In which the pond marvels at another bout of reptile piety ...

Media Watch has at last got some of its ticker back, with its report on the appalling Paul Murray, and his spitbucket of pissweak, useless arsehole wanker verbal abuse here,  and the appalling Darren Davidson's Ten trifecta cock-up (the apology still prominent on the reptile pages) here.

For the informed Australian?

Incidentally that John Menadue interview copped a mention and is available for listening here, as the reptiles go about their canny business of acquiring the Ten network, while softening up Malware's gang to facilitate the process. 

The pond relies on others to go where the pond can't be bothered to go (or won't in the case of Sky pay to go), and such tales of reptile derring-do are always appreciated.

There aren't that many reptile watchers around, though the Weekly Beast at the Graudian does provide plenty of fun for the amateur herpetologist ...

What's both funny and appalling about Murray and the Foxification of Sky is the way that deadbeat drongo bogans of the boofhead school now pass as conservative thinkers, thanks to the Murdochians ...

It seems Murray the malicious foul-mouthed loon fancies himself as Hannity down under and seeks to fawn over the onion muncher like a slavering gollum over the ring.

At the same time, the lizard of Oz routinely affects touching levels of piety, as in its front page splash this day pushing outrage about the ABC ...

The story is a confected beat-up of the classic reptile kind, but it's easy to see why they were enchanted by the angle - a chance to beat up the ABC, while also sounding pious, while over at Sky, their feral Foxified cousins chant their pissweak arsehole abuse ...

Naturally it was on the front digital page too, rotating away ...

If the reptiles had wanted an ABC story with some grunt, they could have covered the Four Corners' story about more examples of Trump corruption, this time with a local regional bias, trashing paradise and religious beliefs in Bali and above board business dealings in Indonesia, but it was the New Daily that wrote that story up here ... (naturally the ABC wrote it up here).

But you won't find the reptiles writing about the Donald and his corrupt ways, not when the ABC's there to be kicked ... though the complaint about religious coverage is a bit rich.

Is Paul Murray adding to the Christian atmosphere in this country? How about the Terrorists this day?

Do they have a contribution to religion in their commentary section?

Nope, just a Marcus missing the mark, and a man who still celebrates his taxi driver arm-breaking skills ...

As for the beat-up itself, it's beyond the valley of the pathetic ...

There are many things wrong with the ABC,  but until somebody tells the pond who commissioned James Carleton's God Forbid, and then, god forbid, allowed it to go to air, then the entire religion unit should be sacked on principle ...

Carleton's last trick, at least the one the pond heard, was to bung on a Peter Sellers' type accent while engaging in supposedly witty repartee with believers ... you know ...

According to Mumbrella here, the idea actually came from the ABC's religious unit ...

New shows also include a weekly program from ABC Radio’s religious unit, with the working title ‘God Forbid’, which will look at issues of the week from a religious and ethical perspective in a panel format presented by James Carlton.

The pond can overlook the spelling of Carleton's name - it might help if he was confused with a Sydney or Melbourne suburb ...

RN is in deep trouble, and that show is but just one manifestation of a desperate desire for relevance and reptile appeal - vast areas are now unlistenable, as they trot out the likes of Scott Stephens, Amanda Vanstone - in which a radio brick purports to be an Italian-speaking panettone - and the appalling Tom Switzer ...

But back to the reptiles, and their shock horror about coverage of the religious.

It would be within their power to feature at the top of the commentary page each day a lecture or a sermon from the pious, as well as religious news of the doings of the faithful (stop the presses - angry Sydney Anglicans discover why Eve was an exemplary complimentary woman; hold the front page, story coming about the best ways to promote the execution of gays in Uganda), but apart from the bizarre ramblings by the Oreo about Xian culture, it would be easier to find a solution to transubstantiation ...

In any case, the pond is reminded of the bible's attitude to idle gossips and meddlers ...

Yes, perhaps the reptiles could fix their own coverage of religion before whining and moaning about the ABC.

But speaking of specks, or even motes in eye, and gossips and meddlers, it's time for the second reptile gobbet ... while remembering and acknowledging that it was reptile Greg Brown who perpetrated this front page beat-up ...

It will be recalled that the Oz, prepared in a bunker in inner hipster 'leet Surry Hills in the heart of Sydney, was getting indignant about the ABC being based in Sydney ...

And there, from out the mouth of babes, came the killer line ...

If the ABC doesn't talk about it, no one will ...

Strange, why not just get Paul Murray to explain why atheists are weak as piss? Why won't the lizard Oz run a regular commentary, perhaps along the lines "Ten reasons why barking mad religious fundamentalism is essential to the health of Australian society"?

Must the burden fall entirely on the Oreo?

What, the reptiles have no civic responsibility? They might pander to the religious, but fucked if they'll actually do anything about it, because everyone knows it's a circulation killer and their readership is already down the drain, if not out the gurgler?

The pond did enjoy the notion that programs on RN might somehow play a major role in ameliorating the conflicts occurring around the world, or even in softening the rippling effects to be seen in Australia.

Clearly RN's patented * ratings are superior to the reptiles' ** readership numbers ... but if God Forbids is an example of how it might be best done, then god forbid, the planet is fucked and much wanton destruction is scheduled to take place ...

Never mind, it's another day and another way for the pond to avoid the bubble-headed Marcus and the taxi-driver arm-breaking bigot, and to avoid mentioning the Donald's tweeting, at least up to the point where the pond does an epic pivot to a Rowe cartoon, with the news there's more excellent Rowe flashing here ...