GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG – ISSUE NO. 30
2 OCTOBER 2009
THE SYCOPHANTIC SPOON AWARD
Lisa Millar – Fawn Again in Pittsburgh
Congratulations to the ABC North American correspondence Lisa Millar who has done a Kerry O’Brien circa 1987 (See Issue 28) by competing with herself in the Sycophantic Spoon Award stakes.
Ms Millar was mentioned in dispatches in last week’s gong due to her breathless-in-New-York praise for Kevin Rudd’s success on the world stage – particularly on climate change at the United Nations General Assembly. However, last Sunday Ms Millar threw the switch to fawn with a vengeance – using words such an “extraordinary” and “brilliant” to describe Mr Rudd’s role in the decision that the G-20 (including China, India and Brazil) meeting in Pittsburgh would replace the G-8 (excluding China, India and Brazil) as the primary international economic forum.
Certainly Prime Minister Kevin Rudd advocated such a move – just as, when treasurer in the Howard Government, Peter Costello had proclaimed the importance of the G20 in its (then) role as a meeting place for finance ministers and central bank governors. It’s just that Australia’s voice was one among a number advocating the upgrading of the G20’s role in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis.
In any event, Ms Millar did sycophants everywhere proud as she laid on the flattery with a trowel on Insiders last Sunday. Here we go:
Kevin Rudd has been lobbying for almost two years to try and make the G20 the pre-eminent group to deal with not only financial issues but other issues as well. …I reckon that he’s probably been lobbying to have a G20 meeting held in Australia in the not too distant future. It’s been quite an amazing week [for Kevin Rudd]. The, er, moderating one of the panels at the climate summit. Being one of only a couple of leaders who was asked to speak on the first evening of the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. And, of course, then that moment on stage with Bill Clinton when he was described as one of the most well read and one of the most intelligent leaders in the world today.
Quite frankly, it was an exhausting week for most of us. I don’t know how he managed to do it. But he still popped down to the bar at the hotel where we were all staying last night to watch the footy final. Now…I have to confess. I don’t know if it’s just because I’m a Queenslander or I was just too plain tired, but I didn’t make it down there with the Prime Minister. But I’m told that he stayed for the first quarter and was still buzzing because of his brilliant week. In fact, one of the journos remarked they felt they needed to pull the battery pack out of his back to get him to wind down.
Oh, gosh. Oh, gush.
A NANCY/COCKER INTERLUDE
Viewers were impressed by the ABC initial coverage of the Prime Minister’s arrival in the United States. So much so that Nancy received the following email from Cocker on 21 September.
Dear Nancy:
My kennel TV has been on the blink lately, but it came back on last night in time for the news report of the Great Leader’s arrival in New York. Imagine my surprise when the ABC’s 7 o’clock News showed a couple of brief, very brief, scenes of him chatting with President Obama and then strolling with him in the garden. I thought: “Wow! Kevin’s getting on better with Barack than John did with George!. The President has just dropped everything in Washington and flown to New York just to welcome Kevin.
Then I shook my ears to stop the canker itch and got my brain back into gear: The ABC News never lies – it said Kevin flew to New York, but the pictures of him with Barack were at the White House in Washington??? So unless Kevin had made a short detour on his way to New York??…no the ABC would have told us…..he couldn’t have met Barack on his first day in New York. What was the ABC doing? Of course – they dragged out a couple of shots in the Library from his last visit! But why? After another scratch at the canker, it came to me – it was to give the impression (subliminally of course) that our dear Kevin is so important on the world stage and has so much clout with his political twin Barack that naturally, they would meet as soon as he arrived.
Kind regards
Cocker of Killara
FIVE PAWS AWARD
Stephen McDonell Declines to Kow-Tow
Well done to Stephen McDonell, the ABC’s Mandarin speaking journalist in Beijing.
In his reports for various ABC programs – including last night’s 7.30 Report – on the 60th Anniversary of Mao’s victory in the Chinese Civil War, Stephen McDonell mentioned the disasters that befell China during the Leap Forward in the late 1950s and the Cultural Revolution which commenced in the mid 1960s. He also pointed out that China’s path to success has been riddled with mistakes, atrocities, policy reversals and a poor human rights record.
In the past so much media coverage of China has overlooked the disasters that befell China under Mao. Stephen McDonell gives a fair and balanced account. Five Paws.
NANCY’S PICK OF THE WEEK
Leader of the Revolution Channels ABC
Being a (mad) dog, Nancy was so impressed with Libyan President Muammar Qaddafi’s speech to the United Nations that she just cannot get over it.
Nancy was particularly taken by the fact that the man introduced to the United Nations by General Assembly President, Ali Treki, as “leader of the Revolution, President of the African Union and King of Kings of Africa”, not only mentioned Australia but also indicated that he, too, belonged to the Grassy Knoll Set. You see, the King of Kings believes that someone – anyone – other than Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President J. F. Kennedy at Dallas on 22 November 1963. According to the Leader of the Revolution: “The whole world should know that Kennedy wanted to investigate the nuclear sector of the Israeli demon.” It was, wouldn’t you know, all a Jewish conspiracy to advance Israel’s cause.
Being a follower of conspiracy theories, Nancy reckons that there is a link between Qaddafi’s reference to Australia and his membership of the Grassy Knoll Set. Why, just over two months ago a certain Lamar Waldron visited Australia and spoke at the Crime & Justice Festival at the old Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne. Waldron, the author of Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination, is one of the leading members of the Grassy Knoll Set. Unlike the King of Kings, he does not point the finger of blame at Israel. Rather he believes that it was the Mafia wot dunnit.
Nancy was disappointed that, in their wisdom, most media outlets in Australia did not report Mr Waldron’s conspiratorial ravings. However, the public broadcaster did. In spades. Legacy of Secrecy was published by Counterpoint Press in the US in November 2008 and the Australian edition was published by Scribe in February 2009. Lamar Waldron’s ABC appearances included – among others:
Radio National’s The Book Show – 9 December 2008
The World Today – 2 March 2009
The Conversation Hour (with Richard Fidler) – 15 July 2009
Mornings with Margaret Throsby – 16 July 2009
The Conversation Hour (co-host Jon Faine) – 17 July 2009.
“The Kennedys and the man who tried to protect them”, Unleashed , 27 August 2009.
On The World Today, the sassy Eleanor Hall even signed up to the Grassy Knoll Set herself. She was so enthused with Mr Waldron’s conspiracy theory that The World Today presenter (i) declared that Waldron’s “analysis shows there certainly was a government cover-up”; (ii) opined that people in the highest level of government conspired “to prevent a full investigation of the assassination”; (iii) maintained that “there was so much evidence that there were shots from the Grassy Knoll”; (iv) editorialised that “it was so important to the [United States] government that the single shooter theory be believed” and (v) implied that “the Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy assassination would have been prevented had the JFK investigation gone ahead without constraint”.
So there you have it. Ms Hall adopted the JFK conspiracy in full, embracing the view that Lee Harvey Oswald was not the assassin of President Kennedy but, rather, that there were shots from the Grassy Knoll near Dealey Plaza. Ms Hall also accepted the view that the assassination of JFK was the subject of a monumental cover up by government, police and intelligence communities.
How amazing, then that someone – presumably the ubiquitous “THEY” – has been able to keep the lid on this conspiracy for over four decades. So much so that even the late Senator Edward Kennedy was convinced that his brother was murdered by Oswald acting alone. And how grateful we should all be for the learned work of Mr Waldron as endorsed by not only the King of Kings but also Ms Hall.
Richard Fidler also signed up to the Friends of the Grassy Knoll Conspiracy Theory during the interview with Lamar Waldron. Fidler accepted the Waldron view (i) that the Mafia killed Kennedy (ii) that Lee Harvey Oswald was “some kind of tool for the US intelligence” and (iii) that “figures at the highest level in the US military intelligence and CIA were involved, implicated, in what was essentially a coup d’etat”. In short, during the interview Fidler out grassy-knolled Waldron. Quite an achievement when you think about it.
Who knows? Perhaps the King of Kings downloaded the Fidler download and decided to have a grassy-knoll moment at the UN. We’ll keep you posted.
MOVING BACKWARDS
MWD is forever grateful to all who provide valuable copy each week. The content is so substantial that it is difficult to give everyone their due coverage. So, from time to time, it is appropriate to look back on the hits which were missed at the time.
▪ Mike Carlton – Great Exit, Pity About The Ratings
It helps to have mates in the media. MWD was emotionally overcome by Channel 9 News’ coverage of the retirement of Sydney 2UE personality Mike Carlton last week. He quit the post recently – having gone to 2UE some years ago after a gig on ABC Metropolitan Radio in Sydney.
Mr Carlton is the embodiment of the late 1960s/early 1970s fashionable leftie. He is clever and a great mimic but also super sensitive to criticism and somewhat bitter in his middle age. According to 9 News, Mike Carlton stepped down from his 2UE breakfast spot to spend more time with his family [I thought it was politicians who did this. Ed]. Mike Carlton himself gave vent to this interpretation during media interviews.
How fascinating, then, that Mike Carlton’s departure from 2UE was flagged in the Sydney Morning Herald as early as 29 June 2009. At the time, the SMH reported:
The latest round of radio audience figures has heightened fears at 2UE that the once top-rating Sydney talk station is slipping into irrelevance. The station’s audience has fluctuated in the eight years since Alan Jones left for 2GB but it always managed to recover from the occasional “bad” survey to maintain an average of seven or eight ratings points.
Not any more. Last week the station dropped to a mere 5.9 per cent share, the lowest figure in memory. In the past six months, 60,000 listeners have turned elsewhere. Market leader 2GB and 702 ABC have twice as many listeners as beleaguered 2UE and the gap is widening. The damage starts at breakfast and continues across the day….
Interviewed by the SMH about 2UE’s low ratings, Graham Mott (Fairfax Radio’s group general manager) said: “If we can’t get breakfast and mornings performing, the rest of the station doesn’t have much of a chance.” He added that listeners to radio talk shows prefer conservative, right-of-centre presenters. The SMH report continued:
Asked if Mike Carlton’s contract will be renewed at the end of the year, Mott says: “I’m in the process of reviewing everything.” Such a lukewarm response supports the suggestion that 2UE management has become disenchanted with Carlton and is unlikely to renew his $1 million annual salary.
Enough said. The fact is that Mike Carlton was too left-wing to succeed on commercial radio – and also too bitter. Many listeners want do not want 1960s moaning, sneering, alienated leftism for breakfast.
▪ Alison Carbine – And Dust
Listeners to the ABC 702 morning show with Deborah Cameron will be aware not only of her wonderful artificial laughter [Can this be bottled? Ed] but also of the fact that she is one of the public broadcaster’s leading eco-catastrophists. This was evident on the morning of 23 September when the Sydney-based Cameron discussed national politics with the newly appointed Canberra-based Radio National political reporter Alison Carbine. On that particular morning, Sydney was in the midst of a dust storm and Canberra had experienced a similar weather event the previous day.
Dust storms are a fact of life in Australia – they were particularly prevalent during the 1930s and 1940s. Yet Ms Cameron and Ms Carbine were quick to lay the blame on climate change. Let’s go to the audio tape:
Deborah Cameron: Alison, climate change is on the government’s agenda?
Alison Carbine: Oh, look. It’s climate change all around – not just in New York but also in Sydney. And we did have it [in Canberra] yesterday – not quite as bad as Sydneysiders are experiencing.
Still, it’s not surprising that Ms Cameron got somewhat excited about Sydney’s dust storm. In December 2008 she predicted that the Arctic could lose all of its ice by 2010 (i.e. in both summer and winter ice) and is no doubt looking around for any available evidence which might indicate the coming of this particular (Bob Ellis style) prophecy.
▪ David Salter On The Failure Of Others
Years ago the leftist weekly Nation Review came up with a special one-for-the-price-of-two offer. A humour based attempt to disguise a significant price rise, you see. As reported in Issue 9, The Week is currently running a “Get a copy of The Week absolutely free” advertisement. As in – one for the price of none – which is certainly a better proposition than one for the price of two.
MWD genuinely likes publications. So it is to be hoped that The Week will survive. However, it is a matter of record that Mr Salter (a former executive producer of the ABC TV Media Watch program) presided over the demise of The Zeitgeist Gazette – a weekly electronic monitor of the news. The Zeitgeist Gazette failed in the market place. The Week may, or may not, follow suit. Times are tough for such publications.
In the current difficult economic climate, those involved in business should be wary about branding others as failures. Yet this occurred when – on 17 September – David Salter was asked on Richard Glover’s 702 Drive Program what he thought about Kevin Rudd’s decision to appoint former Labor leader Kim Beazley and former Liberal Party leader Brendan Nelson to ambassadorial positions. Salter described both Beazley and Nelson as “failed leaders” and “duds”. Beazley and Nelson were successful Cabinet ministers who did not quite fit the bill as Opposition leaders. Thank God that no one used such terms about David Salter when his on-line newsletter – with the quite unmemorable name – went under.
▪ Too Young To Remember – Too Old To Care
In AFL Grand Final Week, MWD was particularly taken by Cheryl Critchley’s report in the Herald Sun of her conversation with the 70 year old Ron King, who was described as a trainer for St Kilda during the 1966 VFL Grand Final, when St Kilda defeated Collingwood by one point. Ms Critchley reported that Mr King was located near “the interchange bench”. She added: “During the game, Mr King was responsible for the half back flank, rubbing down players on the boundary line as they came off for a rest.”
Great story. Pity about the facts. In 1966 there was no interchange bench in the VFL (which later became the AFL). Any player who left the field, and was replaced, was not able to return. Of St Kilda’s two reserves that day, one did not get on the ground at all and the other only got on the field during the final quarter. Whatever Ron King’s duties were on Grand Final day 43 years ago, they did not pertain to any interchange bench. As the late Ronald Regan is alleged to have said – some of his clearest recollections were of events which never took place.
HISTORY CORNER
Jeff Sparrow Sees Fascism In England’s Pleasant Land
The introduction said it all. On 19 September newmatilda.com ran an article by Jeff Sparrow – the leftist editor of the leftist Overland magazine. The lead-in was as follows:
The New Fascism Hates Muslims
A violent demonstration by far-Right groups in England shows the direction in which Britain’s long-standing fascist tradition is heading, writes Jeff Sparrow.
What’s this? What precisely is “Britain’s long-standing fascist tradition”? Sure, in the 1930s Oswald Mosley led the anti-semitic British Union of Fascists. But, come 1939 and all that, it was Britain, under the leadership of Neville Chamberlain no less, that declared war on Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler did not declare war on Britain. Many of those who had joined – or flirted with – the British Union of Fascists during the decade of the Great Depression put on the King’s uniform circa 1940 and went off to fight fascism on land and sea and in the air.
Meanwhile, members of the Communist Party (in Britain, Australia and elsewhere) effectively supported Nazism by endorsing the signing of the Nazi Soviet Pact on 23 August 1939. Josef Stalin continued backing Hitler until Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941.
So it’s a bit much for a leftie like Jeff Sparrow to be banging on about Britain’s (alleged) long-standing fascist tradition. The fact is that, despite Chamberlain’s appeasement and other policy errors in the late 1930, the British and the Commonwealth nations were the only ones to oppose fascism from the outbreak of hostilities in 1939 until Germany’s unconditional surrender in 1945. In September 1939 the United States was neutral and the Soviet Union was allied with Nazi Germany. By 1940 France was defeated and the Vichy government was busy collaborating with Germany.
Jeff Sparrow is on surer ground in expressing concern about the current activities of the Lunar Right’s English Defence League along with the British National Party. However, he went over the top in attempting to link the soccer-violence type anti-Muslim protests of the English Defence League with the concern about radical Islamism in Europe expressed by such commentators as Christopher Caldwell, Daniel Pipes, the late Oriana Fallaci, Melanie Phillips and Mark Steyn.
Sparrow’s claim that “the public sphere today tolerates a level of anti-Muslim bigotry comparable to that directed against Jews in English speaking countries during the 1930s” is misplaced. The fact is that bigotry is not accepted in contemporary Western democracies – although it occurs on occasions. What’s missing from Sparrow’s argument is any recognition that it is reasonable to expect that some commentators in Western democracies – like the five he named – will take a stand against the threats to democracy, in word and by deed, from a minority of radical Islamists who do not accept the legitimacy of democratically elected governments.
By the way, Jeff Sparrow repeated the familiar claim that, in 1968, Enoch Powell warned that there would be “rivers of blood unless immigration ceased” The “rivers of blood” howler gets a run in Elizabeth Knowles’ book What They Didn’t Say: A Book of Misquotations (OUP, 2006). So, what did Enoch Powell say? His actual words, spoken in April 1968, were as follows:
As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see “the River Tiber foaming with much blood”.
As the comment indicates, Enoch Powell was a classics scholar who occasionally used classical references to make a point. Among his many tasks, Powell taught Greek to Gough Whitlam at the University of Sydney in the late 1930s. Following the outbreak of hostilities, Mr Powell returned to Britain and enlisted to take on the Nazis and fascists. At the time Mr Sparrow’s predecessors on the left were busy attempting to disrupt the war effort in order to give Adolf Hitler and Joe Stalin a chance. It’s just that you would never learn this from reading Jeff Sparrow’s scribblings in newmatilda.com.
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Until next time.