GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG – SPECIAL ISSUE NO. 6
22 OCTOBER 2014
The inaugural issue of “Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch” was published in April 1988 – over a year before the first edition of the ABC TV Media Watch program went to air. Since November 1997 “Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch” has been published as part of The Sydney Institute Quarterly. In 2009 Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch Dog blog commenced publication.
ABC NEWS RE-WRITES HISTORY TO HONOUR EDWARD GOUGH WHITLAM
Nancy’s (male) co-owner spent much of yesterday lying on the floor with a wet towel over his head – listening to tribute after tribute to the late Gough Whitlam.
The ABC starred – as program after program invited this Whitlam fan or that Whitlam fan on to radio or television to tell us all how great Gough was. It was all so different when Margaret Thatcher died and the taxpayer funded public broadcaster made it possible for leftist after leftist to have a swing at the former British prime minister.
All of this will be covered in Friday’s Media Watch Dog. However, Nancy’s (male) co-owner has decided to recognise the fawning over Gough Whitlam by issuing an immediate award for the biggest fawning Whitlam howler so far.
ABC TV News last night ran a special on Gough Whitlam. Reporter Rebecca Barrett visited North Sydney Girls High to get the reaction of students who had studied Gough Whitlam.
This is what one female student said about Gough Whitlam’s legacy – which the ABC reporter, producer and editor saw fit to put to air.
North Sydney Girls High Student: “As a woman coming into my eighteenth year, the fact that women were able to get the vote during Gough Whitlam’s reign …”
How’s that for an ABC approved “fact”? Women in all Australian states voted in the Commonwealth election of 1903 – over a decade before Gough Whitlam was born. Can you bear it?
[Er, no. More cold towels please. Nice Mr Scott could put the ABC’s very own Fact Checking Unit to work today with a view to correcting this howler on ABC TV News this evening. But don’t hold your breath. Ed]