A new and virulent form of Jensenism ...

(Above: Dennis Jensen, scientist, in action).

How do you know you're in the company of a man who aspires to be Humpty Dumpty?

Here's a clue:

I am of the view that affirmative action is racist, sexist and ethnist, but understand people will, of course, seek every competitive advantage they can to progress themselves and their careers.

Ethnist?

As the wise Dr. Google sagely notes when you embark on a word search, "did you mean ethnicity?"

You won't find a definition for 'ethnist' and 'ethnism' in a conventional dictionary, though you can find the words deployed on raving ratbag right wing sites, and you can find it flung about in books that should know better:

Going even further than assimilation ideology, ethnist ideology defines the members of its state in ethnically exclusive terms, establishing a sort of blood citizenship determined by birth or kinship. (here)

That doesn't have much to do with talk of ethnist, sexist and racist, mainly because it seems as if the words have been flung together because they kind of rhyme.

But on the principle that words can mean what you chose them to mean, let's move along.

How do you know you're in the company of a delusional reactionary ratbag?

All that happens with an attempt at providing anodised content is that people will go elsewhere, the result that we can clearly see with Fairfax media.
The likes of Gina Rinehart see this risk, and are attempting to do something to arrest the decline, but the editors and boards are simply ignoring the real worldview, and simply hope that things will change for the better. Faint hope.

Would that be the same Gina Rinehart currently on the board of network Ten, presenting content so anodised, it makes tin-plating seem like sterling silver? From Being Lara Bingle to The Shire, are Rinehart and her colleagues on the board on a mission to reduce the network's output to the level of blithering idiocy?

Master Chef aside, is it true that the board of Ten is simply ignoring the real world view, with earnings falling by 70% to the six months to the end of February, with ratings down and advertisers leaving? (Not rating: Network Ten earnings take a hit)? Is the board simply hoping that things will change for the better, now they've raised another $200 million to piss against the wall on bad programming? Faint hope.

Who could be writing this sort of gibberish, who could be putting such faith in the powers of Gina Rinehart?

Come on down Dennis Jensen, banging on for The Drum in Reaping the consequences of political correctness.

Now you might think that in these recent troubled, intertubes-laden times, all newspapers, of whatever political hue, have been having a hard time. Whether it's the New York Post or the New York Times, the times have been hard, and finding a way to a new model has been tough.

If it was just a matter of being a raving ratbag right wing rag, why The Australian would be doing swimmingly well.

But like other Murdoch publications, it's struggling, sheltered and supported by more successful tabloid kin, who don't make their money out of being a home to raving ratbags, but by being focussed on sport, and in the winter months on various forms of thuggery known quaintly as football ...

You might even think that Fairfax has more than its fair share of opinion writers of a right wing kind, including, but not limited to Paul Sheehan, Gerard Henderson, Peter Costello, and sundry IPA figures such as Chris Berg. Sure they're a motley bunch of ruffians and roughnecks, but they're right up there with the Murdoch crowd.

But according to Jensen, Fairfax is on the ropes solely because it's leftist media:

The Left are finding their print media is dying the death of a thousand cuts of political correctness, making their publications so denuded of any content that genuinely challenges and is genuinely interesting that people choose not to purchase the paper.
The internet now gives people a huge choice, as it is impossible to muzzle opinions in the online environment to the extent that webzines can publish anonymously using a host in a more benevolent environment.

The thing about ideologues and zealots is that they routinely do the hammer thing, and when they look around they can only see nails. From the wrong end of the telescope, if you like your cliches complete.

So Fairfax is full of evil socialists, and greenies and sandal-wearers and is failing and it's got nothing to do with the rivers of gold going elsewhere, and print on its last legs, and many other alternatives available - Huffington, for example, if you want a liberal pinko pervert skew ...

And how has Jensen delivered his peculiar, bile-filled insight? Via an ABC online forum ... pitching it to the cardigan wearers, thanks to the long suffering taxpayers of the land.

If it weren't so side-splitting funny, it'd be sad, because Jensen is the Liberal member for Tangney, named after the first woman member of the Australian Senate. They bring 'em in, and then they bring them up kinda funny in the west ...

Jensen previously achieved a nanosecond of fame by slurping down a can of carbon-dioxide loaded fizzy drink as irrefutable proof that climate science is wrong (you can still catch this amazing sight in the 7.30 archives here).

Which reminds the pond why it hates people with Ph.D's trading as doctors. (Jensen's is from Monash, and according to his wiki, it's in materials engineering on ceramics, or has his own site says, in materials science and physics).

Suffice to say, if you're in a theatre, and a cry rings out "is there a doctor in the house", let's hope the crisis involves ceramics.

Jensen, in posing as a climate sceptic, consistently trades off on his science pedigree, while delivering libertarian bon mots such as this:

To précis Talentyre, I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

Which is guaranteed to bring out the pedant in the pond, since in his attempt at cleverness and avoiding Voltaire, he mis-spells S. G. Tallentyre, which is the pseudonym for Evelyn Beatrice Hall (here). And the pond simply can't defend your right to mis-spell names, and certainly not to the death.

Anyhoo, Jensen is the sort of pontificator who just loves to make unsubstantiated assertions, as when he maintains the brooding over the Andrew Bolt case:

The result of Bolt's case is extremely damaging to freedom of speech in Australia, to the point where many journalists and other commentators are now less inclined to speak their minds for fear of litigation. It has also given those on the Left occasion to silence any views that differ from their "accepted worldview".

A pity then that somehow the result of the Bolt case hasn't managed to shut up Jensen, always up for the job of silencing any views that differ from his own accepted worldview. Truth to tell, Bolt got things wrong, and paid the price, and nothing much happened thereafter, except that he and his chums have nursed his ongoing wounded pride for an eternity.

These days the main damage to freedom of speech is the way the arch-reactionary has removed all comments from his blog (and even now his larrikin devotees aren't being allowed their say beneath the fold).

As well as shedding tears for the suffering Bolt, it turns out that Ray Hadley is wonderful, but hapless, and hideously bullied by Wayne Swan. Poor Ray's just quivering jelly when confronted by a rooster on the march.

And News Ltd papers are wonderful, because they print the truth, which just so happens to be Jensenist truth.

What is it about the name Jensen?

Yep, News Ltd epitomises "fair and balanced" reporting, and never mind the tilt.

Like any decent extremist, Jensen knows how to fling alarmist words around (yes while berating climate scientists for being alarmist, Jensen knows how to live in a state of alarm):

The Deputy Prime Minister has chosen a slippery slope with a very deliberate step towards totalitarianism. I never thought I would fear for freedom of speech in a bulwark of democracy such as Australia.

Totalitarianism on the march! Slippery slope! Jackboots on cobblestones! Neo Labor Nazis on the move!

And so on and so forth. And Jensen has sat at the foot of his masters, and imbibed their lessons and thoughts well:

For those who don't like the editorial policy of a certain print publication, save the gold coin cost of the newspaper. Better still: put your money where your mouth is. Join like-minded people and stump up to become publishers.

Become a publisher? The pond would like a gold coin for each time this blithe proposal has come from a member of the News Ltd commentariat.

Just one humble request. Could we start by inheriting a newspaper, as a way to get going? Nothing grand, just a rag in a town of a million or so people. It'll be ever so helpful ...

Jensen also drew attention to himself by turning his back - which is to say refusing to attend the stolen generation apology - and he passes himself off as an expert not just on climate change, but on the joint strike fighter debate and the National Broadband network.

It turns out that his attitude to a wired society is about as luddite as can be managed in an incoherent rant, involving rage, fear and doubt (as you can read for yourself in NBN Debacle).

Never mind. The pond is taking the odds on whether Jensen will score a ministry down the track, or even become an attendant lord to a minister.

After inspecting the runes, what are the chances that Jensen will prove too extreme and divisive a figure, even for Tony Abbott?

Meanwhile, speaking of News and Murdoch, any number of people have noted the response of that arch twitterer Rupert Murdoch to the charging of Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson.

Which is to say not a whit, a jot or a twit. Guy Rundle tips the nod in Rundle: the nightmare of the fatally weak at News' top, while Paul Barry also notes the chairman has gone missing in Ex-NotW editors charged: so where's Rupert?

Instead the chairman has taken to berating the British government and politicians:

Who will speak up

For honest underpaid

Brit working families?

Tories, Lib-dems,

Labour, even Church,

All seem broken,

Or breaking ...

British ministers,

Others,

Admit paying cash for jobs.

Seems black economy

Beats future cashless society.

Maybe Square will cure.

Now that could have turned into a self-aware beauty:

British newspaper proprietors,

Others,

Admit having contempt for law.

Seems contempt

Beats useful contribution to society.

Maybe Leveson will cure.

But it's this gnomic chairman Mao style haiku that really caught the eye:

Let's be positive.

For all our correct

Self-criticisms

Why does half the world

Want to come here?

There is always more poetry to hand on the twitter stream here.

No doubt Dennis Jensen goes there each day for a bout of correct self-criticisms ...

(Below: usually the pond would now run a few Bingle images in search of the Bingle bump, but the pirates have been slow to make the latest episode available. What's that you say? It's because Bingle is a bust? No never, not sweet Lara.

Well how about searching the The Shire for a sexual surge? What's that you say? The Shire's ratings seriously suck? Oh Gina, Gina, and Dr Jensen was counting on you to take Ten and Fairfax into the promised land. Could it be a leftist plot that's ruined such fine programming? Or is it the good taste of the audience?)