Frustrations bubble over at our $1bn ABC as radio star fails to find an efficient answer
Their ABC, your $1 billion, $83 million in cuts, and ABC Melbourne radio’s Jon Faine tackles Communications Minister Mitch Fifield, Wednesday:
Faine: I still don’t know what parts of the ABC you think are the ones that are inefficient.
Fifield: Jon, the ABC is a very large organisation …
Faine: Yes, I’ve heard all of this before. Which parts are inefficient?
Fifield: It’s an important organisation, but there is no commonwealth government agency that I’ve yet discovered …
Faine: I’ve heard this already many times. Which bits are inefficient?
Fifield: Jon, if I could finish a sentence it would be much more …
Faine: Not if you’re going to say what you were saying a week ago and not moving it along at all.
Fifield: Jon, if I can’t get more than three words out, then it’s going to be an unenlightening conversation …
Faine: I promise you the three words you can get out — or even four or five — have to be new ones. Not the same ones from a week ago.
Fifield: You’re very generous this morning, Jon.
Fifield did get a chance to hammer the groupthink of ABC news and current affairs but squibbed it:
Faine: Do you think we’re biased?
Fifield: The ABC I don’t think has a monolithic culture. There are a range of different cultures in the ABC … I’ll just take one example, I think the Parliament House ABC bureau is straight down the line. They do good work. ABC regional radio is very close to the community. And I’ve never heard anyone say that they tilt one way or the other. But the entire organisation should obviously continue to strive to be its best self.
Not entirely peaceful. The New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg gets a print retweet in The Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday:
The demonstrators have been mostly but not entirely peaceful; Gazans have thrown rocks at Israeli soldiers and tried to fly flaming kites into Israel. The Israeli military has responded with live gunfire …
The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council translates what look like (since deleted) Palestinian Facebook posts on the protests with the hashtag #instructionsforparticipants, Tuesday:
Behave seriously, not recklessly with regards to the order to bring a knife, a dagger or a gun. If you bring one, keep it under your clothes and do not use it or show it except when one of the soldiers or settlers is verified (as such). Do not kill Israeli civilians, instead deliver him immediately to the resistance (Hamas), because that is the point that Israel is afraid of, because she knows that the kidnapper can demand what he wants (for the release of the kidnapped) … (Israeli) snipers are deployed. Make them to leave their positions and flee … Don’t bother with the wounded or the martyrs (the dead). The medical crews behind us are prepared for this purpose.
Middle East media watchdog MEMRI TV translates statements on Al Jazeera by Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, who takes umbrage at the idea that Hamas has the same “peaceful resistance” strategy as Fatah, Sunday:
Al-Zahhar: This is a clear terminological deception. When you are in possession of weapons that were able to withstand the occupation in the wars of 2006, 2008, 2012 and 2014 … When you have weapons that are being wielded by men who were able to prevent the strongest army in the region from entering the Gaza Strip for 51 days, and were able to capture or kill soldiers of that army — is this really “peaceful resistance”?