The pond is not inclined to disagree that Paul Sheehan is up himself ...

(Above: more Pope here)


When the pond last sighted Jon Stewart, he was doing a reprise, with do-wop chorus, of the timeless, elegant Daily Show classic Go Fuck Yourself (if you don't evade the geo-restrictions, and you correctly refuse to pay Rupert Murdoch a dime, you can see the routine here)

The problem arose in relation to Obamacare. Stewart had cracked any number of jokes about the failed, ruptured rollout, and immediately Fox News and its apparatchiks had seized on his routines - you know, "even Jon Stewart now thinks Obama's a joke" - and some had even used his banter to demand assorted resignations.

Cue Stewart pointing out that if his jokes actually were effective, and his banter had a meaningful impact in the real world, what the fuck was Fox News still doing on air?

How did George B. Bush last more than one term? After his shooting accident, how did the Dick, known also as Cheney, still hang around in office?

Cue Go Fuck Yourself.

No doubt some would call it a childish, infantile response, but it happens to be the correct one.

What else can you say to the stupidity and hypocrisy of the bleating herd that infests and surrounds Fox? It's the classic liberal dilemma: any sign of finding humour in all sorts of places, and it's immediately construed as weakness, and the vultures seize on the humour, take it seriously and use it to club weaklings to death.

Any sign of a comedian cracking jokes on both sides of the aisle, and all Fox News hears are the jokes that suit them.

Now the pond isn't within spitting distance of the writers Stewart and Colbert have put together for their shows, it's not even within "cooee" earshot in an echoey mountain range. The chance of the pond influencing, or changing a single thing in the world is smaller than the sizzle of spit on a griddle.

It's purely therapeutic, but by golly, the desire to sing a reprise of Go Fuck Yourself turns up every day.

Which brings us to the perverse case of Paul Sheehan, always on hand to lighten a Monday.

Sheehan oscillates wildly - one day he's hard core right, anti-greenie, the next he's environmentalist and pro-labor.

Being a bear of little brain, he swings in the breeze, and his outlook depends on what he's using as mulch for his latest column, and today it turns out that it's American writer producer David Simon, creator of The Wire, amongst other less successful shows.

First we must remember that Sheehan is one of the commentariat who were rewarded with a strictly confidential meal with Tony Abbott, celebrated by Richard Ackland in Compliant media fed on leak soup and other titbits.

What that dinner shows us is the extent to which journalism in this country has mutated, and that carries important implications for our democracy. 
All new governments on day one say they will govern for ''all Australians'' and then promptly set about governing for their sponsors and cronies. Selected media voices are now seen to be part of that cronyism, where reporter and politician are locked in a mutually rewarding clinch. Don't expect too many stinking rebukes of the Abbott government from this bunch. To change from booster to critic is not a credible transition.
No wonder it suited everyone to try to keep the affair secret. If these people obey the rules, there'll be more dinners and more leaks. Those invited but didn't attend, for whatever reason, were very wise.

Sheehan was one of the unwise, one of the forelock tuggers, a stray Fairfaxian mingling with the Murdochians:

In the main this was a clutch of the freshly minted PM's favourite Murdoch claqueurs being thanked for their reliable coverage of the Coalition and their relentlessly toxic demolition of the Labor government. You might argue that they were, in the main, columnists and opinionists and so entitled to act as boosters for whomever they liked. That is only part of the story. On occasions, columnists break out of the caged perimeters of the opinion pages and spruik something in the news pages. 
In any event, their lord and master Rupert Murdoch sees no difference - as he once famously put it, ''opinion is news''.

Just attending the meal at Kirribilli - fellow Fairfaxian Gerard Henderson declined the invitation - was a sign of a willingness to be part of an elitist flock, gathered to banter and bray together in the company of Abbott, and so Sheehan was there amongst Miranda the Devine, Akker Dakker, Janet Albrechtsen, Paul Whittaker, and Tom Switzer. (here)

What an appalling club of which to be a member. The pond at least follows the Groucho line and refuses to be a member of a club which would have it as a member.

So what's Sheehan's theme in A horror show confronting all Americans, as he trades off on Simon?

Why don't you know, it's a warm embrace of Simon's radical ideas, a disdain of elitism and and a concomitant fear of the rise in inequality. Instead of The Wire's themes:

...Simon took on the far bigger subject of the rise of inequality in the US. 

What, you mean like bludgers who head off to Kirribilli to bunker down with the rest of the pigs?

''In my country you are seeing a horror show. You're seeing an underclass hunted through a war on supposedly dangerous drugs which, in fact, is a war on the poor.'' 
He described the US as a society where capitalism had achieved such a cultural dominance it was eroding the social compact. ''The notion that profit defines society is one of the fundamental errors of our society …'' 
''I don't believe socialism can match capitalism in creating wealth. That argument is over. But capitalism is about to seize defeat from the jaws of victory.'' 
His solution is conventional: restore balance between capital and labour. ''In 1932 it got better because … a new social compact was made between capital and labour at the depth of the Depression.'' Give more power to labour via unions. Shift multi-billions of dollars being spent on military interventions, a domestic war on drugs and incarcerating 2.3 million people, only 7 per cent of whom have been convicted of violent crimes. He calls it the ''prison-industrial complex''. 
He also had a practical solution that earned spontaneous applause: ''We've got to get the money out of politics.'' He wants a severe curtailment of spending on political campaigns. And term limits.

Now the pond doesn't have any argument with Simon.

But what can you say to Sheehan, except Go Fuck Yourself?

Week in, week out, Sheehan does his best to support Tony Abbott and his cronies and their policies, and to denigrate labour (and unions and the Labor party), and now here he is, as bold as brass, as saucy as a hot tamale chili dip, gone socialist for the day.

Go Fuck Yourself.

It is admittedly a childish, infantile response, especially when Sheehan decides he won't just parrot Simon, he'll see him and up him:

I'm not inclined to disagree ... 

I'm not inclined to disagree? What a pathetic, double-dealing, double-negative deploying wimp.

Is that what he said to Tony Abbott in private? You know, I'm not inclined to disagree with David Simon that this secret, furtive meal is a disgrace, and you, with your abuse of labour, are also a disgrace?

In your dreams, but do go on ...

...having visited friends in the US and seen and heard first hand how the decline of the middle class, the stagnation of wages and employment, the high murder rates in many inner cities, the growth in job insecurity, the absurd disparities in wealth, rising health costs, partisan gridlock in Washington, cultural echo chambers on social media, the Federal Reserve engaging in mammoth money printing, and the federal deficit blowing out to a level unprecedented in peacetime, are collectively causing unease even as the sharemarket reaches record highs and housing prices recover.

That's when the pond began to scream ... cultural echo chambers on social media?

As opposed to cultural echo chambers that hie themselves off to Kirribilli and cluster together in furtive secrecy?

Absurd disparities in wealth? Yep, it cost $35, plus $8.50 booking fee, to head off to the Opera House, and you can expect to drop $30 on parking on the Opera House, so you can sit around and cluck about the absurd disparities of wealth ...

Let's not even begin to count the cost of attending a meal with a man whose paid parental leave scheme is designed to institutionalise even further absurd disparities in wealth, such that even the Greens can't quite swallow that allegedly feminist camel whole ...

The pond could go on and on, since we are after all in the front row of A horror show confronting all Australians, and Sheehan manages to be offensive in almost every par - just as he's been in column after column praising Abbott and berating labour and unions - but that response by Jon Stewart is so short, succinct and sweet, there's really no need.

Go Fuck Yourself.

Yep, more spit on a griddle, but what a satisfying spit, even as it vanishes in a puff of climate denialist moisture vapour ...

(Below: more Rowe here)