GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG

ISSUE – NO. 711

13 December 2024

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EDITORIAL

 MWD TO GO ON WHAT SOME JOURNOS CALL A W.E.B.

Media Watch Dog is one of the few publications in the English-speaking world where the staff take holidays – rather than what some journalists like to call a Well Earned Break – or WEB.  For the record, holidays at MWD are “well earned” – it’s just that we don’t brag about it.

This is the last MWD for 2024 – it is expected publication will resume before Australia Day 2025 – God Willing.  MWD finishes after the taxpayer funded public broadcaster’s Media Watch – and will resume earlier. That’s capitalism, eh?

MWD is put together with a very small but highly-skilled full-time/part-time/casual staff.  Lotsa thanks to Lalita Mathias, Paige Haily, Nick Philips, Felix Hahn and on occasions Naomi Killin. Plus Anne Henderson – Ellie’s (female) co-owner.

Thanks also to the avid readers who draw MWD’s attention to material.  Everything is read and as much as possible is used. And a special thanks to the Mysterious Mr M – who acts as a proofreader while leaving the odd John-Laws-Style-Deliberate-Mistake in MWD to keep avid readers alert.

Once upon a time, dogs and others died. Now it seems that they merely “pass”.  As avid readers are only too well aware, Nancy (2004-2017) still runs courtesy classes for MWD with a little help from the American psychic John Edward. Already Jackie (2017-2023) has a regular slot compiling MWD’s hugely popular Hyperbole of the Week segment – also with the assistance of your man Edward – now that she too is in recently departed mode.  And then there is Ellie who helps on a weekly basis (date of birth unknown – her mother walked the streets) – and authors the new “Ellie Takes Offence” segment.

Gerard Henderson and the (small) Sydney Institute Team wish avid readers Happy Christmas and/or Happy Hanukkah – and urge all to Keep Morale High.

And so the (media) year ended on Thursday 12 December or the dreaded Friday the 13th. According to Media Watch Dog these were the two highlights.

  • ABC RADIO NATIONAL’s LATE NIGHT LEFT ENDS NOT WITH A BANG BUT WITH A ZZZZZZ

On 12 December the ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live ended with what it termed “2024 Year in Review”. David Marr was in the presenter’s chair and the panel comprised Chas Licciardello (one of the Chaser Boys, average age 481/2 and co-presenter of ABC TV’s Planet America), Sashi Perera (a former refugee lawyer turned comedian) and The Guardian Australia’s cartoonist First Dog on the Moon (aka Andrew Marlton).

The program occupied an entire hour as everyone essentially agreed with everyone else in an essentially left-of-centre kind of way. There were references to Israel’s (alleged) genocide in Gaza along with false claims about alleged instances of Islamophobia. Chas told David that he was “The King” while Dog – as he likes to be called – alleged that some people he doesn’t like are into “fascism” and called – Boris Johnson like – for everyone to buy his book. And Ellie’s (male) co-owner seems to recall that Chas declared that Donald J Trump is a lame duck president even before his inauguration on 20 January 2025. By then it was Post Dinner Drinks Time and zzzzz fell across the land.

Question: what did Late Night Left give insomniacs for Christmas? Answer: an hour of Sleep-Inducing Boredom.

  • DAVID CROWE’S 180 DEGREE TURN ABOUT PETER DUTTON – WITHOUT LETTING READERS KNOW

Did anyone read the column by Nine Newspapers chief political correspondent David Crowe in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald on Friday 13th (of December)? Titled “Teals scored Liberal seats. Now Dutton’s surge could take them back”. This is how it commenced:

The stunning defeat for the Liberal Party in urban Australia at the last election led to the natural assumption that it had lost some of its blue-ribbon electorates for years. The crumbling of the Liberal vote in the wealthiest parts of Sydney and Melbourne seemed to shut the party out of power for more than one term. But old assumptions need to be challenged, if not cast aside, now that Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is running rampant as the alternative prime minister and the Liberal Party primary vote has steadily recovered from that 2022 defeat. The Coalition lost the election with a primary vote of 35.7 per cent and is now on 38 per cent in the Resolve Political Monitor, published in this masthead.

Could this be the very same David Crowe who claimed on 19 April 2023 that Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s decision to advocate a “No” vote in the Voice referendum amounted to “pointing” the Liberal Party’s “aircraft towards the ground and hitting the accelerator”? Sure could.

Another prophecy of the false kind. And now, Comrade Crowe is writing that Peter Dutton could be prime minister anytime soon. But did your man Crowe ‘fess up to readers about his change of position on the Opposition leader? Not on your Nelly. To rephrase a saying: being a journalist means never having to say you’re wrong.

  

  • COMRADES MARR, TINGLE AND SAVVA AGREE WITH EACH OTHER AS LATE NIGHT LIVE WRAPS THE YEAR IN AUSTRALIAN POLITICS

While on the topic of Late Night Live (aka Late Night Left), did anyone listen to David Marr’s final report on Australian politics for the year?  Instead of talking only to his regular guest in this (Monday) slot – namely ABC TV’s 7.30 chief political correspondent Laura Tingle – there was another guest. To wit, Nine Newspapers’ Niki Savva who writes a column for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.

How about that?  The left-of-centre Comrade Marr interviewed the left-of-centre Laura Tingle along with the left-of-centre Niki Savva about “the realities of 2024”.

You have to admire the hubris of Comrades Tingle and Savva to talk about the Liberal Party with confidence at any time.

After all, La Tingle told 7.30 viewers on 24 August 2018: “With the destruction of Malcolm Turnbull’s prime ministership, we may be witnessing the end of the Liberal Party.” It’s still alive. And in 2019, Ms Savva predicted the Liberal Party would lose the election that year. It didn’t. Moreover, the duo are quite hostile to the Liberal Party leader – Peter Dutton. Dutton-antagonists, in fact.

This is how your man Marr introduced the segment:

David Marr: The two toughest, smartest, Canberra press gallery old hands, and I use the term only in its professional sense, join me to look back at 2024. Laura Tingle, of course, chief correspondent on 7.30. And Niki Savva, author and columnist for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. Laura, did 2024 pan out more or less as you expected?

It turned out to be woeful tidings in the lead-up to the Festive Season.  La Tingle declared that 2024 panned out as it started “where we had the rise of Peter Dutton’s populism dominating politics and the Prime Minister struggling to catch up”.  Comrade Savva essentially concurred. Then Tingle criticised Anthony Albanese’s performance – but not his policies. It was all so grim that Comrade Marr threw the switch to irony when the topic turned to the Coalition’s strength on immigration and border security:

David Marr: We were invaded at one point this year by four people landing on a remote island.

Laura Tingle: Very scary I think, it was very scary. But so, so that all of those things…

The reality was not very scary. And the comment was not very funny.  One MWD avid reader texted this about the LNL guests: “They are both depressed about Labor’s chances in the election.” Yep.  But more likely depressed about the possibility that Peter Dutton might, just might, become prime minister in 2025.

Savva then dealt with Anthony Albanese’s errors “which detract from everything else they’ve done” – Marr and Tingle concurred. Then Marr said that he wanted to talk about Dutton’s predecessor “for a minute”. Namely, former prime minister Scott Morrison who left office as long ago as May 2022.  Which was an odd way to review politics in 2024 – but there you go.  Comrade Savva agreed that the Morrison government was “bizarre” and “pretty weird”.

Then the host directed attention to Peter Dutton.  Marr described Dutton’s commitment to nuclear energy as “economically bizarre” and Tingle concurred while also criticising Dutton over migration and tax policies.

At this stage Ellie’s (male) co-owner decided it was time for a Late Night Port as Late Night Left ended its political year with David agreeing with Laura who agreed with Niki who agreed with David who agreed with himself.  Can You Bear It?

  • IT’S A CASE OF “DON’T MENTION THE LEFT” ON NEWS BREAKFAST

On News Breakfast on 10 December, extremism expert from Deakin University Josh Roose was interviewed by Michael Rowland in the wake of the arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue. The attack has been designated as terrorism.

Roose maintained that the far-right and neo-Nazis have been a source of anti-Semitism for the last five to ten years. But that hostility and attacks on Australia’s Jewish communities have increased since October 7 – as Australian Jewish communities are conflated with the Israeli government. Roose referred to the source of those recent attacks only as “some protesters”.

Co-presenter Bridget Brennan then referenced “concerns about the far-right” and its attacks on the Jewish community.

There was no mention of anti-Israel protests on university campuses, vandalism of property and intimidation of residents in suburbs with Jewish communities, or vandalism of Jewish MP Josh Burns’ office by pro-Palestine activists.

As yet, no one has been charged over the synagogue terrorist attack. But it would appear the current wave of anti-Semitism in Australia has been coming primarily from the green left and militant Islamists. You would not know that from listening to News Breakfast. Can You Bear It?

  • ROSS GITTINS IMPLIES THAT ROSS GITTINS HAS A SUPERANNUATION BALANCE OF OVER $3 MILLION GAINED AT THE SMH

Avid Media Watch Dog readers will surely remember the day – earlier this year, in fact – when the Sydney Morning Herald became the “Sydney Morning Gittins” for a day.  The date was 7 February 2024.  The occasion was the SMH’’s celebration of the fact that Ross Gittins – its economics editor – had been at the newspaper for 50 years. (It seems longer – MWD Editor)

In its wisdom (or lack of same) the powers-that-be at the Sydney Morning Herald  saw fit to celebrate Comrade Gittins’ longevity by devoting no fewer than six pages In-Praise-of-Ross-The-Great along with all the Letters to the Editor plus a Gittins column which occupied half a page.

There was reference to your man Gittins’ brilliance and greatness and so on.  Plus no fewer than 15 photos of the SMH’s economics editor.  Plus many endorsements.  All this for a bloke whom Ellie’s (male) co-owner reckons has written much the same column for half a century.

Media Watch Dog was reminded of this by the SMH’s front page on 11 December 2024 which carried a photo of your man Gittins alongside these words: “We Live In An Era of Gutless Leaders. Opinion Page 18.”

Turn to page 18 and there was a column titled “Era of gutless government is here”. This from a journalist who has never worked in government – i.e. in a minister or politician’s office or in the public service.  In other words, the SMH’s  economics editor has no experience of just how difficult the life of a politician, who is about reform and change, can be.

As is his wont, your man Gittins could not resist writing about himself in his condemnation of Australia’s (so-called) gutless leaders.  Here is what he wrote towards the end of his 11 December column.

… This is politicians acting on their cynical maxim that “the appearance is the reality”. They don’t need actually to fix a problem, just create the appearance of fixing it. Just do something the unthinking punters, and the shock jocks who lead them on, happily imagine will fix things. Promised measures dropped from Albanese’s frenetic bill-passing included action to curb the advertising of sports gambling and the plan – announced in February last year – to raise the tax on superannuation balances over $3 million (a needed reform despite what it would have cost a poor battler such as me).

How about that?  No wonder your man Gittins never bothered to practise what he preached by entering politics.  The SMH’s economics editor implied to readers (if readers there were) that he has a superannuation balance of over $3 million after half a century writing economics sludge for the SMH.  Can You Bear It?

PAUL BARRY’S SERMON ON THE MOUNT

As avid Media Watch Dog readers are aware, Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch segment commenced way back in April 1988 – in The Sydney Institute Quarterly magazine – over a year before the first edition of the ABC TV Media Watch went to air.  Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch segment later morphed into his MWD blog.

PAUL BARRY’S SELF-INDULGENT AU REVOIR

In Media Watch  Dog’s previous issue, Paul Barry’s decision to step down as presenter of the ABC TV Media Watch program focused on the fact that its offshoot – Media Bites – will not be continued without your man Barry.

In a significant display of his lack of self-awareness, Comrade Barry ended his final Media Watch program this way:

Paul Barry: Next year Linton Besser will be in the chair. I wish him the very best of luck. And I hope you will join him. And we’ll leave you with a taste of our final, final show — the best of Media Bites, all 413 episodes, which will be out on social media later this week. Bites will not be back next year – which is sad, because making them was a lot of fun.

Paul Barry: Sorry mate, um, you gotta go. It’s the cuts you see, nothing personal … Come on, off you go. Out.

– Media Bites, ABC, Episode 15, 2018

Paul Barry: That’s it. Thanks for watching. Goodbye from me and the team.

Media Bites was made for what Ellie’s (male) co-owner has termed the ABC’s non-funny comedians.  It was embarrassingly bad – with Barry presenting like a hopeless ageing clown performing at a six-year-old’s birthday party.  And yet Paul Barry and his executive producer Tim (nee Timothy) Latham decided to put all 413 episodes of Media Bites online.  Whatever might be said of Linton Besser’s judgement, at least he has had the good sense not to continue Media Bites next year.

Lesson 1 – In Which Paul Barry States the Bleeding Obvious

The final Media Watch on Monday 2 December went for around 20 minutes – five minutes over time.  In the first segment, it stated the obvious about contemporary media – according to the Teachings of the Rev Barry.  Which contained bad language.  [Perhaps it’s not too late for Comrade Barry to attend Nancy’s Courtesy Classes. – MWD Editor.]

  • First up, Barry told viewers that, when he first presented Media Watch in 2000, there was no Facebook, or YouTube, or Reddit, or Twitter, or WhatsApp, or Instagram, or TikTok, or iPhone. Really? Thanks for letting us know. He also advised about the existence of Google and Meta.  Thanks again.
  • Then Barry told us that “until 2008 no one had iPhones”. Hold the front page, as the saying goes, or went. And that newspaper circulation is dropping along with advertising revenue and jobs in journalism and many regional papers have disappeared. Go on – He did.Moreover, online newspapers carry clickbait and print newspapers contain lotsa advertising of real estate and cruise lines.  And, viewers of free-to-air TV are declining.  You don’t say.
  • Having spent a lot of time stating the bleeding obvious, Comrade Barry decided to get stuck into his favourite targets – namely Sky News and its “right-wing barkers [sic]”. Groan. Soon after he referred on two occasions to “Sky News After-Darkers”.  “Darkers” rhymes with “Barkers”.  Get it?

Believe it or not, Media Watch has a total team of about ten who put together this old news of how the media has changed since Rev Barry was 49 years old – or thereabouts.  Your taxes at work.

Lesson 2 – In Which The Rev Barry Talks About Himself

In his final program, Paul Barry spent a lot of time talking about himself in his two stints as Media Watch presenter.  Here are some examples:

In 2000, Barry conducted a hostile interview with ABC Chair Donald McDonald in which Barry criticised the then ABC managing director Jonathan Shier. Here’s how he tells the story:

Paul Barry: People told me I was brave. People told me I was stupid. People told me I would be sacked. And I was. Or my contract was not renewed. Thus proving that an independent Media Watch is never guaranteed. But ABC staff went out on strike for 24 hours. Media Watch was boycotted, and went to black. And not long afterwards Jonathan Shier was shown the door. Whereupon Media Watch returned after a year – independent once more – with David Marr as host.

It was an example of the ABC as a staff collective where the staff run the joint and not the chair or the managing director. And so Media Watch continued – with the left-of-centre progressive  Paul Barry being replaced by the left-of-centre progressive David Marr.  In other words, the more things change, the more they remain the same. Or plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose – as someone flashing their French might say.

And then there was this:

Paul Barry: Over the years I have hosted Media Watch, several executives have wanted me sacked. But they left and I survived.  As did the program. And I need to thank the ABC for that. It is remarkable that any broadcaster tolerates a program that rips into it as we have done.  And two people in particular deserve the credit.  Mark Scott was managing director from 2006 to 2016 and David Anderson who has been managing director since 2019. They have always had my back and defended Media Watch’s right to criticise, even if they didn’t agree with its criticisms. So thank you both. Thank you also to my partner in crime, executive producer Tim Latham, who has been wonderful to work with, has been here almost as long as I have, and is also moving on.

It’s interesting to note that Barry thanked Mark Scott and David Anderson – both of whom were happy to preside over the taxpayer funded public broadcaster as a staff collective.  No wonder they are both admired at the ABC soviet.

In a total of around 13 years as Media Watch presenter – Barry cited only three occasions when he has criticised specific ABC programs.  And all of them were hopelessly flawed.  Namely (i) The  Ghost Train Fire (which made false claims of accessory to murder about the late NSW Labor premier Neville Wran), (ii) the documentary about the late Juanita Nielsen (which made false claims about her possible murderer) and (iii) the false allegation that Heston Russell had committed war crimes – concerning which the ABC made a substantial settlement for defamation.

That’s all, folks. With one exception. Paul Barry documented one occasion when he took on the fashionable left which dominates the ABC:

Paul Barry: …trips to the canteen became really uncomfortable when we criticised the ABC’s coverage – or lack of coverage – of the debate over transgender medicine and puberty blockers and asked if the public broadcaster should be so close to the AIDS Council of NSW.

Paul Barry:  The problem here is a media group partnering with and being rewarded by a lobby group – any lobby group. And how that can lead to perceptions of bias in the coverage or to bias itself.  We think the ABC should review the arrangement.

– Media Watch, ABC, 17 October, 2022.

Paul Barry: It is still in place.

In other words – on perhaps the only occasion that Paul Barry took on ABC leftist/progressive orthodoxy – he lost.  What’s more, Barry rarely criticised such ABC “stars” as Laura Tingle, Sarah Ferguson, Tony Jones, Michael Rowland, Patricia Karvelas, Barrie Cassidy,  Fran Kelly, Phillip Adams, Kerry O’Brien and the like.

Lesson 3 – Paul Barry in Denial About the ABC’s Lack of Viewpoint Diversity

Paul Barry has never discussed the central problem with the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster. Namely, its lack of viewpoint diversity.

Indeed, Barry was part of the problem.  Since its inception in 1989, Media Watch has only ever had left-of-centre or “progressive” presenters like, er, Paul Barry. Here’s the list: Stuart Littlemore (1989-1997); Richard Ackland (1998-1999); Paul Barry (2000); David Marr (2002-2004); the late Liz Jackson (2005); Monica Attard (2006-2007); Jonathan Holmes (2008-2013), Paul Barry (2013-2024) and Linton Besser (2025-    ). Not a conservative among this lot.

As MWD’s previous issue documented, Linton Besser – who will present Media Watch (sans Media Bites) next year – is of the same political ilk as Barry and his predecessors.  He is of the ABC Family and of the progressive left-of-centre.

Paul Barry is – and has always been – in denial about the lack of viewpoint diversity with the ABC.  Here’s what he had to say on his second last show – Monday 25 November:

Paul Barry: The ABC is often accused by its critics of being a Conservative-Free-Zone, but for the last four decades Macca has been a staunch defender of old-fashioned values.

Macca is Ian McNamara – who has presented Australia All Over on ABC Radio – between 5.30 am and 9 am on Sundays since Moses was a boy.  It’s hardly a high-profile program and is rarely promoted by the ABC.

Barry seems to regard McNamara as a conservative because he doesn’t like the sight of commercial solar panels or wind turbines and does not believe that batteries will do the trick if the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow.  But, then, Comrade Barry lives in an expensive pile in inner-city Sydney – a long, long way from commercial solar farms and massive wind farms and literally millions of transmission lines over private property and crown land.

McNamara also supports nuclear energy. In his ignorance, Barry seems to believe that only conservatives oppose commercial solar farms and commercial wind turbines (the power from which is carried by massive overland transmission lines) and support nuclear energy.  In fact, if Comrade Barry had got out more – as the saying goes – he would know that there are quite a few former members of the Greens political party who would have similar views to Ian McNamara on this issue.  The ex-Greens in question object to the massive environmental damage caused by renewables and some favour a move towards nuclear energy.

In other words, Paul Barry produced no evidence that Ian McNamara is a conservative.  Sure, Macca (as he is called by some) appeals to what he regards as middle Australia. But he is more interested in chatting away about everyday life than promoting conservative values.  Indeed, at times, McNamara presents as a kind of rural socialist with a folksy bent. What’s more, Barry regards all conservatives as mere defenders of “old-fashioned values”. This is just devoid of evidence.

In any event, after 13 years of presenting Media Watch, Paul Barry implied that his employer is not a Conservative Free Zone because it employs Ian McNamara – who goes off air before many people wake up on Sunday morning.  Turn it up.  As mentioned earlier, Paul Barry himself is the embodiment of the ABC as a Conservative Free Zone.

The ABC Overlooks Janine Perrett as a Barry Replacement

It was time for a real change at Media Watch – following Barry’s retirement from Media Watch.  For example, David Anderson and his management team could have appointed Janine Perrett – who performed well when she stood in for Barry on occasions in recent years.  Perrett’s background is in commercial media – in other words, she is not part of the ABC Family.  What’s more – Perrett does not present as either a progressive or conservative type. She is a professional empirical reporter.

If Perrett had replaced Barry, this would have ended the domination of ABC left-of-centre types on Media Watch which has extended for over three decades.  But once again, ABC types appointed another ABC type to present Media Watch.

There is also the matter of the Media Watch format. Since its inception in 1989, Media Watch has had a left-of-centre presenter sermonising about the media.  Here the ABC could learn from Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News in the United States (which is broadcast on Foxtel in Australia).

Howard Kurtz hosts MediaBuzz  on Sunday mornings (US time).  Kurtz does not present as a progressive or conservative.  Moreover, he has panellists discussing the US media who have conflicting views.  In other words, when it comes to media programs, there is viewpoint diversity on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News –  but none on Kim Williams’ ABC.

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For the record, Ellie’s (male) co-owner is pleased with the fact that ABC TV’s Media Watch will remain a Conservative Free Zone.  After all, the program provides lotsa material for Hendo.

NEW FEATURE: THE CULT OF PERSONALITY – AN UPDATE

ON A VISIT TO CANBERRA MWD FINDS THAT THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY CONTAINS NOT MANY PORTRAITS AND THAT THE MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRACY FEATURES KERRY O’BRIEN TALKING ABOUT “RED KERRY”

It was not long after Guy Fawkes Day that Ellie’s (male) co-owner found himself, as the saying goes, in the Australian Capital Territory. Canberra, in fact.  Do any Media Watch Dog readers born before, say, 1945 remember Guy Fawkes Day? – which, due to fireworks and all that, used to go off with a bang. [I do.  I remember, remember the 5th of November. – MWD Editor.]

First up, was a visit to the National Portrait [sic] Gallery.  MWD uses the Latin adverb “sic” not for the reason of being pretentious. [Are you sure? – MWD Editor].  But to make the point that the NPG was almost bereft of portraits. Fortunately, admission was free – which saved the embarrassment of visitors having to ask for their money back.

Sure, there were about 50 portraits at the entrance stuck on the wall all the way up to the roof. Unfortunately, Hendo left his crane in Sydney and could not get a good view of some of this work.  Other portraits, however, had been “disappeared” since he last visited.  Including, as MWD recalls, a photograph of Robert Manne –  whom we know as Australia’s leading public intellectual because his website used to state this as, er, fact.  And one of Daniel Mannix, the one-time Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne.

One of the exhibitions seemed to be about colonisation and contained few portraits.  Some galleries were closed – due, perhaps, to the preparation for the opening of the Carol Jerrems collection. And that was about it.

A SCENE FROM NPG’S 2023-24 ANNUAL REPORT

LOOKING FOR “DISAPPEARED PORTRAITS” AT THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY? – A SCENE FROM NPG’S 2023-24 ANNUAL REPORT

So Hendo headed off to what was Parliament House (1927-1988), before it became Old Parliament House, before it became the Museum Of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House (aka MOAD). The basement contains a section on the media.  A flyer stated:

Did you know?  Journalists worked in this building from 1927 to 1988!  They used to work in offices on the roof of the building. [I just love exclamation marks!!!!!! – MWD Editor].

What a load of, well, disinformation.  It was too cold in a Canberra winter for journalists to work on the roof of Old Parliament House.  But many journalists were based in what might be termed an attic – i.e. the top floor.

But MWD digresses.  Entering MOAD’s Palace de Journalists, Hendo was confronted by a small video of former ABC star Barrie Cassidy stating how central he and his mates were/are to Australian Democracy.  Walk around the corner and there was an almost life-size video of former ABC star Kerry O’Brien (aka Red Kerry) stating how central he and his mates were/are to Australian Democracy.

Those entering the MOAD exhibition could watch Red Kerry deliver his sermon.  There was also a written text available in a transparent folder.  A bit like a modern-day version of the tablet that Moses carried when he came down from the mountain with God’s commandments in hand.

This is how the sermon of Red Kerry commenced:

As a young journalist, I chased stories like a dog would chase a car. It was exciting. It fed my curiosity. I travelled, and I was actually paid for it. But the more I saw, the more I was exposed to the way the world works, the good and the bad, the more I came to understand how important journalism was and is as an absolutely fundamental linchpin of democracy and freedom. A bulwark against the abuse of power, a conveyor of inspired ideas and ideals, an honest broker in the flow of information, and unfortunately, disinformation. In 50 years of journalism, l’ve seen power corrupt people and institutions, and absolute power corrupt them absolutely, inside Australia and out. And I’ve seen how that corruption has hurt innocent people and subverted justice and fairness. I’ve seen institutions exploit the vulnerable. I’ve seen Australians sent to wars based on lies and misinformation, some of whom have not come home….

[Well done Red Kerry.  I note some 10 references to “I” or “I’ve” in his first seven sentences. A personal contribution to the O’Brien Cult of Personality, to be sure. – MWD Editor.]

By the way, your man O’Brien did not attribute “the power corrupts” maxim to the British historian Lord Acton (1834-1902).  Perhaps there wasn’t room on the video.  Nor did Comrade O’Brien mention that he once worked for Labor leader Gough Whitlam – a powerful Australian in his time. Or that the Whitlam government was totally unsympathetic to the Vietnamese refugees fleeing the communist regime which came to power in (then) South Vietnam in 1975.  Or that the Whitlam government ran a vicious campaign of persecution against Croatian Australians in the early 1970s.  Both these groups were resented by the Whitlam administration because they were anti-communists.

Kerry O’Brien’s 880 page tome Kerry O’Brien: A Memoir, which was published in 2019, also ignored the Whitlam policy to Vietnamese refugees and Croatian Australians.

But now Red Kerry’s MOAD video warns viewers (if viewers there are) of – yes – “disinformation” and “fake news” and how he had “learned to keep the powerful honest”.  [I understand you soon departed MOAD and headed off for an early Gin & Tonic. I now appreciate why. – MWD Editor.]

ROBERT MANNE TALKS TO ABC’S LATE NIGHT LIVE AND NINE’S AGE AND SMH ABOUT ROBERT MANNE

While on the topic of Australia’s leading intellectual, Media Watch Dog was interested to read in Nine Newspapers’ “CBD” gossip column on 4 December that Robert Manne has produced a political memoir.

MWD will have to order a trolley before attempting to purchase a copy of Robert Manne – A Political Memoir: Intellectual Combat in the Cold War and the Culture Wars (La Trobe University Press with Black Inc).  After all, it runs to 486 pages.

In the meantime, MWD learnt from “CBD” that it has heard that Manne’s tome refers to “a lot of fights with people who were very big a long time ago”. “CBD” reported that “Manne gets on with the business of settling scores of  his many feuds, even when he professes not to be settling scores”.

But this was not evident when Manne spoke to David Marr on ABC Radio National on 5 December.  There he mentioned Eddie Mabo, Sigmund Freud and Malcolm Muggeridge – all of whom are Requiescat In Pace mode.  Plus, the living Henry Reynolds, Bernie Sanders and Anne Manne – along with “the Trumpites”.  That’s all.  No scores to be settled with this lot.  Your man Manne mainly spoke about himself.

In the interview by Nine’s Cassidy Knowlton which was published in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald on 3 December, Robert Manne also spoke mainly about the subject he knows best. Namely, HIMSELF.  He only mentioned a couple of names – viz his publisher Morry Schwartz, Donald Trump, John Howard and Kevin Rudd.  He did not have scores to settle with the likes of Schwartz and Trump.

MWD may, or may not, report on Robert Manne’s memoirs in the next issue.  Depending on whether there is a trolley for hire in the looming holiday season.

[By the way, I was surprised to see what Manne told Knowlton that in 2002 he supported the Howard government’s policy to “turn back the boats” with respect to asylum seekers attempting to enter Australia by sea. – MWD Editor]

THE ABC’s 2025 LINE UP: MORE OF THE “PROGRESSIVE” SAME AT THE TAXPAYER FUNDED PUBLIC BROADCASTER

As Media Watch Dog has stated ad nauseam, the central problem with ABC news and current affairs is that it lacks viewpoint diversity.  Moreover, a lack of viewpoint diversity makes for boring broadcasting.

Here is a snapshot of the key players on ABC TV and ABC Radio news and current affairs next year.  Media Watch Dog stands to be corrected.  However, MWD is of the view that none of this lot would have voted “No” in the 2023 referendum on The Voice. But 60 per cent of Australians voted against the “Yes’ case.  Which demonstrates how out-of-touch the inner-city-centric ABC is – whatever the merits of the “Yes” and “No” cases are.

Little wonder that so many former ABC conservative viewers/listeners have abandoned it for such outlets as Sky News.  Moreover, the Always Boring Channel is not attracting its desired increase of young viewers/listeners.

Media Watch Dog will advise avid readers next year if the ABC’s lack of viewpoint diversity is addressed by ABC management in 2025.  Don’t hold your breath as the saying goes. The evidence suggests that the taxpayer funded public broadcaster will remain a Conservative Free Zone in 2025.

Top row: Sarah Ferguson (7.30), Laura Tingle (7.30), James Glenday and Bridget Brennan (News Breakfast), David Speers (Insiders),

Second Row: Linton Besser (Media Watch), Patricia Karvelas (Q+A, Afternoon Briefing) Louise Milligan (Four Corners), Mark Willacy (Four Corners)

Third row: Virginia Trioli (Creative Types), Nick Bryant (Saturday Extra), Raf Epstein (Melbourne Mornings), Fran Kelly (The Radio National Hour),

Fourth row: David Marr (Late Night Live), Craig Reucassel (Sydney Breakfast), Sally Sara (The World Today), Andy Park (RN Drive)

HISTORY CORNER

NICK BRYANT EMBRACES DONALD HORNE’S MYTHOLOGY THAT PRIME MINISTER ROBERT MENZIES AND HIS PREDECESSORS WERE “SECOND RATE”

The ex-BBC journalist Nick Bryant appears to be the very latest Brit to take up a position at the ABC.  Comrade Bryant stood in for Fran Kelly on 7 December 2024 as presenter of ABC Radio National Saturday Extra – he will take over this position in 2025 while Comrade Kelly moves from Saturday Extra to a full time position at Radio National presenting The Radio National Hour at 6 pm.

As avid Media Watch readers know, Fran Kelly is yet another manifestation of the ABC as a line out of the Eagles’ song Hotel California goes. In that ABC faves can check out (as Kelly did from presenting RN Breakfast initially) but they never leave.

But MWD digresses.  On 7 December Nick Bryant interviewed Ryan Cropp about his book Donald Horne:  A Life in the Lucky Country (Black Inc Books).  Donald Horne (1921-2005) was an Australian journalist, writer and editor whose best-known work was The Lucky Country: Australia in the Sixties (Penguin, 1964).

Toward the end of the interview, Bryant told Cropp this:

Nick Bryant: I read The Lucky Country in one gulp. I was flying from Sydney to Perth not long after I came to live here [initially]. I read it on the fly. It seemed to perfectly encapsulate so many aspects of the country down below. I’m a great fan of the book….

Earlier the following exchange took place:

Nick Bryant: Well, the most famous line, which still gets quoted today a lot is Australia is a lucky country, run mainly by second-rate people who share its luck. Who exactly was Donald Horne referring to?

Ryan Cropp: I think the most obvious target of that line was Robert Menzies. I mean, the book even has a chapter called “The Age of Menzies”. At the time the book was written, it was in about the 14th year of Menzies’s prime ministership. And Donald really thought that Australia was kind of stuck in neutral. There was experiencing a sense of drift, and he attributed that largely to the Australian political class. And so it wasn’t just Menzies. It was everyone. It was the Labor side of politics as well. In particular, the Labor side of politics, someone like Arthur Calwell. He was the leader of the Labor Party. Donald had this great line that Menzies and Calwell were conducting an argument they’d read about in an old book. I think that went right to the heart of it….

Nick Bryant: So often we focus on the first bit of the title, The Lucky Country. I think sometimes we sort of forget the second bit – the subtitle, which was “Australia in the Sixties”. And when you’re thinking about Australian politicians being second rate, you know, I don’t think that’s true of the ’70s. I don’t think that’s true of the ’80s. I don’t think that’s true of the ’90s. So I wonder why it is that this book still animates so much political discussion, how it frames so much of the debate about politics in Australia?

Ryan Cropp: Well, I think if you think about that idea at a high level, it’s kind of universal. It can, it can go on forever. You know, whenever there’s a kind of dissatisfaction with political leaders, you know, this book, and that line, will kind of rear its head again in opinion columns and the like. And so, I think potentially, that’s where a lot of its kind of longevity comes from.

The point here is that the essential thesis of The Lucky Country was absolute tosh. Nick Bryant seems unaware of this.

Horne’s critique of Australia as a lucky country led by second-rate politicians who shared its luck is mere hyperbole.  Robert Menzies was no second-rate politician.  Nor were such leading figures in his Coalition government as Artie Fadden, Percy Spender, Richard Casey, Herbert Opperman, Paul Hasluck, Garfield Barwick and more besides.  To declare Menzies second rate suggests that Horne had little time for the majority of electors who voted for the Coalition in 1949, 1951, 1954, 1955, 1958, 1961 and 1963.

The Australian economy was booming through much of the 1950s and 1960s. And, contrary to mythology, there was a vibrant intellectual and cultural life in Australia – compared with other Western democracies at the time.  That’s why so many migrants wanted to settle here.  Sure, the Australian economy was over-protected in the 1960s but unemployment and interest rates were low and migration was high.  Also, the Menzies government presided over the substantial growth in home ownership.

Bryant maintains that the Australian prime ministers in the 1970s (mainly Gough Whitlam & Malcolm Fraser), the 1980s (Malcolm Fraser & Bob Hawke) and 1990s (Paul Keating & John Howard) were not second rate.  Which does not say much for their successors.

However, in his 2014 book The Rise and Fall of Australia: How A  Great Nation Lost Its Way, Bryant raises this question: “If Australian politics is so bad, why has this country done so well?”

That very question demolishes the Horne thesis – which Bryant shares to a degree.  If Australia had second rate leaders between Federation 1901 and the publication of The Lucky Country in 1964 then Horne could never have lived such a pleasant and prosperous life as an alienated intellectual in the final decades of his life.

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Until Next Time ~ in late January 2025.

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