Oh, Piers, I don’t know how you do it, but you’ve done it again. You have this magical ability to take the week’s big story — no matter how disconnected it may be from politics — and somehow tie it negatively to Kevin Rudd.
Akerman begins his latest article by pondering the chk-chk BOOM girl phenomenon.
THE chk-chk BOOM phenomenon has made Clare Werbeloff a household name, courtesy of the internet.
(Actually, it was courtesy of Tim Blair, according to Andrew Bolt: “It’s made [Clare Werbeloff] instantly famous, thanks largely to Tim Blair.”)
Media students will study this incident for years and argue whether Werbeloff exploited the media in her desire for fame, or whether the media exploited her in its desire to bring as many eyeballs as possible to a particular website.
Fair point and excellent questions. But get ready because here comes the segue. Chk-chk …
That the chk-chk BOOM phenomenon has played out on the national political scene here and in America and is continuing to affect the political direction of both nations seems to have escaped most media commentators, possibly because they support the aims of these left-leaning leaders.
Yet Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and US President Barack Obama are as much creations of the connected world as Werbeloff – and their agendas are far more destructive than a teenager’s desire for fame.
… BOOM!
What follows is a rant about how politicians Piers dislikes (read: Rudd) use the media and the internet to manipulate the public, just like Clare Werbeloff.
Remember the computers for schoolchildren? Chk-chk BOOM.
Rudd’s claim that “I am not a socialist. I have never been a socialist and I never will be a socialist?” Chk-chk BOOM.
His claims not to know he was to attend a fundraiser with disgraced former WA premier Brian Burke? Chk-chk BOOM.
His lies about knowing nothing about the staged Kokoda Anzac Day Dawn Service? Chk-chk BOOM.
His statement denying plans to roll back the NT intervention? Chk-chk BOOM.
Lies about his mid-air meltdown when he couldn’t get the meal he demanded? Chk-chk BOOM.
The 75,000 jobs his cash splash would create? Chk-chk BOOM.
Denials his soft policy on boat arrivals has driven a new wave of people smuggling? Chk-chk BOOM.
Australia’s emissions trading system will save the Great Barrier Reef? Chk-chk BOOM.
Of course, people like John Howard would never chk-chk BOOM the public like Kevin Rudd.
20 Comments
I look forward to the discovery of a link between Rudd and the Catholic Church in Ireland.
And still piers misses a golden segue opportunity by failing to point out to his readers that chk-chk Claire at 19 years of age was born around the time that Rudd first became involved in the heiner affair.
Really. He’s not a socialist. I promise.
He left out the Heiner thing.
Chk-chk BOOM.
98!
And the strip club thing. And the earwax.
Chk-chk SPURT.
Poor Piers. He made a puddle.
Poor Piers. He doesn’t have the same kind of Web 2.0 smuggery of Bolt or Blair, and he lacks the neo-con sophistication of a bloke like Sheridan. Not upper-crust enough to write for The Australian, and not bogan enough for the Daily Tele. The Fairfax papers won’t have him. What’s a poor guy to do other than to hitch himself to the newest internet fad in order to prove his relevance to an uncaring universe.
{Slight edit to reduce playing the man — Scott}
Cummon! It’s Newspoll Week! That magic fortnightly event when Old Howard Huggers & Hopeful Oppos come out to to avenge their & their hero’s defeat by raking up, distorting, beating-up – even creating from thin, carbon/methane-polluted air (altho only TehLeft & stalinists believe in such air) – anything that can reflect badly on Rudd & the ALP before the pollsters ring on the weekend!
Tho Poor Piers is so lacking in creativity that he has to keep dog-whistling up old failed stories (esp Heiner) in the hope there are enough young (or newly cured of deafness) dog out there to dint Rudd’s still-stellar approval ratings!
Piers is probably just pissed off because he didn’t manage to link Rudd to the Floods in NSW. Interesting given the bagging Kerry O’Brien has been getting for being a closet lefty and here we have Piers who makes stupid links to prove his right wing credentials.
Piers is just getting in touch with the yuff. Look forward to future columns using terms such as LOL, LMAO, AFAIK and my favourite PMIGBOM (which could be applied to most of Pier’s work).
Piers click-magnet value to the Tele obviously earns him a wage. It’s not his writing.
PMIGBOM??? OK, I’ll jump – wot’s that? It’s not even in Urban Dictionary yet.
Give them time, surlysimon; tho ‘twould, methinks, be easier to blame Rudd for Qld’s floods. As the CM hasn’t yet managed to blame Anna Bligh for them, maybe it’s deferring to Piers’ superior ability to link both Kev & Anna via Heiner. That shouldn’t be beyond Piers’ flights of [whatever] fantasy!
Like it or not, “Clare” is a classic and all-too-common “Rudd Woman”. She is media-addicted, expert at spin, loathes notions like “truth”, and enjoys the sense of entitlement that comes from the white-privilege pushed by Rudd. We see it in his rejected of UN racism conferences, treatment of refugees and on and on.
Expect a lot more “Clares” vomiting their alcopops all over a kerb gutter near you.
JG you just described Howard to a tee. Is that the trick now? Howard was found out for the spinmeister (remember dirt units), lying little rodent, devious, stuck up white privileged man he is, so if you can say that often enough about Rudd then it might stick to him and Howard’s utter failings as a human being can be rewritten as greatness.
Linking any issue to Rudd is the new Godwin’s.
coincidence or telling that ackerman’s former editor doesn’t identify him as one of the “wiser heads on the newspaper”? every one of Piers’ articles linked to on this blog tells me it can’t possibly be coincidence.
I suggest that out of pity for the man this blog refrains from arguing against Piers again. Even those like myself who are see themselves as a bit to the right think that Piers only has comdic value. He is a nutjob pure and simple and I cringe painfully everytime he is on insiders and manages to link everything to Rudd and Labor.
Going after Piers is like a right wing version of PP going after Green Left Weekly – its too easy!
That should be comedic…..me is unenglished…