Media Watch X

We all know just how manipulative, dishonest, sensationalist, gutless, unfair and unbalanced is the media in this country? If, like me, you believe they need to be held accountable for the gross display of injustice they push down the throats of the Australian public then this is the thread in which to voice your opinion.

I intend to keep the Media Watch threads open indefinitely. If anyone sees an example of their lies in action then we’d like to learn about it. We will document everything we can and spread the message as far as we can.

The truth will win in the end.

The Media Watch pages are archived after 300 comments (or thereabouts), as beyond that they can be slow to open if accessed by some mobile phones.

Here are the links to the two previous Media Watch discussions:

Media Watch VIII

Media Watch IX

334 comments on “Media Watch X”

  8. Abbott’s latest diatribe is that the Prime Minister should resign if she can not get the Immigration Act amended (yeah like that’s going to happen).
    I seem to recall that he was screaming for the PM to resign if the government did not STOP THE BOATS.
    I know, the Liberals should start a leadership rumor, whoops too late, the muffins at the ABC are already saying “He’ll be Back” (Kevin)

  9. Luna..absolutely, every Prime Minister should resign if they don’t get one bill or one amendment through Parliament. The phrase f*rting the wind comes to mind.

  10. Welcome back Migs.

    Mr. Abbott still has his sour face. Mr. Abbott still as not explained why Nauru will work today. Experts in the field says it will not.

    High Court decisions means that what worked in the past will not work today.

    He still has not explained why it is humane to turn leaky boats around to a country that will not accept them.

    Why it is humane to lock them up on what is a bare island for numerous years, which the UNHCR will not support.

    Mr. Abbott has not explained what processing on Nauru has over onshore processing, except to punish the asylums seekers.

    He is filibustering with the bill today, I am sure as a action that he hopes to delay the carbon pricing bills. I listen in for a while, nothing new is being said.

    I cannot help but agree with the the PM when she says that Mr. Abbott is making sure the people smugglers hear that country is open for business, and that he is encouraging the boats to come.

  11. CU the really disturbing thing is that Abbott refuses to explain, be consistent or truthful and no one, least of all the pathetic media in this country, is game enough to take him on.

  12. Luna..honestly, what effort would it take to ‘take Abbott on’..ask him a question? That would be really scary stuff, but then there are some people who completely fold when asked questions… But I wouldn’t like any one of these to be our Prime Minister.

  16. Why are the opposition running the Rudd leadership line as a distraction? They would you believe a Labor minister snitched to a Liberal. Even when the minister concerned and everyone else has denied it the opposition keep going on about it so I don’t know what’s going on.
    They are definitely trying to draw attention away from something.

  17. ME
    were you watching that idiot Uhlmann? How can a supposed insider get it so wrong.

    I was listening to parlt today and Albanese remarked that yesterday the opposition spent 90 minutes discussing amongst themselves whether to support an extension to time to discuss the Carbon bills. It was an extension they asked for then voted against it. Today they wanted to debate and vote on the migration act, then did a filibuster. So who knows what is happening? Then late this afternoon much to the Coalitions dismay Oakshott has put forward an amendment, one the govt will probably support, come October.

  18. Uhlmann’s 7.30 has become an opinion piece and his opinion is so very, very inaccurate. I wonder if he (or maybe his script writer) actually watches Parliament. I bet they rely on tweets from informed sources (Liberal party spin team).
    Tweetle dee and tweetle even dumber.

  19. I would say that Mr. Abbot has been wedge again by the PM. The PM will get the immigration bill through the lower house. Whether she does in the senate is another thing.

    Mr. Abbott is also being wedged by Mr. Reith and his supporters when it comes to the IR laws.

    I thought it was Labor that is in trouble.

    Maybe people better look again.

    I remember Mr. Hayden, back in Whitlam’s days. who had responsibility for introducing Medibank. Mr. Hayden would hit a brick wall, take a step back and go around.

    In the end, against all odds, got Medibank through, sadly without the money bills to pay for it. It became a reality, that Liberal were unsuccessful in getting rid of it. It became Medicare with a levy to fund it. It was supposed to have a levy from day one.

    The Liberals were nasty in those days also. They also did not stop much of Mr. Whitlams plans, in spite of two elections within three years and a massive defeat.

  20. Why would Mr. Rudd want to be PM again. He appears to have a job he loves and is good at.

    I would say the man has moved on.

    Maybe the Liberals learn to do the same, instead of living in the past, navel glazing about what should have or could have been.

  21. ME, Bolt on his site last night, said that the Sun Herald would be writing somethging today about Mr. Rudd, that would put the PM under pressure and worry her. Sorry, I did noty see anything that wouold cause her conern.

    Ms. Mirabella and her husband could be in a little trouble. Keep am eye on the news.

  22. The Australian’s big scoop ,or how to confuse Tony abbott.
    On bottle of wine, 2NT MPs, and aanease drop on a telephone conversation
    FEDERAL Labor backbencher has outed herself as the MP Opposition Leader Tony Abbott was referring to while rumours circulated in Canberra that foreign minister Kevin Rudd was calling colleagues to test support for a leadership challenge.

    Mr Abbott this morning said he understood “one Labor backbencher took a call from Kevin Rudd in the presence of a coalition member of parliament”.

    Senator Crossin said the former prime minister talked about an Aboriginal football team, of which he is the patron.

    “The coalition want to spend their time fabricating lies and rumours to try and undermine our leadership,” she told the Nine Network
    CLP Senator Nigel Scullion, also from the NT, revealed himself as a witness to the conversation, which he said happened on Tuesday.

    “We had a broad ranging conversation as one does over a couple of bottles of wine and as part of that conversation there was an indication that the person she’d been speaking to when I came into the room was in fact Kevin Rudd, who talked about whether he was going to run or not run,” Senator Scullion told the Nine Network.

    Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/labor-mp-denies-rudd-raised-leadership/story-e6frfku0-1226143953990#ixzz1Yg1tfuMN

  28. I have lost the link. It appears that a close friend of hers, a Professor from when she went to uni, has just died. Her husband and Ms. Mirabella appears to have power of attorney over his estate. The son, also an important person has come back from the UK and launched objections, saying his father was not mentally alert to give power of attorney to anyone.

    The son feels that the children’s best interest’s might not being met.

    I am not saying she has done anything wrong. All I am saying is that it is alleged the son is unhappy. The professor was I think 88 when he died.

  29. CU
    i have found the sophie thing at crikey, supreme court stoush over a deceased estate. i am not a subscriber to crikey

  30. Not too concerned a while ago when it was a Labor minister in the headlights.

    No name and no picture.

    “New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell has issued a statement expressing disappointment that claims of inappropriate sexual conduct by a senior minister have been broadcast.

    Allegations that a minister was seen to have been engaging in a sex act in public were broadcast tonight on Channel Nine.

    Police have confirmed they have questioned a number of people over an incident.

    “Police have spoken to a number of people in relation to allegations of inappropriate behaviour by a 62-year-old man,” they said.

    “No information was provided to police in relation to any offence having occurred. As a result, no further police action is proposed.”

    In a statement, Mr O’Farrell said he was disappointed that anyone could have their reputation damaged by unsubstantiated allegations.

    “In the absence of any formal complaint or further information, it is grossly unfair to smear anyone’s reputation,” he said.

    The Premier says if anyone had any information that could help police, they should come forward….”

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-22/ofarrel-fuming-over-minister-sex-claims/2912032

  32. At least the former Labor minister who was outed for visiting a gay club, was amongst adults in private. If the O”Farrell Minister was in a Public place having sex, as reported, why is O’farrell outraged.

  33. The story, no name no picture, is not in the Telegraph, Facts have never bothered them before, so it must be true. We need a moralising editorial on the front page. How many 62 year old ministers are there in the NSW govt, tell us all Tele.

  35. el gordo, how do you kinow it did not happen. As for your link, sorry I do not bother going to that one when I see the name. I have better things to do with my time.

  39. Sue, yes the reshuffle mooted by Vanstone did seem to be an odd article to write..why reshuffle ‘a winning formula’.

  40. No wonder Abbott wants to keep Mirabella around, next to her he looks like a righteous dude.
    Sue in football speak, “The club has full confidence in the coach” means they are dead meat and will be gone in 2-6 weeks.

  41. The real story is why the Telegraph and Australian don’t dish out the same treatment to conservative politicians.
    On first glance, Mirabella’s behaviour in this matter looks despicable.
    If her name was Belinda Neal or Craig Thomson she would be hounded to her political grave.
    Watch how quickly this story gets washed out of the media.

  42. The other look over here article “rudd nine votes away” overheard conversation by CLP senator, What a scoop, suckers!

  43. lunalava it may wash out of the murdoch papers, but it may end up in the melbourne courts.
    plenty of opportunity for reporting, then there is the Wangaratta locals, imagine the potential stories/gossip.

  44. To give nast news its due
    the Tele sydney has its Gay sex story
    in comparison for Melb and the HS the potential story is Oldie sex, so they have avoided it all together

  45. “on another matter…”

    In other words, “Quick look over there at the carbon tax and not yet another O’Farrell government failure”.

  46. The story that is not being told.

    *sex in public, gay or otherwise is dealt with by 4 short paragraphs

    *visiting a private club deserves outing, involving the persons whole family Countless headlines until resignation from ministry

    *a charge on a credit card for a restaurant/brothel involves police being told to investigate, pregnant wife’s facebook comments headlined, opposition leader trying to deny a mp the right to a pair and Headlines/stories continuing

    Sex Lliberal 1 story with minimal information
    Sex Labor months of continuing stories with lots of innuendo

  47. It will be interesting to see how this event is reported in the MSM next week.
    The community forum is in Oakshott’s electorate, so the accuracy of the reporting is relevant. This is also the electorate where the Nationals started then closed the dodgy newspaper. It happens Tuesday.

    “THE federal opposition leader will be the special guest at an invitation-only community forum in Port Macquarie next week. Tony Abbott will answer questions about national issues.

    Liberal Senator for NSW Bill Heffernan invited a cross-section of people, including community groups, to Tuesday’s event”
    http://www.portnews.com.au/news/local/news/general/tony-abbott-at-exclusive-port-event/2300939.aspx

  48. Testing, testing..it seems that there are WordPress problems where one cannot sign in via this. However, it would seem that for those already logged on, you will still be able to post.

  51. Does Brandis have an opinion on this reportedly lewd behaviour? Did his writing to the NSW police at about the same time in anyway confuse other inquiries?
    As both investigations involve MPs and alleged sexual misconduct, Brandis as the self appointed moral guardian of MPs, will want to keep the Senate informed.

  52. Spot the difference?

    Last night, Mr O’Farrell said the allegations were ”unsubstantiated”.

    He said that if anyone had information that might be helpful to the police they should come forward.

    ”But in the absence of any formal complaint or further information it is grossly unfair to smear anyone’s reputation,” the Premier said.

    When in opposition, and indeed as it is with the current Federal opposition, O’Farrell never worried about unsubstantiated allegations to condemn someone in Labor, only that there was an allegation, and often one that was initiated by someone in his party or by the right wing media.

  54. Interesting article from a grumpy old man, who reminds me a bit of TB, 😆 in the Courier Mail…

    PRESENT-day Australians have less reason to complain than any previous generation. Yet there are vast numbers of people convinced that somewhere, somehow, someone is ripping them off.

    “The complaints by small business that the market has never been worse; by pensioners that they are about to lose benefits; by farmers that they are constantly ignored (and so on) are symptoms of the rise of the feral Right – politically active people convinced that change is about to overwhelm them and who would rather nourish a grievance than search for explanations.”

    Sound familiar? The author could be a spieler for the Gillard Government waving statistics to distract from policy failures and abysmal polling.

    But, it’s Tony Abbott, in a 1998 essay on One Nation.

    “For these people,” he added, “the unshakable conviction that ‘We’ll all be rooned’ now substitutes for traditional Aussie stoicism.”

    Just joshin’ TB 😉

  58. What is happening with the State Liberal governments, or more accurately the lack of reporting and commentary on their failures irks me.

    From Blogocracy to Blogocrats and beyond none of us had a hesitation in condemning the NSW State Labor government and from what I saw that went for the other State Labor governments as well. Of course the usual RWDBs were as vociferous, extreme and frequent in their denunciations as they could be, but look at the difference now there are Liberal State governments stuffing up.

    In a very short time O’Farrell and his government have been failures on several fronts, all things that were severely decried when the NSW Labor government were the perpetrators, but are now either being glossed over or completely ignored in a Liberal government.

    There was yet another very damning report on the state of NSW hospitals just a few days ago. Things have deteriorated under O’Farrell but you would hardly have known it. Skinner was interviewed over the report but was allowed to get away with lame excuses and blame shifting, something that was never accorded to the previous government. Any excuse, even legitimate ones were to be lambasted and given repeated negative headlines. Now the only sounds from the editors’ offices is the hours of talks on how much they can condemn Gillard with the Liberal State government malfeasances and failures given short shrift.

    But of course just those on the right, the media is holding governments to account, but what they won’t say is that is only one flavour of government they hold to account.

  65. Migs, I would suggest turning around 25,000 times in an anti-clockwise direction. It might not help the jet lag, but you’ll be too dizzy to think about it.

  66. Same media organisation Murdoch press, same people involved, Court case Neal v Neil, but if you read both articles you would think there was different evidence presented.
    http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/belinda-neal-v-kate-neill-in-courtroom-showdown/story-e6freuy9-1226144441830
    http://www.news.com.au/national/john-della-boscas-ex-lovers-fear-i-had-an-affair-belinda-neals-stalking-me/story-e6frfkvr-1226144536456

    The Telegraph appears to have written a story based on its often stated opinion of Belinda Neal, that she is the persecutor, and the other the ex-mistress is a victim.

  67. Just writing to say how very disappointed I am with News Ltd especially the Telegraph for not tracking down the “witnesses” and offering them large amounts of dosh for their exclusive story.
    I mean what is happening to our gutter press when they can find a swimming pool and lane but can’t find actual video (appropriately pixelated out of course).
    They could use a third party to create some (as in the Pauline Hanson look-a-like front page) and then later say “we are sorry these are not nude pictures of Pauline Hanson”.
    A private investigator could follow the alleged offender for video footage (as per former NSW Transport Minister.
    Instead we get a Sydney radio shock jock whinging about unsubstantiated “character assassination”..
    OH THE HYPOCRISY

  69. I suggest that in a story in the SMH, Neil v Neal, there is visual BIAS.
    In the story the mistress has suggested of the wife, “Her eyes were flickering”, “a knife in my back”, “her eyes were wavering and she looked irrational”
    etc. To enhance this version of the story the SMH has chosen a photo of the wife with “wild, unruly hair”. The accuser, the “sane, mild mannered and rational” former mistress has a polished appearance.

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/della-boscas-former-mistress-feared-his-wife-would-put-a-knife-in-her-back-20110926-1ktpo.html#ixzz1Z6I6lXHU

    Why does the SMH feel the need to print this type of photo? I thought it was the duty of the media to report on the account of the court proceeding not offer an opinion. And what will be the response of the media if the opinion of the court differs from the paper. Could a claim be made against the paper, should a claim be made no matter what the decision of the court?

  70. My knowledge believes me to believe, if she wanted to confront the girlfriend, she would have done so face to face.

    If I did not want to confront someone, I would have returned to my home.

  72. This is from the Northcoast voices blog. I thought it interesting as I didn’t know there was a protest set for tomorrow. Should be great tv if the big storms hit Melb.

    “When you see this sort of event description you know that Abbott’s Barmy Army of climate change deniers is on the loose again:
    “The BOM has been complicit in spreading the lies and deceit behind JuLIAR’s ‘settled science’ and ‘consensus’ she uses to support this ‘whacky tax’”
    They will be outside the Bureau of Meteorology at 8am on the 30th September 2011 in La Trobe Street, Melbourne for a ‘Revolt Against The Carbon Tax’ demo.
    As this mob appears to include quite a few galahs from the Just Grounds online community who seem to firmly believe that a government minister wants to gas them all, I look forward to hearing that a lot of nonsense was spouted.
    Posted by Petering Time at 00:05 1 comments”
    http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com/

  73. The Fin Review just won’t be the same when the ltd news minion and sometime guest on the Insiders takes over
    From Twitter

    patrickdurkin AFR Journalist by MattCowgill

    The Economics Editor of the Oz, Michael Stutchbury has just been named our new Editor in Chief of The AFR!

  74. spot the difference
    “THE chances of landing a job in mining regions are steadily improving as the resources boom takes off, but job seekers in Victoria face far more competition in their hunt for work.”

    Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/states-job-seekers-face-stiff-competition-for-work-20110929-1kzdr.html#ixzz1ZNZ1NSye

    “THE chances of getting a job in mining regions are steadily improving as the resources boom takes off, but job seekers in NSW and Victoria face far more competition.”

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw-job-seekers-battling-for-limited-openings-20110929-1kzdz.html#ixzz1ZNZ9BKc9

    Answer:the Vic article is the cut and paste.

  75. The Economics Editor of the Oz, Michael Stutchbury has just been named our new Editor in Chief of The AFR!

    That is terrible news. this is the same stutchbury who cannot get simple economic timelines correct.

  76. Maybe if Mr. Bolt chooses to ploy his trade within what is considered by most to be the minimum standard, he should at least follow the rules of News LTD. News LTD should ensure his articles are within the framework they consider necessary.

    Maybe News LTD should be telling Mr. Bolt, that according to their rules he needs to make an apology.

    Mr. Bolt and his supporters seem to live by the code, that if a regulation, law, or rule gets in the way of what they perceive to be their freedom to utter whatever they like, you just ignore it. According to Mr. Bolt and his ilk, others have no rights.

    One might note also The News Ltd
    “…………………Code of Conduct which runs in part as follows:

    1. Accuracy

    1.1 Facts must be reported impartially, accurately and with integrity.

    1.2 Clear distinction must be made between fact, conjecture and comment.

    1.3 Try always to tell all sides of the story in any kind of dispute.

    1.4 Do not knowingly withhold or suppress essential facts.

    1.5 Journalists should be reluctant to rely on only one source. Be careful not to recycle an error from one reference source to another. Check and check again. ..”

    ‘………………..Also relevant here in the code:

    8.1 Do not make pejorative reference to a person’s race, nationality, colour, religion, marital status, sex, sexual preferences, age, or physical or mental capacity.

    No details of a person’s race, nationality, colour, religion, marital status, sex, sexual preferences, age, or physical or mental incapacity should be included in a report unless they are relevant. …”

    http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/09/29/bolt-decision-irresponsible-journalism-illegal-think-again/

    “……..AJA CODE OF ETHICS

    Respect for truth and the public’s right to information are fundamental principles of journalism. Journalists describe society to itself. They convey information, ideas and opinions, a privileged role. They search, disclose, record, question, entertain, suggest and remember. They inform citizens and animate democracy. They give a practical form to freedom of expression. Many journalists work in private enterprise, but all have these public responsibilities. They scrutinise power, but also exercise it, and should be accountable. Accountability engenders trust. Without trust, journalists do not fulfil their public responsibilities. MEAA members engaged in journalism commit themselves to

    Honesty
    Fairness
    Independence
    Respect for the rights of others
    1. Report and interpret honestly, striving for accuracy, fairness and disclosure of all essential facts. Do not suppress relevant available facts, or give distorting emphasis. Do your utmost to give a fair opportunity for reply.

    2. Do not place unnecessary emphasis on personal characteristics, including race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, age, sexual orientation, family relationships, religious belief, or physical or intellectual disability.

    3. Aim to attribute information to its source. Where a source seeks anonymity, do not agree without first considering the source’s motives and any alternative attributable source. Where confidences are accepted, respect them in all circumstances.

    4. Do not allow personal interest, or any belief, commitment, payment, gift or benefit, to undermine your accuracy, fairness or independence.

    5. Disclose conflicts of interest that affect, or could be seen to affect, the accuracy, fairness or independence of your journalism. Do not improperly use a journalistic position for personal gain.

    6. Do not allow advertising or other commercial considerations to undermine accuracy, fairness or independence.

    7. Do your utmost to ensure disclosure of any direct or indirect payment made for interviews, pictures, information or stories.

    8. Use fair, responsible and honest means to obtain material. Identify yourself and your employer before obtaining any interview for publication or broadcast. Never exploit a person’s vulnerability or ignorance of media practice.

    9. Present pictures and sound which are true and accurate. Any manipulation likely to mislead should be disclosed.

    10. Do not plagiarise.

    11. Respect private grief and personal privacy. Journalists have the right to resist compulsion to intrude.

    12. Do your utmost to achieve fair correction of errors…………….

    …………………Guidance Clause

    Basic values often need interpretation and sometimes come into conflict. Ethical journalism requires conscientious decision-making in context. Only substantial advancement of the public interest or risk of substantial harm to people allows any standard to be overridden.”

    http://www.australian-news.com.au/codethics.htm

    “……………..General Statement of PrinciplesThe General Statement of Principles covers the following areas:

    Accurate, fair and balanced reporting
    Correction of inaccuracy
    Publishing responses
    Respect for privacy and sensibilities
    Honest and fair investigation; preservation of confidences
    Transparent and fair presentation
    Discretion and causing offence
    Gratuitous emphasis on characteristics
    Publication of Council adjudications

    Statement of Privacy PrinciplesThe Statement of Privacy Principles covers the following areas:

    Collection of personal information
    Use and disclosure of personal information
    Quality of personal information
    Security of personal information
    Anonymity of sources
    Correction, fairness and balance
    Sensitive personal information ..”

    http://www.presscouncil.org.au/statements-of-principles/

  77. CU

    If the Media actually honoured their so called Principles, Values and Ethics, then there would be no need for a media enquiry.

    Obviously it is once again another massive failure of the so called industry self regulation model.

    It is now time to enact laws to enforce the so called Principles, Values and Ethics. Afterall if they are the current standards by the industry then the industry should welcome and not protest their enshrinement in legislation to protect the citizens.

  78. Tom R, that is terrible news. Stutchbury would be among the least qualified to edit at the Fin Review. I can see the standards dropping from my porch !
    Maybe Laura Tingle didn’t want the job….

  80. I wonder if Mr. Abbott will see this book as fair game. After all he did say that one has the right to say what one wants.

    “…….TONY Abbott is a sore loser, afflicted by ”innate and deeply embedded sexism and misogyny”, and would use a future prime ministership to impose his simplistic views on the country, according to a provocative new book to hit the shelves tomorrow.

    The new polemic by academic Susan Mitchell paints an intensely unflattering portrait of the man who would be Australia’s next prime minister, sketching Mr Abbott as a graceless, obsessively competitive ”man’s man”; a ferocious partisan imbued with conservative Catholic social values.

    The book was drawn from press reports, studies of the Opposition Leader, particularly Michael Duffy’s 2004 biography, Mr Abbott’s writings and the author’s observed conclusions. Dr Mitchell deploys what her publisher describes as a ”blistering” critique in narrating Mr Abbott’s life from his childhood to his current period as Opposition Leader…”

    Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/entertainment/books/sexist-abbott-blasted-in-new-book-20110929-1kzdi.html#ixzz1ZP4gecKZ

  81. Cu, fancy quoting Michael Duffy, of Radio National “Counterpoint” fame, he’s no friend of the Labor side of politics 😀

  82. Pip. it will be interesting to see what the book has to say. I suspect there are also few Abbott supporters on the other side of the fence.

    I believe that many see him only as a means to an end.

  83. CU at 1.35 – Susan Mitchell has nailed Tony Abbott and I agree 100% with her assessment.
    I have worked with both Liberal and Labor governments during my working life and until recently they were both decent political parties and I was comfortable about them at the helm.
    Abbott would be an unmitigated disaster for this country, I just hope voters don’t drink the political Kool Aid at the next election.

  84. Cu, and lunalava, I can’t wait to see what Reith and Costello do next. They’re not happy with their Tony and they’re telling
    the world about it

  85. Whats on in Sydney

    http://whatson.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/events/11701-iq2-debate-the-media-have-no-morals

    IQ2 DEBATE: THE MEDIA HAVE NO MORALS

    The more we find out about British tabloids and their phone hacking habits, the more outrageous their conduct appears. Is the ethical vacuum in their editorial offices the sign of old media struggling to stay alive – and relevant – in a brave new world or is this just business as usual driven by user demand? In the new media environment of gossip, opinion, attack and partisanship does the concept of public interest even exist? Do we have the right to expect ethical and moral standards of the media or have they always done whatever it takes to get the story and our attention?

    Featuring Senator Bob Brown, Kate Adie, Julian Burnside QC, Stephen Mayne, and Hamish MacDonald. This debate will be chaired by St James Ethics Centre’s Simon Longstaff

  86. Pip, it would not surprise me if Costello and Reith are not very happy with what Mr. Abbott is doing at this time.

    All they are doing is setting the groundwork for a reversal after Mr. Abbott get them into power.

    I am sure there would not be a large number that will tolerate Mr. Abbott if they gained the government benches.

    That is what those who have taken such hatred against out PM need to be aware of. They have no idea of what the Liberals are about. No one does. It is hard to locate where the real power lies within the party.

  87. Cu, It is hard to locate where the real power lies within the party.

    the real power is not with Mr. Abbott if the Reith and Costello and Big Business activism is anything to go by.

  88. Inquiry looks at rights of those attacked in media
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/inquiry-looks-at-rights-of-those-attacked-in-media-20110928-1kwd4.html

    The government’s print media inquiry is considering whether people attacked in the media should have a right to respond to allegations, whether newspapers and their websites should be treated differently from TV news bulletins, and whether the media should be prohibited from publishing “deliberately inaccurate statements”.

    Independent Media Inquiry
    http://www.dbcde.gov.au/digital_economy/independent_media_inquiry

  89. Media Release

    Senator the Hon Stephen Conroy
    Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
    Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate
    Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Digital Productivity
    ——————————————————————————–
    Government thanks Maurice Newman for his contribution to the ABC Board

    “Under his stewardship the ABC has increased its reputation as a trusted and innovative media organisation that enriches the lives of all Australians

    Under Mr. Newman’s stewardship the ABC has learned to practice Fox news style “fair and balanced” – “the opposition says”.

    Let’s hope that will stop with a new Chairman at the helm… or woman ?

  90. Pip
    It sounds as though Conroy was doing a Blot as he described Newman. Hopefully it was a tongue in cheek speech, to get through the last couple of months then blast Newman and his values out.

  91. Essential viewing is the Frontline clip on interview techniques:

    When Rob Sitch does this stuff it’s brilliant satirical comedy, when their ABC’s Chris Uhlmann does it, it’s just pathetic.

    Take a long hard look at the performance of the 7.30 team; the ABC can do better than this rubbish

  92. Lunalava
    The clip is a great example of the extent of the commercial stations demise of current affairs programs. And thanks to the Howard 11 year influence into the ABC, through board appointments, the ABC current affairs program, 7.30, is the poor relation to programs past. The presenters Uhlmann and Sales are more for point scoring, than in depth interview of any guest. The prime motivation of the program appears to be to highlight the interviewers opinion of the matter, gathered from “sources”. These opinions exemplify the interviewers total lack of knowledge of policies or gathering of facts, but are a great opening for the insertion of the “noddy”.

  93. Lets do a Rob Sitch on Tony

    Sitch: It is wel known you haven’t been home’
    T: Umm, Arg
    S: Yes or no will do
    T:Um
    S:I said yes or no
    T:Arhh
    S:It has been 10 days since parliament sat and you have been to Tassie, Melb, Port Macquarie, Nth cost NSW, Qld
    T: Yes
    S:So you agree you havent been home. Have you spoken to your wife?
    T: Um, arh
    S:On 5 occasions I have asked for an answer, you have avoided, so the rumors are not rumors,thank you for your time.

    Okay over to you MSM

  95. What I would like to know is “Who is the real life producer (equivalent to the character played by Steve Bisley in Frontline) and how did he get the job?”
    Let’s face it Uhlmann is just a talking head and doesn’t have the brains to ask a non-scripted question.

  96. Monday night 7.30 program on the ABC, Leigh Sales is interviewing the Australian Treasurer. The world economy is on the brink of collapse, Australian jobs, wages and profits are threatened.
    So what does Leigh Sales ask? Oh about that stabbing of Kevin Rudd ?
    WTF, this is regurgitated Liberal party propaganda.
    Wayne Swan ignored the question and went on answer the question that should have been asked – which is better than getting up and walking away (this is what Abbott does so often).
    Leigh I know you are not as stupid as Chris Uhlmann, so you must be asking these dumb political propaganda questions at the behest of your producer.
    You have fallen a long way since your Lateline performances.

  99. Sue and luna lava,
    I can’t wait for The Chaser ….Greg Jericho/Grogs Gamut who writes brilliant forensic critiques of his subjects will be the researcher for the program.
    Leigh Sales on 7.30 is not an interviewer, she is an interrupter, riding shotgun for the Opposition, and the awful fact is that she has been groomed as a leading light for the ABC.
    I wonder who wil cover her position when she goes on maternity leave…. Anabel Crabb….’comedy’ half hour….
    Last night’s ‘interview’ was infuriating because she would not let Treasurer Wayne Swan finish an answer without verballing him. Disgraceful and no longer worth watching.
    Sales and Uhlman may not like the answers but that doesn’t give them the right to prevent viewers from hearing what interviewees have to say.

    Sue, the ‘sources’ are straight from the Liberals handbook.

  100. Notice Mr. Bolt now raises what could only be seen comments on Aboriginals.

    He then allows no comments, on legal grounds.

    He holds to himself the right to say as he wishes but will not allow what he says to be challenged.

    Mr. Bolt is attempting to throttle the free speech of others.

    The one thing that the judgement has not done, made him shut up.

    Mr. Bolt says he does not want to discuss the case. What has he been going for the last week. Crying that he was wronged. Only he knows truth.

    “I don’t intend to discuss the details of the case brought by the nine pale plaintiffs for the obvious reason I could well be the next one in the dock. Oddly enough I had been planning to write an almost identical article to Bolt’s….

    Bolt will be spot-on about freedom of speech going down the gurgler. More and more people will be scared to speak their minds. If that happens, the goodwill that has continued since the 1967 referendum will gradually disappear, and that would be a tragedy for all of us but particularly for the Aboriginal community.

    UPDATE

    A pocket guide to hypocrisy.

    (The legal risk is too high to allow your comments. I apologise.)…”

    http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/more_reaction2

  102. “commentary is being inserted by orders of management.”

    It was also read when it would have the largest audience. After the whistle had blown for thebeginning of the second half of the game.

    No wonder so many fans are upset.

    I am sure there would have been time during the break without interfering with the game.

    It is now being said it was a community announcement that the speaker can choose whether they read it or not.

    In my eyes, it was an political announcement that channel nine was not charging the club lobby for. It should have been acknowledge as such. It was not a conversation by the announcers.

  103. CU, from your link the face of Bolt gets uglier and uglier.

    From Bolt himself..

    Andrew Bolt had “sought to convey the message that certain people of a certain racial mix should not identify with a particular race because they lack a sufficiency of colour and other racial attributes to justify the racial choice which they had made”.

    Under Bolt’s assessment one could not be Jewish because the person does not look Jewish. He’s an angry little man…

  104. Pip, a lot on the other side have the same problem. Maybe we should revisit the book, “One flew out of the Cuckoo Nest”.

    Things may make more sense if we looked at politics in that light.

    Mr. Abbott claimed on the ABC this morning that he was not invited to the Tax Forum. He also turned up with his wife. Funny that, maybe he read the rumours.

    One must be lying, is it Mr. Abbott or is it Mr. Swan. Mr Swan does not strike me as a liar.

    Mr. Abbott was challenged on most of what he said. Once again walked away when things were not going his way.

    By the way it was another PC full of slogans. How is it that this man is seen as a great communicator.

    Are we really all so silly that the only talk we understand, is only what is made up of repeated three words slogans.

    Are we that stupid. If that is the case, why does what he says gets under my skin.

  105. CU
    ”It was a directive from up top that it be read by at least somebody, so I read it,” Warren told his co-host, Dan Ginnane.

    Warren said he supported the comments and while he could not be sure, he believed they were a paid message. ”I think it was an ad, if you like, it sounded like an ad. I think it was done on behalf of the rugby league, who is fully supportive of the clubs.”

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/probe-into-pokie-reform-attack-during-grand-final-20111004-1l628.html#ixzz1ZmOsHvlJ

    Also when the “comment” were made they ran an ad on the big screen, how is that for coincidence.

    “Yesterday he and fellow independent Andrew Wilkie wrote to David Gyngell, the chief executive of Nine, making a formal complaint about the comments. Their letter said Nine might have breached the television code, the Electoral Act and the Broadcasting Services Act.”

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/probe-into-pokie-reform-attack-during-grand-final-20111004-1l628.html#ixzz1ZmPLUhRo

  106. On the news today about tax forum. Did you notice standing by Abbott as he gave his commentary about the tax forum was guess who…MARGIE. So the rumors must be biting.

  107. Andrew Bolt had “sought to convey the message that certain people of a certain racial mix should not identify with a particular race because they lack a sufficiency of colour and other racial attributes to justify the racial choice which they had made”.

    Under Bolt’s assessment one could not be Jewish because the person does not look Jewish. He’s an angry little man…

    He leaves me gobsmacked.

  108. Twitter gossip…

    ShockJockCoach Fake Coaching
    PM material!! RT @latikambourke: Watching Abbott’s ‘stop the smokes’ back, he winks after he says it, then grins for nearly 10 seconds

    Journos chatter at tax forum

    AlanKohler Alan Kohler
    No. Nothing will come from the tax forum.RT @RogueStaffer: @AlanKohler Alan, do you hold out any hope for the #taxforum?

    SebHenbest Seb Henbest
    I cannot believe that the Opposition is not turning up to the #taxforum. Are they content being policy irrelevant? Why did we vote for them?

    Teddytwitt Steve Nicholas
    #Taxforum Tony Abbott nags daily that Labour gov is incompetent. If you claim you are competent, why did you not stand up to a debate today

    swearycat Sweary Cat @ @conceravota
    Abbott was invited to #taxforum but would rather lie to say otherwise.

    swearycat Sweary Cat
    Abbott called #taxforum a pointless talkfest. Does Abbott realise he needs the vote of the guy who first called for it? #Oakeshott

  109. Migs, I’m certain that you can see the tactics. Bolt having been taken down now seeks to run down Justice Bromberg. A nasty horrible little man.

    I have the entire ruling sitting here in front of me downloaded from Austlii (for non legal persons the Law database)..and the very major point that Justice Bromberg made was:

    “the manner in which the articles were written, including that they contained errors of fact, distortions of the truth and inflammatory and provocative language”

  113. Sue, from your link to the BT..

    In a very real sense, Justice Bromberg was simply redressing a deeply imperfect power balance between Bolt and his victims.

    Absolutely…

    Under normal HREOC and Anti-Discrimination cases there would be an order to cease, perhaps counselling and a retraction. Interesting times ahead for Bolt.

  117. NBN Stage Two Roll Out Commences At Kingston Beach
    http://www.alp.org.au/federal-government/news/nbn-stage-two-roll-out-commences-at-kingston-beach/

    The Stage Two roll out in Tasmania will employ 146 workers to take the NBN past 11,150 homes and businesses, including in Sorell, Deloraine, Triabunna, as well as Kingston Beach

    and
    The Stage Three roll out will extend to a further 90,000 homes and businesses in Burnie, Davenport, Launceston and Hobart, employing around 800 workers at its peak.

  118. The reason for posting the Minister’s blogs is because they won’t get much of a run in the main stream media….

    National Health Reform Delivers For Hobart
    http://www.alp.org.au/federal-government/news/national-health-reform-delivers-for-hobart/

    Patients in Hobart and surrounds will benefit from better access to emergency treatment, sub-acute hospital beds and cancer services as a result of the Gillard Government’s historic national health reforms.

    Minister for Health and Ageing Nicola Roxon and Member for Franklin Julie Collins officially opened Tasmania’s first public positron emission tomography (PET) scanner at Royal Hobart Hospital (RHH) today and announced over $17 million in funding that will provide more services and beds for the region.

    “The new beds and services will deliver a better deal for patients right across Hobart and Southern Tasmania,” Minister Roxon said.

  119. Another tax forum tweet

    renewableguide SustainableRenewable

    Ken Henry says that the main beneficiary of a cut to business tax is the worker. #taxforum Abbott says he will increase business tax.

  120. Pip, that will be a great relief for a rellie of mine in Hobart..they have had to take their little boy to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne for treatment for leukemia, and have been doing so for 4 years now. The stress on the family is immeasurable.

  121. Maybe this has already happened. Mr. Bolt is not in the position where he can complain what one says of him.

    I believe Mr. Abbott is in the same place after he said that freedom of speech was also about hearing what we do not like.

    As they say, anything goes.

    “….Perhaps, however, there is a way out. Perhaps rather than a fine, or a spot of detention at Her Maj’s pleasure, the vilification laws might be tweaked so that malefactors like Bolt, upon conviction, lose the right to sue in defence of their reputation for a specified time. Perhaps a year. Perhaps forever…

    ………….I could live with that. And Bolt, if he is serious about free speech, should be able to live with it too. Let him write what he wants. But let the answer to his writing, when it comes, come raw and violent in rhetoric, and unencumbered by the weight of any possible defamation. After all, Bolt seems to think that being free to say whatever we damn well please about anyone is an unqualified good

    http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/blogs/blunt-instrument/how-andrew-bolt-should-be-punished-20111003-1l53v.html

  122. Just coming in..

    Just reminding everyone Labor went to the election with the plan to price carbon. Even The Australian got that on election eve – it was only after the Libs spliced a Ten interview cutting of the we intend the price carbon from there there will be no carbon state statement.

    That’s how they did it, the interview was spliced…

  123. KPMGAustralia KPMG in Australia

    Rob Oakeshott made an impassioned plea that we use this #taxforum as an opportunity to really consider #taxreform – Rosheen

    SabraLane Sabra Lane

    Andrew Fraser (to David Koch) I’m a politician and the son of car salesman, I’m very weary of taking advice from a journalist. #taxforum

  126. Min, what I have been saying since day one. Know one seems to care that a lie was created were none existed.

    I am sure the PM wish she did not ignore the matter

    In hindsight, one would realise the mistake, but I am sure that the PM like me thought it was not worth worrying about as the truth would soon make itself known.

    It is unbelievable that a year later, the same tripe is being presented as a lie.

  127. CU, this is exactly the same as Kevin Rudd..that the truth would win, in spite of impressions to the contrary.

    It is exceptionally difficult to argue otherwise once accusations are made without it seeming to be ‘just excuses’.

  131. Well that is at least slightly different coming from the ABC. Instead of the Opposition says…, on this occasion it’s “…says Abbott”.

  132. Tom R @ 8.45am, I liked this comment from your link

    you don’t get it. When it parrots right opinion as fact, it is journalism and free speech and balance. When it reports facts and events, it is leftist bias.

  135. Institute of Public Affairs runs ad in The Australian campaigning for freedom of speech
    http://mumbrella.com.au/institute-of-public-affairs-runs-ad-in-the-australian-campaigning-for-freedom-of-speech-60026

    The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) has taken out a full page ad in today’s Australian newspaper, claiming Australia’s freedom of speech is under threat.

    A list of names sit below a statement which reads “We support freedom of speech for Andrew Bolt and every Australian.” A group of 1,261 people donated to the IPA to pay for the ad with those who donated more than $40 given the option to have their name published.

    and. a very funny comment

    Honest John
    5 Oct 11
    3:09 pm

    Keith Windschuttle, Nick Minchin, John Stone, Micheal Kroger, Ian Plimer etc. The list reads like a who’s who of spooked out, cardigan wearing, conspiracy theory-subscribing nutters.

  136. Mr. Abbott has said this morning, that those who attended the tax forum were conned. Is Mr. Abbott alleging that he is one only man in this country that has not been conned.

    According to Mr. Abbott he is the only man in step.

    The PM must have wondrous skills if she can con such a diverse audience. from all sides of the political fence, who have their own agendas and their own vested interest.

    I am glad that he did not attend, as he would have set out to be as disruptive as possible.

    We had a group, that were more interested in getting their views across than scoring brownie points.

    For the first time in years, many have paused to listen and to contribute.

    For the number who had problems keeping their eyes open, stunts were not a part of the action.

    Sadly economics can be dry and boring, but important.

    Maybe too many stayed up to the early hours, I hope putting their message across and exchanging views.

  137. Cu, MP Mike Kelly was interviewed a couple of days ago on ABC 24, and described the unlikely presence of Abbott at the Tax Forum.

    Paraphrasing, “he’d come in like a Bra boy and moon everybody.”

    Can you imagine it…. I can ….

  138. From Twitter re Andrew Bolt and free speech.

    zombiemao Zombie Mao

    from the Monthly “Bolt on Monday urged us to pulp the magazine. Clearly he’s in favour of free speech only when it suits him.”

  139. And the big media news and the even bigger news about the ‘outing’ of the Rudd supporters but the biggest news about the schmucks in the other media outlets (supposed journalists)
    Graham Richardson has his own show… Richo.

    Which just goes to show that as for relevance coming out of the new program, there will be none. It does however describe how the right wing network Sky can introduce another program to support the right but pretend to its audience that it is a show about the Labor side of politics.
    Now about the schmucks, Michelle Grattan, actually writes about it today, however rather than admit she was taken in, she actually writes in support of Richo and concludes her article thus

    People will be listening to him for that ”insider gossip” that Gillard dismissed yesterday. That is just what the budding TV host intends.
    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/a-richo-addition-to-the-rudd-game-20111006-1lbks.html#ixzz1a2Q74H4S

    She could have said :As seen today he will write anything to promote himself, as to “insider gossip” that is probably cods wallop.

  140. Peter Costello (former self appointed world’s greatest Treasurer) is out and about spruiking the virtues of re-introducing individual contracts saying they are an important “weapon”.
    Weapon? to be used against Australian workers? kinda says a lot about the Liberal Party’s attitude towards working Australians.

    Costello – is the guy who could not get himself a job in private enterprise, despite going on for years about how he could earn so much more if he left politics. Well the executive employment market didn’t want a bar of him and it took Rudd to give him a job in the Future Fund.
    Since this generous Labor government hand out, he has done nothing but slag the Government (good one Kevin).
    Would be nice to see just how much of our money Costello has lost from the Future Fund.

  141. Mr. Richardson was a Labor power broker. The emphasis is on the word “was”.

    Mr. Richardson has been out of power for many years. During that time his reputation has been attacked and he carries many scars.

    Mr.Richardson, the insider. Does that ring true. Mr. Richardson has burnt many bridges with his treatment of Labor over the years.

    Does one really believe that there would be many of today’s Labor government that would trust this man with their secrets.

    If you were in government, is Mr. Richardson a man that you would trust. I think not.

    Mr. Richardson is being paid for the comments he makes. Mr. Richardson also siad, among his mischief, that Mr. Rudd did not have th numbers.

    It is my belief that Mr. Rudd is not seeking the numbers. What would he gain by returning to be PM. He is in a role today that is bringing him respect world wide. The man is not stupid and I suspect he sees himself moving on to bigger things.

    it is the Opposition and some of the media have this dream of Rudd emerging, to dispose of the PM. It is only a dream and they need to wke up. The world is passing them by.

  142. Sue at 8.09 I note the Richardson’s TV byline tag was “Labor Party Heavy Weight” well it is true that he is overweight and he used to work in the Labor Party but that was before he joined the Murdoch News Ltd mob.
    I had a good laugh when he went on about Craig Thompson, does no one remember Richardson and the “Love Boat” scandal et al

    “Graham Richardson, the former Labor Party powerbroker and federal cabinet minister who resigned from Parliament following a visa scam in the Marshall Islands.

    His latter-day career as a Mr Fixit for the likes of Kerry Packer, Lang Walker and Ron Medich has seen him battle the Tax Office over secret Swiss bank accounts, mentions in various royal commissions, and the subject of other allegations that businessmen had supplied him with prostitutes.”

    Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-infamous-20090909-fgnw.html#ixzz1a2rihUKC

    He could get a walk on part in the next TV Underbelly series playing the role of himself.

  143. former self appointed world’s greatest Treasurer

    Poor ol tip, spurned by his own ideologues, and supported in his dotage by his arch enemies. Waking up must be a difficult proposal every day.

    I wonder what his initial reaction to the news of Swans title was? Perhaps he was the one that actually penned hockeys hate-filled dummy spit in lieu of a congratulation.

  144. lunalava @10.02
    You have done a bit more research than Grattan and to use The Age as the source.
    The mighty media manipulated by a self professed manipulator, I wonder how much Sky would have had to fork out for advertising if the hacks had not run with the story. And advertising on the ABC, I thought that was not allowed.

    It just proves how sloppy the editors of the news organisations have become and why less people trust what is news.

  145. Just watching Liberal Party Senator Eric Abetz on ABC News 24. He must have just got another email from Godwin Grech as apparently “Labor Has lost 54,000 jobs in the last….”
    Well No – the employers Abetz panders to in Parliament have “sacked” 54,000 workers and of course the Liberal Party would like to facilitate this process by doing away with unfair dismissal laws.

  146. Bolt factor: the making of an opportunist
    http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3320366.html

    But Bolt’s ambition is not confined to print. He seems to understand the greater influence that comes from radio and television and, at the same time as he started to harness the power of the internet to promote his conservative views, he began his quest to become the Bill O’Reilly of Australia.

    and
    In 2006, through a third party, Andrew Bolt sought guidance from Roger Ailes on how he could replicate the Fox News model Down Under. “He saw the political power that comes from right-wing ranting,” says a colleague of Bolt’s, “and he appointed himself to do it.”

    He probably thinks he’s social climbing !!

  147. Wikipedia on Richo says

    John Faulkner, of Labor’s socialist left faction, was Richardson’s Assistant Secretary and for eight months, so great was their mutual hatred, they did not exchange a word.[13]

    I’m inclined to believe that !
    Badge of honour to John Faulkner :smile;

  148. Catching up, Tom R, Sue and luna lava…..Kevin Rudd agrees…

    Twitter

    AndrewBGreene Andrew Greene

    . @KRuddMP accuses Graham Richardson of “relevance deprivation syndrome ” #abcnews24

  149. Don’t you just love it..the headline:

    Kevin Rudd meets numbers man and takes on Tony Abbott, fuelling leadership speculation

    The details: I’m working hard with my prime minister and with my ministerial colleagues to do that (elect Abbott) because Australia would change radically. That’s what I am about.”

  151. Min
    I noticed in the ABC article on Rudd and relevance deprivation Richardson, that the reporter Jeremy Thompson left out an important part of Rudd’s comments.
    Rudd said he was visiting the electorate of Justine Elliott and telling the voters what would happen if Abbott was elected. Rudd reminded the electorate that Abbott wanted to take a billion out of the PBS scheme, so pensioners would end up paying at least a further $30 per year on their medicines.
    Rudd said he would continue visiting electorates to remind voters what would happen with Abbott.
    I have noticed that the journalist Jeremy Thompson has a habit of not fully reporting stories.

  152. Sue, the media are most definitely stuck on their theme of Leadership Speculation. Therefore each and every story has to be turned inside out to fit.

    Was Kevin Rudd visiting the electorate 😯 ..well you could have fooled me because there was ZILCH in the local newspapers.

  153. I thought the ABC did a bad job on the Rudd interview and then I saw how the nasty news flagship has written it up ( ROFLMAO)

    Kevin Rudd meets numbers man and takes on Tony Abbott, fuelling leadership speculation
    KEVIN Rudd has fuelled speculation that he is plotting to regain the prime ministership, failing to deny he is undermining Julia Gillard and admitting he met with his alleged numbers man earlier this week.

  154. Sue, I’ve just about given up on the ltd news’ ABC

    Where journalism fails
    http://andrewelder.blogspot.com/2011/10/where-journalism-fails.html

    Earlier today ABC journalist Helen Tzarimas used her Twitter account to advertise her role in a non-story:

    It was just as bad as it looks. The Foreign Minister was overseas engaging in foreign policy, and instead of being asked what he is doing Helen and the gang report chew up time and resources with what he’s not doing.

    Kevin Rudd wasn’t running for Prime Minister yesterday and he probably won’t run tomorrow. You think the media would have learned from Peter Costello – he spent 19 years in parliament not running for Prime Minister. Whole careers in journalism have begun, lived and died in producing the thousands upon thousands of radio and TV and newspaper things about how not Prime Minister Peter Costello was. When Costello quit in 2009 the supposedly serious Australian media couldn’t believe it was all over.

    The comeback of Kevin Rudd is exactly that kind of non-story. What’s worse is that, for all their “insider” pretensions, you can bet that the parliamentary press gallery will be the last to know if Rudd takes his former job back;

  156. Pip
    There is so much that needs to be in the public arena from the Howard era. The willing assistant of the Fed Police commissioner, who eventually realised his time was over, and the Bali 9. So many issues, so many secrets will they be published in Howard’s lifetime?

  157. Only about a week ago Oakshott was saying he and Abbott had kissed and made up, shame the crazy rellies were not told

    ‘Federal Nationals leader Warren Truss has continued the attack on independents Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor at the party’s state conference, saying the MPs had “destroyed” any illusion independents could be “some kind of honest broker in politics”.’
    http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/oakeshott-and-windsor-sold-out-truss-20111008-1leir.html

  158. Sue, I hope so…. the information can’t all be buried too deeply, it’s whether the diggers are willing.

    As George mega., says on another matter at the Tax Forum because the media doesn’t want to get caught on the wrong end of a landslide.

    Breaking the other drought
    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/breaking-the-other-drought/story-fn59niix-1226161553821

    But the tax forum provides hope that Australia can shift the needle from the broken record of negativity to a more inspiring tune. Swan can now see a path to reform in what were previously no-go areas.

    “I was encouraged by the fact that we found some genuinely common ground between really sharply opposing groups and entrenched positions, particularly in terms of business tax reform,” the Treasurer says.

  160. Pip, on your 2006 link, it’s all political. For two reasons. Howard wanted public support for his harsh ant-terrorism laws, and he wanted to appear to be staying friendly to Indonesia. Indonesia spends $16B a year on Australian goods and we need to protect that. It also explains why he gave Indonesia $1B after the Boxing Day tsunami.

    It also explains why he lied.

    The latter, I believe, was unnecessary.

  161. Now how is this for a stretch, the headline and first sentence are so misleading, just see the full facts.

    “Armidale doesn’t want carbon tax

    MORE THAN 75 per cent of Armidale residents don’t want a carbon tax, according to a survey.”

    “The survey was conducted by The Nationals Duty Senator for New England, John Williams, who distributed 57,000 forms into homes in the electorate.”
    http://www.armidaleexpress.com.au/news/local/news/general/armidale-doesnt-want-carbon-tax/2316143.aspx

    Note 57,000 forms distributed and look how many returned:

    “4947 forms returned in New England,4408 or 89 per cent said they did not support a carbon tax.”

    So 8.6% returned the forms, or 7.73% said No to carbon tax

    Armidale 659 responded
    Tamworth 1420 responded
    How is this for a great line:
    “Sen Williams said the survey result sent a message to Mr. Windsor that he, as the self-proclaimed peoples’ representative, needed to rethink his decision to vote the carbon tax through.
    “His people have spoken”.”

    Or it could be said Senator Williams 52,000 plus people agree with Mr Windsor!

  162. Today there is yet another story about the leadership in the government and where did this take place at a labor conference.
    http://www.theage.com.au/national/alp-buzzes-with-leadership-tattle-20111008-1lf52.html

    So I looked at who wrote the article, Michael Bachelard, and did a google and this is what I got for starters :
    “the Ombudsman’s findings were a major shock and embarrassment to the Age as they exposed Bachelard’s claims as utterly false.”

    “The Ombudsman’s report basically accused Bachelard of sloppy reporting and inventing key aspects of his story. A golden moment in sport. Indeed so golden was the shower of accountability that rained down upon Bachelard he was very quickly bundled off to semi-retirement at the Sunday Age.”
    http://www.vexnews.com/2009/10/lest-we-forget-michael-bachelards-day-of-infamy-recalled-in-age-gossip-column/

    So today’s article is dismissed!

  163. I have just watched Insiders, they finished the program with a news clip that featured Campbell Newman.
    If the voters of Qld want a good visual of the personal attributes of Newman, than this clip says it all. Was that contempt in his eyes, it certainly was not compassion?
    As the saying goes “A picture is worth a thousand words” and as the news clip kept rolling I would add, that clip was worth a few thousand words.

  164. Just beware apparently the he-man will be at the motor racing today. So on the news tonight will we see him on the hill enjoying a shandy of light beer with the boys, standing next to a couple of the promotion girls, with a checked flag or just a driving suit and helmet.
    Yes Abbott is after the mans vote! The rev heads vote!

    I will keep an eye out for Margie.

  165. Just saw him Sue, before the start and on the grid. It was an obvious set up to spin Abbott. All his usual gamut of stunts and spin were on display. You would be hard pressed to distinguish this from any of his other political stunts at factories and shops around Australia.

    Abbott should be re-monickered from Mr No to Doctor Spin.

  166. Yes Sue, the he-man rev – heads don’t care who is running the country as long as their blonde girl friend has big tits (shaddy of light is a bit of a worry though).

  168. sue and luna lava, thought you might appreciate this from Twitter.

    bgosford Bob Gosford

    Tony Abbott as a car part. Dipstick, welsh plug, that beep-beep sound, sump plug. Picks and more please. #Bathurst1000 #V8SC

    [Hot] air filter …

  169. JulianBurnside julianburnside

    RT Read about ethnic cleansing of Hazaras. Many boat people are Hazaras. Read this and you will understand why. http://bit.ly/njrieR

    Hazaras despair, home and away

    IN broad daylight on a bustling Quetta highway this week a white ute screeched to a halt in front of a bus carrying mostly poor Hazara fruit sellers to a market.

    Heavily-armed men, suspected members of the Punjab-based militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, spilled out of the vehicle and boarded the bus from the front and rear doors.

    Those passengers who did not bear the unmistakable Asiatic features of the Mongolian-descended Hazaras – adherents to the Shia Islamic sect – were allowed to leave. The remainder were shot with AK-47s.

    Fourteen died on Tuesday, just three days after Hazaras gathered in cities across the world – including Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Sydney – to beg for international action against the almost-weekly targeted killings by Sunni terrorists in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

    Not for the first time, their pleas fell on deaf ears.

    We can read about Hazara asylum seekers being sent back to Afghanistan and it’s just another small article to read and move on…

    Not good enough.

  171. Hazaras despair, home and away
    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/hazaras-despair-home-and-away/story-e6frg6so-1226161600278

    IN broad daylight on a bustling Quetta highway this week a white ute screeched to a halt in front of a bus carrying mostly poor Hazara fruit sellers to a market.

    Heavily-armed men, suspected members of the Punjab-based militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, spilled out of the vehicle and boarded the bus from the front and rear doors.

    Those passengers who did not bear the unmistakable Asiatic features of the Mongolian-descended Hazaras – adherents to the Shia Islamic sect – were allowed to leave. The remainder were shot with AK-47s.

    Fourteen died on Tuesday, just three days after Hazaras gathered in cities across the world – including Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Sydney – to beg for international action against the almost-weekly targeted killings by Sunni terrorists in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

    Not for the first time, their pleas fell on deaf ears.

  172. Twitter

    BrigadierSlog Brigadier Slog

    Today Tonights Refugee Resort promo explains why Abbott is at the #bathurst1000 He wants to stop the boats, to Bathurst

  173. What annoys me more that Mr. Abbott getting away with pure spin, is the fact that everything Labor says is presented as spin.

    Nothing is free from this label, including normal government announcements.

    Everything that any Labor member of the government says is dissected for hidden agendas. Nothing is allow to be taken at face value, all is twisted to give it another meaning to fit in with their own agenda or bias.

    Nothing that Mr. Abbott says is analyse or given a second look. All is accepted at face value.

  174. Cu, I agree, the propaganda spin machine is relentless in it’s efforts to put their chosen political party in the best light, regardless of any failings.
    As you say Everything that any Labor member of the government says is dissected for hidden agendas. Nothing is allow to be taken at face value, all is twisted to give it another meaning to fit in with their own agenda or bias.

    After all that they ask “why cant Labor get it’s message across?” , or
    “Labor is hopeless at getting it’s message across”….

  175. Gillard speaks to Bali drug case boy
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-10/gillard-speaks-to-boy-in-bali/3458986/?site=newcastle

    Prime Minister Julia Gillard has spoken on the phone to the 14-year-old New South Wales boy arrested in Bali and accused of possessing marijuana.

    Ms Gillard’s office says she offered reassurance, telling the boy and his father the government is doing everything it can to return him to Australia.

    She has also spoken daily to Australia’s ambassador to Indonesia Greg Moriarty about the case.

    Ms Gillard’s office says she is following the situation closely and with
    concern.

    From Twitter

    *michellegrattan Michelle Grattan

    Isn’t it a bit inappropriate for the PM to ring the boy in Indonesia?

    **AndrewBGreene Andrew Greene by iClevercat@

    @michellegrattan to be fair she rang the ambassador who then handed the phone over, but interesting her office is publicising the call

    ***ittleaud1 Littleaud @
    @michellegrattan too right. seems desparate politics to me

    ****1SpudBenBean Denise Cook @
    @michellegrattan

    No, not at all, I imagine it was very comforting for them. Michelle, you’re turning into a very bitter, nasty person. Why?

    My favourite is SpudBenBean !!

  176. Gerard Henderson put up a game, so I thought I’d play

    Now, here’s a test. Name one leading trade union figure in the US or Canada who is calling for a carbon tax or an emissions trading scheme (including the cap-and-trade version). Just one.

    http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/unions-choose-masters-over-members-in-carbon-tax-debate-20111010-1lhf1.html?comments=17#comments

    I put this up, so am now awaiting it through moderation (lets hope bolt isn’t doing it today 😉 )

    It’s called Google. Give it a go 😉

    “All policy proposals to address climate change, including cap-and-trade, arise from the idea that if a price is put on carbon, it will provide an incentive to emit less carbon,” Gerard testified. “This theory is sound, as long as the cost cannot simply be evaded by companies moving production overseas or by downstream producers and consumers avoiding the cost by purchasing imported materials from nations that do not share the U.S.’s commitment to climate change abatement.”

    http://www.usw.org/media_center/releases_advisories?id=0145

  177. Tom, good one. It seems that journos in Australia believe that they can say what they like because so few Australians have ever heard of Google. 🙄

  178. Actually Min, I reckon they sit behind their desk and do all of their ‘research’ on Google. They just don’t know how to use it.

  180. Why do they say the Clean Energy Bill is putting Australia is ahead of the game and we are going it alone?
    The facts seem to indicate we are playing catch up.
    Why is it seen as left v right in this country, when governments on both sides of the fence give support across the world?
    Why do they say that all industry is opposed, when our leading airlines are asking to be involved? They do this because it is in their interest to do so.

    “….We asked several to endorse Warburton’s comments about climate science on the record, but they wouldn’t. One expressed a view that they had understood the lobby group was to have been more concerned about “broader manufacturing issues” than the carbon price. That seems disingenuous at best. It is clear that Warburton’s zeal is based more around ideology than business management, but some companies might be happy to have a bet each way……………

    ………….Of particular interest to Labor will be the fact, that less than a year before the election, the sitting Ontario government trailed the Opposition by double figures head to head. And just three months before the vote, polls indicated a 41 per cent to 22 per cent preference for the Tories in approval ratings……………..

    …………..Labor can, however, take heart that elections can be won by a centre-left government with an unpopular leader that promotes action on climate change and investment in clean energy technologies.

    In the Canadian province of Ontario, the leftish Liberal Party last week defied expectations and got re-elected, despite a handsome lead in pre-election polls for the Progressive Conservative Party, which had promised to repeal incentives for green energy, dump a plan to encourage Samsung to invest $7 billion to establish renewable energy manufacturing plants centre, and to reverse a commitment to join the same regional cap-and-trade scheme being established by California.
    http://www.climatespectator.com.au/commentary/facing-carbon-reality?utm_source=Climate%2BSpectator%2Bdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Climate%2BSpectator%2Bdaily&utm_source=Climate+Spectator&utm_campaign=ebbae3c7cf-CSPEC_DAILY&utm_medium=email

  181. Pip, just thought to let you know that your link to The Australian proving that Julia did indeed say that there would be a carbon tax has gone VIRAL.

    I kid you not. I popped up a link to your research on Migs’ Australians for an Honest Media FB group..and everyone is now reposting it.

    You’ve done well girl…huggs.

  182. Min, that’s great.
    It needed to be pointed out that none other than the very solemn oracle Paul Kelly, and Dennis Shanahan, chief Coalition supporter at The Oz were the authors.

    Here it is again… 😀

    Julia Gillard’s carbon price promise
    by: Paul Kelly and Dennis Shanahan From: The Australian August 20, 2010 12:00AM

    { That’s August 20th 2010 …. looking at you Tony Abbott }

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/julia-gillards-carbon-price-promise/story-fn59niix-1225907522983

  184. I see that ASIO is using the F word

    FASCIST groups as well as other nationalist extremist outfits are active and pose a threat to Australia, with the country’s leading security agency saying there are legitimate concerns that such groups may one day spawn an Anders Breivik-style terrorist attack.

    The assessment, in the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s annual report to Parliament, also reveals that Australia’s current crop of right-wing extremists increasingly draw inspiration from overseas via the internet.

    Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/persistent-fascists-a-threat-to-national-security-asio-20111011-1lj3r.html#ixzz1aVLS9vOL

    No doubt one of the poor sods in ASIO has been assigned to read the blog site of the Blot to keep up with the investigation.

  185. I only watch ABC TV (mostly current affair programs). During the last two years the same questions are always asked;

    1. The Prime Minister lied about a carbon tax;
    2. Leadership question concerning Kevin Rudd.

    Now after all this time I doubt there is too much more to add to an answer. These questions carry no news value, but they do carry propaganda value for the Liberal/National coalition.

    My question is why does the ABC encourage propaganda from one political party?

    Why does some senior ALP member of the Government not go to the ABC for a quiet sit down and request an answer?

    You can bet the Liberal party would not hesitate to scream at ABC management.

  187. “Mr Newman today called the editor of The Courier-Mail, Michael Crutcher, to request that it does not publish the dossiers tomorrow.

    Mr Crutcher this afternoon told Fairfax Radio 4BC the newspaper would publish the dossiers in an edited form.”
    Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/lnp-sack-calls-grow-20111012-1ljs1.html#ixzz1aYYFd8OW

    How much of the “sleaze”(as described by newman) will the courier-mail feel it is in the interest of the public to know? We will see tomorrow, and it is on the Labor party, so even if they do not publish now small bits of the smut can be released closer to the election.

  191. Sue, absolutely. It is always a combo and several journo techniques are utilized. You choose the worst (or best) pic that you can find, obviously depending upon who you want to portray/which story you want to tell – put up a headline which doesn’t necessarily match the text, but provides an ‘impression’ – the message is then expressed in the few opening sentences.

    And the latter is why the real truth of the article is almost always found down towards the bottom of the article..because basically people don’t read that far down.

    We had one here at the Café a while back about ‘pick the technique’..quite scary about how easily opinion is manipulated.

  192. Yesterday Anthony Albanese confirmed that it was Sophie the Slag who signed in those idiots that disrupted question time. Attendants got excited when one of the nutters in the gallery started taking off his shoes (maybe to throw at the object of their hate). Reports suggest that some had to be physically persuaded to leave.
    I assume, by his silence, that Abbott condones this type of behaviour.

  193. Jane a must read for you and the rest of us fans of Sophie the Slag:

    http://andrewelder.blogspot.com/

    Andrew Elder in his piece “The Passion of Sophie Mirabella” set the record straight on just how this drop kick of a political representative has lowered the bar on political performance. I liked his description of her as “…she was a great sucking hole of need” pure gold there Andrew.

    and this classic:

    “Surrounded by nongs and imbeciles, she was beatific: I half-expected her to do that air-scooping wave that the Queen does.”

    I liked “Tony Abbott will not get rid of Mirabella. Others tear down wacky right-whingers; he builds them up and defends them no matter what. It is likely that the next leader of the Liberal Party will give her a spell in the back paddocks, but Abbott will stick by her to the death.”

    A great read.

  194. Lunalava, even Howard (and I don’t say ‘even Howard’ lightly) would not have wanted to associate himself with the types that Tony Abbott seems quite keen to utilize. Howard would have promptly come forward and condemned such actions..even if he was smuggly twittering behind his hand. This is how low politics has sunk with Abbott in charge of the opposition, he doesn’t even pretend to have any standards.

  195. Just to let every one know that Tony has gone to Melbourne.
    Yes I read it in the Tele that as other MPs lined up to get special flights to get home, Mr Home Boy Tony got his own flight in the other direction.

  198. Sue, then he is fleeing to the outback for a few days. He is to assist in some building in a Aboriginal camp.

    Home seems to be a place he would rather not visit.

    We also have not seen much of the bike or surf lately.

  199. It would be interesting to see a count of number of days at home with the family over the past year. After all he has had a year of campaigning on “stop the tax” and has failed. I suppose he has to keep moving so that no one in the Liberal party can ambush him and give the tap on the shoulder.

  203. Just heard on the radio, Tony going to Cape York for 4 days, house building, he will be accompanied by a daughter, who will see how a school program works.
    Hope the kids don’t have to go to school on a weekend, so the daughter can get some happy snaps with kids.

  204. Mr. Denmore at the Failed Estate has something to say about freedom of speech.

    The Gag Reflex
    http://thefailedestate.blogspot.com/2011/10/gag-reflex.html

    The irony is that some of the greatest suppressors of a free media are the press barons themselves. The late Kerry Packer was an enthusiastic litigant and once went after Jonathon Holmes’ alma mater Four Corners over a 1997 investigation into casino licensing. And from my own professional experience, lawyers for Rupert Murdoch himself – the great champion of a free media – threatened his partly owned AAP in the early 1990s over a well-researched piece by its media writer about News Corp’s near insolvency at that time.

    I don’t recall journalists getting on their high horses in those cases when the Big End rode into town. And I certainly don’t recall those Fair Weather Friends of Freedom that signed the IPA petititon fighting on the barricades when such characters as Piers Akerman or Col Allan went after other media outlets seeking to scrutinise their activity. In many of these cases, litigation is entered into not to seek a judgement, but merely to gag the media in the courts until an issue dies down. (See Stephen Mayne’s great wrap-up of several notable defamation suits involving powerful figures over recent years.)

  206. Sky backed for Australia Network as second tender process call for move away from Aunty

    by: Mark Day and Dennis Shanahan From: The Australian October 17, 2011

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/monday-section/sky-backed-for-australia-network-as-second-tender-process-call-for-move-away-from-aunty/story-fna1k39o-1226167958102

    THE second tender process to award the $223 million Australia Network contract has again recommended Sky News.

    The assessment panel was due to reach its decision on the second tender by September 16. It is understood the four-member assessment panel unanimously supported the Sky News tender over the ABC, citing its superior plans to establish special programming for services to China and the Middle East.

    Former Prime Minister Rudd should have performed the night of the long knives when he first took Office.

    It was reported that the panel, made up of bureaucrats from the Treasury, Finance, Foreign Affairs and Communications departments, had recommended that the overseas service be taken away from the ABC and awarded to Sky News.

    Rupert Murdoch owns a large portion of Australian media, and I for one don’t wish to see his version of Australian ‘news’ being broadcast into Asia.

  207. ABC staff concerned over Australia Network delays
    September 24, 2011

    Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/abc-staff-concerned-over-australia-network-delays-20110923-1kpe8.html#ixzz1azwjVNiB

    Australia is the only country known to put such public diplomacy services out to tender. An independent panel of senior public servants charged to judge the two bids had recommended the contract go to Sky News, only for the government to make a late intervention in the tender process.

  208. Psychiatrist’s evidence questioned in Senator shoplifting trial
    By Candice Marcus
    Updated October 17, 2011 11:44:39

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-17/mary-jo-fisher-psychiatrist-shoplifting/3574852

    Prosecutors say a psychiatrist was biased in his evidence Senator Mary Jo Fisher was suffering from a panic attack when she allegedly stole groceries from a supermarket.

    The South Australian Liberal Senator did not attend an unscheduled hearing called in Adelaide Magistrates Court on Monday.

    Prosecutors sought to reopen their case to call rebuttal evidence.

  209. Oh dear
    A real case about a politician, will it make the news tonight or even the murdoch press? I suppose for balance the abc will be called upon to say something about that other ‘no case yet’ person.

  212. Journalists will be encouraged to rely on government spokespeople instead of ”ill-informed” academic or other unofficial ”terrorism expert[s]”.

    The media are to be warned that ”they are not just observers – they need to understand that the way they report the situation could affect the outcome of an incident”. Security officials will highlight ”the dangers of live coverage of eye-witness accounts”.

    Terror attack media plan Philip Dorling
    October 18, 2011

    http://www.theage.com.au/national/terror-attack-media-plan-20111017-1ltcb.html

    Now if the media could apply this to all their coverage !!

  213. Nikki Savva has a really nasty piece of personal attack on the Prime Minister in today’s Australian which I tried to respond to but every time I went to press submit something went haywire. Since I’d saved it I’ll have another go tomorrow. Meantime I know some of you will be glad to share my feelings, jane, Sue, Pip, Min and Cu, that this sort of bitchery is worse from another woman. Anyway this is what I wanted to say to her.

    Feeling better, Nikki? Nice bundle of bitchy generalities about our Prime Minister you’ve thrown together here. How about some facts to back up your assertion that “people doubt her competence, question her trustworthiness, distrust her values and mock her presentation?”

    People like yourself in the media may be able to make statements like that often enough to influence public opinion. That doesn’t mean that she is incompetent and untrustworthy. Her communication and negotiating skills have achieved the passage of the Clean Energy Future legislation along with almost two hundred other pieces of legislation so far this year.

    The government she established a year ago has not fallen apart. The Greens and significant Independents are still supporting her despite the worst efforts of character assassins and rumor mongers like yourself.

    I haven’t seen one Labor ‘backbencher or frontbencher’ out baming her for anything. If you have please name them. Except for a policy difference over the Malaysian plan with the Greens I’ve seen no ‘blaming’ by her other partners in this hung parliament.

    Rather I sense amongst many of them admiration for her courage and competence which I and others share.

  214. Patricia, that is brilliant! I’ll be keeping fingers crossed that it gets through..however there is a good possibiity that this is far too honest and accurate for the OO to be able to cope with.

  215. Nikki is getting a run at Bolt’s site. This is another nasty piece of work I must say the right attracts the worse of the female species.

    I have nothing but respect for the tolerance and guts of the present PM.

    It appears that her popularity began to slide in February. According to ABC 23 this morning, that is when the intensive advertising by big business began.

    Mr. Abbott is still saying this is a paralysed government. How?

    It is untrue that there was no decision on migration. There was, the decision to focus onshore processing . The decision to use to develop community detention in preference to detention behind the wire.

    No decision not to open more detention centres. The decision to go ahead with closing down temporary centres.

    There was also the decision to not to have anything to do with Nauru or any similar solution, mainly because it is expensive and does not make sense. My words.

    The decision to continue to work with countries in the region to develop a regional processing centre. The decision to continue to find ways to deter the boat trade.

    The PM is still moving around the country, carrying out her duties. The PM will shortly greet the Queen and the American President.

    The government is dealing with it’s business and announcing new decisions regularly. Can those who say the government cannot do it’s business point out what is not occurring.

    The FM has been working and urging Burma to make the country safe for it’s people. This, if successful will mean fewer asylum seekers. We need to keep out finger cross for that one.

    Refugees say that the way to stop them coming is to stop the wars in their countries. They also say that the choice is death in their country, life in Australia. This is the only black and white picture that is true.

    There is no simple or easy answer to their plight.

    An aside, the treasurer is on the ABC. He does sound forceful and confident.

    Telstra sharehioders today to vote on the deal with NBNCo.

  216. PS. Has anyone noticed that the streets have not been closed off with high wire fences. Bridges are open . We are not prohibited from walking around our cities, in like what occurred under Mr. Howard when we had overseas dignities visited for conferences in this country.

  217. Can someone else try to Submit a comment, however brief at that Nikki Savva opinion piece? It calls for comment and then goes haywire as it did last night and when I tried again this morning.

    Also there seems to be no indication of other comments having been made – somewhat surprising.

    Is it just me? Or do they have a sabotage system for known dissenting voices?

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/fall-from-grace-began-with-a-coup/story-e6frgd0x-1226169106874

  218. patriciawa
    i sent a comment and the box with “thank you for your comment” appeared. does not mean it will be published. good luck

  219. I think I’ll try commenting from my daughter’s line next door when they all wake up!

    It’s interesting that the site recognizes me and prints out my details as I go to comment and then goes haywire with the word count not functioning and the SUBMIT disappearing.

    Miglo, is it possible to delete known dissenting opinions before they get submitted?

  220. patriciawa
    if you have any more problems, i could use my ip address to post for you but use your monika. let me know if you would like me to.

  221. What a surprise….Andrew Bolt won the Ernie Award for most sexist comment :mrgreen:

    Andrew Bolt receives Ernie award for 2011
    October 18, 2011 – 12:09AM
    http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/andrew-bolt-receives-ernie-award-for-2011-20111018-1ltr3.html
    AAP

    Controversial News Ltd columnist Andrew Bolt has been awarded the 2011 Ernie award for sexist comments.

    Bolt was given the gold award for a newspaper opinion piece he wrote in April suggesting male soldiers would be turned from warriors into escorts if women were allowed to serve on the frontline.

    Meredith Burgmann, a founder of the annual Ernie awards, said Bolt scored the loudest jeers for the 19th Annual Ernie Awards for Sexist Behaviour held at NSW Parliament House on Monday night.

    and
    Opposition Leader Tony Abbott narrowly beat former Labor leader Mark Latham to claim the Ernie prize in politics, for failing to disassociate himself from “Ditch the witch” signs used to denigrate Prime Minister Julia Gillard at anti-carbon tax rallies in March.

    and
    Perth obstetrician Dr Barry Walters won the Fred award for suggesting older mothers were selfish.

    “He didn’t say older fathers are selfish,” Ms Burgmann said.

    and
    NSW Family and Community Services Minister Pru Goward, a former federal sex discrimination commissioner, won an Elaine award for criticising the Australian Services Union’s equal pay case before Fair Work Australia.

    and
    Just to prove News Ltd columnists can be admired, Daily Telegraph federal politics reporter Simon Benson was given the Good Ernie for a column he wrote in April, in which he criticised racehorse trainer Gai Waterhouse’s comments about Ms Gillard needing a makeover as she visited tsunami victims in Japan.

  222. Patricia, sometimes something changes that stops thing going through.

    I cannot use my normal email on my grand daughters computer to send emails. I have to use my hot mail address.

    I am unable to find out why. I am the only one that uses email on the computer.

    I can receive but not send.

    Just a suggestion.

  223. Pip, thank you. It just goes to show that sexism is alive and well and what better recipients than Andrew Bolt and Tony Abbott.

  227. Eddie, where are you ?

    Tensions rise over Australia Network bid
    http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/tensions-rise-over-australia-network-bid-20111017-1ltfy.html

    SENIOR federal ministers are angry about a leak they believe was designed to pre-empt a cabinet decision on the long-running saga of the $233 million Australia Network television contract.

    The Herald has confirmed that a four-person high-level bureaucratic advisory panel recommended the tender be awarded to Sky News, over the ABC, which runs the service at present.

  228. Sue, Just posted my comment under the pseudonym of Patricia Watson from next door’s pc and email and it was at least accepted for moderation. As you say it’s no guarantee of publication.

    My own page here for that article still becomes inoperative for comments the moment I enter my own details. I can’t see if any comments at all have been published either.

    So perhaps you could let me know how that goes as the day wears on.

    Very odd. I have had no problems commenting anywhere else today, new or familiar. It’s interesting to me too that that’s one of the few sites where I’ve ever ticked the ‘Remember Me’ box.

    Miglo, am I being paranoid, or is that a fairly normal sort of glitch?

  229. Patricia, just a quick message from Migs as he’s a bit busy at the moment. It’s a normal glitch. Try going to Tools and deleting Browsing History. And then try it again.

  232. Sue, I don’t know about you but I can’t see that the OO is worth $2.95 per week…

    I always refer to my mate Mungo’s comment at the Billinugel store. It was always Mungo’s habit to buy all of the newspapers and take them down to the Brunswick Heads pub. The nice lady behind the counter asked, Why don’t you buy the Australian. Mungo’s answer was: I only buy that one when I want to know what the enemy is thinking.

  233. Min
    And the best bit when a reporter asks a question based on Oz BS, the Minister can reply,I do not know about the story as I am not a subscriber!

  234. Look at this rubbish headline from news
    “Stop complaining: NBN will save you money”

    and then they use this sentence
    ‘A survey has found that despite the fact we all love to hate the NBN plan, it’s actually going to save you time and money”.

    Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/movies-in-minutes-the-internets-fast-and-furious-future/story-e6frfrnr-1226169583039#ixzz1b6IFjcr9

    Yes you stupid noggins, it will be cheaper, it is only because Telstra has agreed to the NBN deal , that you will now write half truths.

    Go behind your paywalls and the electorate will benefit LESS LIES!

  235. Sue, that could indeed be interesting..that in the future that nobody could know nuffin’ about nuffin’ because…

    wait for it…

    I’m not a subscriber…

    Maybe Migs should start charging 😀

  236. Patricia, you’re not being paranoid. You’re probably a ‘known leftie’ and hence your comments are avoided/ignored by the right wing journals.

  241. On the Telstra vote it looks like the convey of incontinence showed up.

    Vote against NBN 0.55%

    Those who voted Yes 99%
    or put another way those who did not believe Nasty News/turnbull/abbott/ 99%
    Now that is a poll

    Do not wait bring, in the paywalls now
    When do we want it, nasty news paywalls, we want it now

  242. On the Telstra vote it looks like the convoy of incontinence showed up.

    Vote against NBN 0.55%

    Those who voted Yes 99%
    or put another way those who did not believe Nasty News/turnbull/abbott/ 99%
    Now that is a poll

    Do not wait bring, in the paywalls now
    When do we want it, nasty news paywalls, we want it now

  243. I wonder how the opposition will spin this one. Perhaps Abbott could threaten shareholders with what he will do when he becomes PM.

    The shareholders must think the NBN is a goer to get this much support for the deal.

  244. Sue, yes I loved that one too…the convoy of incontinence. It seems to me that the more polls there are, the less their relevance.

  246. There is this one: **Disclaimer: Tim Dick is a rellie..

    News Ltd will soon charge readers of The Australian $2.95 a week to view all content on its website and mobile phone and tablet applications, as the country’s largest newspaper publisher experiments with alternative sources of revenue in the face of falling advertising receipts.

    http://www.theage.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/australian-to-charge-295-a-week-for-all-online-content-20111018-1lufn.html#ixzz1b6TILKmN

  247. Sue, thanks to Min’s tip about clearing my browsing history I was able to visit the Oz site. Neither of us appear. Only two dissenting opinions in over a hundred published and both of those complaining their origial views weren’t shown! Makes you wonder how many other people disagreeing with Savva didn’t get a mention.

  249. One Telstra shareholder said she voted for the deal, as she lives in the country, and that is the only way she will get broadband.

  250. CU
    0.55% voted no. And 7.30 found that person and gave them quite a bit of air time.

    the one telstra shareholder from the country was part of the 99%.

    A very poor report by 7.30 on the Telstra vote, 7.30 never mentioned the overwhelming support of the shareholders, if I hadn’t read about it I would not have known.

  252. Tom R

    Stupid 7.30 proudly announced they would be interviewing Anal tonight.
    Why on earth is the ABC giving credence to that nasty piece of work.
    And Anal would only agree knowing the quality of the interviewers 7.30 has these days.

  253. Sue, I am sure we will be ensuring that we let nothing else stop us from watching. All other plans will have to be put on hold.

    Well it could worse, it could be devoted to the queen.

  254. And Anal would only agree knowing the quality of the interviewers 7.30 has these days.

    Of course he would Sue. He had to wait until their level sunk down to a level approaching the depths of his.

    I haven’t watched it in a while now, nad have no real desire to either.

    I actually started watching Insiders on Sunday, but didn’t get very far.

  255. CU

    Thanks for the reference to the queen, now I know why Anal is in Canberra today. That other Queen arrives in Canberra today!

    He must be here to make sure the Police don’t stop her coming to the Nations capital.
    No doubt he will organise a few placard waving supporters and he will need to check that they have left the Ditch the witch placards in the bus.
    I wonder if Anal has bought some food vouchers and tickets for the cheer squad to attend the press gallery. He will need some of the goons to boo if any I repeat any of the press ask a confronting question.

  256. CU

    Press club not press gallery i was confusing myself with the galleries in the parliament and that responsibility of vouching for the inmates belongs to the vampire.

  257. Well Senator Brown said he had better things to do, but hoped that Mr. Jones performed better than last time he appeared.

    Mr. Brown was busy defending the ombudsman. He was concerned that the government was trying to shut him up. Funny, I fail to believe what extra powers he needs, when he did not use the ones that are available now.

  258. I am positive that David Marr thoroughly enjoyed writing this one..I know that I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

    Plus according to another article which appears in the Herald Sun, there is to be no appeal which contradicts Bolt’s lawyers previous statement that they would take it to the High Court to seek an interpretation of the Act.

    Andrew Bolt’s newspaper, the Melbourne Herald Sun, has been ordered to publish a corrective notice after the Federal Court found two of Bolt’s columns attacking fair skinned Aborigines in 2009 breached the Racial Discrimination Act.

    Justice Mordecai Bromberg ordered the notice be published twice alongside Bolt’s columns in the next fortnight to provide a public record of the court’s findings and help “redress the harm done” by the columns.

    The court found Bolt had wrongly accused a number of fair skinned Australians of being motivated by “career opportunities” or “political activism” to falsely identify as Aborigines.

    http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/newspaper-ordered-to-correct-bolts-mistakes-20111019-1m74g.html#ixzz1bBnkvJ23

  260. How true Tom..from your link,

    If the sort of money going into the anti-carbon price ads were being spent on informing householders and businesses how to cut peak energy use and be more energy efficient, we would all have lower electricity bills and be better off.

  261. Comedy hour at the National Press Club with Alan Jones.
    It was a hoot listening to this guy make a goose of himself (again). My favourite is Alan Jones saying;

    As I said before, the upper house in Queensland is in bed with the mining industry

    Alan really knows his political systems – Queensland is the only Australian State to have a unicameral (or single chamber) Parliament so I am not quite sure who they are “in bed with”.

  263. Min
    I hope the judge has stipulated the font and graphic layout, otherwise the fine print if left to Bolt may not be black enough.

  264. Sue, that ‘corrective notice’ is going to kill ’em..Bolt plus the Murdoch media. It would have to be prominent and also note how Justice Bromberg has stated that the notice has to appear alongside Bolt’s columns for the next fortnight..therefore it can’t be hidden down the bottom of Page 7. I read also that although the offending articles can remain in Archives that the Notice has to be placed alongside these as well.

  265. The Australian tea party/Liberal party
    Liberal MP spruiks Coalition on Australian Tea Party page

    Liberal MP Andrew Laming has used the right-wing Australian Tea Party’s Facebook page, which features comments encouraging violence against US President Barack Obama during his tour next month, to gather feedback and promote the Coalition.

    The Australian Tea Party facebook page contains anti-Gillard, anti-Obama and anti-Left rhetoric — one poster said: ‘‘Burn in hell left wingers.”

    Posts on the page promise a ‘‘warm Tea-Party’’ welcome when President Obama visits Australia in mid-November but protest details are being kept secret.

    Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/liberal-mp-spruiks-coalition-on-australian-tea-party-page-20111019-1m72a.html#ixzz1bC5ycMhg

    Looks like a bit of overtime for ASIO and how many Secret Service are here checking out the Liberals and their associates.
    Watch out Mirabella they will be watching who you sign into parliament.

    With comments like this from the Liberal cheer squad
    “‘I encourage you to throw things at obama when he steps off the plane in australia…bottles…rocks…fruit…veggies whatever you can find”

    Abbott will find it difficult to get any where near Obama.

  267. “Alan Jones apologises for police attack over the blocking of vehicles at Convoy of No Confidence rally”

    this is the headline and this is what the tele calls an apology

    ‘Mr Jones said he was happy to apologise if anyone was offended and interpreted his claims as being that Australian Federal Police were not doing their job properly.
    “It would do me no harm, whatever, to apologise to anyone who might have offended by the inference that the police weren’t doing their job.

    “I think the police were doing their job. But these people were stopped. They had very limited access to the traffic system in Canberra.”
    http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/alan-jones-apologises-for-police-attack-over-the-blocking-of-vehicles-at-convoy-of-no-confidence-rally/story-e6freuy9-1226170754875

    I thought an apology said “I apologise” I was unaware that an apology was actually “it would do ME no harm, whatever, to apologise”

    Thank you Mr Jones for that new lesson.

  269. They had very limited access to the traffic system in Canberra.

    Wasn’t one of their stated aims to bring traffic to a halt. Looks like it was a success then if they were able to cause so much chaos even their own trucks couldn’t get through lol

  271. I owe Mr. Jones an apology. It is wrong, he did not say that the Queensland government has a upper house. (Mr. Jones, that is how one apologises).

    What he alleged that the mining industry was Queensland Upper House. Sorry Mr. Alan Jones.

    I assume Mr. Jones after your long rant against the coal and gas industry, you will be supporting the Clean Energy Legislation and it’s call for renewal energy.

  272. Mr. Jones, that is how one apologises

    If one is sincere that is CU 😉

    I do love the way he apologised about the protesters having an extended toilet break, while still pushing the same meme.

  273. Tom R, I am not sincere, but that is the way you do it.

    You do not apologise and make excuses at the same time.

  274. Min at 2.16
    I’m touched by your conviction that a Blot apology would be on page 7, I think it’d be a bit further back than that. His Honour Mordy Bromberg obviously agrees with us.
    I heard on radio at the time that when Abbott renegged on his Rock Solid Guarantee on Medicare the Telegraph reported it on page 13 or thereabouts, can’t produce proof though but it sounds right.

  275. Republican though I am, I must say I’m teed off on Liz’s behalf with the constant refrain of “on what will probably be her last visit…” the clear implication being that she’ll have shuffled off ere the next one comes round. Not nice to see & read that about yourself all the time, but I suspect she’s too sensible to pay much attention to our local media. She’s probably upped the security on her mobile though.

  276. BSA. I agree, it is unnecessary and rude.

    I seem to remember they said that last time she came.

    It does indicate that royalty are not seen to be much more that other celebrities.

    She does not rate for the the covers of woman’s magazines any more.

  278. Stop the presses a positive news story from a business in Queanbeyan, Mr no Abbott was not in attendance, of course not. For a positive story you need the PM, PM Gillard.

    The iinnovative business, Dyesol, developing a paint that will in effect replace the need for solar panels.

  280. ABC chairman lambasts partisan reporting and threat to trust in news
    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/abc-chairman-lambasts-partisan-reporting-and-threat-to-trust-in-news/story-e6frg996-1226171154769

    THE ABC must retain its pluralist culture — and resist the trend towards partisan journalism — to avoid the loss of trust being suffered by media outlets worldwide, the outgoing chairman of the ABC, Maurice Newman, said last night.

    too late, the ABC news and current affairs is now Murdoch Lite.

  281. AN-other fine mess Labor has got itself into

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/an-other-fine-mess-labor-has-got-itself-into/story-e6frg9tf-1226168017127

    THE Gillard government is in a pickle over the future of the Australia Network. What should have been a straightforward decision has become a political bunfight for all the wrong reasons.

    Rupert Murdoch’s Sky News wants the Australia Network to complete his media domination.

    Just say NO Senator Conroy.

  282. Min at 7.21
    Yes, Queen Lizzy has arrived but you’d know that for yourself by now as the media has immediately used it as another angle to bag Gillard with. If nothing else they’re quick off the mark.
    Pip at 12.07
    Yes it is.

  283. BSA, indeed yes…our girl didn’t curtsey to Her Maj. And who can forget when Keating laid non-royal hand upon the royal personage.

  284. And it is worth repeating, that last night was a first probably anywhere in the world.

    Queen
    Governor General
    Prime Minister
    Chief Minister of ACT

    All women. Let us celebrate

  285. Tweets about the curtsy

    DameEtcetera EtceteraEtceteraEtc by geeksrulz@
    @geeksrulz @sunili @JuliaGillard

    What a lot of rot !!! Read the British Monarchy web site…curtsey not required….even protocol says so

    and
    GreenJ Jonathan Green

    despite the mcmahon rumours RT @CatherineDeveny: No Australian Prime Minister has ever curtsied to the Queen

  286. The Australian to turn on paywall on Monday

    http://mumbrella.com.au/the-australian-to-turn-on-paywall-on-monday-61739?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mumbrella+%28mUmBRELLA%29

    The Australian’s paywall begins on Monday, News Limited boss John Hartigan has told the company’s staff.

    Hartigan said the move – which sees a freemium model with some
    content remaining free, and some behind a pay wall – “represents a major step in the creation of a sustainable model for quality journalism.”

  290. The paywall is dead in the water..nobody is going to pay to read an opinion. Ten years ago this might have worked but even Crikey stuggle to get people to pay for subscriptions.

    Sorry George Mega-thingy might be a good writer but there are a lot of good writers. Pay to read George or pay nothing to read Mungo…

  291. If all those journos go behind a paywall and thus we the public forget who these people are, does that mean they will not be considered as guests on Q&A, The Drum, Insiders.
    It has just been pointed out to me that they are probably members of the IPA, so there goes that theory. Damn

  292. One more curtsy tweet

    TonyBarry Tony Barry

    I don’t understand the furore about the non-curtsy. It’s not like Gillard high-fived her.

  294. Tweet

    KarenMMiddleton Karen Middleton

    Re did Mr Abbott wear budgies to cold store? TA to wkrs: ‘No budgie smugglers in there today. The budgie wld’ve been very small in there.’

    Eeuuwww !

  296. Pip at 5.14
    Thanks for the link, weird stuff indeed. How many volts do you reckon they had to whack into JDW to get any movement?
    Crikey’s First Dog has an apposite comment on all this.
    Even by the faintly vomitous standards of what nowadays passes for reporting & commentary, we are witnessing here the creation of a beatup of the first water.

  298. Bolt from the blue: The rise of a right-wing polemicist

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/bolt-from-the-blue-the-rise-of-a-rightwing-polemicist-20111006-1lbkl.html#ixzz1bIlETqn0

    This is an edited extract from a profile published today in The Monthly.

    THE emergence of Andrew Bolt as a powerful right-wing commentator has surprised many people who have known him over the years.

    Certainly the Andrew Bolt of today bears very little resemblance to the shy 20-year-old who took up a cadetship at The Age in 1979, or to the polite young man who was hired as an assistant features editor on Eric Beecher’s now-defunct The Herald in Melbourne in the late 1980s.

    Those who knew him then are startled by the transformation. One colleague from The Age said she never found him to be opinionated and was utterly amazed to return to Melbourne after a few years overseas to ”find that he was such a personality”.

    Personality ? That’s a bit of a stretch !

    On the subject of the collapse of support for the carbon pricing and ETS:-

    Like the Fox News jocks, Bolt tends to stick to just a few themes – ”no stolen generation”, ”honour the churches”, ”frown on divorce”, ”crack down on welfare”, ”stop the cult of victimhood”, ”stop immigration”, ”end multiculturalism” – and to hammer them over and over. Top of the list in the right-wing song book, though, is the non-existence of climate change. Bolt is utterly obdurate when it comes to the subject. ”I thought he wrote too much about climate change,” Guthrie says, ”but he was immoveable.”

    Bolt is credited with being an important factor in the collapse of the political consensus for action on climate change that existed in 2007.

  299. Thanks, Pip. Some value in following your link to the ABC story. Astonishing to read a post and thread where sentiment was running more than ninety per cent pro the PM!

  301. Yes Pip and patriciawa, I had just read that dross on theirabc about the queen, and was similarly heartened by the response of the posters. Don’t write crap was a common theme.

    As was the responses to one of crabbes latest excuses for the media

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-19/crabb-an-audience-my-kingdom-for-an-audience/3578344

    a direct challenge to many of the assumptions we have hitherto made about how our jobs are done.

    Here’s a though, don’t make assumptions about ya job, just friggin do it. It aint brain surgery

    It appears more and more people are just becoming sick of the whole charade. And the media have no-one to blame but themselves.

  302. Was interested to read this morning about how much change ‘Australia’ has been able to bring about with the live cattle trade. The oo is all over, glowing praise for ‘Australia and the industry.

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/tracking-for-all-animal-exports-to-end-cruelty-after-farmer-review/story-fn59niix-1226172348752

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/aussie-rules-driving-indonesian-abattoir-change/story-fn59niix-1226172301210

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/animal-export-paper-describes-tough-actions/story-e6frgd0x-1226172267697

    You do recall the unmitigated unhinging that went on when the Government stopped the trade. We were all going to go broke. They have no idea what they are doing. Nothing will change.

    Well, it has, and all for the best, and no reports of mass bankrupcies (it looks as if hte Government looked after everyone OK after all)

    But do the Government get ANY credit for their part in it. No. This all happened DESPITE the Government

    😯

    Unhinging of a level unheard of imo

  303. Tom R, I heard a Cattlemen’s Association spokesperson on Bush Telegraph this morning and he said they originally expected that it would take until Christmas to export 20,000 cattle to Indonesia, but they’re already at that number.

    No, I wouldn’t think the government will be given any credit.

  304. No, I wouldn’t think the government will be given any credit.

    I am awaiting tomorrows news eagerly after the ltdtrolls have had a day to work out how to blame this hopeless, do nothing Government for allowing such an achievement to get past their wall of ineptitude.

  305. I’ve never read GQ magazine so don’t know whether they’re usually into low-grade attention seeking or not, but if this is any guide they should lift their game.

    Taylor Lautner is a 19 year old in the spotlight as an actor which is preferable to being a cynical gossip seeking muck-raker like the questioner.

    Australian GQ magazine says sorry to Taylor Lautner for ‘homophobic’ question
    http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/movies/australian-gq-magazine-says-sorry-to-taylor-lautner-for-homophobic-
    question/story-e6frfmvr-1226172647601

    GQ asked the 19-year-old star whether Hollywood director Gus Van Sant and writer Dustin Lance Black had made any advances at him when the trio were spotted dining together.

    Mr. Black wrote on his blog
    “Really Mr GQ writer?” Black wrote in his first blog post.
    “I’m curious, will you be asking all of the handsome actors I’ve ever had the privilege of working with or meeting if I made passes at them as well?
    “Above and beyond this clear attack on my character, I’m shocked that GQ would allow their writer to lean on the scurrilous, outdated stereotype that gay men are by nature sexual predators.
    “Leaning on lies, myths and stereotypes about gay people is hateful, harmful and outdated.”

    Hateful, harmful and out-dated; I would add ugly.

  306. Still writing crap….it’s so easy

    Last week, Peter Brent, ‘Mumble”, wrote this in The Australian on 17th October.

    Life as a punching bag
    http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/mumble/index.php/theaustralian/comments/life_as_a_punching_bag/P75/

    I posted this comment:-

    The most regular criticism of the PM is that she lied about the carbon tax.
    She did not lie.
    Before the last election, the PM made a speech to the National Press Gallery, whose members appear to haave very short memories
    In her speech, still on her website, she said she wanted to put a price on carbon followed by a CPRS, now called an ETS
    Speech: Julia Gillard, “Moving forward together on Climate Change”
    Julia Gillard posted Friday, 23 July 2010
    http://www.alp.org.au/federal-government/news/speech–julia-gillard,–moving-forward-together-on/
    Mumble’s colleagues, Paul Kelly and Dennis Shanahan also reported this in The Australian.
    Julia Gillard’s carbon price promise
    by: Paul Kelly and Dennis Shanahan From: The Australian August 20, 2010
    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/julia-gillards-carbon-price-promise/story-fn59niix-1225907522983
    The Prime Minister said “there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead”, during a conversation about the price on carbon and the ETS, and was quickly hijacked by the media.
    Unfortunately for the media, there won’t be a carbon tax on average Australians, who will actually receive compensation when the carbon pricing legislation comes into effect, while the biggest polluters will pay.

    ***A few days later Mumble wrote this….he’s moved the goal posts…

    Wrong promise broken

    http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/mumble/index.php/theaustralian/comments/wrong_broken_promise

    The carbon pricing bills that passed the House of Representatives last week represent a broken promise by Prime Minister Julia Gillard. But it’s not the one everyone seems to think.

    Mumble wrote:-
    During the 2010 election campaign she (now famously) declared there would be no carbon tax under a government she led, but she did leave the way open for an ETS.

    See this article by Paul Kelly and Dennis Shanahan, published the day before the election. It begins with this sentence:

    “Julia Gillard says she is prepared to legislate a carbon price in the next term.”

    And they quote her: “I don’t rule out the possibility of legislating a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, a market-based mechanism … I rule out a carbon tax.”

    So far, so good, but wait….

    So where is the broken promise? It’s in the timing. Gillard said any mechanism would (in Kelly and Shanahan’s words) “not be triggered until after the 2013 election”. That would give people a chance to vote for it. This scheme starts in July next year. She broke that promise.

    ***
    The people did have a chance to vote for what the PM said before the last election and she is now doing exactly what she said she would do…putting a price on carbon and following that with an Emissions Trading Scheme.

  307. Pip
    And from tomorrow the Murdoch press will see that visits to the Australian on line do not mean payment.
    Mumbles behind or in front of the paywall? I bet he hopes he is not behind the paywall for who will know or care what he says.

    Likewise, Kelly, Shanahan, Albrechtsen headlines and a sentence will be their fate.

  308. sue,
    note Mumble covered his back by quoting his colleagues:-

    So where is the broken promise? It’s in the timing. Gillard said any mechanism would (in Kelly and Shanahan’s words) “not be triggered until after the 2013

    In Kelly and Shanahan’s words….why not in PM Gillard’s words ?

  309. Sue and Pip, I suspect that it’s all going to be very deathly quiet over at the OO with the paywall up tomorrow.

    It’s just a thingy about Australians, we do not like to have to pay for something that we once got for free. And given that it was a fairly cr*p product even when it was for free what makes the OO think that we’re now going to pay for it..is the standard at the OO now going to improve? I’ll wait and see. If they at the OO can convince me that they have a product worthy buying, then I might think about it..maybe some time after 2015.

  311. On the murdoch pages i had the story about the European WSJ and how circulation figures are fudged. i wonder is there a break down of circulation figures for Aussie newspapers. How many giveaways are counted as customers, this is useful as in the launch of the paywall edition News and or an advertiser may “buy” issues for students and leave them on campus. So although bought not really a customer.

    Okay I have answered this myself, thank you google
    http://www.auditbureau.org.au/audit_services_consumer_newspaper_circulation_audit.php

    And there is one little line which the European WSJ fudged and could be fudged in aus
    The following categories are included in the Average Net Paid Sales total but reported as a percentage as well:

    * Education Sales – are sales of publications for distribution at learning institutions, such as schools
    Under the European model there has to be a name and address for the person at a school, it was fudged by just putting the name and address of an institution.

    Also this audit is voluntary so News may not ask for an audit of “sales” of the oz and just announce there unaudited figures. This lying approach works with other things they do, like abbott.

  312. Sue I’m not in a position to do a prolonged search at the moment but at one stage Crikey had a newspaper watch going where they tracked all the free giveaways and where they were being given away along with how many.

    These were included in the circulation figures but not the sales I believe. Take the freebies out of the equation and you will find their sales very low indeed, but then again like the Bolt Report its not the overall sales that are the driver for the production of the news service but the fact it’s a Murdoch propaganda piece whose distortions and falsehoods get reported on well beyond the printed pages.

  313. ME
    i am just wondering if the propaganda will be as effective if less people have access. And who knows the direction ABC news will take with a new chair person, we may get someone that wants the news service to be a news service.

  314. The future begins for The Oz on Monday
    http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/10/21/the-future-begins-for-the-oz-on-monday/

    A paywall will descend on Monday at The Australian, a move News Limited CEO John Hartigan says will “pioneer the way Australians consume media”. The paper today confirms what has long been speculated and reported in Crikey yesterday: a redesigned website will launch on Monday with a three-month free trial offer for all readers. Once the trial ends, The Oz will charge $2.95 for its digital content — accessible on the web and through iPad and Android applications.

    No thank you Mr. hartigan.

  315. “In a speech to the Sydney gathering, heads of the Australian Coptic Church thanked the Federal Government for its help in extending the visas of Coptic Christians staying in Australia.”

    The govt may not bother any more if what I saw on the news is true. The coptics were cheering abbott.

  317. The Migs Wine & Entertainment Fund 😀

    Just kidding, in all honestly who in their right mind is going to pay thruppence to read the OO. For years all that they have been is a propaganda sheet. Back in the ye olde days of Matty Price there was some semblance of balance, but those days are long gone.

  318. Good point from a reader. Ever since Adam was a boy or maybe since Migs was just a fluffy little duckling The Australian to me has been known as the OO. Any ideas where this came from?

  319. Min, it’s the something oracle but I have no idea what the something stands for…..come to think of it ….I don’t care as long as it’s behind the paywall 😀

  320. Pip..I’m with you. How to make The Australian newspaper even less relevent: try getting we tight ar*ed Australians to pay for it..

    Traa daa, Mission Accomplished.

  321. “The Australian to me has been known as the OO”

    Maybe it’s an age thing Min 😆 Before the 2007 election, what is now known as the “OO” (Opposition Oracle) was known as the “GG” (Government Gazette). 😉

    And no I really didn’t mean the age gag :mrgreen:

  323. Stupid ABC
    there is a story today about,, wait for it …..a poll, not any poll a newspoll in the windsor, oakshott electorates.

    they would be wiped out!!!!! support plummets!!!!!!!

    The ABC once again accepts as FACT a newspoll. so i suppose that will be todays news, As well,the ABC will follow the Queen to Brissie, no doubt some “cute” little girls will present flowers and curtsy.

    Isn’t it pathetic when you can read a days news script in advance.

  324. Sue, same tactics isn’t it..the use of intimidation against this so-called fragile government – same thing as per ‘always’..speculation about leadership, constant demands for a new election and intimidatory tactics against the Independents.

  326. Min
    And led by News Ltd, and where news ltd goes, abc meekly follows.
    Does the ABC have any investigative reporters? how about some journos visit for example the electorates or even read about what is happening in those electorates. maybe just maybe they may get a different story to that proposed by news ltd.

  327. Just thought I would put this up. It is a site I put up over the weekend, more to keep a running record for myself of the total fail that is our media than anything. Comments are welcome, but any debating of topics I would prefer to keep either here or GT, as I plan on putting comments at these places as I put them up there. I just wanted open comments there to give people a say.

    It is really a work in progress.

    http://newsdelimited.blogspot.com/

    (I didn’t put any comment up here as I am out all day, so it would be pointless, just wanted to put it out there)

  330. @7.20 this morning I was raving on about the ABC and bloody newspoll

    Even though the story is over 8hrs old and on page 2 of Justin, The ABC online has the article on its lead page.

  333. Sue, and how will they be able to specifically identify ‘which shark’. With due respect to the victim, the one with the tats, the bogan haircut and the boombox.

Leave a Comment

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s