The latest Morgan face-to-face poll has Labor’s lead at 63.5-36.5 – down from the record-breaking 65-35 at the previous such poll early in the month, but up from 61-39 at the phone poll conducted a fortnight ago. Other conversation starters:
• Special Minister of State John Faulkner has announced a package of electoral reforms confirming moves to cut the campaign donation disclosure threshold to $1000 (which the Howard government outrageously lifted from $1500 to $10,000 in 2005), along with bans on donations from overseas companies and various other measures. It is also announced that the government will “kick-start a green paper process to reform and modernise our electoral processes”. The first part of this, to be released for discussion in July, will look at “disclosure, funding and expenditure issues”; the second, to be released in October, will examine “a broader range of options aimed at strengthening other areas of our electoral laws”.
• Morris Iemma has taken talk of reforms to campaign donations a step further by suggesting they be banned altogether, perhaps in conjunction with caps on electoral spending. Jack Waterford of the Canberra Times presents the case against.
• A big week for the New South Wales Liberal Party: charges laid against five over the Lindsay pamphlet outrage, rising star Scott Morrison deemed too civilised for membership of his local branch, and suggestions that Peter Phelps might emerge as a contender for the party’s state directorship. Would it be overdramatic to suggest that the forces of respectable conservatism in the state should abandon the whole rancid operation and start again from scratch?
318 Comments
Pages: « 1 … 2 3 [4] 5 6 … 7 » Show All
And do you blame Rudd after what Price did with Peter Garrett during the Election Campaign ?
Oh and Price isn’t rating as highly as the man he replaced, John Laws.
Scorpio,
I don’t think Kevin and Co. give a toss actually.
Don’t you just love Shrek.
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,23455122-5005361,00.html
This guy is as nuts at the rest of the RWDC media spin merchants.
Why would Rudd at a PPM of 65% and with Labor at around 64/36 2PP, bother to give these cretins any oxygen whatsoever.
Surely they can’t be so brain addled as to think that Rudd is not intelligent enough to sidestep their feeble, self promoting bigotry.
I’ve given up on Insiders too.
It offers nothing more relevant than gossip and opinionation. As the panelists snigger amongst themselves you wish you had a silicone ashtray – one that would bounce off – to throw at the screen. Even shouting into the speaker does no good nowadays.
The irony is of course that the likes of Pies are demonstrably not “insiders”. Nor is Fran Kelly, continually bemoaning Howard’s absence, saying that whatever it was, the old man would have done better. Mischa Schubert? Who’s she? Paul Kelly? A has-been who never was. Barrie Cassidy? Could’a been a contender, but lost the plot (and his soul) long ago. Viewers expect more than weekly circle jerks nowadays.
More irrelevance on the ABC: this morning’s radio news had a minute long excerpt of Fishnets ranting on about “Mr. Rudd’s” failure (indeed inability) to succeed on the diplomatic front. In 12 long years of watching this wanker berate Lateline viewers from the lounge room studio at his home in Adelaide, I never saw Downer accomplish any of the things or solve any of the problems he expects Rudd to have solved in four short months.
Their hatred of Rudd is the hatred the schoolyard bully feels for the school swot as he, the bully, realises that the best he can hope to achieve in adulthood after ten years dodging lessons and bashing other kids is a life of menial labour, six screaming kids and perennial problems paying the bills every first of the month for the rest of his life.
Meanwhile the kid he used to pick on forges ahead, goes to university and comes back (if he ever does come back) so successful that he could buy and sell the whole town if he chose. Worse than that, all the mums are glad he made it. That rankles terribly.
Downer, Costello and Howard were all bullied by others. I’ve read somewhere that Pies moved from college to college when he was a boy, looking for peace. Milne? Why wouldn’t a short, baby-faced dwarf with pretensions to intellectuality cop it big time from every fat-arsed big noter around? They’d have been queueing up to “do” little Glenn.
In turn all of them, bullied as children, have become bullies themselves, except the world has moved on.
The meek (and smart) have inherited the Earth.
Here’s another one who seems to have totally lost the plot since Howard’s demise.
If this is Tim Blair’s best effort at “satire” or a mixture of comedy with “news” reporting, I think it falls flatter than a cigarette paper.
Some of his targets deserve better also. I don’t think they would be at all pleased.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23446091-5001031,00.html
Tim Blair might be “Glen” in disguise? We know how much he likes “wax”.
And this!
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23446126-5001031,00.html
I can’t believe that any half intelligent person could part with their hard earned to buy this sort of rubbish.
Most of the other on-line articles are in a similar vein. It is not just the sub-editing of the headers and intros, it’s the content of the articles too.
And note where Today Tonight/A Current Affair get their “Stories” from – nuff said.
I hope Conroy kicks butt over media laws.
I agree Frank.
I think the whole bundle of media in this country needs to be tossed in the trash can and the whole exercise begun from scratch.
Well put BB. I think you have nailed it very accurately.
Just read the Hockey article. Funny how nobody seems to put their name to rubbish such as this.
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,23455122-5005361,00.html
The News Ltd publications are starting to make “Mad Magazine” look like ultra serious journalism.
They’re just writing the first thing that comes into their empty heads.
There are a few decent ones still around… Shaun Carney comes to mind. Almost every column of his nowadays is a minor gem. Mike Carlton, SMH Saturday, for his ascerbic wit (but accurate facts). Megalogenis. That young finance chappie who’s on Friday’s Lateline. Kerry O’Brien when he’s not trying to be “tough”. A few others who at least try to develop cogent arguments based on reality.
For the rest, you wouldn’t use their “work” to wrap fish and chips.
BB – Good posts.
There is an Insiders feedback form here that I’d encourage using: http://www.abc.net.au/insiders/contact.htm . I can handle the gossip and adversarial setup – it is by no means a heavyweight show but I think it realises this by now. But Piers is so tedious. He still hasn’t grasped that the job of the analyst is not to be a snide partisan. He doesn’t have the intellectual faculties to follow the discussion and just snipes from his little lair at the end of that couch. Send a get rid of Piers message today!
I loved these two comments on the Price article.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23450915-5001031,00.html
Good link Pancho.
I’ve been getting more and more fed up with Insiders since they started up again this year.
I shall take a little time and make my feelings known.
There seems to be a number of Shanahans working for News Ltd.
Are they related?
This one here, Brandan Shanahan, doesn,t have a somewhat warped sense of humour.
This sort of stuff is seriously “sick”!
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23441178-5001031,00.html
That’ll show ‘em!
Hi General Budgers
(as opposed to US primary bludgers),
the commentary on the poor standard in the MSM is absolutely on the money. I don’t even bother trawling the Oz msm anymore ; tend to come straight here and follow the posted links as the diversity of views and the breadth of articles is great. If anything of major importance is happening someone aludes to it. And it’s fun too.
I hope these has-beens like Ackerman , Milne, Albrechtson, Shanihan and the other liberal hacks that have held the reigns for so long aare destined to sink into the obscurity they so deserve.
Cheers-
back to the US Primaries thread where the insults fly thick and fast.
The MSM clearly have rocks in their heads sometime. Has anyone else worked out where the supposed “one billion” live viewers of the stations of the cross at World Youth day are? Yet they keep going on about the one billion people as if it is true.
It is like the time they report 300 million people watch the AFL grand final. Where are all these people and why isn’t there something more interesting on TV for these people?
what we are seeing is only a sample of the avalanche that will come 10 months out from an election. i f anything is to be done to change or neutralise the liberal party press it should start soon.
in truth only one thing needs to be acheived to negate the effectiveness of the neocon press. get it into the minds of people that a particular paper is trying elect the liberal party. the auto filter then gets applied. this is where murdochs well known right wing leanings is a help.
The “Journalists” or rather commentators that we are so upset about will fade into irrelevance.
They have made their reputations on “background briefings”, “off the record chats” and Govt. leaks.
Unfortunately for them the supply of information has dried up and they are “not happy Kev”.
The next stage is when the “preferred” Govt. “journalists” suddenly start getting the good stuff. The Milnes and Shanahans will of course fight like hell to retain their status as media gurus but without being spoonfed the “insider tips” they will eventually become like Pies and Bolta.
Until this change happens we are in the politics “silly season”. Just like the Liberals have yet to come to grips with the fact they lost the election – the media has yet to realise the Govt. has changed.
Oh yes – he had to do it sometime.
Hockey has finally had to raise his head over the parapet on a health issue:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23455372-29277,00.html
Look, he might or might not be a good bloke, but shadow health fits him like Heather Mills on the front cover of “Frugal Living”.
Sheesh! From the Hock on Binge Drinking article cited above:
So they’re not abusing alcohol… they’re abusing drugs. That’s OK then.
What.a.dill.
regardless of journos the murdoch media will assist the LNP next election whgt their usual methods
How the US press see our PM.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/29/AR2008032900322.html
Gotta love our ABC’s headlines
“Rudd owes US popularity to Coalition: Opposition”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/30/2202839.htm?section=australia
what a mob of sooks (Libs that is not the ABC)
Bushfire Bill, what joy you have given today, still smiling at gems like this:
“That it has not been carted off to a rest home for the permanently deranged, or else just taken outside Sydney heads and dumped overboard, alarms me.”
Keep it up, you are a sorely needed antidote to the venomous toads infesting our MSM.
i dont think nelson should mention past relationships too much-it was Howards pet dog relationship that caused the liberal govt to lie us into Iraq.
from onimod 174 article
“I think most Australians are very responsible when it comes to alcohol consumption,” Mr Hockey said, adding he did not think Australia was in the grip of a binge drinking crisis.
“There is a bit of an issue out there but I don’t think you should overplay it,” Mr Hockey told Sky News.
“Let’s not go over the top. I don’t accept there’s a crisis.”
After reading this maybe his theme song should be “no no not responible”
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/gday-kev-its-russ/2008/03/29/1206207485693.html
“The best form I ever saw Costello in was at a millennium year Easter soiree hosted by financial services minister Joe Hockey in his Parliament House office. To this day I don’t know how Hockey managed to smuggle so much booze into one office, but with a pair of white bunny ears stuck to his head, he made sure no bottle was left unfinished.”
According to the sadly departed antonio (Tony Jones?) on this blog this is a perfectly acceptable headline.
While it may not be true, it is true the Libs claim it.
Good enough for “balance” at Your ABC.
And note Mark Scot last week saying that he wants to model ABC News & Current Affairs on the Sky News model re staffing levels.
Says it all really.
Robot cameras. Robot brains. I’m convinced.
The less staff they have the more they will reprint press releases and call it “balance”.
I still can’t get over them playing Alex Downer on this morning’s news as if what he thought about Rudd meant anything.
“ABC News delenda est”
*** Speaking metaphorically, of couse.
Bill Bowe.
I sent you an email but you seem to have missed it. Your link to my site still points to the old test site.
The new url is http://www.politicsau.com
I see the Qld consevative merger talks are going as well as ever.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/30/2202918.htm
Ahh the QLD Niberals.. still as entertaining as ever.
i reckon the OO have been sitting on a honeymoon over storey for about 12 months which the sham has been aching to run given the pasting he has recieved from possums.
maybe his big this week.
That is a quotable quote..
Bushfire Bill Says:
Perhaps your not the first to use the line “vitriolic bag of malignant wind”.
And did you see CH 7 playing up the Japanese Journo “Grilling” rudd over not visiting Japan, with the follow up footage of Nelson expressing same ?
good old Xenophobia.
You wouldn’t know it form the recent posts but there has just been an election which could actually change people lives – Zimbabwe. Early reports show the opposition claiming victory. Despite the vote rigging and intimidation could it be possible – let’s hope so.
Does anyone have any links to what is happening – most of the reports I can find are hours old.
Anybody care to venture an opinion on the NT Council elections? I know some here are dismissive of local govt, but it WAS an election…and apparently there could be some changes in the make-up of the Council in Darwin from what I’ve heard.
Any comments from NT people?
While driving up to the local Coles’s, have just endured 10 minutes of Alexander Downer (interviewed by Monica Attard on ABC radio) indulging in the greatest dummy-spit of modern (or ancient) history.
Why she called him “Mr. Downer” I cannot fathom.
Why he was let anywhere near a microphone while it was switched on and hooked up to a recording apparatus, I will never guess.
He actually accused Rudd of playing “party politics” with (presumably) a straight face. We all know, of course, that Ol’ Fishnets himself was never guilty of that. No, no, no, no, no…. he was a Philosopher King, loftily allowing himself to serve only for the good of the nation, selflessly soaring above politics in his quest for Eternal Truth and well-being of the darker races.
Now that I have heard everything, I can die in peace.
Thank you, Lexy. I needed that.
Robot cameras. Robot brains. I’m convinced.
Why not robot talking heads? Bound to be more sensible than many of the human variety Auntie has been employing recently!
Winston. Try this site – http://www.zesn.org.zw/ It is slow loading up!
Winston @ 193 – If someone has indeed stuffed up on rigging the election, the question is what will Mugabe and his cronies do? Could they really afford to hand power over? I have this sinking feeling that it will end in tears..and bucket loads of blood
Thanks Aussieguru but been there. Nothing recent.
Seems the military are backing Mugabe which spells trouble. But perhaps the people have finally had enough of him. Any change would be better.
Limited options in dealing with persistent media bias Such as – ‘Get Up’ undertakes a campaign to petition the government to decrease media concentration; a well funded independent media review panel of media academics and a judge with crew operating daily reporting weekly with the right to recommend/refer sizable penalties for papers and journalists showing a ‘pattern’ of dishonest reporting and partisan presentation; Legislate some new standards in honesty and balance to media news and opinion; A national paper cannot own state papers; one person/company can own only two state papers and no regional papers, no radio or tv stations.
And so on.
Papers seem to think that when they put a piece under Opinion that it can then be partisan and unbalanced as you like. But Opinions in the papers should be well argued and supported by data and alternative data/interpretation presented and reasons given for the conclusion/opinion thus reached.
Pages: « 1 … 2 3 [4] 5 6 … 7 » Show All