Did the pond hope yesterday for some sort of meditative redemption on Sunday with prattling Polonius?
Foolish pond. Should Dorothy Parker be unveiled as a Charlie Brown, always expecting the football to be there?
Is prattling Polonius really Lucy in disguise?
Phew, let's not go there, next thing you know the pond will end up in the sexual fluidity of indie film-making of the Straight Up kind …
The pond should admit a few things from the get go. The pond is of an age, the pond doesn't much mind if young things get screwed by the gig economy or by oldies, they'll inherit the earth, what's left of it anyway, whatever tedious old farts of the Polonius kind have to say … so who cares? Let the screwing begin ...
Eek, even the notion of a virtual hug of prattling Polonius is enough to induce a feeling of nausea in the pond … but even more nauseating is the way the reptiles have made this their industrial relations weekend, and being a tedious man with nary an original idea in his bones, that's why Polonius joined the Murdochian caravan … even if he begins by mocking Scottie from marketing ...
Did someone mention fairness? Did someone mention the Chairman? Did the pond link to the Weekly Beast yesterday?
It is unclear how much the publications will shrink in the service they provide. News Corp has declined to detail how many staff will remain on each digital-only publication, or even if they will each have a dedicated reporter/editor based in the area.
The company also declined to confirm how many people were made redundant by the restructure this week but Weekly Beast understands there are at least 150 journalists, photographers and designers affected and the number is 500 overall when you include all the managers, advertising, circulation, payroll and administration staff.
But the toll may he higher. The executive editor of News Corp digital, Bryce Johns, told the ABC up to half of regional journalists at the company would lose their jobs.
“That will still leave us with a team of more than 300 journalists in regional Australia,” he said.
Some of the laid-off staff are feeling wounded because, when the papers were suspended on 1 April, they were told to take all their holidays (six weeks for editorial staff) and stand down until the crisis was over. So they waited hopefully, only to be told on Thursday the papers were never coming back and they were out for good...
...Of all the reactions to the restructure, former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s was one of the strongest, and typically harsh towards the Murdochs.
“Together with all Queenslanders and I think all Australians from regional areas, we’re mad as hell because Murdoch has betrayed regional Australia,” Rudd told Channel Seven on the Sunshine Coast. “Murdoch has a personal fortune of $17.6bn, and he’s used the Covid crisis to walk away from newspapers up and down the Australian coast, in the bush, right across the country because he couldn’t make it pay.”
Some on social media celebrated the huge cuts at News Corp because they hate Rupert Murdoch. However the most polarising journalists and culture warriors – think Andrew Bolt, Chris Kenny, Sharri Markson and Miranda Devine – are not going anywhere, as far as we know anyway. This was a restructure which saw the foot soldiers, who do the on-the-ground reporting from local courts and councils cut loose, not the big players.
We can still look forward to Devine’s commentary from the US where she is embedded at the New York Post. Take this ode to Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany for instance.
“What enrages the Washington press corps is that she is smart, well-prepared, articulate, unafraid, and always looks a million bucks,” Devine wrote. “Unlike her predecessors, she cannot be intimidated.”
No mention of McEnany’s frequent gaffes including that the coronavirus will not come to America.
Presumably Polonis isn't going anywhere either, despite his frequent gaffes, which amuse pond readers inclined to actually examine his thoughts ...
And there you go, Polonius strikes again. It's true that the pond is lazy by only looking at that last line, but who else but Polonius could scribble about the "current likely downturn."
"Likely?"
When the pond last looked, dictionaries tended to define "likely" as 'such as well might happen' or 'probable'.
Here's another way to use "likely" about the actual, current, really happening right now, downturn …
But the resentment of public servants is true to form, because everyone should suffer, and all should be ruined, and never mind that the private sector has been sucking on the teat of government, because everyone is a Keynesian for the moment ...
What's even funnier is that Polonius immediately forgot he'd scribbled "likely", and instead wondered how the current, 'present and correct suh' economic downturn might last … but that's the joy of meandering along with Polonius.
How soon before he turns to blaming the ABC? As if pond readers didn't know …
What a bitter, crotchety old humbug he's turning into, the seething resentment getting more Oscar the grouch by the week … and he wonders why he doesn't get many hugs of any kind …
Here, have a cartoon hug celebrating sharing and togetherness …
Well, the pond is always in for a penny, in for a pound, and our Gracie was also in the 'upheaving of work rights' club … what with being a good Murdochian …
Some of the laid-off staff are feeling wounded because, when the papers were suspended on 1 April, they were told to take all their holidays (six weeks for editorial staff) and stand down until the crisis was over. So they waited hopefully, only to be told on Thursday the papers were never coming back and they were out for good…
How employers suffer … tell us Gracie ...
Say what, did the pond just cheat and skip ahead, and read that we're all going to get a pay rise, and all we have to do is ask, or maybe we don't even have to ask, maybe we just have to turn up, and it will fall from the sky? Or maybe it'll be slipped into the Xmas stocking, and the children will rush out to buy an extra carton of popcorn? So it seems, but if you believe that, make sure you leave a stiff rum and a slice of fruit cake out for Santa, because he gets hungry and thirsty handing out the cheques ...
Life has never been like that? Life has always been like that …
Some of the laid-off staff are feeling wounded because, when the papers were suspended on 1 April, they were told to take all their holidays (six weeks for editorial staff) and stand down until the crisis was over. So they waited hopefully, only to be told on Thursday the papers were never coming back and they were out for good…
… though the pond was inspired by our Gracie's notion that if a company simply wants to give workers a pay rise, they can simply hand it out at their discretion. And with an ever so humble doffing of the cap, and "thankee guv'nor", the humble and grateful worker can shuffle off into dotage knowing that they're in company with caring Murdochans looking after their workers from cradle to the grave …
Why, it brought to mind memories of Dickens and the good old days …
Hmm, the pond doesn't know where Great Expectations came from, except perhaps that our Gracie has great expectations about everyone's responsibility to help the Chairman accumulate another billion or three before he shuffles off ...
Yes, the entire point of your life is to contribute to profit and enterprise, and accept a small serving of gruel in return, and it's your responsibility to strive towards more gruel, and along with your humble reward - be thankful you ignorant peasants - a few more squillion for the Chairman ...
Well that ends the pond's weekend of industrial relations, reptile style.
Sorry young 'uns, you're either being screwed now, or you will be screwed in the future, strive to make yourself a serf and help others make billions and all will be well and perhaps in due course you can scribble unctuous, righteous columns for the lizard Oz, if it happens to survive …and if you're in luck, you'll get a totally unexpected pay rise by Xmas, simply because you have a generous employer, and not some Scrooge for a chairman. And if you believe that, remember to be sure to put out that pillow case so Santa can put your pay rise cheque in it ...
Meanwhile, others will just have to make do with a strict cartoon diet …
"Eek, even the notion of a virtual hug of prattling Polonius is enough to induce a feeling of nausea in the pond "
ReplyDeleteMaybe just a good old-fashioned wrestling bear hug then ?
Now turning to Prattling Polly, he responds to Sally McManus's drive to not "lose focus on avoiding a second wave of infection" with a counter that "the prime task is to open as much of the economy as possible as soon as it is medically responsible."
Now just how does Polonius imagine that it is possible to be "medically responsible" unless there is retained "focus on avoiding a second wave of infection" ? He goes on to state that the closure of state borders is "having a devastating effect on tourism and related private sector industries." So, does he really believe that if Qld, WA, SA and Tas opened their borders that would trigger a huge rushing flood of intra-Australian tourism ?
Well of course he does: everyone just lusts after Queensland in the winter don't they - and the grey nomads are on the move in great numbers once again. And nobody believes you could catch a virus in Queensland in the winter.
But I have to say that Katrina "Grace Collier" Kelly was below par today. None of those sharp insights that might have got her a secure, well paid, unionised job at the ABC. Just the same old, same old only more dull and delirious than ever. So, KGCK says: "Perhaps the penny has dropped, too, that if a company wants to give workers a pay rise, they can simply hand it out at their discretion."
Oh yeah, yeah, that's how it works alright. I'm thinking of one of the very first times in documented human history where the "company" (ie the medieval aristocracy) handed out payrises to the peasantry - because the Black Plague (1346-1353) had killed so many of them that the bosses had to give major payrises or see their remaining workers scamper off to work for somebody who would.
And now, with just a bit of wingnutcrackery, COVID-19 might just achieve the same all over again. Especially if we rush into "liberating the economy" without due "medical responsibility".
Dear Dorothy - while we thank you, again, for your efforts on our behalf, in parsing Polonius, my source has told me of another contribution to this weekend’s Flagship.
ReplyDeleteIt comes from one Gideon Rozner, who is Director of Policy at the IPA.
It seems that Gideon has been chosen to take the battle to the modern Midianites. Presumably, that is what his far-sighted parents were thinking when they gave him that name. I have always been a little wary of names taken from the bible, if only because there are so many interpretations of every single verse, some of which could be an embarrassment to the child when he/she is an adult. If I had been tempted to so burden one of my own, there were much more interesting names, such as ‘Zorobabel’, available amongst the hundreds of given names, of biblical derivation, in my original ‘Webster’.
Gideon’s call to arms comes from current hearings in the Federal Court involving James Cook University and Dr P Ridd. He has titled his contribution ‘The death of the scientific method.’
I will not comment on the detail. Gideon has posed it all in such ringing rhetorical terms; it seems our entire ‘right’ to free speech could collapse if the judges make the wrong decision. Not a whole lot to do with scientific method there, but Gideon would have us believe it comes down to, well - ‘climate science’. He does admit that the IPA is funding Dr Ridd, so we have a fair idea of where their own studies on climate have lead them.
To show how serious it is, Gideon tells us we must be prepared to ‘defend to the death’ what he claims is the principle here. Presumably, like the original Gideon, he will be calling for volunteers, and it will all be resolved with a blast of trumpets and lighting of lanterns.
Other Anonymous
Dr Ridd's preferred journal of publication is the Lizard Oz where his work is reviewed by the various Trevors, Nigels and Bruces who infest the comments section.
DeleteI can only assume that JCU's appeal against the unfair dismissal finding may be looking likely to succeed. The hive will be in turmoil if that happens.
Befuddled - if that happens it will be interesting to see how this Gideon responds. The 'defend to the death' seems a tad OTT. Perhaps he will go to the account in the book of Numbers for hints on how to select participants in a demo. Something to do with whether you lap water from a source, or kneel to get it. That should restore justice, right enough.
DeleteOther Anonymous
Since the death that Gideon would be defending unto would be his own - it certainly won't be yours or mine, will it - that would be an entirely reasonable outcome, wouldn't it ?
DeleteWell, GB, the IPA has been good at tilting at windmills - the kind that generate electricity, not the ones that ground grain - so I think we can leave the Gideon to his fantasies. Or just quote the immortal Darryl Kerrigan - 'tell him he's dreamin'.
DeleteI did think it a little odd that an IPAist would issue a call to the barricades, when, as far as I can tell, the IPA/'libertarian' attitude is that the functions of government are to defend our persons from furriners, and otherwise maintain civil order and a court system to resolve disputes. Well, recently amended in IPA think - provided the great unwashed cannot have ready access to those courts through representative proceedings.
Anyway, today has seen another Director of something at the IPA, running some flags up on the Flagship, so - time to move on.
Other Anonymous
"Director of Policy" at the IPA ? Surely that would be the original definition of 'sinecure'. There's obviously some kind of 'strange attraction' between the Gideons and the IPAs of this world that I have just never been able to grasp ... but it seems to work for them.
ReplyDeleteBut in any case the "scientific method" died years ago - probably about the time the number of 'research scientists' in the world first reached 1,000,000. Now we can begin to understand why BA Santamaria was so annoyed with Bob Menzies for opening up the universities back in the 1950s.
Lots of talk about the evils of regulation, so The Oz will be pleased that for class actions "the lack of regulation of litigation funders has incentivised the rise of flimsy cases" (SMH). Yea! The free market at work!
ReplyDelete