MP?
As to the Australia Sex Party’s bunting in Collingwood – the defacing of which so upset Madam Patten – it only said “Tax the Church”. There was no reference to temples or mosques. Perhaps the ASP will put up some of these as well. We shall see. As I suggested, why not start in Lakemba with a “Tax the Mosque” poster?
As I understand it, the mainstream Christian churches do not manufacture breakfast cereal foods like the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
Perhaps you might get one of Fiona Patten MP’s researchers to provide the name of any Christian Church that runs a business outside the hospital or education or health or retirement sectors. The fact is that most not-for-profit organisations do not pay company tax on the income from funds invested – not just churches. So why not tax the Rationalist Society – it seems rational from the ASP’s position.
As Nancy’s (female) co-owner has pointed out to you, the Catholic Church has saved the state literally billions of dollars over the decades by providing education, health and welfare services to the poorest of the poor. There is no record of the Rationalist Society or the Humanist Society making similar contributions. They just preach about the evils of religion.
Look forward to seeing you tomorrow.
Keep morale high.
Gerard
Ross Fitzgerald to Gerard Henderson – 7 June 2016
Thanks Bro.
Off the top of my head, I think that Hillsong Church is a prime example of a Christian institution that makes a poultice[sic] of money selling merchandise, including clothes etc in much the same way that football clubs do.
I have just asked Robbie Swan if he can provide the names of any other Christian Church that runs a business outside the hospital or education or health or retirement sectors.
I am looking forwards to seeing you & Anne tomorrow.
Fond regards,
Redfernross – it seems rational from the ASP’s position.
Gerard Henderson to Ross Fitzgerald – 10 June 2016
Ross
Thanks for your note.
I’m no Hillsong fan. But I don’t see why a not-for-profit religious organisation should pay tax if a not-for-profit secular organisation is tax exempt.
By the way, Robbie Swan did not get back to me. Perhaps he has other matters on his mind.
That was a good performance at the Sydney Institute on Tuesday.
Keep moral high.
Gerard
Crime in Sandalista Land. This is the photograph of two veiled Catholic Nuns which so outraged the Sex Party’s Fiona Patten & Ross Fitzgerald
LEN LOVEDAY AND GERARD HENDERSON
As avid readers will be aware, MWD is largely written in the early hours of Friday morning and then typed up in much haste. To enhance interest, Nancy’s (male) co-owner places the occasional “deliberate mistake” in the text for avid readers to locate. Len Loveday is one of the most enthusiastic of this group – and regularly tries to locate a John-Laws-Style-Deliberate-Mistake in MWD.
Following his most recent attempt, Gerard Henderson suggested that Mr Loveday devote his considerable talents on an alternative activity. Without, alas, success.
Len Loveday to Gerard Henderson – 4 June 2016
Mr H,
18+8+4 = 30, not 20.
“In any event, as Gerard Henderson indicated during his discussion with David Marr at The Sydney Institute’s forum on ‘The Art of Argument’ on 10 February 2016, the award for stumping up the evidence has been increased to $20,000. In the hope that an extra $4000 will jog Robert Manne’s memory or a concession that no such event ever occurred. So now the break-up of the $20,000 reward for evidence is:
▪ $ 18,000 from Hendo to Robert Manne’s favourite asylum seekers advocacy group.
▪ $8,000 from a Perth Neurosurgery for Professor Manne to use on a ‘restful holiday’ and
▪ $4,000 from Hendo as a third and final offer to motivate the Professor to find just one copy of the (alleged) fax which Gerard Henderson sent to The Age sometime in 1990s. Just one out of the alleged three copies.”
You may want to consider my offer of free proofreading – on my worst day, drunk or hungover, I’d not miss that!
Regards,
Len Loveday
Gerard Henderson to Len Loveday – 8 June 2016
Dear Mr Loveday
Thanks for your email of 4 June. And congratulations on picking the “John-Laws-Style-Deliberate-Mistake” in last Friday’s Media Watch Dog.
You may be disappointed to know, however, that you were pipped at the post – as the cliché goes – by a multitude of people who detected the Deliberate Mistake before you. Lotsa avid readers picked the error – namely, that my reward to Robert Manne should total $20,000 – not $30,000.
The truth is that it doesn’t matter much. I could offer Robert Manne $3 million or $30 million and it wouldn’t make any difference – since the document your man Manne claims I wrote, in 1993 or 1994 or 1995 or 1996 or whenever, does not exist – and never has existed.
Now here’s a challenge for you. Instead of avidly reading MWD each Friday looking for typos – why not put your obvious talents to more significant use?
Why not pester Robert Manne to produce the fax he claims I wrote attempting to get him sacked as an Age columnist some two decades ago? After all, this is a more important matter than whether last week’s MWD referred to $18,000 rather than $8,000 – don’t you think?
Also, why not pursue the Sun-Herald’s Peter FitzSimons for any evidence he has to support his assertion that Cardinal George Pell “lives in a $30 million mansion in Rome”. As an avid MWD reader, you will know that I have offered a reward of $10,000 to the Australian Republican Movement if your man Fitz can provide the (alleged) evidence. As you will be aware, The Red Bandannaed One is chairman of the ARM.
Now – here’s another deal. I will offer you a 10 per cent incentive fee if you can get either Professor Manne or Mr FitzSimons to produce their (alleged) evidence. That is $2,000 with respect to the learned professor and $1,000 with respect to the scribbler of Fairfax Media’s “The Fitz Files”.
Go for it. You have nothing to lose but a trivial obsession with typos in your seemingly endless search for John-Laws-Style-Deliberate-Mistakes.
Keep morale high.
Gerard Henderson
Len Loveday to Gerard Henderson – 8 June 2016
Mr H,
Thank you for the offer, but (1) I don’t correspond with left-wing idiots (2) I earn my money in ways I enjoy.
Regards,
LBL
Gerard Henderson to Len Loveday – 10 June 2016
Mr LBL
How sad. Well, at least I made an offer – which I hoped might finance your alcohol intake which leads to your hangovers.
Don’t worry. I’m used to rejection.
Gerard Henderson AC (aka Always Courteous)
Until next time.
My oh my. Poor, blithering Gerard “Gollum” Henderson will be incandescent with rage after that Media Watch. The silly prick.
Mike Carlton via Twitter, 15 Feb 2016, 9:44 PM
Gerard: You are hopeless…
– David Marr, 12 February 2016
ABC is a weakened and flawed institution for sure but it is a vital balance to ranting prejudices of Gerard Henderson’s boss@rupertmurdoch
Quentin Dempster via Twitter, 10 Jan 2016,
Poor mad Gerard is obsessed. I expect he had an unhappy childhood, always the last to be chosen…
Mike Carlton via Twitter, 25 Oct 2015, 3:27 AM
Sometimes I think of Gerard Henderson like a Japanese holdout, lost in the jungles of Borneo, still fighting the war 20 years after it ended
– Erik Jensen,via Twitter, 16 Oct 2015, 4:50 PM
Gérard Henderson brain missing. Small reward
– Phillip Adams, via Twitter, 10 Oct 2015, 11:16 AM
I’ve been shot at by the Viet Cong. I once met Gerard Henderson. I can take any shit thrown at me…
Mike Carlton via Twitter, 9:22 PM – 9 Sep 2015
Gerard. You are an idiot #insiders
Bevan Shields via Twitter, 9:46 AM, 23 August 2015
“[Gerard Henderson is a] professional filing cabinet”
– Leftist scribbler Jeff Sparrow, Crikey, 13 August 2015
Leaving the house to avoid listening to GHenderson on @774melbourne
– Jonathan Green via Twitter, 31 July 2015
“gerard henderson trending on twitter, omg [looks out window, where the sun is eclipsed and the sky blood-red] oh yeah that makes sense”
– Adam Brereton via Twitter, 31 July 2015
Gerard Henderson on @891adelaide right now & I find myself shouting at my radio. What a morning”
– Louise Pascale via Twitter, 31 July 2015
“oh hell why is Gerard Henderson trending? Has boredom become the new black.”
– MNihilon via Twitter, 31 July 2015
Told I made the late Gerard Henderson’s little blog today. Read it. What a rancorous, nauseating, humourless little turd he is.
– Mike Carlton via Twitter during Gin & Tonic Time on 12 June 2015.
“On Sunday before Insiders…I was giving you a rich and full account of what a weird shit I think you are…”
– David Marr to Gerard Henderson, 1 June 2015
To #swf2015 this morning. Sunlit harbour, fabulous crowds radiating civility. And no Gerard Henderson ! It doesn’t get any better.
– Mike Carlton, via Twitter, 1:48 PM – 21 May 2015
Gerard Henderson’s friday self-harm update is here
– Adam Brereton, via Twitter, May 15, 2015
[Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch Dog is] batshit mad.
– Guy Rundle in Crikey, 14 May 2015:
I’m in the sort of mood that if I saw Gerard Henderson in the street I’d hit him with his own umbrella
– Ben Pobjie, via Twitter, 8 May 2015
It’s a glorious day when Gerard Henderson has a go at you
– Adam Gartrell, via Twitter, 8 May 2015
Meeting of Gerard Henderson Appreciation Society tonight Sydney Opera House phone booth
– Phillip Adams, via Twitter, 28 April 2015, 1.36 pm (after lunch).
“Gerard’s condescension levels high on #insiders this morning”
– Lenore Taylor, via Twitter, 22 February 2015
“Gerard Henderson and David Marr are on #Insiders this week. Like a political Felix and Oscar.”
– Mark Scott via Twitter 19 February 2015 at 1.10 pm
“I once called Gerard Henderson `a complete f%^wit’. I deeply regret that. I was being much too harsh on f%^wits.”
– Malcolm Farr via Twitter 14 February 2015 at 10:14 am
“Oh Gerard. You total clown.”
– Jonathan (“Proudly the ABC’s Sneerer-in-Chief”) Green on Twitter, Friday 3 October 2014, 4.31 pm [Mr Green must be an obsessive avid reader to respond so soon. – Ed]
“Good morning. All the gooder for being attacked (for thousandth time) by silly Gerard in the Oz”
– Phillip Adams via Twitter, 27 September 2014
“What troubles me most is that he [Gerard Henderson] shows such low journalistic standards, yet he is politically quite influential. He is often on Insiders. It’s hard to see why: he comes across as a crank.”
– Kate Durham as told to Crikey, 16 September 2014
“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