(Above: inspired by The Australian? Wouldn't you rather be inspired by a treatment for haemorrhoids?)And now since journalism and politics has once again descended into the gutter, the pond proposes that readers still attached to purchasing The Australian contemplate the huffing and puffing and pieties in today's editorial Questions about the AWU corruption scandal linger (outside the paywall, but even free it's offensively insulting).
It's the usual routine. The rag is just muck-racking and asking questions because that's in its nature.
It's of genuine public interest. It's so interesting the rag can go right up its fundament in search of pieties and its crusading ambition to tell the truth.
And so long as the mud can be flung, the mud can be made to stick:
Yes, yes, yes, we accept it ... it's just that we don't expect it. Hypocrisy moi?
As a political tactic, it may work to sully the reputation of this newspaper and its journalists, including berating Paul Kelly, who on Australian Agenda asked her to respond to the reportage. But it will do nothing to resolve the questions that continue to linger about her involvement and will lead voters to again question her integrity, honesty and judgment.
So we accept it, we just continue to question it. And as we question and slur, that'll led the voters to question and slur.
Well it worked for climate science, so it'll work on a biff and bop bash up of Gillard. QED really.
And what's brought this out of the shadows and into the mainstream? One Ralph Blewitt:
Uh huh. Well while we're down in the gutter, let's take a look at a website that's always reliably juicy and down in the gutter:
And while he's at it, perhaps the editor of The Australian might care to answer the claims made in Disgrace: The Australian's false implication of embezzlement at PM shames our great newspaper. (I know, I know, who in their right minds would call The Australian these days a great newspaper).
Don't want to get down in the gutter? Sorry, you're already there.
Of course The Australian will stay toffy nosed and imagine that somehow it's superior to Vexnews.
But it's down in the gutter, and blather about Gillard needing to provide a full and frank response is like its usual blather about how climate scientists need to provide a full and frank response to denialists.
It's offering a thin veneer of respectability to smut-raking, so that Tony Abbott in turn can sound pious as he too rakes over the smut.
Thus far the rag has established that way back when, Gillard fucked a cad. This is not an uncommon experience for Australian women.
Indeed, if you expelled from parliament the assorted cads that currently are on view - or the unhappy women who at one time or another became involved with a cad - you'd be lucky to find a quorum. Or enough people to make a netball team.
Come to think of it, there are no doubt women who've fucked Murdoch journalists, and continue to do so right to this moment. But it's easy to forgive, anyone can make a mistake.
What's harder to sustain is how any of this should have a bearing on coverage of Australian politics. If there's a problem with Gillard, talk about the policies and the failures (there's enough of them). But keep it above the belt, and out of the region of sly innuendo and furtive suggestions and the embrace of self-confessedly dodgy witnesses ...
Yep, questions about the integrity and journalistic approach of The Australian linger.
What a vile rag it is, and becoming viler by the day. More tabloid than the average tabloid.
And if you buy it, you're equally to blame. You're only encouraging the bastards ...
(By using 'bastard' the pond implies no slur on people born out of wedlock, a very old-fashioned concept when real bastardry has little to do with marital status).
(Below: think again? Why not just start thinking outside the Murdoch rat pack?)
Steady on, DP. Tabloid, you say? Please, not that, it would make the darn thing easier to read. The best part is already tabloid, though, the lift-out in the weekender with the TV programs. But the buggers have cut out the guide for the rest of the week! Now I'll have to rely on the on-line guide, and feel sorry for the staff-cuts at News Korp.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me, struggling over their 6-point print, that old codgers like me would love a tabloid size with bigger font with which to study Paul Kelly's sermons at leisure. As a matter of fact, the bulk of the output could be condensed to a pithy GILLARD - LYING WITCH in 64pt. Less paper to shred, fewer staff, happy codgers. Win-win-win.
Thinking of the Pussy Riot, though, Eric Lobbecke's Long Picture has them to a tee. Beautifully done, although I asked EL to put Putin in the red speedos.
Never mind, here's a great mash-up (is that the term?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?htmlv=7akpDsS94Fw&feature=youtu.be set to http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/g/gym_class_heroes/the_fighter as spotted by the Possum.
The Leak cartoon has splendidly stitched up the Banana Republican, with a hint of Der ewige Jude. It's good to note that Fritz Hippler (director of the film) was re-educated and became a travel agent. Maybe there's hope for the redundants from News Korp.
Dorothy, as an Australian I am fed up to the eyeballs with listening to the hatred that falls out of the mouths of 2GB listeners. It seems that The Australian newspaper posts the political agenda for the day and then Alan Jones confirms it as gospel, so the rest of the shock jocks can propagate it for the rest of the day, month and years to come. And then you put on the Channel 9 Morning Show and there's Ben Fordham expecting to be taken seriously during interviews and discussions, when the afternoon before, he has presented bias spin in his monotone voice. There's no ethics in journalism anymore. It's all opinion aimed at gaining the votes of the gullible to keep the rich and powerful, rich and powerful.
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