THE US[ELESS] STUDIES CENTRE
As avid readers are only too well aware, Professor Simon Jackman (the head of the United States Studies Centre) said in November 2016 that no one at the USSC expected that Donald J. Trump would defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
He also ‘fessed up that no one at the USSC supported Donald Trump. David Smith, who suffers from Trump-phobia, is a USSC staff member who appears regularly on ABC Radio in Sydney as the USSC’s “expert” on the US.
In short, the taxpayer-funded USSC is close to being a Republican Free Zone replete with Trump-haters and Clinton/Obama admirers and left-of-centre types. Now read on.
Without question Simon Jackman (chief executive of the taxpayer-funded United States Studies Centre at the taxpayer-funded University of Sydney) and David Smith (the USSC’s Senior Lecturer in American politics and Foreign Policy) are the public face of the organisation.
Around four years after the “experts” at the USSC were so hopelessly wrong about the likely outcome of the US 2016 presidential election, your man Jackman appeared on ABC Radio National’s Saturday Extra program on 8 August 2020 and advised listeners (if listeners there were) that he hoped the Democratic Party’s Joe Biden would defeat the Republican Party’s Donald J. Trump on Tuesday 4 November 2020.
For his part, Dr Smith (for a doctor he is) has been barracking for Joe Biden in his regular “Trump Tuesday” gig on ABC Sydney Radio 702’s Drive with Richard Glover.
On 18 August he discussed the Democratic Party’s launch – without mentioning any of the Biden campaign’s policies. And it was more of the same last Tuesday when Comrade Smith spoke about the Republican Party’s launch. On this occasion the leftist Josh Szeps was in the presenter’s chair. He led off with a sneer at President Trump and his supporters. Let’s go to the transcript:
Josh Szeps: Have you been wowed and delighted by the highlights of the Republican National Convention so far?
David Smith: Well, there was certainly some extraordinary moments in the Republican convention, beginning with the unusual fact that the President actually spoke at it on the first day, usually the president doesn’t speak until the end ….
Pretty extraordinary, don’t you think? President Trump spoke on the first day of the Republican National Convention. Well I never – and so on. Comrade Smith criticised former Fox News presenter Kimberly Guilfoyle whom he claimed gave “a very dark speech”. Then he had a go at “a couple from St Louis” whose names, apparently, he could not remember. Then Comrade Szeps re-entered the fray:
Josh Szeps: Absolutely unbelievable, let’s take a listen to Donald Trump. He, you know, this is his normal hobby. His favourite thing to do – disparaging Democrats.
How about that? Last week’s Democratic National Convention did little but disparage Donald J. Trump and the Republicans. But Comrade Szeps did not mention this.
He continued to bag Donald Trump until David Smith weighed in to help with some of the (ideological) heavy lifting. Then Comrade Szeps took over again – followed by Comrade Smith. Not one critical comment was made about Joe Biden and not one supportive comment was made about Trump. That’s balance — US[eless] Studies Centre style.
Then Szeps described Ms Guilfoyle as Donald Trump Jr’s “girlfriend” – on two occasions no less. The second reference was as follows: “That’s Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr’s girlfriend.”
Which suggests that in 2020, Comrade Szeps thinks it’s okay to describe women with reference to their partners. [Perhaps you man Szeps should spend some time in Nancy’s Courtesy Classes. Just a thought. – MWD Editor.]
And so it went on. And on. And on – with yet more digs at Kimberly Guilfoyle. This time Comrade Smith referred to Kimberly Guilfoyle’s “boyfriend Donald Trump (Jr??)”. Yawn. This is how the ABC presenter concluded the segment:
Josh Szeps: It’s also worth remembering that in 2016, Donald Trump didn’t do any better than a fairly mediocre proportion of the vote, for any generic Republican candidate. What happened was that Democrats didn’t come out to vote for Hillary Clinton. So, if Democrats come out and vote for Joe Biden the way they have for most Democratic candidates who weren’t Hillary Clinton, then Trump loses. David, it’s great to talk to you as always, thanks for being with us.
How about that? Josh Szeps reckons Donald Trump “didn’t do any better than a fairly mediocre proportion of the vote” in 2016. But he won. And Comrade Szeps reckons that if lotsa Democrats vote for Joe Biden he will win in November. Whoever would have thought so?
CAN YOU BEAR IT?
● CATHY WILCOX LAUGHS LOUDLY AT HER OWN JOKE
Media outlets don’t ask authors to review their own books – for obvious reasons. But, it seems that the ABC has a different approach when it comes to cartoonists, of the leftist bent.
MWD just loves it that so many wage-slaves of the self-declared left-wing newspaper The Guardian get a go on the ABC TV Insiders program.
Panellists include Lenore Taylor (The Guardian’s editor) and Katharine Murphy (The Guardian’s political editor) plus on occasions such Guardian scribblers as Sarah Martin and Malcolm Farr. Amy Remeikis (The Guardian’s political reporter) appears regularly on the “Talking Pictures” segment.
As to “Talking Pictures, it is presented every week by The Guardian’s photographer Michael Bowers – who makes political comment every week and invariably interviews a cartoonist of the left. [Quite a load of Sandalista Guardian types to be sure. Perhaps Insiders should be renamed “The Guardian Weekly”. Just a thought. – MWD Editor.]
MWD just loved it last Sunday when your man Bowers discussed the photos/cartoons of the week with the Sydney Morning Herald/Age cartoonist Cathy Wilcox – another leftist. Let’s go to the transcript where Comrade Wilcox analysed her very own cartoon (see below) which appeared in Nine Newspapers on 21 August concerning the possibility of a vaccine to prevent COVID-19:
Mike Bowers: Cathy it’s turned into a game of “Deal or No Deal” – do we have a deal on the vaccine or not?
Cathy Wilcox: We’ve got a little offering of hope, but it falls into this environment where as soon as you offer the hope of a vaccine, you have the spectre of all of the people who are anti-vax: “I can’t wait for a vaccine so we can get over this bloody pandemic”.
Mike Bowers: “Yeah, apparently it might be mandatory”
Cathy Wilcox: “Are you kidding? They can’t force me to be vaccinated. [Sings] My freedom!” [Laughs loudly].
So there you have it. On “Talking Pictures” Cathy reviewed her own cartoon – and laughed loudly at its message. Can You Bear It?
[Er, no – now that you ask. But to be fair – perhaps Comrade Wilcox laughed at her own cartoon because no one else did – and she chose to fire-up the cheerleaders. Just a thought. – MWD Editor.]
TOP MEDIA INTERRUPTER OF THE WEEK
Top Media Interrupter of the week is (another) prestigious media award that is heavily contested. This week’s winner is ABC TV Insiders’ presenter David Speers. Once again.
As avid readers may or may not recall, on the eve of taking up his current job, your man Speers gave an interview with The Guardian’s Amanda Meade on 1 February 2020. Comrade Speers told Comrade Meade that he saw his role at Insiders as genuinely seeking information and not engaging in any “Gotcha” moments.
Since then David Speers seems to have focused on setting up a gotcha moment — especially when interviewing Coalition ministers.
Take last Sunday, for example, when Agriculture Minister David Littleproud appeared on the program. In a 15 minute interview, Comrade Speers interrupted Minister Littleproud on no fewer than 23 occasions. That is, more than once a minute (not counting the time that the interviewer was talking). On the previous Sunday, Comrade Speers interrupted Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten on 8 occasions.
David Speers — Top Media Interrupter Of The Week.
CORRECTION RE JOHN TYRELL V THE QUEEN
In MWD Issue 509 (14 August 2020) included the “M’learned Friend Opines” segment, subtitled “David Marr’s Howlers on the George Pell Case”. In the piece, the following comment was made:
In the same article [The Guardian, 31 May 2019], David Marr referred to the case of one-time Christian Brother John Tyrrell whose conviction of historical child sexual abuse was quashed by the Victorian Court of Appeal on 15 March 2019. Marr suggested that the High Court would probably overturn the Victorian Court of Appeal’s decision in the Tyrrell Case.
David Marr was wrong. In a majority decision on 15 March 2019, the Victorian Court of Appeal in John Francis Tyrrell v The Queen overturned the jury’s decision. Later, the High Court dismissed the DPP’s application for special leave to appeal in the Tyrrell Case.
It was incorrect for MWD to describe John Tyrrell as “a former Christian Brother”. He still is a Christian Brother – currently living in retirement. Also, this was a unanimous judgment – not a majority decision.
John Tyrrell’s case was an example of when jurors get it wrong. Which is why his conviction was overturned in a unanimous decision in the Victorian Court of Appeal by Justices Stephen Kaye, Richard Niall and Mark Weinberg.
As MWD readers will recall, the ABC did not bother to report the Court of Appeal’s judgment in Tyrrell v The Queen. Gaven Morris, the ABC Director of News and Current Affairs, advised MWD on 19 March 2019 that the ABC’s court reporter only had time on 15 March 2019 (when the decision in Tyrrell v The Queen was handed down) to report one case – i.e. the sentencing hearing on 15 March 2019 for Robert Cerantonio, who had been convicted on a terrorist charge. Despite having numerous outlets on its numerous news and current affairs outlets, the taxpayer funded broadcaster has never covered the fact that Christian Brother John Tyrrell’s conviction on a charge of historical child sexual abuse was quashed by a unanimous Victorian Court of Appeal decision.
HISTORY CORNER
As avid readers are aware, Mark Kenny has had a brilliant career. Starting off as an operative for a Labor frontbencher in the South Australian opposition, he worked briefly for The Advertiser in Adelaide before taking the familiar path of a leftist journalist on the ABC and then on to Fairfax Media – or it then was.
And then, lo and behold, Comrade Kenny was appointed a professor at the Australian National University. There was a time when professors could demonstrate that they had published a book or two, or even a number of journal articles. Not any more, it seems. Not at the ANU any rate. Some reports in the Sydney Morning Herald and a gig on Insiders seems good enough.
On ABC TV Insiders on 24 June 2020, discussion turned on the allegations of branch stacking in the Labor Party’s Victorian branch which led to the expulsion/resignation of Labor frontbencher Adem Somyurek. The Herald-Sun’s James Campbell believed that this was a bit of a media beat-up. It also happened to be a convenient excuse for the ALP’s left faction to move on the Victorian ALP’s right faction. This is how the discussion commenced:
James Campbell [Herald-Sun]: The central allegation that Somyurek had taken over the whole branch is nonsense. He’s not even a particularly effective branch stacker, the numbers involved here are tiny. Somyurek’s power in the party – such as it was – had come from his power to knit together different groups, unions, of left and right. That’s a –
David Speers: [Interjecting] Adam Somyurek himself says that he controls the joint, that he decides who the premier is, that he is all powerful.
Well, as the saying goes, Adem Somyurek would have said that he controls the ALP in Victoria. But that does not prove his claim. Then, later in the discussion, the ANU’s learned professor had this to say:
Mark Kenny [ANU]: The last time there was an intervention in the Victorian branch of the Labor Party was back in the 1970s, after the 1969 election that Gough Whitlam lost. There was Federal intervention – and a couple of years later Labor was in power. Now it wasn’t exclusively down to that but certainly cleaning out the turmoil in the Victorian branch was a factor in that. And that’s clearly what the leadership wants to do now. There is obviously some advantage that they can probably take from it as well. Which is what the right is saying. But it’s just become an unholy mess and it couldn’t have been allowed to go on.
What a load of absolute tosh. When the ALP’s federal executive interviewed the Victorian branch of the Labor Party in 1970, it had been out of office since 1955 – losing elections in 1955, 1958, 1961, 1964, 1967 and 1970. This followed the split in the Labor Party in 1955 which led to the creation of the Democratic Labor Party which preferenced the Liberal Party and the (then) Country Party ahead of Labor.
At the Federal level, Labor’s failure to win seats in Victoria at the 1961 and 1969 elections meant that Robert Menzies defeated Arthur Calwell in 1961 and John Gorton defeated Gough Whitlam in 1969. That was the prime reason for the intervention.
There was “turmoil” in the ALP’s Victorian branch in 1970. But this is not comparable with the position today.
James Campbell is correct. The current intervention in the ALP’s Victorian branch is a factional stitch-up. The situation in 2020 is in no way comparable to that which prevailed in 1970. It would seem that the leftist Mark (“Call me professor”) Kenny has lined up with his leftist mates on the ALP left. When it comes to internal “turmoil” – there is more in Labor’s NSW branch than in Victoria.
In any event, what Professor Kenny said about the history of the ALP in Victoria four decades ago was not history – except, perhaps, at the Australian National University.
Until next time.
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