loon pond: In which the bromancer goes pious, Dame Groan reverts to a snake day union bashing jihad, and the swishing Switzer goes full Dr. Jim ...

Great news for students of News Corporation ...

Fox News Suffers Stunning Wipeout in Election Ratings (*intermittent archive link)

Could that have something to do with the bromancer sounding morose this day, reverting in the end to the power of prayer as his only hope?

And not just all those luminaries ... Faux Noise too ...

... Fox suffered another blow, with viewership significantly down from the 2022 midterm election. Back then, Fox News averaged 7.422 million viewers; four years later, its viewership dipped by 41 percent.

But even at the depths of despair, the bromancer couldn't let go of the notion that mad King Donald had done some very good things ... a form of both siderism gone mad ...

His contempt for institutions? Is that another way of saying contempt for Murdochians?

At midnight, as the election results clearly pointed out the magnitude of MAGA’s loss, Trump called hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum to tell them that Fox polls are “terrible,” prompting the MAGA-friendly hosts to fact-check the president on air.
Trump also took his ire online. “FoxNews Ratings are way down (27%!) because they’re spending too much time covering the Trump Deranged Dumocrats!” he wrote on Truth Social. “All of those people who used to watch Fox, and no longer do, get it. It’s them, not me—My numbers are better than they have ever been.
He continued, “No wonder FoxNews Ratings are collapsing, and they’re going to go down a lot further. They’re way down, not because of me, but because they are AGAINST me! This happened once before, and Fox almost collapsed. It’s happening again!”
Trump ultimately said, “Fox News bears responsibility for these losses by constantly and consistently putting on the Dumocrat opposition, and worse.”

What to do? Well in company with the sacred Ross Douthat, what choice did the bromancer have but to go all religious?

Fundie ratbag Xians made a big, but understandable, mistake?

They're not the only ones ...

...Last Monday, Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch attributed the decline to “viewer fatigue.”
CNN’s media analyst, Brian Stelter, pointed out the flaw in this theory about its rival network: “If that’s the diagnosis, it’s unique to Fox, since other news networks are seeing viewership growth.”
The CEO of MSNOW’s parent company, Mark Lazarus, also clapped back, saying on Versant’s third-quarter earnings call, “We’re not seeing currently...not seeing any fatigue with our audiences.”
Murdoch’s explanation came after Fox’s October total day audience within the 25-to-54 demographic fell to its lowest monthly level in 25 years.

And so to a final suck on the fundie sausage in a way only the bromancer can do ...

Thanks to an attempt at Catholic indoctrination early in life, the pond became an atheist for life.

Let's hope the bromancer's prescription gives new life to the trend away from magical beliefs in not so magical beings.

And now to the obligatory Tuesday offering, and again good news, because Dame Groan has moved away from her usual Snake Day Jimbo jihad bashing, and has selected a new target ... unions.

Talk about reviving the good old days and ancient lizard Oz jihads ...

Sure there's a minor revival of the Jimbo jihad in that last par, but Jimbo plays just a small role in this day's "we've all been rooned, and we'll all be rooned some more ere Xmas day" ...

Bloody unions, small and useless, but amazingly potent, and with a heartless harridan calling the shots...

Come on down HR Nicholls Society:

Sorry, the pond only just noticed that use of "woke", which always triggers a contractual requirement ...

Perhaps that helps explain why Dame Groan is seemingly incapable of reading an award and applying its terms.

It's not so hard, it's something the pond once had to do on a daily basis, as a kind of pleasant warfare, but hey the pond isn't bitter about once being blackbanned as an alleged "scab" ... nor is the pond inclined to think that unions are the end of the world ...but you know what happens when Dame Groan gets a bone to chew (or should the metaphor invoke a cow with cud?) ...

And now to a flag that terrifies the reptiles, and the final "we've all been rooned, and we'll all keep on being rooned" shout from the lizard Oz rooftops ...

Take that, you wretches, and what joy for Jimbo, being given an early mark from Dame Groan's usual jihad...

And so to an apology.

The pond can't hope to cover every reptile doing or saying, and perhaps just as well, given the Major failure yesterday, what with there not being a single comment on the pond's late breaking Major outing.

All the pond can do is offer pointers to the intermittent archive, and teaser trailers for the best of the rest, like plucky Linda...

Scrapping AUKUS deal would threaten national security

The pond hopes that serious herpetology students get to the very end (spoiler alert), where plucky Linda advises ...

We must crack on at pace. That starts with speaking plainly to Australians about the threats we face and what it will take to meet them. Australians must then hold the government to account.

Crack on at pace? Blimey cobber, jolly good, put a little sandpaper on that six stitcher.

Better still, waiter, the pond would like a serve of Linda's gummies...

The pond took the trouble to check out the "pathway to Australia's nuclear-powered submarine capability" (pdf), and it showed "Planned delivery of UK's First SSN-AUKUS" in the late 2030s and the "Planned delivery of Australian's First SNN-AUKUS" in the early 2040s.

The first locally (part) made sub in the early 2040s. Why it's about as good as waiting for a fast rail connection between Sydney and Melbourne.

Good luck with all that future younglings, because the pond will be long dead and gone, but does venture to suggest that warfare will be very different from what these lumbering behemoths will be expecting...

Plucky, resolute Linda was over on the extreme far right.

Leading the reptile "news" across the way from her were a couple of stories...

Has there ever been a far right party the reptiles haven't learned to love?

EXCLUSIVE
Coalition and One Nation to align for maximum damage on Labor
Such a move will likely deepen losses for Ben Carroll’s government at the November 28 Victorian election.
By Anthony Galloway

Giving the fake ranga a break, what could possibly go wrong with that?

Damn you AI, you think you're so bloody clever ...

The pond finds it hard to pay attention to the deep south's doings, and as for the canny Cranston, he was just doing the usual reptile Jimbo jihad ...

EXCLUSIVE
Labor’s cabinet denied key Treasury advice on tax proposals
Treasury advice excluded from tax changes provided to Anthony Albanese’s cabinet minister
Australia’s most powerful economic department has been silenced in the room where tax policy is decided – leaving only ministers within Jim Chalmers’ portfolio privy to Treasury’s true views.
By Matthew Cranston

It's all reptile noise, and it's designed to serve a greater purpose ...

By cutting off antagonistic Anthony and the canny Cranston, the pond had just enough room for the swishing Switzer, especially as he only took up two gobbets.

In this outing, the swishing Switzer took the Jimbo jihad to a whole new level, by invoking Dr. Jim, a move which surely has a limited appeal to younglings, what with Dr Jim's wiki telling the pond that he was treasurer of Australia up to 6th June 1975!

1975! Even with the pond's uselessness at maths, and allowing for a little rounding, that's 51 years ago, though it does give the pond some idea of the lizard Oz's demographics ...

As if the naked absurdity of all this blather wasn't enough, the swishing Switzer attempted a little both siderism in his final gobbet, namely "In fairness, Chalmers has not sought to emulate Cairns".

In fairness?

What's the point about resurrecting boogeyman Gough and ogre Dr. Jim if not to be completely unfair?

And to what avail? How many - apart from the aged pond and similar - can recall the tragic sight of Dr. Jim attempting to flog his tomes just outside an entrance to the Prahan markets?

Sheesh, even Joyce Evans' photos of him in situ are buried in the National Archive and all the pond could find was this snap of him and Junie at Roselands on 24th November 1975, flogging "Sex, Prejudice and Politics" and "The Quiet Revolution" ...