As the pond keeps doing its Melba tour with the reptiles, it's frequently drawn down memory lane to the days when the chairman thought people should play for their propaganda diet …
The pond thinks it only encourages the reptiles to offer them a reward, and so is drawn to any chink in the paywall, especially one which offers a double boon … as when the reptiles reprint something from a sister publication, and make it available to the world …
It's all the better when said boon offers a classic example of what might be called a reptile mental disorder.
The pond has got into trouble into the past for being flippant about mental disorders - how wrong it is of the pond to sound like the bromancer laughing at the barking mad - so let's just say that Hugo of The Times showed signs of being unable to understand reality and the abnormal social behaviour of the chairman's minions, by displacing assorted reptile behavioural problems on to the long forgotten Steve Bannon ...
Good old Hugo was as proud as punch to have poked the beast and produced signs of life …with the Breitbartians taking the bait ...
And Hugo talked to himself on twitter about the result ...
Oh dear … be strong and hairy, Hugo ...
So modest Hugo, but if we're going to argue who put old "grab them by the pussy" himself into the White House, please, no modesty when it comes to your employer, the Chairman himself, one of a noble clutch of Donald lovers …
Was it only back in July 2017 that CNN was running the yarn, One year after Roger Ailes' departure, Fox News thrives as an unabashed Trump booster …?
You see, Hugo, it was your employer, the chairman, and his Fox minions, who arguably did as much as good old Steve did for good old Donald, or more, and long after Steve's gone, they keep on keeping on … and what's worse Hugo, it's getting a bit tricky balancing all those competing allegiances …
There's your Theresa carrying on like a pork chop, and your Rexie gone, and the Donald still waiting to get the facts straight, and meantime off to the wall, and Fox Insider doing its best to confirm that the Donald is right to have his saucy doubts and fears about the Ruskis, or whoever it may be …
But don't worry Hugo, there's no collusion, and good old Rexie was sent off in the very best style - get around behind Rexie - and no doubt the chairman's minions at Fox will stitch it all together and explain it away, and everything is for the best, thanks be unto the chairman and his minions …
And so Hugo, to your optimistic thought for the month ...
So it's true … the pond had thought it a hoary urban legend or a TV skit, but it's true …
… there are actual scribblers working for The Times, faithfully reproduced by the reptiles of Oz, who really have no awareness of the diligent work that the chairman's minions have been doing for the Donald for years …
Well usually the pond would round things out with a cartoon, and it's true that the Rowe of the day is an exceptional effort …
… but there's more Rowe here …
And in anticipation of the pond's Melba tour of the reptiles coming to an end, the pond began to wonder if it should begin to do a historical, or is that hysterical tour of ancient reptile musings …
Here's Polonius back in 1993 … possibly needing a click to enlarge ...
And then a miracle happened ...
And the next Tuesday Polonius was back to wrap it all up ...
Glorious times … and is it just the pond, or did Polonius's prattles sound a little different in those long lost Fairfaxian days?
"...is it just the pond, or did Polonius's prattles sound a little different in those long lost Fairfaxian days?"
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't think it's 'just the pond', DP. I used to read Prattles sometimes back in those Fairfax days (well. you hadda do something back in those fondleslab deprived days to fill in the time on your daily 35 minute train journey in to work - and back again at night) and yes, he was a bit more flexible and just a bit less "up himself" back then. Almost made sense occasionally.
As indeed did Terry McCrann before he had a real hissy fit about Kenneth Davidson (always much more readable than either Prattles or McCrann) and fell in love with Murdoch and ended up at the Melbourne Herald in 1987 (many years before he 'mentored' Emma Alberici, and some years before the Sun and the Herald in Melbourne merged into the reptile herpetarium).
It's a bit sad really how the minds of some just aberrate with age and then petrify in that state.
[Just a weensy bit of Melba-esque reminiscing, DP.]
:) In the old days Polonius even scribbled about the movies and showed an interest in matters cultural. Back in 1993 he was cheering on Howard's End for the Oscars (I might yet put that one up). Somehow it all went wrong for him, and he became fixated on the ABC and sectarianism and such like and became withered and prune-like. Does old age always have to go this way? Oh sure it might not be possible for Polonius to be frisky like he once was, but does he have to be such a bitter kill joy, the sort of sourpuss who makes life hard in Blake's Songs of Experience?
DeleteI think it all sorta starts with feeling that the world and life hasn't either recognised or rewarded you as it should have. I don't know how Prattles believes things should have worked out better for him, but I reckon he does think that way.
DeleteAnd then the winds (of time) change and he's stuck like that.
Incidentally, I see that the Menzies 'Research' Centre apparently got a final rollup of about 40 to the Panahi-Kenny-Smith 'Win twitter against the evil Left' consortium. So at $45 per head, that'd be $1800 ! Watta joy - Goosebumps won't need a government handout next year.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/14/a-panel-of-self-proclaimed-warriors-couldnt-explain-why-we-need-to-win-twitter
As an aside, a bit of a weird Graudian article:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/12/not-all-he-says-is-defensible-but-jordan-peterson-deserves-to-be-taken-seriously
Jordan Peterson "deserves to be taken seriously" ? Now there's a real dose of KoolAid brought out into the public gaze.
I think it all began to go wrong for Henderson soon after he was born. I can vaguely remember him at Melbourne University in the 60s. He was some strange killjoy person pushing Santamaria and the DLP. Sex drugs and rock n roll were not his go. He was very spiteful to Robert Manne.
ReplyDeleteHe seems to be the same now, only more sour.
Hmmm. Well I was at Melbourne Uni on and off during the 1960s myself, but I simply don't recall Henderson from back then. Maybe because I was not at all interested in Santamaria or the DLP. So, I'll have to accept your personification of Prattles from back then.
DeleteBut I think his 'public persona' - at least as demonstrated by his journalism for Fairfax - wasn't entirely self-centred. I think he did try to be 'reasonable' as best he could.
But when he left Fairfax, I lost touch with his writing since, like the pond, I was never going to pay for any of those rags. [Though, to continue the reminiscing a bit, I did pay good money to buy the Sporting Globe of a Saturday night - now long defunct - when I was still young and foolish enough to want to get all the sports results. And, shameful though it be, I actually made money when a lot younger by delivering those papers - long before they were consumed by Roopie of course - on my regular morning paper round.]