In which the pond takes a romp through the sinister, perverted, left liberal world view of the ABC ...

(Above: speaking of the dangerous left wing liberal bias that permeates western media, is the man in the middle can responsible? All Steve Bell and the pond can do is ask the question, name names, and identify the liberal perverts).


Before we get proceedings under way this Tuesday, can we just pause and pay our respects to the wondrous sight of Brendan O'Neill as a radio host on Radio National's Counterpoint.

There's no indication on the show's home page that O'Neill is the dude - the Google pointer suggests the show's hosted by Fran Kelly (no link, screen cap).

But sure enough first up was Frank Furedi delivering an epic intolerant rant about how lefties and leftism were ruinous and in ruins, and only he and Brendan remained true leftists. His latest book, funnily enough, is entitled On Tolerance, which seems likely to be an explanation of 101 ways of being intolerant.

Then came O'Neill delivering his own epic intolerant rant about the ways environmentalism was ruining the world and how foolish leftists were for thinking of saving the world, when surely the aim of any decent Marxist was to provide equality for all and wealth for all (yes, yes, let the pond run wild and free like the Mittster).

It was a splendid evocation of culture wars of yore, as O'Neill took the side of Marx up against Malthus and his evil ilk. Not once did he pause to look up from the nineteenth century and explain how the world might keep functioning smoothly with ten billion people on the planet.

In the process he confirmed he had a terrible radio voice and manner, which seems to be a prerequisite these days for Radio National.

And then as the cherry on top listeners were treated to Cassandra Wilkinson and Guy Rundle going toe to toe about "freedom".

Wilkinson, who kept insisting she was a member of the Labor party while sounding like a worshipper at the feet of Ron Paul, whined about the way schools these days were prevented from serving shitty food to students, and smokers these days could no longer blow smoke in the face of workers and other customers. It was all just so unfair and wrong and freedom-restricting.

Her other moan seemed to be that she could no longer go to gigs playing at volumes cranked up to twelve or thirteen, get as pissed as a parrot, and then burst out into the streets singing and dancing for joy. The fuddie duddies and kill joys and government lickspittles had taken away all the fun.

To make her feel more comfortable, Rundle started shouting at her, as if they were at a gig where the drummer thought he was Keith Moon, and naturally O'Neill interrupted occasionally to shout at Rundle and take sides.

Rundle thought that only he and fellow Marxist O'Neill really understood the way things were ...

Or some such thing. Frankly the pond has never listened to such a weakly presented pile of tosh on RN in a year of blue moons, and that's saying something (yes, it even beat the Religion report, or the show the previous week, which provided a dire explanation of why the state needs the church, like the pond needs a pounding from Angry Sydney Anglicans).

On the upside, probably no more than a thousand people made up the audience, and the chance of any of the participants ever moving outside public radio and the academy and journalism, and devising policies or managing the country is zilch. Which is a relief if you don't believe in shitty food, cigarette smoke in your lungs or Wilkinson as pissed as a parrot pissing in the street and ringing your doorbell for a lark ...

Still it was most excellent to get confirmation that O'Neill was firmly entrenched in the 47%, mooching and bludging in public radio, pissing taxpayer money against the wall.

Next week we're promised Amanda Vanstone, which should produce some kind of circus.

A couple of months ago, The Australian shrieked that the ABC had dumped the show - ABC dumps conservative radio program Counterpoint. (behind the paywall) 

But they didn't, they kept it on live support by feeding it the blood of squawking geese, and it now means that after you've got past Robbie Buck's excellent selection of interesting alternative and indie music (there's something to be said for these old JJJ hacks sent out to pasture), you can experience radio at its most awful.

Apparently they're announcing today a rejig and a reduction in RN programming - so that the wretched TV News 24 can be fed -  which makes the pond despair for the 47% of conservatives looking for a gig as they drift into public radio irrelevance.

Hey ho, hey nonny no, on we go as Tony Abbott advises we should stick to our own turf and consult extensively with Samoa and New Zealand, and announces a firm plan to have a firm plan in relation to defence within 18 months of assuming power. No doubt it will involve a report and a committee. Oh Australia is going to be in ever so safe hands ...

All this barely leaves time to mention the work of Gerard "prattling Polonius" Henderson, which is perhaps just as well, because he attempts to mount a valiant defence of the Mittster in Media response to inconvenient truths reveals hidden agenda.

Yes, it's all the fault of the meejia, which has a Hidden Agenda, that the Mittster made an ass of himself in a private gig that turned public.

Every so often reading Polonius there's the dread sense of incipient senility. The pond does hope he's okay, because the stress of defending the Mittster against the assault of all sorts of United States conservatives proves too much - it seems it's all just a question of fashion in the media and a culture of like minds and worldviews arising from gay marriage - and he has to resort to his usual parochial memes:

The worldview that Brisbane identified in The New York Times is also evident in the ABC, which does not have one conservative presenter or producer or editor on any of its key TV or radio or online publications. 

Indeed. That ruffian O'Neill is a rampant Marxist (of a most peculiar kind) while Amanda Vanstone has turned into a spaghetti-eating Euro lover. But do go on:

The ABC rolled out a host of American left-liberals and leftists to bag Romney's speech, including Bob Woodward (7.30), E.J. Dionne (RN Breakfast) and Bruce Shapiro (Late Night Live). All are exponents of what Brisbane has termed "political and cultural progressivism". 

It's similar with the gay marriage debate in Australia, which is embraced by the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster in much the same manner in which American Southern Baptists believe in the Second Coming.

Poor hapless Polonius. Did he really think a joke about gay marriage and southern Baptists and second comings would score?

It seems that the entire ABC marches to the sound and the beat of a single drummer, an awesome hive mind which is as uniform as a North Korean homage to the dear leader.

The Q&A program - and its audience - are a bellwether for the ABC's worldview. 

Phew that's a relief. It could have been clap happy managing director Mark Scott, who was once a prominent evangelical Christian before settling into an honorary gig for the Wesley Mission (Mark Scott's religious affiliation). Does that help explain the southern Baptist influence? But do go on:

In the final segment of the show on May 10, an audience member put it to the Coalition frontbencher Joe Hockey that he (unfairly) thought that he and his wife "make better parents" than Penny Wong and her partner Sophie Allouache. Hockey's response - that "in the best circumstances" it is appropriate for a child "to have a mother and a father" - was treated with disdain by the audience. 

That bloody outrageous disdainful audience, possibly with some young people in it! Who had all been brainwashed by the ABC into accepting the ABC's worldview!

It's a vast international conspiracy I tells ya, worldwide and utterly amazing, right up there with the Brain's attempts to rule the world.

Yet a similar view was expressed last week by the gay British actor Rupert Everett. 

Oh the injustice. Jolly Joe agrees with a gay man, and where's the justice?

On Q&A on June 14, 2010, a final comment by philosopher Peter Singer, in which he described sexual relations between a woman and a dog as "harmless", was treated with what presenter Tony Jones described as "hilarity". Not even animal rights activists expressed disdain. 
Hockey's problem is that he clashed with the ABC's prevailing worldview, whereas Singer did not. 

The amazing thing is the sense that Henderson genuinely, amazingly believes that there is a uniform "ABC" worldview, which turns up everywhere all the time, and that Hockey might have clashed with that, rather than people who actually advocate gay marriage.

Has anybody ever warned Henderson about the first signs and dangers of paranoia? It comes when you start talking of aliens and black helicopters and corporations with world views in search of global dominance ...

It is of course also a way to tidy up the column and return to the main theme, expressed in the opening pars:

Romney has many difficulties in early November, one of which is that he has to overcome the left-liberal worldview so prominent in the American media. As in Australia, sections of the American media do not want a genuine debate on economic, social or foreign policy.

Yes indeed. Every time the pond catches a glimpse of Fox News, it's time to be appalled by its left-liberal worldview and its deviant gay marriage agenda, so prominent in the American media that it routinely comes first in cable news.

But the real joke? Henderson thinking that calling for a genuine debate makes sense when he's so fixated on the totality of the ABC having a blinkered world view.

That's thinking beyond the valley of paranoid nonsense, a proposal that the ABC has no individuals or individuality in its mix, a corporate nightmare up there with the Stepford Wives.

Does he have any idea of how silly he sounds? Does he think this is the way to provide a robust defence of the Mittster, who let's face it, got caught out in a private session trying to sound like he was on side with the cranks and crazies in the Republican ranks?

Does Henderson fancy himself as a Tea Partier?

Who knows, but just when you thought it was the ABC that could deliver conservative comedy gold, that prattling Polonius shows them how it's done at Fairfax ...

Remember, thanks to The Australian, we're bitterly aware that the uniform Fairfax worldview is at one with the ABC, a mix of deviant leftism and rampant environmentalism and feel good inner-city elites.

Which means - if the logic holds - that Henderson must have a hidden agenda as he goes about the business of propping up Fairfax's, and by extension, the ABC's hideous left liberal world view ...

Oh sure, he pretends to be conservative, but we know better. He's part of that Fairfax worldview, sure thing.

Or some such thing.

(Below: and now a couple of cartoons from that dangerously subversive gay marriage orientated western media. Shame on you David Brooks, shame on you Billy Kristol, shame on you Peggy Noonan, you're all clearly in the grip of the ABC's worldview, as Romney rebuts conservative criticism of his campaign trajectory).