In which the pond scores the usual drone, drone from the Major and the Caterist ...

 

 

It started, as if often does for the pond, with a reading of the Weekly Beast.  It's a bit of a shaggy dog story, with detours, and a bit of cancel culture along the way, and the lizard Oz editorialist setting the hare in motion with a defamatory remark ...

The Australian’s editorial reminded the two award-winning investigative journalists that their former colleagues had long memories about their “habits”. Was this a threat?
“Many senior people at the Australian know well the work, the habits and the hubris of Sally Neighbour and Louise Milligan,” the editorial said, going on to imply that ABC journalists listened to disaffected people on social media.
It concluded: “The most dangerous enemy of the journalist is bad, lazy, deceitful journalism.” The condemnation of the editorial came thick and fast.

No need to regurgitate all of the beast, though the cancel culture bit is worth a note, because a certain Mr Holmes complained he'd been cancelled ...

Back to the beast to discover what the reptiles had actually published in lieu of their cancel culture effort with a certain Mr Holmes...

It was hard to find any support for the Australian’s stance, except for a couple of letters on the paper’s letters page.
One correspondent said it “should be compulsory reading for journalism teachers and students”.
Another said the “landmark editorial on journalistic standards needs nothing added” but someone should take on the ABC over a requirement to sign in to iview.

But why would you bother to sign in to iView to be swamped by Communist-inspired propaganda?

Never mind, the pond's journey took it to Jenna Price at The Canberra Times asking why journalists don't sue for defamation more often ... (outside the paywall for the moment).

And there the pond discovered something it would love to beg, borrow or steal ...

Without wishing to further harm either of the two journalists, the editorial attacks the ABC and the two women. It does the usual Murdoch thing of saying how big and expensive the ABC is - drone, drone - and then finishes by saying: "Many senior people at The Australian know well the work, the habits and the hubris of Sally Neighbour and Louise Milligan ... the most dangerous enemy of the journalist is bad, lazy, deceitful journalism."

Drone, drone! 

 In two simple words, Price conjured up what the pond had thought was a case of tinnitus. It was drone, drone; the pond had a case of reptiles in the ears!

And then Price did even better. She asked the Major! And as even stray readers of the pond on a Monday know, always ask the Major Mitchell ...

Hmm. I asked around. The man most familiar with the work of these two, Chris Mitchell, a former editor-in-chief of The Australian, thought the sentence in the editorial mentioning the two journalists was "very odd". He worked with Neighbour closely, with Milligan less so. He recalls fighting hard to keep Neighbour from going to television.
"Both of them left the paper in completely good stead, valued; and I like them both and I would have taken Sally back if I was still there," says Mitchell. He was also, he says, on the judging panel for Australia's most prestigious international reporting awards, the Lowy Institute awards, which gave Four Corners its media prize in 2019.

Hmm. That almost verged on apostasy, or at least heresy. "Very odd" is pretty severe in the Major's world when it comes to talking of fellow reptiles ... though perhaps not as severe as others ...

As Muller says, "It was nasty, incoherent and hypocritical, [coming] as it does from an organisation which has been described by a British parliamentarian as an organised crime syndicate."

...and so the pond looked forward eagerly to the Major's outing this day, knowing deep in the pond's heart that the Major was certain to disappoint. He always does, just like the pollies in The Wire ...

 

Yes, the Major had returned to the "very odd" ranks with nary a blink of the eye, happily at work with the ogranised crime syndicate and chiming in to support simpleton Sharri, who lurked at the top of the page again ...

 

 

The pond couldn't quite work out the point of these bats in the belfrey, sorry bats in the lab. Was simplistic Sharri, in her EXCLUSIVE, suggesting that the lab had indulged in poor safety standards, and so the virus jumped from bats to humans? Or was she proposing that the lab had deliberately extracted the virus and launched it on the Chinese people as an experiment? Or was it an accidental transfer from something to sombeody? And what would a scientific expert of the Sharri kind know anyway?

In the end, the pond didn't much care, and instead did what everybody does on a Monday. Ask the Major! And all the Major could suggest was that there was a story there, somewhere, and maybe someday somebody would find it, which was being a bit harsh on simpleton Sharri, because the pond thought she'd already solved the mystery completely ...

 

 

Physics? For a biology issue? Nope, the pond would Ask the Major ... you know, for actual evidence, as opposed to further reading ... or more navel fluff gathering with simpleton Sharri ...

 

 

Uh huh. So all we've got is the usual hints, suspicions and such like, intermingled with a lot of rehashing of the reptile drone, drone kind, on the basis that if you repeat something often enough, it must be true ...

 

 

Indeed, indeed, it's all the fault of those who doubted the Donald ...

 

 

There really was a tweet for everything until the wittering and the twittering stopped ... and so to one last gobbet of Ask the Major ... drone, drone ...

 

 

The real story of the century? Perhaps to a criminal organisation given to droning on ... but in the meantime, what about an insurrectionist in the ranks, and the attitude of the G 7 to coal?

And that's the pond's segue to look at the rest of the competition in this day's reptile ranks ...

 

 

It's a strong field. There's the Oreo rabbiting on about climate policy and the ALP ... drone, drone ... and the bromancer doing his best for SloMo ... drone, drone ... chipping in to support the story at the top of the digital page ...

Ah, the reptile war on China, how spiffingly well it goes ... and elsewhere there was more drone, drone ...

Drone, drone ....so bizarre, so truly odd, so deeply weird, this reptile fascination with the ABC. How many want to switch ships, and swap their reptile rags for a decent cardy?

Never mind, there could be only one more reptile called this day, the number had to be one, and in lieu of the Oreo blathering about climate science and climate policy and such like, why not that master of utter tedium, the Caterist? Drone, drone ...

 

 

Before beginning, how about an anxiety-relieving, stress-reducing cartoon?

 

 

Might the Caterist one day see the light on the hill? Nope, it's government cash in the paw for the drone, drone that moves the Caterist ...

 

 

Of course elsewhere in the reptile rag this day, there were hints of reality, and hand-wringing, and perhaps a little sense of fear ...

 

 

Oh yes, it's a burning issue for some, but not for the Caterist, always willing to dismiss talk of the climate and catastrophe, with a sneer and a shrug, as might be expected of a man who is addicted to an infusion of government cash in the paw ...
 

 

What to say, what to expect? Drone, drone ... mere cant from the cash in the paw man, with the usual bout of indignation, and never mind actual science, because what use is that?

 

 

Yes, it seems that climate science denialism remains a professional business these days, at least if you happen to be a happy recipient of cash in the paw from a federal government still incapable of seeing the light on the hill, still deeply in love with coal ... and as for that less than perfect understanding of the climate, how strange coming from a man who displayed an astonishing ability to discern the mystical patterns flood waters make while  moving through quarries ...

And so to a last short gobbet of drone, drone ...

 

 

Yep, talking of the bonfire of the vanities, where's the problem in setting the world on fire, provided you get a little coal and federal government cash in the paw ... and now, for those distressed by the pond ignoring the Oreo, a little teaser, a little sampler, or if you will, drone drone ...

 

The coal realists! Is that code for Joel? Has the pond got it right yet again? Because fucking the world is just realism, and doing something about climate science is mere idealism! You see, it was just more drone, drone ... and so while the pond appreciated the noble effort by the reformed, recovering feminist, there was no need for that drone, drone, because the Caterist had the matter, and the cash in the paw, well in hand ...

And so to wrap up with a few more cartoons on matters studiously avoided by the reptiles this day ... (ssh, no mention of Q or insurrectionists in the ranks) ...