GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG

ISSUE – NO. 523

20 November 2020

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Can You Bear It?

  • STEPHEN BROOK DISAPPOINTS COMRADES MILLAR & KENNEDY BY DECLINING TO EMBRACE THE RUDD/TURNBULL PETITION

Jackie’s (male) co-owner has always been of the view that any religious leader capable of turning water into wine is worth taking seriously. So Hendo was impressed to read the “exclusive” by Sharri Markson and Richard Ferguson in The Australian  on Wednesday. It reported that the petition initiated by former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd – and supported by former Coalition prime minister Malcolm Turnbull – for a royal commission into News Corp, Rupert Murdoch and all that contained the names of Jesus Christ, Bette Midler and other celebrities, including Mr Murdoch himself. Quelle Surprise!

It turned out that some Melbourne guy had paid some Bangladeshi guy to get some computer-generated bots into the petition – to prove some point or other about cyber security. Unsurprisingly, the former prime ministers were not amused.  But MWD was – so there you go.

And so it came to pass that the Markson/Ferguson “scoop” was discussed in the Newspapers’ segment on ABC TV’s News Breakfast on Wednesday.  Lisa Millar and Paul Kennedy were the presenters and the commentator was Stephen Brook, co-writer of the Nine Newspapers’ “CBD” column.

Your man Brook decided to lead with The Australian’s “exclusive” of that very morning.  He pointed to the fact that some of the names on the petition to Parliament which he said “by law should be Australian citizens, are fake”. He cited Jesus Christ and a bloke by the name of Humperdinck Pimpernipple as examples. [Are you sure Mr Pimpernipple’s not a Sandalista from up Nimbin way? – MWD Editor.]

It would seem that this was not the commentary that Lisa Millar was hoping for. Let’s go to the transcript:

Lisa Millar: Does it take away from – well, what kind of impact do you think it’ll have on the actual petition? And by the way, I don’t know if you caught 7.30 last night but they did a fantastic story on the background to all of this, with both Turnbull and Rudd appearing in that story. So what kind of impact do you think this story is going to have on the petition and this push for a commission?

It’s true that Messrs Rudd and Turnbull had appeared on 7.30 the previous evening supporting the royal commission. But so had media executive Kim Williams (no friend of Murdoch) and former Liberal Party politician Pru Goward – neither of whom thought the royal commission was a good idea.  Comrade Millar did not mention this – but in MWD’s view, it made the report even more FANTASTIC (to borrow a Lisa Millar endorsed word).

In any event, the “CBD” co-writer continued to criticise the Rudd/Turnbull royal commission proposal – stating that “politicians telling the media how to conduct their own affairs is really a bad thing”. Quite so.

Paul Kennedy did not concur.  Apparently a supporter of any inquiry into News Corp and Rupert Murdoch, Comrade Kennedy looked on the bright side of things by drawing attention to the 500,000 others – give or take a Bette Midler or two – who had signed the petition:

Paul Kennedy: …has The Australian reported on how many of those signatures are legitimate?

Stephen Brook: Well, I think that there’s 500,000 of them, how can you tell? I think that there are questions about some of them. I think people found also in the report – there was Scott Morrison’s signature was on there and Anthony Albanese’s signature was on there. So they enquired with their offices and said, “Have you actually signed this?” And the answer came back, “No.”

 Paul Kennedy: Well, the point is, they’ve got to look at it. And yeah, I mean, look at the threshold for signatures on these types of petitions and by all means, have a look at it. But yeah, [it would] be good to get the final result on how many legitimate signatures there are.

So there you have it.  It would seem that News Breakfast presenters Millar and Kennedy both suffer from the familiar ABC affliction known as Murdoch-phobia.  So they did not discuss the content of Stephen Brook’s warning about politicians interfering in the media and just hoped that Rudd/Turnbull would not be diminished by the failure to check the names of the signatories.  That’s all. Can You Bear It?

[I note that today’s “CBD” column in Nine Newspapers, by Samantha Hutchinson and Stephen Brook, states that Gerard Henderson was asked on to Sky News’ The Bolt Report on Tuesday to discuss an article on the ABC by Joseph Gersh in The Australian that morning. In fact, Gerard Henderson has had a weekly Tuesday slot on The Bolt Report throughout 2020.  Also, contrary to the “CBD” version, The Bolter knew in advance that Hendo is a mate of Joe Gersh. – MWD Editor.]

  • CRIKEY’S (FALSE) PROPHET CHARLIE LEWIS’ PREDICTION RE PETA CREDLIN & ANDREW BOLT DISCREDITED WITHIN HOURS

As the saying goes (or went) – it’s always unwise to make predictions, especially about the future.

Writing in Crikey’s “Tips and Murmurs” column on Wednesday (18 November), Charlie Lewis had something to say about how Sky News’ Peta Credlin and Andrew Bolt would respond to last Wednesday’s decision by the South Australian Liberal Party government – led by Steven Marshall – to embrace the most all-embracing COVID-19 lockdown in Australia.  More onerous even than that imposed by Daniel Andrews’ 100 days plus lockdown in Victoria of recent memory.

Comrade Lewis’ logic – if logic there was – turned on the prediction that the likes of Credlin and Bolt would not criticise a Liberal government – only a Labor one. Here we go:

Pie in the Sky thinking As the COVID-19 cluster in South Australia grows worse and more restrictions are imposed, we’re looking forward to seeing Sky’s [sic] After Dark carnival barkers sent to Adelaide to abuse the Steven Marshall government over its COVID-19 mishandling.

Leading the charge, we’re sure, oddly worn mask and all, will be Peta Credlin — who will bring her unique and “forensic” questions to Marshall’s daily briefings. Andrew Bolt will chip in, no doubt, with some columns and editorials attaching the origins of the outbreak to the South Australian Liberal’s party’s embrace of multiculturalism. A special documentary on what went wrong will no doubt follow.

Get it? Your man Lewis was attempting irony – the suggestion being that Sky News presenters would not criticise Premier Marshall’s decision to lock down all of the State to deal with an outbreak of COVID-19 in a northern suburb of Adelaide.  But they did – on Wednesday and again last evening.

In fact, Peta Credlin and Andrew Bolt weighed into Premier Marshall as if he were, well, Premier Andrews.  Perhaps Charlie Lewis was exhibiting the phenomenon of projection.  In which case, he should realise that just because members of the Crikey soviet invariably only criticise conservatives, it doesn’t mean that Sky News’ conservatives will only criticise the left.  And this is the best that Comrade Lewis could come up with on Wednesday – since it led Crikey’s  “Tips and Murmurs” segment.  Can You Bear It?

[Er, no. Not now that you ask me. Note that Crikey’s  journalists must work in a windowless environment.  They refer to Sky News’ Credlin and The Bolt Report – which conclude at 7 pm and 8 pm (Australian Eastern Standard Summer Time) respectively – as “Sky News After Dark”.  It’s not dark at 8 pm these nights. – MWD Editor.]

  • FOUR CORNERS FIRST OUT OF THE BLOCKS FOR A 2020 W.E.B., LED BY SEAN NICHOLLS

It so happened that Four Corners went on what journalists like to call a W.E.B. (i.e. a Well Earned Break and certainly not a holiday, which is for us mere mortals) on Monday 9 November 2020.  This was not announced at the time until word got around last Monday that there would be no Four Corners that evening.  The Sydney Morning Herald’s  “The Guide” had a “to be advised” at the ABC TV Monday 8.30 pm time slot. But The Australian (correctly) advised that the first episode of the BBC Two documentary The Face of Terror would fill the gap on Monday caused by Four Corners’ early W.E.B.

Four Corners is unlikely to resume until early February 2021 – which means that the Four Corners comrades will be off-air for around three months, about a quarter of a year.  Not a bad W.E.B. if you can get it.

Thanks to the avid reader who advised MWD to check out how some members of the Four Corners soviet have performed this year.  MWD took up the lead and focused on MWD fave Sean Nicholls – a former Sydney Morning Herald news editor.

According to MWD’s count, there were 34 episodes of Four Corners in 2020. However, your man Nicholls was only credited for three programs.  So, according to ABC’s statistics, Sean Nicholls contributed to less than ten per cent of the Four Corners  output in 2020 – in other words, a program every three months. And now he’s off on a Well Earned Break. Could this be correct? If so – Can You Bear It?

  • JANINE PERRETT’S (MEDIA) SECRET

While on the topic of Four Corners, it is now a fact that its last program for 2020 was “Inside the Canberra Bubble” presented by Louise Milligan.  This broke the story that Acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge (married, with children) had an affair with his female media adviser (married, with children) in 2017.  And that Attorney-General Christian Porter allegedly kissed a woman in a bar, also in 2017. Oh, yes – and he also wrote some unsavoury comments in a University of Western Australia law school journal sometime in the 20th Century.  Without question, a hanging offence in Milligan Land.

MWD just loved Four Corners’  Days of Our Lives  re-enactments (or was it Lays of Our Wives?) which featured a female left foot playing footsies with a male right foot in some dive in Canberra. Worth a Walkley tonight, to be sure.

But MWD digresses.  Four Corners has been criticised for limiting its exposure of men behaving badly in and outside Parliament House to Coalition figures – without reference to Labor or the Greens.  It is interesting to note that Janine Perrett, formerly of Sky News now with Crikey, had this to say in Crikey on 10 November 2020 – under the title “Politicians behaving badly is an old story so why hasn’t it come out before?”.

…Not that the problem is confined to one side of politics. It was only two years ago that then NSW opposition leader Luke Foley quit over inappropriate conduct towards an ABC journalist. It was a story that was widely known among her media colleagues before it was revealed, but she didn’t want the incident made public. And female Labor MPs must have been extremely lucky if they have never been hit on by some of the gentlemen of the ALP over the years.

Then there’s the collateral issue of journos having affairs with pollies. Years ago, a prominent ABC presenter would interview a senior minister very formally in the morning — “Minister, what do you think of this?” — a short time after the two of them had been sitting together at the breakfast table.

How about that?  According to Janine Perrett, years ago “a prominent ABC presenter” would interview in the morning a very senior minister – a short time after they had shared breakfast. How could this be?  Has Janine Perrett told Four Corners journalist Louise Milligan and the program’s executive producer Sally Neighbour who are into such stories of adultery inside the Canberra Bubble?  In view of Four Corners’  Well Earned Break – MWD can think of no program more suitable to cover this story right now than, er, 7.30.  Surely, journalists in this instance are not covering for other journalists – in which case, Can You Bear It?

  • RAF EPSTEIN RECKONS THAT VICTORIA POLICE’S 26 TO ZERO LOSS IN THE PELL CASE IS AN EXAMPLE OF JUSTICE WORKING

Thanks to the avid reader from Hesket [Pray tell me – where the hell is Hesket? – MWD Editor] who drew MWD’s attention to a call he made yesterday afternoon to ABC Radio Melbourne 774’s Drive with Raf Epstein. Once upon a time leftists like Comrade Epstein had an irreverent attitude to government.  Not anymore. Your man Epstein is a member of the “I stand with Dan” fan club and has never heard about a Daniel Andrews Labor government COVID-19 lockdown of which he does not approve.  Comrade Epstein also is besties with commissioners of Victoria Police – previously Graham Ashton and Shane Patton.

Commissioner Patton was the subject of a soft interview by his ABC host on Wednesday.  He was interviewed to discuss the substantial criticism of Victoria Police by Victorian Coroner Jacqui Hawkins for its handling of the attack by James Gargasoulas – who killed six pedestrians in a road rage attack on Bourke Street in January 2017.

It turned out that Jimmy from Hasket phoned in to the program suggesting Commissioner Ashton and Commissioner Patton were part of the problem – not the solution – since they held senior roles in Victoria Police during its handling of the Lawyer X scandal and the George Pell case and now this. Let’s go to the transcript:

Jimmy: …And the other thing is, they’ve [the Victorian Labor Government] appointed Patton. Now Patton’s been a part of the problem. Gobbo [the Lawyer X case], Pell and this and this incident. Three very damaging incidents that have happened in recent years and Patton’s involved in all of them.

 Rafael Epstein: I’m not sure if Shane Patton was involved in the George Pell case, but why is that a problem?

 Jimmy: He certainly was.

 Rafael Epstein: But why is that a problem? Isn’t that justice working?

 Jimmy: No, that’s a failure. He’s part of the system that has failed. And Patton was involved in Pell. He was involved in Gobbo – as the previous caller said, we need a cultural change. And Patton is not a cultural change, he’s part of the bad system that we’ve got.

 Rafael Epstein: Good on you Jimmy for having your say. The George Pell one is interesting though. I understand someone was found guilty and then was found innocent by another court. Whether or not that’s a problem for the police, I guess that’s up for everyone to decide for themselves.

Comrade Epstein was hopelessly wrong.  Shane Patton was the most senior of the three members of the Victorian Police who interviewed Cardinal Pell in Rome in October 2016. Also, it was Commissioner Patton who announced that Pell was being charged by Victoria Police (not the Victorian Office of Public Prosecutions) on 26 charges of historical child sexual abuse with respect to nine persons.

In the event, every charge announced by Commissioner Patton was thrown out by the Magistrates’ Court, or dropped by the Director of Public Prosecutions or quashed by the High Court of Australia (in a unanimous 7 to nil decision).

Most objective commentators would regard a 0 to 26 defeat by Victoria Police as a bit of a disaster. But the ill-informed Raf Epstein maintains that failing to get one conviction after laying 26 charges is not necessarily a problem for Victoria Police.  What a suck up. Can You Bear It?

[I assume that this particular ABC Raf Epstein is the very same Raf Epstein who was an activist journalist in the Pell media pile-on of recent memory. – MWD Editor.]

 

 

  • STEP FORWARD PETER HARTCHER

The idea that the end of the world is coming soon is as old as humankind itself.  It would seem that humans are into apocalyptic thinking in a big way.  And that, to some, the end of the world is as certain as death itself.

Not so long ago the world was going to end due to nuclear war, then it was overpopulation and now it’s climate change.  There are always recruits for this kind of thought.  The most recent addition to the End of the World is Nigh Movement is none other than Nine Newspapers’ political editor Peter Hartcher.

Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on Saturday (14 November), under the title “Paralysed by the ghost of Abbott”, your man Hartcher wondered out loud whether “the planet” will be “still be habitable” in 2050 – a mere 30 years away.  Later on, the Nine Newspapers’ political editor referred to “the oncoming collapse of a habitable planet”. He didn’t give a date but it seems he has in mind the year 2050.

And who – in Comrade Hartcher’s view – will be responsible for the (forthcoming) End of the World? – MWD hears avid readers cry out. Why, former Coalition prime minister Tony Abbott, of course. This despite the fact that Australia produces less than 2 per cent of global emissions.

In view of this, when you think about it, it’s quite an achievement (of sorts) for Tony Abbott, who was prominent in Australian politics for a mere two decades, to have brought about the end of the entire world circa 2050.  Alas, due to the end of the world, Mr Abbott’s responsibility for this apocalyptic moment will not be recorded.

Meanwhile, following Comrade Hartcher’s prophecy, MWD is off to re-read The Apocalypse of St John the Apostle, while we’re all still here.

As avid readers are aware, the late Nancy (2004-2017) did not die. She merely “passed” on to the Other Side. Hence MWD has been able to keep in touch and seek her advice – with the help of the American psychic John Edward of Crossing Over fame – your man Edward demonstrated a first class ability to communicate with the dead,  albeit not so much with the living. And so, Nancy’s “Courtesy Classes” continue – albeit from the “Other Side” in a Zoom kind of way.

  • INSIDERS BAGS PM MORRISON FOR ALLEGEDLY INTERRUPTING A FEMALE POLITICIAN – BUT IT WAS OK WHEN SPEERSY INTERRUPTED KAREN ANDREWS AND TERRI BUTLER

Jackie’s (male) co-owner, Gerard Henderson AC (aka Always Courteous) was most impressed by the introductory montage in last Sunday’s Insiders on ABC TV.  Especially the section where Insiders’ executive producer Sam Clark demonstrated how Scott Morrison had (allegedly) interrupted Social Services Minister Anne Ruston at a media conference on 12 November 2020.

The (alleged) occasion took place when the Australian Financial Review’s Phil Coorey asked Ms Ruston a question about what the Canberra Press Gallery refers to as the “bonk ban”.  The Prime Minister who disapproves of the term “bonk ban” briefly interrupted to say so. Then it was back to the Minister – as the transcript demonstrates:

Phil Coorey: Minister Ruston, can I ask you – as a woman in the government your reflections on the culture inside. Has it gotten better, worse, or no change since the bonk ban era?

Minister Ruston: Well Phil, the only thing that I can –

Prime Minister: Sorry. How this ban is referred to, I think, is quite dismissive of the seriousness of the issue Phil. And I would ask media to stop referring to it in that way. We took it very seriously and I think constantly referring to it in that way dismisses the seriousness of this issue, it’s a very serious issue. Thanks. Anne?

Phil Coorey:  [Inaudible] What are your impressions?

Minister Ruston: Well Phil, I can only reflect on my own experience since I have been in this place since 2012, and I have to say that I have always felt wholly supported while I have been here. And I particularly note that since becoming a member of the Cabinet and a member of the ERC there is nobody who has provided me more support and shown greater respect towards me as an individual than the Prime Minister…

That’s pretty clear, then. Scott Morrison did not stop Anne Ruston from saying what she wanted to say.  He simply corrected a term used by a journalist – and then handed over to Minister Ruston.

Nevertheless, Insiders thought it was a you-beaut idea to suggest that the Prime Minister is a sexist type who interrupts women – and only women, apparently.  So much so that it used footage from 7.30’s piss-poor comedian Mark (“I have but one joke a fortnight”) Humphries making “a joke” about Morrison-the-interrupter on Thursday 10 November. Re which see MWD Issue 522.

In any event, it’s handy to know that Insiders regards it as rude and sexist behaviour if a  man interrupts a woman. So what about Insiders’ presenter David (“Oh, Yes – I’m the great interrupter”) Speers – commonly known as Speersy. Do his manners improve when a woman is interviewed?  You be the judge.

۰ On 25 October 2020, David Speers interviewed Coalition Energy Minister Karen Andrews. He interrupted her no fewer than 8 occasions in a 15 minute interview.

۰ On 1 November 2020, David Speers interviewed Labor shadow minister Terri Butler – he interrupted her no fewer than 7 occasions in a 13 minute interview.

۰  But on Sunday 8 November 2020, David Speers interviewed former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd and former Coalition prime minister Malcolm Turnbull on Insiders. Both men were asked a final question about Rupert Murdoch, News Corp and all that.  Speersy allowed Mr Rudd an interruption-free answer of 1 minute 30 seconds.  Speersy then allowed Mr Turnbull an interruption-free answer of a whopping 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

How truly shocking that the bloke Speers is willing to interrupt women – like Karen Andrews and Terri Butler – but not men like Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull.

Speersy: Off to Nancy’s Courtesy  Classes for you.

Media Watch Dog’s Five Paws Award was inaugurated in Issue Number 26 (4 September 2009) during the time of Nancy (2004-2017). Over the years, the late Nancy’s Five Paws Award has become one of the world’s most prestigious gongs – rating just below the Nobel Prize and Academy Awards.

  • ALEXANDER LEE REMINDS US OF THE LEFT’S CAMPAIGN AGAINST CROATIAN AUSTRALIANS, LED BY GOUGH WHITLAM, JIM CAIRNS AND LIONEL MURPHY – AND CONTINUED TODAY BY TONY JONES.

Thanks to the avid reader who drew Media Watch Dog’s attention to the article by Alexander Lee titled “Australian Croats Haven’t Forgotten Their Demonization by the Left” which was published in BalkanInsight on 21 October 2020.  BalkanInsight is published by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN).

Alexander Lee is a Ph.D candidate in the Australian National University’s National Security College in Canberra.  He commenced his article as follows:

The stigmatization of Australian Croatians in the 1960s and 1970s as “Fascists” and as objects of suspicion is a reminder of just how dangerous and damaging politicising ethnic identities can be. Croatians in Australia have the unfortunate distinction of having been the first post-war Australian migrant community to be systematically attacked and delegitimised by a sizeable portion of the political establishment. Doubtless, there were legitimate questions to be asked about the activities of nationalist Croatians in Australia and abroad. But there was also a strain of illegitimate, extreme, and highly targeted attacks against the Croatian ethnic identity.

The attacks on Croatian Australians in the 1960s into the 1970s were led by key members of the Australian Labor Party’s left-wing faction. Most notably, Dr Jim Cairns and Senator Lionel Murphy. Gough Whitlam – Labor’s deputy leader from 1960 until  1967 when he became leader – was also in the front line of what Lee describes as “egregious” attacks on Australia’s Croatian community:

Croatians were the perfect target for Australian Left-wingers from the 1960s onwards, because they were anti-communist and Catholic, and so perceived as opposed to the political interests of the Australian Left. They had little political capital, almost no representation in elected office or organised labour and were very much seen as “new Australians”.

It’s interesting to note that the most prominent Australian who is still running the left’s line on Croatian Australians in the 1960s and 1970s is ABC TV’s Tony Jones.  Jones is a huge fan of the late Lionel Murphy.

Tony Jones’ 2017 book The Twentieth Man  runs the old Cairns/Murphy/Whitlam conspiracy theory about (alleged) Croatian terrorism in Australia.  It was reviewed by Gerard Henderson in The Sydney Institute Review Online in January 2018 – see here.

Interviewed by his ABC colleague Richard Fidler on 27 November 2019, Jones told Fidler “don’t believe what Gerard Henderson says” – but he has never contested the facts in the review.

The left-wing’s conspiracy theory about Croatian Australians has been demolished by former Fairfax Media journalist Hamish McDonald in his book Reasonable Doubt: Spies, Police and the Croatian Six (Doosra Media, 2019). This book was also reviewed by Gerard Henderson in July 2019 – see here.

 

Towards the end of his BalkanInsight article, Alexander Lee writes:

What happened to Australia’s Croatians starting in the 1960s is a reminder of how dangerous and damaging politicising ethnic identities can be.

Tony Jones, take note.

Alexander Lee:  Five Paws

  • JANE CARO’S SURPRISE Q&A PERFORMANCE

What good fortune that MWD fave Jane Caro was a last minute replacement – what she called a “late scratching” –  for someone or other on the ABC TV Q&A program last Monday.

It took Q&A, presented by Hamish (“I don’t watch television except when I’m on it”) Macdonald, some four episodes at the start of the (Q&A) year to even mention COVID-19.  And it’s heading to a Well Earned Break commencing next Monday with an emphasis on – yes, sex.

On 9 November, Q&A focused on allegations about  Coalition politicians behaving badly in an under-the-sheets kind of way.  And on 16 November the program was headed “Sex, Lies and a Better Politics”. How original is that?

Early on, Q&A resembled an Australian version of the Jerry Springer Show as former Nationals’ leader Barnaby Joyce and former Labor backbencher Emma Husar discussed their woes when their real (Joyce) and imagined (Husar) private lives made the news in 2018.  Joyce defended himself and Husar bagged him and – does it really matter?

However, MWD was enthralled by the performance of Jane Caro, who was presented as an author and feminist.  Let’s go to the official ABC transcript.

  • At Page 8 – the transcript records that Ms Caro “LAUGHED AFFECTEDLY” – at her own joke. [Don’t be too tough – who else would have laughed? – MWD Editor.] Soon after it is recorded that Jane Caro “GASPS, LAUGHS” when Barnaby Joyce said that he completely agreed with her.
  • Page 17 – the transcript records that Ms Caro “LAUGHS”. This occurred during a long Joyce/Caro exchange when the latter appeared to argue that a male employer should publicly declare that he is in a relationship with a female employee even if she wants the matter to remain private.

An unusual feminist response, but there you go.

  • Page 30 – in which Jane Caro concluded not with a whimper but with a bang:

I can’t watch the actions of our leaders and remain hopeful and optimistic. I am hopeful and optimistic about the attitudes of the public changing. But I’m afraid I am beside myself with fury about how we ignore 51 per cent of the population still – people of colour, people with a disability. And I’m sorry, investing in young people, in children in particular, is incredibly important, but we’ve got to stop throwing old people away and warehousing them! And ageism is something that has come to the fore in COVID like nothing else I’ve ever seen. So, I am – I’m neither optimistic or pessimistic – I’m fired by fury.

MWD would have thought that a combination of (i) people of colour, (ii) people with a disability, (iii) young people, (iv) children and (v) old people would amount to more than 51 per cent of the population.  But after watching Ms Caro’s fury on Q&A, MWD will not draw the math (as the Americans say) to her attention.

Verily – A Jane Caro Moment.

NEW SERIES: RUMOURS RECEIVED IN JACKIE’S INBOX

  •  ABC’s BRISBANE OFFICE IN SEARCH OF CABOOLTURE MAN/WOMAN

Due to popular demand, Media Watch Dog has decided to run a rumour segment.  Sure, in the past MWD has looked down on rumour as an art form.  But, as the saying goes, everybody’s doing it.

An avid reader reports that journalists at the ABC’s inner-city office in inner-city Brisbane have been told by ABC management to focus less on reporting inner-city events.  Apparently, members of the ABC’s Brisbane soviet have been directed not to do a police round or an education round. No – now the task is to do a “Caboolture round”

Now, MWD’s here to help. So for ABC types in need-to-know mode, Caboolture is a blue collar, outer-suburb/town north of Brisbane.  It’s about a 30-minute drive from the Brisbane CBD. Jackie’s (male) co-owner has been to Caboolture and is happy to advise that the locals there speak English (among other languages) – even if they don’t read Karl Marx or follow the utterances of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  So it’s language friendly but socialism light.

It would seem that ABC management’s decision that its overwhelmingly inner-city-based journalists should interact with the hoi polloi is coming into effect.  The ABC’s view seems to be that if ABC journalists make contact with lower economic areas such as Caboolture – their overwhelmingly Green/left ideology will fade and they will begin to understand how Scott Morrison won the 2019 election.  Contrary to the predictions of the likes of Barrie Cassidy, Annabel Crabb and other members of the ABC’s Sandalista Set at the time.

If this rumour is true – then perhaps the ABC could follow the logic of its latest you-beaut idea.  Rather than getting ABC types to travel to meet Caboolture Man and Caboolture Woman – why not move the ABC’s office to Caboolture and hire reporters locally?

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Until next time.

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