Media Watch Dog has consistently said that the ABC is not only a Conservative Free Zone without one conservative presenter, producer or editor of its news and current affairs areas. But, also, that it lacks viewpoint diversity with respect to its programs.
Take the Journos’ Forum on ABC Radio Sydney 702 on August 1, for example. Richard Glover was in the presenter’s chair and the panel comprised Kishor Napier-Raman (Sydney Morning Herald/Age), Elfy Scott (freelance journalist) and John Lyons (ABC global affairs editor).
The forum led off with a discussion on Donald J. Trump’s comments on United States Vice-President Kamala Harris. As readers will know, Trump challenged whether Harris was a US citizen of Indian background (as she once said) or of African-American background (as she now states).
First up, Napier-Raman called Trump a one-time “reality TV dude” who is into “racial dog whistling”. He added that the Republicans are “really weird” (a term used in the US by the Democrats to attack Trump/Vance). Glover concurred. Then it was over to Elfy Scott who concurred – except that she said they were “really weird”. Glover essentially concurred. Then it was over to John Lyons who concurred – describing the occasion as a “real loser” for Trump. Glover did not contest Lyons’ view.
The discussion then turned on the Middle East. Richard Glover asked what John Lyons expected “would happen in the Middle East”. The ABC global affairs editor replied:
John Lyons: Well, Richard, I think this is the most dangerous situation I’ve seen the Middle East…. And the fact that he was killed, assassinated, the leader of Hamas [Ismail Haniyeh] in Iran, has raised the stakes immeasurably. Now, in a way, Iran feels it has to do something. It has to act. And on top of that, a few hours beforehand, and Israel does admit to the Hezbollah rather than the Hamas assassination, but a few hours earlier, Hezbollah military commander, the senior adviser to the head of Hezbollah, Fuad Shukr, was shot dead, targeted in Beirut. So, key leader of Hamas, key leader of Hezbollah, they’re now united. And I think this is quite an ominous period for, for the whole region.
Lyons is of the view that Hamas and Hezbollah having initiated attacks on Israel, it was somehow wrong, and counter-productive, for Israel to assassinate Hamas and Hezbollah leaders. Perhaps Israel should have arranged to have a cup of tea with them.
Lyons went on to claim that Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was somehow responsible for all this “because his own Coalition in Israel doesn’t want a ceasefire in Gaza and can’t survive it politically”. Lyons did not suggest that a ceasefire could be readily achieved if Hamas surrendered and returned all its hostages.
Needless to say, Mr Napier-Raman essentially concurred with Comrade Lyons as did Ms Scott and Mr Glover. No other view was heard. Enough said.
THE AGE AND SYDNEY MORNING HERALD ‘DISCOVER’ CAMPION COLLEGE AFTER TWO DECADES
Have the Nine Newspapers come up with a new conspiracy theory, albeit of a mild kind? It would seem so – after reading Calum Jaspan’s media column in the Age and Sydney Morning Herald on August 2. Under the title “Tiny private college makes big impression at Sky News”.
Apparently Comrade Jaspan thinks that Campion College in Sydney – a liberal arts college of Catholic disposition – is in some loop with Rupert Murdoch-controlled Sky News and Fox News. Jaspan put it this way:
A small private Catholic college in western Sydney is punching above its weight at Australia’s largest and most conservative news channel, Sky News. Campion College has developed a close relationship with sections of Sky News Australia, particularly its digital department, with alumni links for its very small student base leading to a comparatively large cohort at the network, while receiving regular promotions across Sky’s on air programming. The college offers subjects on Western history, civilisation, literature and philosophy, and is supported by a host of conservative figures, including mining billionaire Gina Rinehart.
Sounds like a Catholic conspiracy, eh? Except that Ms Rinehart is not a Catholic, not all Campion College academics and students are Catholics and its courses are not politicised. The reason a number of the college’s graduates get employed – at Sky News and elsewhere – turns on the fact that they are very well educated, unlike many graduates of media studies courses. Come to think of it, the ABC and Nine would do well to employ the disciplined and educated students who graduate from Campion College.
As to Comrade Jaspan’s concerns about the Gina Rinehart Library – well, at least Campion College students respect and read books – only a few of which are written by Catholic authors. What’s wrong with that? Calum Jaspan’s piece is of interest – but it’s a bit of a sectarian beat-up. Australian society faces more serious challenges than that engendered by a few book-reading Catholics.
CAN YOU BEAR IT?
NINE’S SHANE WRIGHT WOWS THE ABC’S RAF EPSTEIN WITH HIS ‘AMAZING’ KNOWLEDGE OF AUSTRALIAN HISTORY – WHICH IS REPLETE WITH HOWLERS
What to do if – like Shane Wright – you are senior economics correspondent for Nine Newspapers, and Nine’s Australian Financial Review has just published a report by Angela Macdonald-Smith (she of what Paul Keating was wont to call the Hyphenated Name Set) titled “Eraring coal power gets a five-year high”? It’s a good – albeit somewhat long – question.
The (short) answer is go on ABC Radio and talk about anything but coal. The point here is that your man Wright declared in 2017 – while on ABC TV Insiders couch, no less – that coal in the early 21st century is like candlesticks in the late 19th century. He seemed totally unaware that such nations as China, India and Indonesia rely heavily on coal for their energy.
And then there is Australia. Comrade Wright overlooked the fact that Australia still relies on coal to keep the lights on. Hence the recently announced decision of Origin Energy to keep the giant Eraring coal power station in NSW in existence beyond its planned 2025 closure.
Rather than write an analysis for his readers at The Age and Sydney Morning Herald (if readers there are) on the economic implications of the Eraring decision, Shane Wright put out the word that he planned to write a book on Australia’s economy. And immediately scored an interview on ABC Radio Melbourne Mornings program presented by Raf Epstein. Like Comrade Wright, Comrade Epstein is a regular panellist on the ABC TV Insiders program.
And so it came to pass that on 1 August Epstein invited Wright on his program to discuss his Age/SMH article, published that very morning titled “Why the price of your breakfast might point to the RBA’s next call”. It was all about the Reserve Bank of Australia and interest rates.
This is how Comrade Wright’s column commenced: “It’s finally affordable to put milk on your muesli” and ended “Just hold back on spraying a few blueberries on the muesli and milk, for now”. The reference was to the Reserve Bank and interest rates. Really – so let’s move on. Comrade Epstein certainly took this tack and ended up discussing Comrade Wright’s (yet to be written) tome. Let’s go to the transcript:
Raf Epstein: You mentioned, I think you mentioned, the 40s. I want to play something from 1946. I want you to tell me how much has changed. I’m trying to work it in my head, I think that’s 78 years ago. I think, 1946. I want you to give me your economic analysis of 1946. But I [first] want to play you – here is the Opposition leader Harold Holt asking a question of the then Prime Minister Ben Chifley in 1946. A question about inflation.
[Harold Holt clip talking about inflation]
Raf Epstein: I haven’t given you much there Shane. But has the conversation changed much since 1946?
Let’s stop there, for a moment. Harold Holt was not Opposition leader in 1946. But Wright did not contest Epstein’s howler. In fact, Holt never held such a position. The Opposition leader in 1946 was Robert Menzies – who did not even get one mention in the Epstein/Wright discussion. How about that?
The budding author Wright went on to refer to the Opposition in 1946 as “the Liberal Party – well, sorry, the UAP/Liberal Party because you[sic] were in the transition to the Liberal Party at that time”. What a load of absolute tosh. The United Australia Party was wound up circa 1944 and replaced by the Liberal Party. There was no transition from the UAP to the Liberal Party in 1946.
It would seem that Comrade Wright knows as much about Australian politics and the Australian economy in the mid-20th century as he does about coal in the early 21st century. How else to explain this exchange towards the end of the piss-poor interview?
Raf Epstein: I’m learning so much.
Shane Wright: It’s tragic that I know…all these details.
Raf Epstein: No, no, it’s not tragic. It’s amazing. It’s fantastic.
Shane Wright: Well, I’m technically writing a book on the Australian economy and its history at the moment. So, I may have been in this [1940s] space not very long ago.
Raf Epstein: Hold on, what’s that? I can hear “Call Waiting”. I think that’s your publisher demanding a copy of your manuscript, Shane. So, you’d better go and write it.
So, there you have it. Comrade Wright declares that he “knows all these details” about Australia. Comrade Epstein responds that his knowledge is “AMAZING”. Then Wright declares that he is “technically writing a book” – whatever that might mean. And Epstein advises that Wright’s publisher is currently on the phone demanding a copy of the Wright manuscript.
That’s one interpretation of this interview. In Ellie’s (male) co-owner’s view, what Wright’s publisher (if such an entity exists) needs right now is a fact-checker for any forthcoming manuscript by the Nine journalist.
In short, Shane Wright does not know what he does not know. A serious condition for someone who is “technically writing a book” – don’t you think? Which raises the question: Can You Bear It?
NIKI SAVVA, PETER DUTTON & THE DANCE OF THE SEVEN VEILS
While on the topic of Nine scribblers, did anyone read Niki Savva’s column in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald on August 1? Titled “Rate rise fears give Labor pains”. It commenced as follows:
After the May consumer price index figure released in June showed inflation had nudged up, a senior member of the Albanese government confessed: “A shiver went up our collective spines … it is very worrying.”
Yes, that’s correct. Comrade Savva, whose columns for The Age and SMH invariably fang Peter Dutton and the Opposition, devoted her attention to problems facing the Labor government. But, needless to say, Ms Savva could not put together a thousand or so words without criticising Mr Dutton. So, the column continued:
In the space of a few days around that time, the government had delivered a tax cut for every Australian taxpayer, provided energy bill relief for every household, increased paid parental leave, restricted the sale of vapes, secured the freedom of Julian Assange, and continued to stabilise relations with China while securing partnerships in the Pacific, particularly with Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. All of that counted for nought, wiped out by another round of speculation that the Reserve Bank would have to increase interest rates.
Since then, thanks to ongoing anxiety about the cost of living and Dutton’s clumsy dance of the seven veils on nuclear power – a performance that would have seen a seasoned performer booed off the stage, but which became weirdly transfixing the government has not had a single perfect day to sell its message about how much it is doing to try to help.
It would seem that Niki Savva is obsessed with Peter Dutton’s (alleged) Dance of the Seven Veils on nuclear energy. On July 28 she referred to this on Insiders. As MWD readers will (almost certainly) be aware – according to mythology, the Dance of the Seven Veils was performed by Salome for King Herod. In contemporary parlance, it is equated with strip tease.
So, there you have it. Comrade Savva – a Dutton antagonist – reckons that the Opposition leader is engaged in a strip tease when announcing the Coalition’s nuclear energy policy. Turn it up. Strip tease is about taking your kit off. The Opposition started with a blank sheet on nuclear energy and Peter Dutton has been adding clothes – read details – to the policy.
But there was more:
According to Dutton, everything, including, presumably, if the Olympic medal tally falls short of expectations, is Albanese’s fault.
Talk about giving hyperbole a bad name. Oppositions invariably oppose – as Savva should know. As far as MWD can recall, the only Opposition which blamed an incumbent government for Australia failing to win an expected number of medals at an Olympic Games occurred in 1976 when the Opposition was led by Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser’s Coalition government was in office.
That’s half a century ago when a young Ms Savva was a left-wing inclined member of the Canberra Press Gallery. Maybe she’s forgotten this. In which case, Can You Bear It?
PAUL BARRY’S SERMON ON THE MOUNT
THE MEDIA AND THE US ELECTION – FOX NEWS’ MEDIABUZZ PROVIDES VIEWPOINT DIVERSITY – BUT NOT ABC’s MEDIA WATCH
As avid Media Watch Dog readers are aware, Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch segment commenced way back in April 1988 – first in its own publication and then in The Sydney Institute Quarterly magazine – over a year before the first edition of the ABC TV Media Watch went to air. It later morphed into the MWD blog.
Since 1989, the taxpayer funded public broadcaster’s Media Watch program – read sermon – has had only leftist or left-of-centre presenters. Namely, Stuart Littlemore (1989-97), Richard Ackland (1998-99), Paul Barry (2000), David Marr (2002-04), the late Liz Jackson (2005), Monica Attard (2006-07), Jonathan Holmes (2008-13) and Paul Barry (2013-24). Not a political conservative among this lot – which befits the ABC as a Conservative Free Zone. By the way, there was no program in 2001.
Paul Barry maintains that Sky News Australia has a small audience. But he spends a large amount of his 15-minute program each week (which has a staff of around ten) bagging Sky News. In view of his claim, you wonder why he bothers. Could it be that a significant number of one-time ABC TV viewers have junked the taxpayer funded public broadcaster – and now watch news and current affairs on subscription TV Sky News and free-to-air Sky News Regional in rural and regional Australia? – and Barry of the ABC resents this.
In any event, Preacher Barry was in “I-hold-this-truth-there-can-be-no-other” preaching mode on Monday 29 July. This is how the Media Watch segment titled “Attacking Kamala Harris” commenced:
But now to US politics, where Donald Trump and the right-wing media have stopped beating up Joe Biden and turned their attacks on Kamala Harris…. But Donald Trump was hitting it hard last week and the Murdoch media in Australia were joining in, with Sky After Dark’s commentators lining up to repeat Trump’s trope and paint Harris, a former prosecutor and attorney general, as crazy and dumb.
How about that? When President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris depict Donald J. Trump as a danger to democracy – that’s criticism. But when Trump depicts Kamala Harris as not very bright – that’s a case of “beating up”. According to Paul Barry’s most recent sermon, that is.
In any event, during his sermon, Comrade Barry beat-up on Sky News’ Chris Kenny, Peta Credlin, Andrew Bolt, Paul Murray, Megyn Kelly, Rita Panahi, Danica De Giorgio plus The Australian’s Janet Albrechtsen along with Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld and Lisa Kennedy Montgomery.
Needless to say, none of the above has a right-of-reply. The ABC’s Paul Barry attacked what he called “The Murdoch Media”. No other view was heard – or allowed.
Compare and contrast Fox News’ MediaBuzz program which airs on Sunday mornings in the United States (it can be viewed on Foxtel Channel 608 in Australia in the early hours of Monday morning).
Unlike Paul Barry, MediaBuzz presenter Howard Kurtz does not wear his political heart on his sleeve – as the saying goes. Moreover, he and his producers allow for viewpoint diversity on the program.
Take MediaBuzz on Sunday July 28, for example. The program commenced with a discussion on US politics in the wake of President Biden’s decision not to contest the 2024 presidential election. The panel was comprised of the left-of-centre Laura Fink (the founder and CEO of Rebelle Communications and the right-of-centre Ben Domenech (editor-at-large of The Spectator World).
There followed a discussion on how the US media was covering the 2024 presidential election campaign. On this occasion, the panel comprised the right-of-centre Caroline Downey (a National Review staff writer) and the left-of-centre Ameshia Cross (a Democratic Party strategist).
On both occasions, Howard Kurtz acted professionally in being fair to both the pro-Democrat and pro-Republican commentators and correcting errors when necessary. He did not exhibit a political position – and he certainly did not preach a sermon.
In other words, Rupert Murdoch’s MediaBuzz contains viewpoint diversity. But the ABC’s Media Watch contains only one view – as contained in Paul Barry’s Sermon on the (Taxpayer Funded) Mount.
It would seem that Paul Barry has no self-awareness. After his rant on 29 July, he came to this conclusion:
It makes you wonder how Lachlan Murdoch can claim, as he did in a recent interview, that News Corp’s voice is of critical importance to our communities and society…. And at The Australian’s 60th birthday party last week, attended by the great and the good, including PMs past and present, Lachlan also boasted about the importance of real journalism, saying: “Journalists first and foremost report the news, accurately and without bias,…We report the facts. We ask questions. We seek the truth.”
However, the fact is that there is more viewpoint diversity on the Murdoch media’s MediaBuzz than there is on the ABC’s Media Watch. And there’s more viewpoint diversity in The Australian than on the Conservative Free Zone that is the ABC.
If precedent is something to go by, it seems likely that the current left-of-centre Media Watch presenter will be replaced by another left-of-centre Media Watch presenter when your man Barry steps down at the end of the year.
However, what the program needs is some real debate and discussion – and a riddance of sermons by the likes of Preacher Barry. In short, the ABC can learn from Murdoch’s MediaBuzz.
RANT OF THE WEEK
IN WHICH LIZ STORER THROWS THE SWITCH TO HYPERBOLE CONCERNING ISRAEL, HAMAS, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON, IRAN AND MORE BESIDES
As MWD has pointed out, there’s more viewpoint diversity at News Corp’s Sky News than on the taxpayer funded ABC.
Take “The Late Debate” on Sky News on 1 August, for example. James Macpherson was in the presenter’s chair and the panellists were Caleb Bond and Liz Storer.
Now it is a Media Watch Dog truth that the combination of certitude and ignorance is a dangerous brew. On 1 August, Macpherson and Bond provided considered views – broadly in support of Israel’s war of defence against the terrorist Hamas group in Gaza and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon plus the Houthis in Yemen. All three groups are financed and supplied by Iran.
But Liz Storer was in full rant mode in her apparent need to be more hostile to Israel than the ABC’s John Lyons or ex ABC part-time broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf.
In her lengthy rant to camera, Liz Storer accused Israel of bombing the capital of Lebanon. In fact, an Israeli missile hit one apartment and killed Hezbollah leader Fuad Shukur in response to the deaths of 12 Israeli Druze children after a strike in the Golan Heights by a Hezbollah missile. But there was more.
Storer seems to believe that the Islamist extremist group Hezbollah represents all of Lebanon. That’s just nonsense.
Storer accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to create a large war in the region – a regional war. The fact is that if Hamas surrendered and Hezbollah ceased firing rockets into Israel there would be no conflict.
Storer maintained that Israel would drag Australia into World War Three. She did not say how.
Storer declared that it’s “impossible to eradicate Hamas because it is an ideology”. Forgetting that Nazism was an ideology – and look what happened to Hitler and his followers.
Storer claimed that the dead in Gaza number between 25,000 and 40,000. Then she said that the Israeli dead number was 1,200 whereas the Palestinian dead are 40,000. This overlooks the fact that the 40,000 dead claimed by Hamas include some 15,000 Hamas fighters. And the Hamas figures have also been challenged as inaccurate – after all, they are supplied by Hamas.
In response to Caleb Bond’s statement that Hezbollah’s attack on the Golan Heights killed 12 children, Storer declared somewhat indifferently: “Those children weren’t even Israelis, they weren’t even Israelis.” Storer seems ignorant of the fact that the young victims were Druze. Druze in the Golan Heights are Israeli citizens. Storer seems to be of the view that all Israelis are Jews – a hopelessly ignorant position.
And it went on. Storer said that “we are looking at World War Three” with Iran and suggested that Macpherson wants to “carpet bomb Iran”. Talk about knocking out a straw man. Whoever said that Iran could – or should – be carpet bombed?
Towards the end of her rant, Storer declared that Hezbollah has said it will stop when Israel stops. Overlooking the fact that Hezbollah commenced the shelling of northern Israel driving tens of thousands of Israelis out of their homes. She seemed to be about to say something kind about the Islamist Houthis when the session wrapped.
Sure it was “The Late Debate” in that Liz Storer’s views were tested. But strong opinions are best when they are supported by hyperbole-free evidence.
Media Watch Dog is a supporter and admirer of Sky News. However, debates are best conducted without rants.
MWD ‘EXCLUSIVE’
THE DEMISE OF THE LABOR ‘RAT’? PM ALBANESE’S CONTRIBUTION
On July 30, Ellie’s co-owners attended Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s launch in Sydney of Michael Easson’s In Search of John Christian Watson: Labor’s First Prime Minister (Connor Court 2024). It was a well-attended, successful function - the speeches were instructive but brief.
The Prime Minister had done a press conference earlier in the day. So, there was little media coverage of the event. A pity really since Anthony Albanese – in his capacity as Labor leader – seemed to deliver some kind of post-mortem absolution to what are commonly, and rudely, called “Labor Rats” by the comrades.
John Christian Watson (1867-1941) was the first leader of the federal Australian Labor Party and Labor’s first Prime Minister – from 27 April 1904 to 18 August 1904. He retired from politics in February 1910. When the Australian Labor Party, led by Billy Hughes, split over conscription in 1916, Chris Watson supported the conscriptionist Hughes and was expelled by the ALP. Thus earning the title of “Labor Rat”.
True Believers: The Story of the Federal Labor Party (Allen & Unwin 2021), edited by John Faulkner and the late Stuart Macintyre, contains a final chapter titled “Rats”. Written by the late John Iremonger, it is a quite vicious attack on those who left the ALP, or were expelled by the ALP, over policy issues – such as conscription, economic policy, opposition to communism and the like.
Comrade Iremonger scorned the names of Billy Hughes, Western Australian George Pearce, NSW Labor premier William Holman, Tasmanian John Earle, Joseph Lyons, Jack Lang and B A Santamaria (who was never a member of a political party). Plus those who left/were expelled by the ALP at the time of the 1955 Labor Split such as Stan Keon, Bill Bourke, Robert Joshua and Jack Cremean.
Chris Watson was not listed on Iremonger’s “little list”. But he supported Hughes and Holman and so is a Labor Rat.
Speaking at the launch of In Search of John Christian Watson, author Michael Easson – a long time ALP member – expressed sympathy for the position taken by Hughes and Watson in 1916 – in view of the difficulties confronting Australian national security during the First World War. Looking back on events of 1914-1918, he spoke about the special circumstances at the time.
Speaking before Easson, Prime Minister Albanese – who said that he had read the book – also indicated sympathy for Watson. When it was put to him after the speech that Watson was once considered a Labor Rat, the PM replied that circumstances were different then. And, so they were.
However, circumstances were different not only in 1916. But also in 1931 and 1955.
Prime Minister Albanese’s speech on 30 July suggests that the concept of “Labor Rat” is dying a natural death and no Ratsak is necessary. Here’s hoping this is the case.
OUTSIDE INSIDERS
As avid readers are well aware, a certain William (Bill) Thompson – a Melburnian who identifies as the ABC’s Southbank Correspondent – set up the “Outside Insiders” video segment some years ago. This is a print edition of the Bill Thompson initiative to report on the ABC TV Insiders program. Mr Thompson remains in situ in Melbourne but Insiders has fled Melbourne for the (media) safety of the Canberra Bubble and, consequently, will now be loosed from the troublesome Mr Thompson. [Maybe that’s why Insiders junked Melbourne – just a thought. – MWD Editor]
QUELLE SURPRISE! INSIDERS CEASES TO BE BORING – FOR A WEEK AT LEAST
There was a great scoop by Samantha Maiden on ABC TV Insiders on 28 July. The news.com.au political editor was the only member of the team – comprising David Speers, plus panellists Niki Savva (Nine Newspapers) and Jacob Greber (Australian Financial Review) – to get Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s ministerial reshuffle essentially correct.
The zany Ms Maiden predicted that Clare O’Neil would be removed from Home Affairs and replaced by Tony Burke. And she predicted that Murray Watt would replace Tony Burke in industrial relations. Spot on. Samantha Maiden also declared that “having Tanya Plibersek languishing around kissing koalas is not my idea of a good time” – and expressed the view that the Minister for the Environment should be “used…in a more effective manner”.
Just when, throughout 2024, Insiders was becoming increasingly boring, the news.com.au political editor livened up the program. And then there was the occasion when attention turned to who Kamala Harris might choose as her vice-presidential running mate in the November United States presidential election. Let’s go to the transcript:
Niki Savva: She [Kamala Harris] needs good people, good advice, and she needs to listen. But nevertheless, she is a very appealing candidate. You look at Vance and Trump now – and it’s pale, male, stale. Whereas she has injected this whole new dynamic into the campaign a lot of young women are responding to that. She’s being ridiculed for some of the things that she said, like falling out of a coconut tree. But young women understood exactly what she was saying there. We didn’t just come from nowhere. [How interesting. I never realised that Comrade Savva was so young. MWD Editor.]
Samantha Maiden: And as soon as she can find someone pale, male to be her VP, could be great.
David Speers: Exactly.
Samantha Maiden: It’s very important that she finds a white man to be the VP. Not every day the Democrat goes desperately looking for pale, male white male.
Niki Savva: No. But there are good candidates for VP, like Mark Kelly – who is, yes, male and pale
Samantha Maiden: Perfect…
Niki Savva: But he’s not stale.
Senator Mark Kenny is the junior senator for Arizona. The 60-year old former astronaut is not stale. But nor is Senator J.D. Vance, the 39-year old junior senator from Ohio and author of Hillbilly Elegy who served in the US Marines.
It would seem that Comrade Savva did not appreciate Maiden’s humour – being a very serious type. That’s the problem with Savva’s use of clichés. The Orange Man, as they call him, is male and pale (meaning white) but he’s not stale. If Trump were stale, he could not attract such attention and audiences. The same can be said for Vance – he’s certainly not stale.
Pale, male, stale – at least the Savva/Maiden exchange made Insiders interesting for a change – and was not focused, as boringly predictable, on a Canberra Bubble interpretation of Australian national politics. As to next week – we’ll see.
Documentation
A LOOK BACK AT ANDREW FORREST’s 2021 ABC BOYER LECTURE ON GREEN HYDROGEN
On January 21 2021, Fortescue Metal chairman Andrew Forrest gave the ABC’s annual Boyer Lecture. The talk, by the metal magnate who prefers to be referred to as “Twiggy”, was titled “Oil vs Water: Confessions of a carbon emitter”. It is worth revisiting given recent developments at Fortesque.
The talk was meant to, in Twiggy’s words, show “what I’m doing to fight climate change, under the premise that actions speak louder than words”. Specifically, Fortesque was going to move into green hydrogen: “The solution lies in hydrogen. The greatest natural resource Australia has isn’t iron ore, it isn’t gold, it isn’t gas, it’s certainly not oil or coal, it is hydrogen”.
A significant portion of the lecture is taken up with a self-aggrandizing account of Forrest’s five-month long 2020 world tour, during which he flew around the earth meeting with world leaders and “captains of industry” to discuss green energy.
In particular, Dr Forrest (for a doctor he is) notes a positive reception from the offices of then German chancellor Angela Merkel and then Afghani president Ashraf Ghani. Markel has since retired, her party suffered a defeat at the September 2021 German election and her handling of German energy policy has been widely criticised. And Ashraf Ghani, who Forrest describes as “one of the most selfless leaders I have ever met”, fled Afghanistan in August 2021 to avoid capture by the Taliban.
Needless to say, Twiggy’s boasts about his diplomatic efforts now appear less impressive.
In his talk, Forrest offered up several bold predictions about the bright future of green hydrogen. He claimed it could create revenues of 12 trillion US dollars by 2050. He said that: “The question isn’t whether or not green hydrogen will become the next global energy form, it’s who will be the first to mass-produce it”.
So how is Fortescue’s pivot to green hydrogen going?
Well, on 17 July 2024 it was announced that Fortescue will be cutting up to 700 jobs as it retreats from its ambitious green energy plans. Forrest told the Australian Financial Review that Fortescue will deprioritise some of its planned green hydrogen projects. Fortescue’s share price has slid considerably in recent weeks and currently sits around 25 per cent below where it was at the time of Forrest’s Boyer Lecture.
Twiggy Forrest’s self-aggrandising talk of using green hydrogen to decarbonise the world played well to an ABC audience in 2021. But in 2024, his Boyer Lecture has not aged well. In 2021 he ended the talk by asking the audience “I choose Hydrogen. What will you choose?”. In 2024 Forrest and Fortescue appear to be choosing other, non-Hydrogen, options. The 2021 Boyer Lecture, however, remains on the ABC website.
History corner
LOOKING BACK AT THE TIME WHEN JUDITH BRETT WROTE THAT ROBERT MENZIES’ ANTI-COMMUNISM WAS LINKED TO HIS (ALLEGED) SENSITIVITY TO BEING ATTACKED FROM BEHIND
There was enormous interest in the “Can You Bear It?” segment of the previous Media Watch Dog issue – which revealed that La Trobe University Emeritus Professor Judith Brett had provided gratuitous advice to the Liberal Party about how to survive and so on. In the leftist Crikey, no less. The article by Dr Brett (for a doctor she is) was titled “Doesn’t Dutton realise importing US politics means the death of the Liberal Party?”
Put simply, Comrade Brett is of the view that the policies adopted by the Liberal Party leader “do not augur well for his party’s future”. Talk about déjà vu. MWD recalled that the very same left-wing academic wrote in The Age on 17 July 1993 that “the Liberal Party in the 1990s seemed doomed”. Within three years, John Howard led the Coalition to a landslide victory and went on to become Australia’s second-longest serving prime minister after Robert Menzies. And Professor Brett went on teaching and scribbling at La Trobe University.
Lotsa thanks to the avid Sydney reader who reminded Ellie’s (male) co-owner of his past references to Judith Brett in MWD and elsewhere – which go back for aeons.
Judith Brett’s 1992 book Robert Menzies’ Forgotten People contains one of the most ridiculous paragraphs written in Australian political history. Here it is:
Much anti-communist rhetoric has drawn on bodily imagery: the imagery of sickness and disease (a social cancer) and the anal erotic imagery of the attack from behind (rooting rats out of holes). There are occasional uses of such imagery by mainstream Australian non-labour politicians like Menzies, but they are surprisingly few.
What a load of absolute tosh. By the way, Comrade Brett did not provide any evidence that Menzies ever used erotic imagery when criticising communism.
Robert Menzies was prime minister of Australia from April 1939 to August 1941 – and again from December 1949 to January 1966.
During most of his first time at The Lodge in Canberra, the Soviet Union – led by the communist totalitarian dictator Josef Stalin – was an ally of the Nazi totalitarian dictator Adolf Hitler due to the Nazi-Soviet Pact which prevailed from August 1939 until June 1941. Also, in Australia, those trade unions which were under the direction of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) were attempting to undermine the Allied war effort. A good reason to be anti-communist, don’t you think? – even if you did not feel threatened by an attack from behind.
During Menzies’ second time in The Lodge, the Soviet Union was led by the dictators Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev. The Soviet Union put down the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 and the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia in 1968. Also, North Korea was a totalitarian communist dictatorship during Menzies’ time as prime minister. As was China – under the dictator Mao Zedong – in which an estimated 45 million Chinese died between 1958 and 1962 in what was a forced famine titled the Great Leap Forward.
Yet Judith Brett maintained in Robert Menzies’ Forgotten People that Menzies’ anti-communism was motivated, in part at least, by an anal erotic fear of an attack from behind. And what is the learned professor’s evidence? MWD hears avid readers cry. Zip. There was no evidence – so the learned professor embraced a wide-ranging psychological critique – relying heavily on the work of Sigmund Freud. It went back to Robert’s mum Kate and his dad James.
The real loser in Judith Brett’s Robert Menzies’ Forgotten People is Menzies’ mother Kate and to a lesser extent his father James. MWD will explain (with a little help from Freud). Brett maintained that the explanation for Menzies’ behaviour during his life stems from the fact that he exhibited a “discomfort with his parents’ sexuality”. Not a serious condition, mind you. Rather it was just “one of the common variations on the Oedipal triangle in which the boy is for a time locked in rivalrous combat with his father for his mother’s love”. This is because of “the Oedipal desires to vanquish the father and possess the mother”.
This inner sexual battle explains the mature Menzies – or so Brett maintained. His essential frugality can be explained by reference to a preference for saving (“sexual abstinence”) over spending (“ejaculation”, no less). It was all a case of pleasure denied.
It actually got even better. What was the real reason for Menzies’ hostility to socialism? Well, according to Brett “dependence on the state which socialism would foster is linked to dependence on the mother and to sexual impotence”. And what about his anti-communism? Well – as mentioned earlier – “much anti-communist rhetoric” can be traced to “the anal erotic imagery of the attack from behind”.
So, there you have it. In the early 1990s, Judith Brett was into psychoanalysing the Liberal Party’s founder and predicting its demise. Now the La Trobe University comrade seems to have dropped your man Freud – but she is still predicting the End of the Liberal Party World.
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