What if Tony Jones turns out to not even be the best journalist in his own household?
GETTING cosy on Aunty, Clive Palmer thought he’d found the ace. Wait till he meets the missus.
GETTING cosy on Aunty, Clive Palmer thought he’d found the ace. Wait till he meets the missus.
Clive Palmer to Tony Jones on ABC1’s Lateline, November 22, 2012:
YOU’RE the best journalist in Australia. God bless you.
The Australian on Thursday:
READERS of the Fairfax press and the ABC’s viewers and listeners would be none the wiser about Palmer’s troubled business exploits, his heavy-duty litigious approach to rivals or that his flagship vehicles have paid almost no company income tax over the past six years ... The ABC’s incurious, but highly paid, Tony Jones has a special repartee with Mr Palmer. The two are often engaged in a smarmy late-night TV lovefest. Other journalists must take their cue from this treatment, providing Mr Palmer the easy publicity of a B-list celebrity, rather than the sharp scrutiny that is required of a politician who pulls the strings of senators who will hold the balance of power from July 1.
Janet Albrechtsen in The Australian on Wednesday:
IT’S high time the media turned the spotlight on Palmer’s party, both leader and members.
Palmer responding on Twitter that day:
THE Australian has a conga line of coalition cheerleaders as columnists. It’s not a newspaper, just a propaganda rag.
Lance corporal Jack Jones in Dad’s Army (1968-77):
THEY don’t like it up ’em!
So, is there hope? Yes, thanks to Jones’s better half. Albrechtsen again:
TO her credit, Sarah Ferguson’s cracking interview with (Palmer United Party senator-elect Jacqui) Lambie last week on the ABC’s 7.30 program should be mandatory viewing ... the senator-elect ... took us on a whirlwind tour of her mind.
Ferguson in action again with Palmer United Palmer senator-elect Dio Wang on Thursday:
FERGUSON: There’ve been some allegations recently about Mr Palmer’s company Mineralogy misusing funds from his Chinese partner. Do those allegations concern you?
Wang: No. I’m not involved in Mineralogy’s operations, so I don’t know whether the allegations are true or not.
Ferguson: So you think they could be true?
Wang: They could be wrong.
Ferguson: You don’t know either way; they could be true or false?
Wang: I don’t know either way. ...
Ferguson: Since those allegations have been aired, have you checked whether any money from CITIC ended up in your election campaign?
Wang: I have no power to check anyone else’s account, including Clive Palmer’s account.
Ferguson: But have you asked him the question?
Wang: No, I haven’t because I believe him.
Ferguson: You’re not curious to be sure whether or not that’s the case?
Wang: No, it’s not my business. So, even if I’m curious, I can do nothing about it.
Wang on a lighter note:
POLITICIANS say one thing before election, but do the opposite after the election.
Clive didn’t wait until the election. News.com.au on August 21 last year:
CLIVE Palmer has been busted breaking one of his policy promises, on his own campaign flyer.
The Australian Financial Review being sad yesterday about its role in the death of “a good education idea” — HECS from the dead:
WE regret to say that The AFR played its part in its retreat ... But Fairfax stablemates The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age splashed ... with their own version of the story. A Twitterstorm later, Tony Abbott (reassured) the nation no student would be hounded to the grave.