GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG – ISSUE NO. 31
9 OCTOBER 2009
NANCY’S PICKS OF THE WEEK
▪ Adam and Deb on Follicles and Canines
It was a big week for news. That’s why Nancy was just so impressed that ABC Metropolitan Radio 702 in Sydney on Wednesday found time for two significant domestic stories which otherwise might not have got a run.
First up, on the 702 Breakfast program, presenter Adam Spencer went on – and on – about how his four-year-old daughter had found a hair (or was it two hairs?) on his ear. This led to a (lengthy) reflection on the ageing process – with special attention to follicle growth in the ear, nose and eyebrow regions. Yawn.
After some considerable time, it turned out that Dr Spencer’s domestic tales had a purpose. Sort of. You see, that morning the Daily Telegraph had run a huge photo of John Howard on page one. It illustrated the paper’s “exclusive” report that the former prime minister had been approached by National Rugby League officials to become chairman of an independent commission overseeing the game.
Adam Spencer compared his follicle awareness with that of John Howard and asked his listeners to phone in about their views on their matter. More yawns.
Awakening from a (deep taxpayer funded induced) sleep, Nancy heard the commencement of Mornings With Deborah Cameron. She, too, was on to the BIG STORY of concern to inner-city professional types all the way from Leichhardt to Ultimo. You see, our Deb is very concerned that some café proprietors allow dogs to sit with their owners outside coffee shops. Would you believe that the ABC’s leading eco-catastrophist is so concerned about this development that she actually walks past such canine-friendly outlets to have her skim café-latte, or some such, in a dog-free environment? Well, you would if you listen to Mornings With Deborah Cameron.
Our Deb encouraged her listeners to phone in to share their views. Not surprisingly, some of the inner-city listeners to Mornings with Deborah Cameron were more concerned about the presence of children than dogs in coffee shops.
▪ Peter Craven Adumbrates the Interiorities – in The Age
Sally Warhaft put in (yet another) stunning performance on Q&A last week. She was introduced by compere Tony Jones as ‘the former editor of The Monthly”. For the record, Dr Warhaft was sacked by Black Inc supremo Morry Schwartz – with the support of The Monthly’s chairman Robert Manne – earlier this year (See Issue 1). The Melbourne critic Peter Craven is the former editor of Black Inc’s the Quarterly Essay series. [Could he have been sacked by Mr Schwartz as well? Ed].
MWD has a long term interest in those purged by Morry Schwartz and, consequently, follows Mr Craven’s work with special interest. Hence the excitement of reading his review of Gerald Murnane’s latest novel Barley Patch (Giramondo, 2009) which was printed in the A2 section of last Saturday’s Age. The A2’’s books editor is none other than Jason Steger who comments-at-large about literature and all that.
Here are some selected highlights of Peter Craven’s thoughts about Gerald Murnane’s Barley Patch:
It [Barley Patch] is by way of being a kind of summa of Murnane’s themes and turns into a sort of sketch of the works of fiction that he might have written had he not decided to forsake fiction; a shadow play intimated by this lugubrious adumbration of an ambition deferred.
Yeah, right. And so, Peter Craven continued:
It brings to mind Nabokov’s remark that the Recherche that Marcel determines to write at the end of Proust’s masterwork cannot be Remembrance of Things Past but only its shadow of copy.
Quite so. Go on, Alas, Mr Craven did. Like this:
It is impossible adequately to describe the way in which this weird, crippled lamentation of a book, so full of parody and somersaulting solipsism, is at the same time a celebration of what the Jews call the skekinah, the radiance of the most high. Gerald Murnane is the ghostly swagman of his own much-vaunted interiorities.
Of course.
GOOD YAWNING MELBOURNE – A GUARDIAN-ON-THE-YARRA EXPERIENCE
While on the topic of The Age, how is “The Guardian-on-the-Yarra going? Well, MWD was in Melbourne over the (Sydney) long weekend and formed the view that The Age is performing up to standard – in the leftist sandal-wearing way.
On an early morning flight from Melbourne to Sydney last Monday, MWD turned to The Age’s one-time opinion page which is now titled “Comment & Debate”. There is much predictable leftist or left-of-centre comment but little debate. Here we go:
▪ The leftist Canberra-based economic journalist Kenneth Davidson – who opposed every economic reform implemented by the governments led by Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and John Howard – has the top article tilted “Economic rationalists have highjacked water policy, at our peril”. MWD was particularly taken by the strategically placed comma. The rest was yet another Davidson rant piece opposing economic reform and predicting gloom. In this case Adelaide being forced to rely on bottled water next year and the “closing down” of either Mildura or Shepparton.
▪ The lead article, which included a Dyson sketch, was by the Australian Conservation Foundation nuclear-free campaigner David Noonan and titled “uranium policy a hypocrisy”. He bagged Australia’s decision to export uranium to China. Predictable, eh?
▪ Then there was the piece by Jan Owen, executive director of Social Ventures Australia, a hand-holding article in which the author argued that the emerging financial market evident in the Eaglehawk Recycling Yard in Bendigo was more significant than the “financial market structures that precipitated the global financial crisis”. She managed to get in a plug for next week’s Social Enterprise World Forum in Melbourne. Well done.
▪ Finally Age senior writer Geoff Strong had a piece on cities, which praised life in the suburbs and contained vital information about his (i) old man, (ii) daughter, (iii) two old cattle dogs and (iv) car. Hold the Comment & Debate Page.
DYSON KNOCKS ON
In The Age on Thursday, Dyson decided to illustrate Peter Costello’s resignation from Parliament by linking it to the suggestion that John Howard might become chairman of the board overseeing the NRL. Dyson had Howard tackling Costello, both dressed in Rugby kit, before kicking Costello’s severed heard down field under the heading: “Howard ‘perfect’ choice for top rugby job.”
It seems that no one in The Age’s editorial team understands the difference between Rugby (which is also known as Rugby Union) and Rugby League. This despite the fact that the Melbourne Storm won the National Rugby League Grand Final last Sunday. For the edification of Dyson and his Age colleagues, Rugby is the traditional game played by the professions and at private schools. Until recently, Rugby was an amateur sport. Rugby League, on the other hand, is strongest in Western Sydney and traditionally has been played at State and Catholic Schools. MWD concedes, however, that Rugby would be the game of choice for readers of the left-leaning Guardian in Britain.
AN AUNTY UPDATE
MWD is grateful for the reader who forwarded the following email sent out by the ABC to spruik an ABC function to be held in Melbourne on 22 October 2009. Here it is:
Hi there
Celebrating what truly defines a society that overcomes the odds and maintains laughter in the face of adversity, ABC Events and the Arts Centre present The ABC of Money, Money, Money!, an entertainment stimulus package night of comedy, cabaret and improvised mayhem, 7.30pm Thursday 22 October at Hamer Hall….
The ABC and the Arts Centre are holding a Comedy night with a fantastic line-up of comedians who take a satirical look at our community in the wake of the “GFC” and a light-hearted and entertaining take on a host of other “money” issues. I would be grateful if you could forward the attached media release to your clients/customers and anyone else who you think may be interested in attending.
Hope to see you there!
Kind regards,
Catherine Van
MWD thought that readers might like to know how their taxpayers’ money is being spent by the public broadcaster. On this occasion on a light-hearted and entertaining take on economic matters. And how about Ms Van’s decision to use the term “money” in inverted commas?
When ABC chairman Maurice Newman goes to Canberra seeking a bucket load of public funding for the ABC, he asks the government for money (without the inverted commas). But when a cast of taxpayer supported comedians decide to make fun of the Global Financial Crisis, they refer to “money”.
UGLY BEAST, UGLY JOKE
It’s much the same with the new ABC 1 program Ugly Beast, which last night attempted to put down the Australian coal industry by slagging off at the Coal Association’s advertisements about the likely impact of a carbon reduction scheme. It seems that the Ugly Beast team – executive producer Andrew Denton and Anita Jacoby – is unaware that the coal industry and its employees pay a lot of taxes and that some of this money (without inverted commas) funds the ABC.
Come to think of it, Ugly Beast might just need all the money it can get to pay out on defamation cases. The first episode concluded with a teaser which flagged a forthcoming interview where an anonymous male declared that he had consensual sex with a member of the Australian Women’s Netball Team and that other members of the team had joined in against his will. A name of a prominent Australian netballer was mentioned.
It was supposed to be funny Apparently the ABC has ruled out Chaser jokes about children suffering from terminal cancer. However, it seems that jokes about rape are quite okay. After all, the first edition of Ugly Beast was cleared by a legal team of no fewer than four.
Last Wednesday’s edition of Ugly Beast issued a formal apology – which claimed that the Netball sketch was “a joke”. This confirms that the ABC believes that rape is a suitable subject of humour. And it demonstrates that the ABC has little understanding of the libel laws. The ABC may need all the money – perhaps even “money” – it can get if it believes that it is proper to (falsely) allege a sexual liaison with a prominent Australian woman which others joined – with “just joking” as the only defences.
HISTORY CORNER
▪ Great Scott – Just Two Short Of A Decade
ABC News Breakfast rolled out leftist Scott (“Call me Doctor”) Burchill on Wednesday to talk about Afghanistan. Not surprisingly, the learned doctor declared that the NATO commitment in Afghanistan was a “terrible mistake” from the time it commenced in October 2001. Yet MWD was surprised to hear Dr Burchill make the following comment, viz:
The war now has been going on for eight years as of today. Which means it’s been going on for longer than the First and Second World War combined.
Er, not really. World War I commenced in August 1914 and ended in November 1918 – a total of 51 months. And World War II commenced in September 1939 and ended in August 1945 – a total of 71 months. In other words, World War I and World War II lasted for a total of ten years and two months. Dr Burchill is an academic.
▪ Remembering Gough – Forgetting Ming
Politicians run political lines. That’s what they are expected to do. Journalists, on the other hand, are supposed to be sceptical and not to accept comments uncritically.
The Australian Labor Party is much more tribal than the Liberal Party. That’s one of Labor’s strengths. The ALP’s tribalism manifests itself in many places – including respecting all past Labor leaders who do not defect from, or become critical of, the party. The ALP has no time for Billy Hughes, who left the party on account of his support for conscription for overseas services during World War I. However, for a considerable time, Labor honoured the erratic Bert Evatt who split the ALP in the mid-1950s and led the party to three successive losses.
Bob Hawke and Paul Keating headed successful Labor governments. Yet they are less honoured by tribal Labor types than Gough Whitlam who won elections in 1972 and 1974 but lost control of the economy during his final term as prime minister.
It is all but impossible for the likes of the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard to praise the Whitlam Government’s economic performance. So they tend to focus instead on Mr Whitlam’s social policies – including such areas as education and health.
Kevin Rudd was born in 1957 and Julia Gillard in 1961. [I assume you got this from Who’s Who in Australia. Is Kerry O’Brien the only person listed in Who’s Who who does not cite a date of birth? – Ed] See Issues 12 and 13.
In other words, both Rudd and Gillard commenced tertiary studies after the Whitlam Government had made tertiary education free. This has led both the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, neither of whom came from wealthy backgrounds, to claim that they never would have attended university if the Whitlam Government had not abolished university fees. Two examples illustrate the point.
In The Australian on 7 November 2008, Mike Steketee reported Kevin Rudd as making the following comment when launching Jenny Hocking’s Gough Whitlam: A Moment in History. Spoke Kevin Rudd:
Were it not for Whitlam’s education reforms, I doubt that I would have ever darkened the doors of a university – for which, Gough, I thank you.
On September 2009 the Herald-Sun ran the following report by AAP on Julia Gillard:
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the love and support of family, along with a little help from Gough Whitlam, helped her become Australia’s first female deputy prime minister. Australia’s highest ranked female politician has drawn on personal experience to inspire female students at a University of Delhi college in India this week. As a child, she never dreamt of becoming Australia’s first female deputy PM. Instead her political aspirations began in university, which was only possible to her and her sister after Mr Whitlam, the former Labor PM, abolished fees. “(He opened) the door to a tertiary education for an entire generation of Australians, including me,” Ms Gillard told the students.
The fact is that, growing up in Queensland and South Australia respectively, both Rudd and Gillard were very able students. Rudd was the dux of Nambour High School. In The Making of Julia Gillard (2009), Jacqueline Kent writes that “Julia Gillard achieved straight As in her matriculation exams”.
In the late 1970s, both Rudd and Gillard almost certainly would have won what were called Commonwealth Scholarships – which covered all university fees and also paid a means-tested living allowance. The Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme, which was introduced by Robert Menzies’ Coalition government, came into operation in 1951. One case study demonstrates the point: The Melbourne lawyer Allan Myers QC (born 1947) told his story in the April 2009 issue of MLS News. The son of a butcher in Dunkeld, in Western Victoria, Allan Myers won a Commonwealth Scholarship to Melbourne University during the time of the Menzies Government and was the first in his family to obtain a tertiary degree.
In addition, in the 1950s the various State governments introduced bonded teaching scholarships which also covered tertiary fees and paid an allowance. Men and women who won such bursaries were required to work as teachers in the State education system for a number of years. The 1964 Martin Report found that, in 1963, 37 per cent of full-time students were receiving assistance through the Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme and that 39 per cent were on various bursaries and cadetships. In other words, close to three quarters of university students received free education during the time of the Menzies Government.
In 1964 the Martin Report found that, circa the early 1960s, Australia stood third among 44 countries in giving direct government aid to students. It is nothing but a myth for Mr Rudd and Ms Gillard to maintain that, without Gough Whitlam they could not have afforded to attend university. Journalists should not report such spin without at least some reference to the facts. Moreover, it should be remembered that it was the Hawke Labor government which ended the Whitlam policy of providing free tertiary education for all Australians.
(For backgound information on the Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme, which was abolished by the Whitlam Government, see the article by Graham Hastings which appears as an appendix to the NUS Higher Education Submission, July 2008).
Until next time.