Category Archives: Media

The ABC is a mad dog running loose

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Just what is Zaki Mallah’s point of view, exactly? His views on anything are of so little interest in an intellectual sense that it is beyond belief that I have had to endure his illogical and illiterate ranting on our national broadcaster. He was there, not because he had anything of any interest to say about anything at all. He was there because he threatened to murder other people and went to jail, but the attempt to put him away for terrorism was stopped at the supreme court. His beliefs are, of course, fascinating as a case study since there are appear to be many others like him. And I wish others would ask him about his actual beliefs about how things should go in the Middle East, say, or how he thinks religious tolerance ought to be practised, or what he thinks of whatever is the other side in his own religious wars. These would be fascinating, because the more you hear the more you fear for this country’s future.

So this conversation between Andrew Bolt’s producer and Raphael Epstein of the ABC is incredible. Is Epstein simply not capable of some basic distinctions. We read Andrew Bolt because he articulates views we are interested in hearing. No one would do the same for this Zaki fellow. His views, to the extent that I know them, are vile and disgusting, of no interest as an actual set of beliefs. The prelude to this exchange is Rafael Epstein, who is apparently a radio host on 774 in Melbourne, telling Andrew’s editor, Damon Johnston, “there seems little difference between the ABC giving a platform to Zaky Mallah and the Herald Sun giving one to Andrew”. This is from Andrew’s blog. The dialogue is not perfect, but in essence Raphael equates the ABC giving a platform to Zaky and and the Herald Sun giving one to Andrew Bolt:

EPSTEIN

No, I don’t think it is a partisan criticism, but it goes to, you are essentially I guess editorialising that the ABC is in some way doesn’t have the nation’s best interests at heart and [inaudible] appropriate given that one incident

JOHNSTON

Yeah, yeah, I think in that context it is appropriate to question that

EPSTEIN

Is that, so let me try and fit around they can Damon. Andrew Bolt, columnist, very very popular. He, I guess, I’m trying to frame his words in a way that are acceptable to him. He doesn’t believe in the concept of the stolen generations, he strongly questioned that. He has got a lot of strong questions on the science of climate change, many people would feel that they are irrefutable facts and that by questioning those things, Andrew Bolt is in some way corroding the social fabric. Does that mean that we can all we should question the Herald Sun’s real commitment to cohesive society?

JOHNSTON

Are you trying to draw some equivalency between Zaki Mallah and Andrew Bolt? Last time I looked Andrew hadn’t done 2 ½ years jail

EPSTEIN

No no no I’m not saying they are saying that all I am just trying to, I’m trying to get at whether or not it is fair to attack the ABC’s intentions towards the country around some coverage. Andrew Bolt is clearly very popular, I don’t want to get into the ins and outs of his columns, I don’t think this is the place to do that. However, if he is asking a lot of significant questions around the stolen generation and climate change science and they are things that for many people, not for everyone, for many people they are irrefutable facts. Can I then question the Herald Sun and say well, you are in some way being corrosive in you know, [inaudible]

Look Raphael. The ABC did not put Zaki onto Q&A because of what he thinks but because of how he was treated by the law. You used him as some kind of weird exhibit of repressive legislation. I wish you would ask him his opinions of many more things, since the minuscule bits we saw were terrifying and provides a broader lesson to the rest of us. If you think Zaki has a point of view on any single issue that is worth considering as a genuine perspective of any value of any kind in any place at any time, then you and the crew you work with are as far as it is possible to be from understanding just exactly what the problem with the ABC is.

The question really is just how depraved is the ABC?

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From The Oz. These are five questions the ABC refuses to answer:

1 – Did Q&A approach Zaky Mallah to join the show’s audience, or did he approach Q&A?
2 – Were the Q&A team aware of the general nature of the question that Zaky Mallah was going to ask?
3 – Did the ABC pay for Zaky Mallah to appear on Q&A?
4 – Did the ABC pay for his transport or travel to the program?
5 – Can you please release the correspondence between Mallah and the ABC.

I assume that the first two are a yes, the ABC did approach him and knew in general what he was going to ask. Tony Jones was completely primed for it. But the third and fourth are the kinds of things that would never cross my mind as real possibilities. The correspondence therefore has to come out.

The odd thing is that this was a genuine public service, the way it revealed a state of mind amongst some of our fellow citizens. It has been a quite edifying bit of television. The only problem is that the outcome was not the ABC’s intent but quite the reverse. The aim was to embarrass the government but has done only damage to itself. The last straw, one hopes, but at the very least it is the next-to-last straw. If the ABC cannot see how hideous it has become from the way this was plotted and designed, they really are an organisation beyond redemption.

Q&A has made Abbott’s anti-terrorist laws a certainty

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The full video of the exchange of views with Zaki Mulla is here. Graeme Morris is also very good, and puts the political problem in its proper perspective. The Twitter Feed is also worth noting.

Possibly the most amazing Q&A ever. I walked out and came back in at the end just in time to see Tony Jones go to an audience member who is a former convicted terrorist who escaped a larger punishment on a technicality. It has to be seen to be believed, but until I have the video and transcript, will have to do with the Catallaxy comments thread. This lad, in cahoots with the ABC, has established every point the PM has been trying to make about dealing with terrorists. Slightly edited. You can go to the actual thread to see the full transcript. Steve Ciobo by the way was outstanding.

Menai Pete
#1717090, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:31 pm (Edit)
The Lib looks him in the eye and sticks it to the terrorist. That made the whole night worthwhile.

calli
#1717091, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:31 pm (Edit)
Well…now we know who the ABC supports. Time to shut up shop guys.

cohenite
#1717093, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:32 pm (Edit)
Fuck me dead.

Splatacrobat
#1717094, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:32 pm (Edit)
FMD this is sick.

Rohan
#1717095, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:32 pm (Edit)
Wow, fuck off terrorist swampie. This episode is weird.

Habib
#1717096, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:33 pm (Edit)
IT, even the scriptwriters from “Home and Away” couldn’t produce dialogue to match this after a three day ether and golddtop binge. The audience even are a little confused, Divine is even a bit weird for the Sandalnistas.

Econocrat
#1717097, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:34 pm (Edit)
Steve Chobo should take his microphone off and walk off.

Menai Pete
#1717099, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:34 pm (Edit)
Claims to be a victim of fashion crime – had to wear an orange jumpsuit for two years before he got out on a technicality

Andrew
#1717100, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:34 pm (Edit)
If Liberal MPs do not boycott Qanda after tonight, then they deserve everything coming to them.

Carpe Jugulum
#1717101, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:34 pm (Edit)
Can someone tell him, he made threats to kill. he made threats to commit a terrorist act and now he is bitching.

Baldrick
#1717106, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:37 pm (Edit)
Just digs his own grave.

calli
#1717109, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:38 pm (Edit)
That should be the last Q & A ever. Utterly disgusting.

Turtle of WA
#1717111, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:38 pm (Edit)
That one backfired on the ABC.

Carpe Jugulum
#1717112, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:38 pm (Edit)
I will give the lone conservative some cudos, that was a tough gig.

Rohan
#1717113, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:38 pm (Edit)
Oh my god I was right!

Splatacrobat
#1717114, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:38 pm (Edit)
Fmd what a disgusting show.

Menai Pete
#1717115, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:39 pm (Edit)
Just digs his own grave.
And Steve Ciobo shovelled dirt on top of while Snowcone was left speechless

Baldrick
#1717116, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:39 pm (Edit)
Disgusting Their ABC swampfilth Islamic apologist shyte.

C.L.
#1717119, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:40 pm (Edit)
Ciobo’s performance on all fronts was utterly superb.
He made Fitzgibbon look like a schoolboy and he destroyed the bearded turd in the cap.

notafan
#1717121, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:40 pm (Edit)
Did the convicted terrorist have a name?

Menai Pete
#1717122, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:41 pm (Edit)
I did not think it was possible tonight but Q and A just got even worse

Habib
#1717126, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:42 pm (Edit)
They’ve got a tweet per minute count running now, FFS. FMD, sandgoblin reckons the government is recruiting for ISIS, even Snowcone for once stunned into surly silence; the anticipated ambush sort of went off in his face, his usual smug exit subdued like he’d been sprayed with a shitmist.

C.L.
#1717127, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:42 pm (Edit)
Strike while the iron is hot …
The Attorney-General should launch an immediate investigation into the ABC and its apparent collusion with a man convicted of threatening to kill Commonwealth employees.
Now’s when you attack the ABC with all guns blazing.

Rorschach
#1717132, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:44 pm (Edit)
That psycho – he was there as a set-up gotcha. Backfired badly on Tony.

min
#1717135, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:45 pm (Edit)
Tony Jones left speechless caught out by threat made on Q&A by a fighter who had been in Syria.
I hope he goes back to a power out he has no idea how energy is supplied.

C.L.
#1717136, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:45 pm (Edit)
For the record, Fitzgibbon refused to support Ciobo in saying he’d be happy for the be-capped shitball to be thrown out of the country.

Pecker
#1717139, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:47 pm (Edit)
Turnbull…suggest you have good look at Q&A tonight and make the right call on the ABC..you know you want to do it so go ahead. We love this country and deserve it to be protected frm these media terrorists.

Turtle of WA
#1717140, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:47 pm (Edit)
Massive backfire. Sucked in snowcone.

C.L.
#1717141, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:47 pm (Edit)
We should be grateful to the be-capped shitball for one thing, however. He spoke the truth when he said Muslims angry with the government want to sate their fury by killing people. On the record and confirmed. Thanks, Q&A.

Splatacrobat
#1717143, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:48 pm (Edit)
The ABC would have had to search that fellow out just to get him to unload on ciobo. Epic Dorothy fixed fail as Snowcone interrupts his rant. Instead of saying I’ll take that as a comment, he should have said l’ll take that as a death threat.

C.L.
#1717151, posted on June 22, 2015 at 10:51 pm (Edit)
That’s right, JC.
Even I stayed on after a channel-flip.
Bear in mind that this bloke was convicted of threatening to kill Commonwealth officials.
He again threatened people live to air on television.
IMO, he should be arrested, charged again and expelled from Australia.

Shelley
#1717166, posted on June 22, 2015 at 11:01 pm (Edit)
FFS. Just saw that BS on Q and A. Parallel universe. The frigging audience clapped the little shit.

Infidel Tiger
#1717167, posted on June 22, 2015 at 11:01 pm (Edit)
IMO, he should be arrested, charged again and expelled from Australia.
It sounds like it was an obvious set up by the ABC to embarrass the government.
Jones and the management should be charged with aiding and abetting terrorism.

Scanty education and a vulgar turn of mind

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I’ve been reading up on Mill and came across this passage in a book written in 1954 by John Bowle, Politics and Opinion in the 19th Century. Here is is describing de Tocqueville’s views of the media in the United States, and I fear it is more general than just there and back then.

The journalists of the United States, he remarks, are generally in a humble position, with scanty education and a vulgar turn of mind. . . . “The characteristics of the American journalists consist in . . . a coarse appeal to the passions of the reader; he abandons principles to assail the character of individuals to track them into private life and disclose all their weaknesses and vices . . .” Nothing can be more deplorable. [Bowle 1954: 188]

My days of sitting on the phone with some journalist for upwards of an hour to explain something and then find it was completely garbled in the paper the next day are happily long gone. No one who has dealt with the press finds their views anything other than superficial, which is why they are almost invariably to the left. I also found this very acute about the nature of opinion within societies where you get to choose your own.

De Tocqueville concludes by a warning of the growing and immense power of the press in democratic states. It is second only to the political power of the people itself. Its influence is further extended by the peculiar American susceptibility to abstract ideas. Once they have taken up an opinion, ‘be it well or ill founded, nothing is more difficult than to eradicate if from their minds’. This tenacity is also apparent in England. The explanation is simple. When one is free to choose one’s opinions one clings to them. [ibid. – my bolding]

Watching politics in the United States really is depressing since it hinges on so many forms of inane belief. America is the worst-case scenario. We have it too, but such a mild version that I could only wish the Pacific was even wider than it is.

Obama smoking

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obama smoking

It’s not just that a picture has finally surfaced of Obama reaching for a cigarette. What is remarkable to the point of astonishment is that it has taken six years for such a photo to finally see the light of day. This is not Obama sneaking off to the toilet to have a secret fag. If this is what he does normally, smokes with others around, then why you or I should think we know anything at all about what is going on is a real question. The picture is also not from some obscure source. It is from The Washington Post with the title, Let President Obama have a cigarette, already. Here’s part of the excuse-machine that is already being cranked up:

But for God’s sake. Let the man smoke an occasional cigarette if he wants to. “One cigarette takes 11 minutes off your life,” Obama’s NIH would tell him. So smoke three and don’t plan on watching a last episode of “Parks and Rec.”

Maybe Obama smokes two packs a day, which, at his age, is not healthy. That seems very unlikely; given his reliance on Nicorette — for which he has also been criticized — it’s fair to assume that his use of actual cigarettes is more sporadic. Even if he does, the guy has the best health care and the lousiest gig in the world. If he develops a preexisting condition as a result: good news!

If he’s not smoking on camera, if he’s not passing out Marlboros at the White House Halloween party, let him have an occasional cigarette. For those of you tempted to e-mail me a lengthy harangue about how irresponsible that attitude is, feel free. Please include your own personal bad habit and what your plan is to kick it.

Liars without character, both the president and the media that follows him around.

A low information voter is someone who gets their news from the mainstream media

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First this just the other day:

The New York Times published an article Friday morning showing that Marco Rubio and his wife have – gasp – incurred 17 traffic citations over the past 18 years.

And then this from 2007:

The Times studiously ignored the scofflaw behavior of Barack Obama, who ignored 15 outstanding parking tickets until his run for the presidency forced him to clean up his record.

The left counts on their voters being uninformed not just of the news but of the way they are being taken for patsies. Does the NYT not perfectly well understand what it is doing? Since it does, it assumes, and probably correctly, that the readers of their paper just don’t want to know the facts. They are happy to print the American version of Pravda and let their readers remain wilfully ignorant of the inconvenience of knowing that there may be something radically wrong with their own side of politics and the people for whom they vote.

“We’re racists and that’s why PM won’t allow same-sex marriage”

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From Cut & Paste today:

Playing identity politics is easier than thinking. RMIT University’s Steve Kates, Catallaxy, yesterday:

What genuine problem has a party of the left actually solved anytime in the last forty years? Parties of the left never solve any actual problems, they only make existing problems worse and create new ones along the way … But the parties of the left are good at finding solutions for things that are not a problem at all … There are lots of such fake problems invented by the left and promoted through the media … to become controversial issues in immediate need of solution. Conservatives then have the choice of doing nothing since they think there is nothing to be done, and therefore end up hammered by the press and the left for not taking such problems seriously. Or they do take these up and legitimise the issue.

QED. Policy analyst Miriam Lyons, the ABC’s Q&A, Monday:

There was a time in Australian history where Irish Australians were extremely discriminated against.

Or … Q from Q&A:

My question is for Anthony Albanese. What do you say of recent criticism of the influence of Joe de Bruyn’s union, the SDA, over your party? How can we trust you when you say that you support marriage equality yet you have allowed a super union to bully you into stalling it for a significant amount of time?

Let alone this Q&A leap of logic:

Since the state of New York legalised gay marriage, it has brought $259 million to their economy. So I ask the panel this: if Tony Abbott is all for small business, then why doesn’t he agree with the 72 per cent of Australians who agree with legalising gay marriage and also bring these added funds to our kind of failing economy?

That kid will go places. Parliamentary secretary Scott Ryan, AM Agenda, Sky News, yesterday:

I didn’t watch Q&A. I find my weeks start better when I don’t watch it.

“U.S. economy likely shrank in quarter one, but fundamentals strong”

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The quote is from Reuters which maintains the delusion that all is well with the American economy. As with the data on unemployment, there are people across the American Government, throughout the public service and at every level of the left media whose job it is to pretend all is well so long as Democrats are in charge. If the White House changes hands in 2017, we will hear a different story. But until then, the good times will continue to be around the corner, as they have been for the past six years.

But some things you cannot hide, which is that U.S. economy contracts in first quarter. The national accounts are, unfortunately, a truly inadequate measure of what you would like to know. If one economy grew by 10% and another by 2%, which one has a higher standard of living? The fact that you cannot tell is one of the signs that the number really doesn’t get to what is actually of interest. And here is a question that is less easy to answer than you think it ought to be. If an economy grew by 10%, just what exactly is 10% bigger this year than it was last year? Again a difficult question that few are ever taught. But it is not what you really want to know if you are interested in prosperity and jobs.

Almost all of our economic measures are incompetent if the aim is to understand present economic conditions and current trends. But there is no disguising this one. A contraction in economic activity is not part of the story of an economy in recovery.

Scott of the Aunt Arctic

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Aunt Arctic in the sense of the kind of welcome given to conservatives at the ABC. It seems that it has come to the attention of the MD of the ABC that there are people in the community who believe that Q&A has a bias towards the left. According to the story, therefore, ABC: Mark Scott to review Q&A amid left-bias claims. He must be worried that not even Malcolm will be able to get him that one-year extension to his contract as they look for a replacement. But for sheer obtuseness, it is hard to beat this:

Asked by Coalition senator James McGrath why Monday-night panel show Q&A consistently leans to the Left, Mr Scott said it was not the first time he had heard that “depiction” and agreed to conduct a survey or “sampling” of the topics discussed.

Mark, it’s not just Q&A and it’s not just the topics discussed. I wonder if he has ever heard that depiction about the whole of the ABC, although given the circles he seems to travel in, possibly not.

Living with political insanity

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The continued fixation on Archbishop Pell by a certain class of media fools would be unacceptable in even the most benign environment. Picked up at Andrew Bolt, here is the quote from Miranda Devine he uses to fully explain there is no there there, but at least it allows these people to indulge in their anti-Christian obsessions:

David Ridsdale told the royal commission last week that he phoned Pell in early 1993 to inform him about the sexual abuse he had suffered at the hands of his uncle, and that Pell said: “I want to know what it will take to keep you quiet.”

Ridsdale says he remembers those exact words and his response: “F… you, George, and everything you stand for.”

This has been reported as fact and underpinned the venom against Pell last week. But the allegation does not even make sense.

At the time of the alleged phone conversation, Gerald Ridsdale had already been charged and had pleaded guilty to 46 charges involving 21 children. There was no reason to keep anything quiet.

Is this truly a story from 1993, from possibly even before Gillard set up the slush fund? But if there is a story that is not discussed day after day, it is the murder of Christians in the Middle East at the hands of Islamic State fanatics. Like this:

The video starts with what it called a history of Christian-Muslim relations, followed by scenes of militants destroying churches, graves and icons. A masked fighter brandishing a pistol delivers a long statement, saying Christians must convert to Islam or pay a special tax prescribed by the Koran.

It shows one group of captives, identified as Ethiopian Christians, purportedly held by an Islamic State affiliate in eastern Libya known as Barqa Province. It also shows another purportedly held by an affiliate in the southern Libyan calling itself the Fazzan Province. The video then switches between footage of the captives in the south being shot dead and the captives in the east being beheaded on a beach. [Bolding added.]

They have the video, but here the oh-so-cautious media says “purportedly” since it is only an allegation and even if they have said themselves that this is what they did, you do not want to go too far in blackening their name. This is a story for which there are probably no end of possible news items each week, of which there are now hardly any shown or even discussed at all.

Our perceptions are in the hands of the media, and therefore as a society we are now fixing on the trivial and ignoring what may yet bring our entire civilisation down.