The ABC constantly proclaims that it is Australia’s most trusted news service. This, despite the fact that ABC TV News comes in third out of a field of four in the evening bulletins contest. Behind Seven, Nine and and leading only Network 10.
This means that, according to ABC logic (if logic it is), a majority of Australians are so silly that they watch news bulletins which they trust less than the one they trust most. Work it out if you can.
And now there is a new development. Late on Friday, ABC managing director and editor-in-chief David Anderson put out a statement concerning a protest at the house of Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill.
This issue was referred to in the previous edition of Media Watch Dog and is also covered in the segment on Paul Barry’s ABC TV Media Watch program today. Mr Anderson’s statement makes it clear that even ABC management does not trust ABC News. Initially, the ABC refused to confirm or deny that the camera crew was covering the protest for Four Corners. Then it said that it was a Four Corners crew.
Early on, the ABC said that the crew had no idea about the address of the protest or that it was at a suburban house. Now it has walked the claim back, following an internal review.
Paragraph 8 of David Anderson’s 13 paragraph statement reads as follows:
The review does indicate the team did have some awareness of what was planned. To that extent, the element of the previous statement issued by the ABC concerning knowledge of what specific actions might occur prior to the event did not reflect all relevant information subsequently available and was incorrect.
In other words, the ABC has acknowledged that the earlier ABC statement was false. Now the ABC is about to review why its earlier review got it so wrong. Media Watch Dog awaits the review of the review into the false claim – from the taxpayer funded public broadcaster which maintains that it is Australia’s most trusted news service.
PAUL BARRY’S DOUBLE STANDARD: HE GIVES THE OK TO FOUR CORNERS FILMING A DEMO OUTSIDE A SUBURBAN HOME WHILE FILMING HIS PROGRAM WITHIN THE VERY SECURE ABC SYDNEY HEADQUARTERS
At least the ABC TV Media Watch program (presenter Paul Barry, executive producer Timothy Latham) had the courage to go up against the Matildas v Denmark match on Monday 7 August. The game was shown on Channel 7 and rated highly. Anticipating this, ABC TV Four Corners held off its scheduled program for the week. Not so the brave Barry/Latham duo – realising, no doubt, that their stories would not hold over for a week.
Media Watch Dog was interested in how the taxpayer funded public broadcaster media program, which has only had a leftist or left-of-centre presenter since its inception in 1989, handled Four Corners’ filming of a demonstration outside the suburban home of Woodside chief executive officer Meg O’Neill in Perth on 1 August.
It so happened that the Four Corners crew rocked up outside Ms O’Neill’s abode just as Disrupt Burrup Hub climate activists were in action – intent, apparently, on getting inside the O’Neill house. What a coincidence, as the saying goes. Let’s go to the transcript at the end of Comrade Barry’s most recent sermon on Australia’s taxpayer funded media mount:
We’re not condoning the actions and tactics of the Perth protest but it’s surely something the media must be allowed to report on. Four Corners is trying to make a program about direct-action climate protesters and tough new laws that target them. And if Four Corners did get too close to the activists — and we’re not saying they did — can we get a sense of proportion here?
Woodside’s Burrup Hub will produce billions of tonnes of carbon emissions in its lifetime, if you include the gas burnt by its customers…. [UN Secretary General] Antonio Guterres has urged the world to stop oil and gas expansion or face climate disaster.
Meanwhile, The West Australian, The Australian, Sky News and the News Corp tabloids are more interested in raising hell about the ABC filming a protest that didn’t even happen. We believe the ABC was doing its job, reporting on matters of public interest. We don’t think it should apologise. And any attempt to cow the ABC or shut down its reporting would be an attack on media freedom.
So, there you have it. Paul Barry has lined up with the eco-catastrophist Antonio Guterres (the former socialist prime minister of Portugal) and his “global boiling” rhetoric. Overlooking that it will be impossible for the world to move to zero emissions by 2050 without the use of gas as at least a temporary replacement for coal.
Moreover, your man Barry believes that the ABC should not apologise for a Four Corners camera crew appearing on the driveway of a person’s home early in the morning.
This is the very same Paul Barry who records his 12-minute Media Watch program each week (with the support of some ten staff) at the ABC studio in Sydney’s inner-city Ultimo. The ABC Ultimo headquarters is replete with security – so much so that no sane protestor would bother to attempt to break in and disturb, say, ABC managing director David Anderson at an early office breakfast around 6.30 am.
The Australian has reported that Mr Anderson sent a letter of regret to Ms O’Neill concerning the behaviour of the Four Corners crew, but will not apologise for it.
How does that work? And how come Media Watch spent so much time defending the right of Four Corners to report on a protest that it maintains “didn’t even happen”? More importantly: Can You Bear It? [By the way, I note that the ABC is now undergoing “a detailed examination” of the matter. I can barely wait for the outcome. – MWD Editor.]
SMH JOURNOS SAKKAL & MASSOLA IMAGINE A LIBERAL SENATOR IS ABOUT TO BE SILENCED
Did anyone read the Sydney Morning Herald’s beat-up “exclusive” on 10 August titled “Bragg’s Voice could be silenced as Dutton eyes tricky reshuffle”? Written by Paul Sakkal and James Massola, here’s how it commenced:
One of the key Liberal voices in the upcoming referendum would be silenced from advocating for the Indigenous Voice if Peter Dutton promotes him to the frontbench in a looming reshuffle. NSW senator Andrew Bragg is among a handful of Liberals who have put their hand up to replace shadow assistant treasurer Stuart Robert, who resigned in May, though the opposition leader is under internal pressure to appoint a Queenslander….
Bragg’s promotion would mean he would need to stop campaigning for the Voice as the shadow ministry is obliged to oppose the initiative. The NSW senator wrote a book about the Voice and is a strong supporter of the idea, but has lately criticised the way the referendum has been handled and called for it to be delayed.
What a load of tosh. No one is silencing Senator Bragg. For starters, it’s not clear whether he wants a promotion to the front bench before the referendum, which will probably be held in October. Moreover, as the SMH scribblers conceded, it’s not at all clear that the shadow minister position vacated by a Queensland Liberal Party member of the House of Representatives would go to a senator from NSW. Time will tell. In the meantime, it would seem that there was little real political news out of Canberra this week. Hence the non-story story. Can You Bear It?
BAD TASTE IN ACTION AS SMH COLUMNIST TONE WHEELER GOES OFF THE RAILS IN PRAISE OF THE GREENS
While on the topic of the Sydney Morning Herald, Media Watch Dog was interested to read an article on the SMH Opinion Page on 9 August. Written by Tone Wheeler, it was titled “Housing may be third rail for Labor’s second term pitch”. A clever heading to be sure. Even if it is not clear what constitutes the first or second rail or where the rails go to.
Your man Wheeler was presented as president of the Australian Architecture Association (AAA). It’s not evident how such a designation equips him to have expertise on Australian politics or the rental market. But the SMH must know something that MWD does not know.
Early on, Wheeler described the Coalition as having “zombie policies” on housing. Abuse posing as analysis, don’t you think? Then he accused Labor of supporting “a property owing gerontocracy” – whatever that might mean. Then Wheeler went on to praise the Greens and its housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather (one of the many Greens who belong to what Paul Keating once called the Hyphenated-Name-Set).
Then the AAA president waded through the article to political prophecy: Labor should be terrified that the next election will see more Greens’ candidates winning inner-urban, rental-based electorates. In a double dissolution, the Greens could hold the balance of power in both houses.
This could be deeply ironic in the seat of Sydney, held by Tanya Plibersek…. Plibersek must know her seat is now vulnerable to the Greens, particularly since Albanese sidelined her as minister for the environment, a faeces focaccia forcing her to approve more coal mines. In addition to that, poor housing policies could see a progressive electorate turn against her.
The crystal ball gazing did not impress the Tasmanian-based psephologist Kevin Bonham who put up this post:
Kevin Bonham
@kevinbonham
Reality check on speculation in SMH that “angry renters” could put Plibersek at risk in Sydney: The 2CP margin is 16.7%. Liberals recommending prefs to ALP is at most half of that.
2:06 PM · Aug 9, 2023
Then there is the fact that the SMH scribbler reckons that a double dissolution election would assist the Greens to win the balance of power in the House of Representatives. Why?
As to Wheeler’s reference to “faeces focaccia” – well that’s just bad taste and not the slightest bit funny. And yet the Sydney Morning Herald published this sludge. Can You Bear It?
WOULD PK AGREE TO A WIND TURBINE IN HER BACKYARD?
Wasn’t it great to hear Radio National Breakfast presenter Patricia Karvelas throw the switch to a Green/Left slogan, towards the end of her interview with Opposition frontbencher Dan Tehan on 9 August 2023? Let’s go to the transcript:
Patricia Karvelas: Minister, in the last minute we’ve got left. The Coalition will put nuclear at the centre of its energy policy. Why didn’t you put it on the map when you were in government for nine years and would you have one in your backyard?
Dan Tehan: Ah well Patricia, I’m not the minister anymore. I wish I was but I’m the shadow minister. We’re developing policy to make sure that we can meet our net zero commitment of net zero by 2050. And we think that there should be a broad range of energy mix to be able to deal with that….
A reasonable answer, to be sure. It would seem, however, that Dan Tehan is a kinder/gentler politician. Perhaps he should have asked eco-catastrophist PK – who is a barracker for alternative energy – whether she would have a wind turbine in her backyard. Or, perhaps, fill her backyard with solar panels. Presuming that she has a backyard in her inner-city abode.
It’s understandable why, say, a young journo for the Green Left Weekly would run the “Do you want a nuclear reactor in your backyard?” attack. But PK should be able to do better. Can You Bear It?
CANINE ELLIE JOINS THE CANINE WATCHERS
As avid readers are aware, this blog is put together by a very small team. So much so that it’s quite an achievement to get it out around Gin & Tonic Time.
Since MWD commenced in 2009, Gerard Henderson has had special help from volunteers of the canine kind. Initially from Blue Heeler Nancy (2004-2017) and Blue Heeler Jackie (2016-2023). Usually with a little help from the American psychic John Edward of Crossing Over fame. Your man Edward has a great relationship with the dead – but not so much with the living – and he keeps Hendo in touch with canines who have crossed the river Jordan (so to speak).
The late and deeply lamented Nancy graduated from the Canine School of Hard Knocks but went on to give Courtesy Classes from beyond the grave. The recently departed and deeply lamented Jackie is preparing to help out (from the Other Side) with monitoring posts (nee tweets).
And now it’s time to introduce another Queensland Heeler to assist with MWD. Step forward Ellie – who, like her predecessor Nancy, is deaf. Nothing much is known about your canine Ellie (nee Jynx). Except that, according to rumour, her mother walked the streets of Canberra’s affluent Red Hill – while her father pissed off after the canine version of a one-night stand. During her long incarceration at the Australian Capital Territory Domestic Animal Service at Symonston, Ellie undertook adult education. From which she emerged with a BCS – Bachelor of Catastrophe Studies – which is a handy qualification in Canberra. And also obtained the status of A Junk Professor at The Canberra Bubble Institute. MWD looks forward to Ellie lending a paw (or four).
MIKE CARLTON HEADS BACK TO NATURE AT WHALE BEACH
Media Watch Dog was shocked – absolutely shocked – to open The Saturday Telegraph on 5 August only to turn to Page 5 and see a photo of an almost naked Mike Carlton – apart from a cap, budgie-smugglers and watch.
After all, it was Hangover Time, and there were three pics. It was enough of an excuse to pour an earlier than usual Gin & Tonic on a Saturday morning.
The story was written by “Saturday Confidential” columnist Briana Domjen and branded as an “Exclusive’. Well, perhaps it was. But it would seem that there is nothing exclusive in seeing your man Carlton, er, sans kit on Whale Beach – not far from the Sage of Avalon Beach’s abode. Here’s how Ms Domjen’s piece commenced:
It’s normally commentator Mike Carlton causing controversy, however this time Northern Beaches locals have a bone to pick with him. They say the 77-year-old former Fairfax columnist and author has been getting his kit off at Whale Beach too many mornings to count and “Avalonians” have had an eyeful.
Rain, hail or shine, they say, Carlton loves to be at one with nature while swimming laps or walking along the 600m-long Northern Beaches beach.
When contacted by The Saturday Telegraph on Friday, a fiery Carlton responded to our query about why he swims in the nude by saying: “I’m not the slightest bit interested in talking to you. F**k off.”
As avid readers know, “F**k Off” is a familiar Carlton sign-off. The Sunday Telegraph report continued:
“I often go down to Whale Beach with my two teenage girls to do yoga early in the morning and the first thing we see is Mike Carlton getting out of the pool in the nude with everything on display,” one woman, who did not want to be named, said. “All the locals talk about it, but he just loves it. One of the locals said something to him once and told him to put it away and he came back down in a pink G-string.”
Media Watch Dog does not quite know how to handle such an, er, small story. Beyond saying: Can You Bear It?
[No, not really. Now that you ask. I hope you don’t mind. But in view of the public interest in this matter, I commissioned our new recruit Ellie to interview the veteran G-string wearer. After all, Ms Ellie has a similar attraction to water as Mike – and she swims either au naturel or covered only in a small collar.
THE FLANN O’BRIEN GONG FOR LITERARY OR VERBAL SLUDGE
Due to overwhelming popular demand, the Flann O’Brien Gong returns again this week. As avid Media Watch Dog readers will be aware, this occasional segment is inspired by the Irish humorist Brian O’Nolan (1911-1966) – nom de plume Flann O’Brien – and, in particular, his critique of the sometimes incoherent poet Ezra Pound. By the way, your man O’Brien also had the good sense not to take seriously
Eamon de Valera (1882-1975), the Fianna Fail politician and dreadful bore who was prime minister and later president of Ireland for far too long. The Flann O’Brien Gong for Literary or Verbal Sludge is devoted to outing bad writing or incomprehensible prose or incoherent verbal expression or the use of pretentious words.
AND THE WINNER IS ERIK JENSEN
There was enormous interest in The [Boring] Saturday Paper segment in the previous issue which featured an editorial on 22 July – presumably written by TSP’s editor-in-chief Erik Jensen. As avid Media Watch Dog readers will recall, Jensen declared in the editorial that Julia Gillard had helped “to destroy the Australian education system”. And he described The Sydney Institute as an entity where the world is held in “harping stasis by a series of filing cabinets”. Really. Your man Jensen’s world – on the other hand – seems to be held in place by hyperbole.
While on the topic of harping stasis (whatever that might mean), Ellie’s (male) co- owner spent Gin & Tonic Time on 4 August reading an article in the August issue of The Monthly written by – you’ve guessed it – Erik Jensen. Titled “Blank Stare” it commented on the drawings of Elizabeth Newman. Early on, Erik Jensen had this to say:
It is hard to say which are the first drawings [by Elizabeth Newman], because they happened all at once. Time does not run in one direction for Newman. There’s not one phase and then another but several phases at the same time. She stops to ask if this makes sense.
Just as well. Because it doesn’t make sense. But Jensen ploughed on – apparently after consuming a copy of Roget’s International Thesaurus:
Unlike with her paintings, Newman often signs her drawings. It is as if she is insisting: this is a work, this is finished. She does so a long time after the drawing is made. Her initials resemble the broken palindrome that has fascinated her work: the levidrome of “on” and “no” that clicks from one meaning to its opposite, like a coin rolled over knuckles. The other word for this is semordnilap.
The first no was a no to everything: capitalism, humanism, anything bad. She made it after reading Yvonne Rainer’s “No Manifesto”, its rejection of virtuosity and spectacle and magic. She had also read Freud’s argument that negation was really affirmation. For Newman the no contains an inevitable, fundamental yes. She says a no is an attempt to say what is not there, to find a signifier of negation. She says that if you identify what you don’t like you are also identifying what you do like. If you say what is in you, you are also saying what is outside you.
Turn it up. What’s Jensen on about? Or, rather, what’s he on? It would seem that, having consumed the thesaurus, he regurgitated some incomprehensible words to explain his incomprehensible content. Like “palindrome”, “levidrome” and “semordnilap” plus “tridecagon” and “libidinal”. As to the content – well it’s just sludge of the written kind. Verily, a coin-over-knuckles experience in the true sense of the term.
[Interesting. Could it be that Newman was the first to invent the “Yes/No” response to questions that currently contaminates the English language? – MWD Editor.]
Towards the end of his piece, Erik Jensen makes this point – if point it is – about Elizabeth Newman:
The talking in Newman’s work is often political. She is worried about the brevity of the future. She is troubled by consumption. She feels for the oceans. She celebrates small acts of resistance: “Please remove me from your mailing list.”
How about that? The artist Newman is so troubled by the consumption (of others) that she celebrates small acts of resistance by asking to be removed from mailing lists.
Yet the very same Newman does drawings ON PAPER which she sells. Perhaps your man Jensen should tell his fave artist that if she really wants to help save the planet, she should draw on a wall – it’s called graffiti. Or, better still, draw on the sand and admire her political effort for the day until the tide comes back in. Which raises the question: why does The Monthly’s editor-in-chief print such pretentious and meaningless tripe?
[Perhaps because your man Jensen is The Monthly’s editor-in-chief. Just a thought – MWD Editor.]
AN ABC UPDATE
QUELLE SURPRISE! INSIDERS RUNS DISINFORMATION ABOUT THE “NO” CAMPAIGN AS ABC SCORES OWN GOAL BY PUBLICISING A LITTLE KNOWN “NO” ADVOCATE PHILLIP MOBBS – PHILLIP WHO?
It’s not so long ago that word went out from the ABC that it was conscious of the need to have balance in its coverage of the forthcoming referendum on the Voice to Parliament and the executive. Well – how’s that going, then? – Media Watch Dog hears avid readers cry. Not too well – it would seem.
Take the (increasingly boring but constantly worthy) ABC TV Q+A program, for example. On 7 August it ran a special Q+A episode which was filmed at the Garma Festival. Dan Bourchier was in the presenter’s chair and the panel comprised Malarndirri McCarthy, Marcia Langton, Merrki Ganambarr-Stubbs, Ben Abbatangelo and Taylah Gray. All the panellists supported the Yes case to a greater or lesser extent as did the presenter Dan (“There’s lotsa racism at the ABC”) Bourchier.
Verily a worthy – but boring – experience. The panel selection overlooked the fact that the Yes case could be strengthened to the extent that it can take on and prevail over No supporters in an open debate.
It was much the same the previous day – Sunday 6 August – when the ABC TV Insiders program also went out live from Garma. David Speers was in the presenter’s chair and the panel comprised Clare Armstrong (News Corp), Dan Bourchier (ABC) and John Paul Janke (SBS). It was (another) worthy occasion. MWD nodded off at times – but believes that the voice was the only topic discussed and that Dan essentially agreed with Clare who essentially agreed with John who essentially went along with Speersy’s gentle comments and so on. You get the picture. Groan.
The only “news” to emerge from the 60 minutes under the Garma gum trees occurred when the following exchange took place:
John Paul Janke: You know, online, the No campaign have multiple social media pages. Some of them now are using AI, with a black Indigenous character to try and look like it’s an Indigenous person supporting the No campaign.
David Speers: Crikey!
John Paul Janke: Yeah.
David Speers: Sorry, did you say that was from the No campaign or from some random?
John Paul Janke: No. From the No campaign. And they’re supporting, obviously, different voices. And they’re under the guise of moderate voices against the Voice. Like, it’s Australians for Unity. But they’re using AI of a black character that is supporting the No case.
David Speers: Ok.
But, alas, it was not okay at all. Sure, an obscure group titled Constitutional Equality did use AI in its campaign against the voice. But it had nothing to do with the high- profile “No” campaign led by Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and others. By the way, the self-proclaimed founder of Constitutional Equality, Phillip Mobbs, has a mere 30 followers and 30 connections on his LinkedIn profile.
The sun had not even set on that Sunday when the ABC put up the following comment on the Corrections & Clarifications section of its website:
Insiders: On the program broadcast on Sunday, August 6, panellist John Paul Janke described the use of AI generated videos by some opponents of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. The ABC wishes to clarify that the campaign coordinated by Warren Mundine and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price -— Australians for Unity — is not affiliated with the videos being referred to.
A good try don’t you think? But those watching the program would have got the impression that Mr Janke was referring to the most prominent No advocates – the Australians for Unity group. In fact, he was railing against a little-known Melbourne businessman named Phillip Mobbs running an organisation that virtually no one would have heard of if the SBS journalist had not raised the issue on Insiders.
As expected, David Speers did not do an on air correction yesterday. No surprise, really – since the ABC rarely corrects errors on the program where false claims were made in the first instance. Moreover, few viewers bother to read the ABC’s online Corrections and Clarifications segment which is buried in the ABC’s cluttered website.
If MWD viewers want some disagreement over the voice they should turn to Sky News – if they have not already done so. In recent times, Peta Credlin (presenter of
Credlin) and Chris Kenny (presenter of The Kenny Report) have been engaged in a modern-day duel about the Voice – where swords are replaced by verbal weapons. At least the likes of Credlin (a “No” supporter) and Kenny (a “Yes” supporter) hold different opinions. The ABC does not appear to have one open “No” supporter among its close to 4000 staff.
[Interesting. I note that the useless Phillip Mobbs was interviewed by Patricia Karvelas on RN Breakfast this morning. Talk about a lamb being led to slaughter. Perhaps you should have given your man Mobbs a “Media Fool of the Week” gong. Just a thought. – MWD Editor.]
Until next time...
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