It’s time to kick off the weekend, with speculation all over the place that tomorrow Julia Gillard will call the election for August 28. If she doesn’t, then we should get a respite for the next week, with the Governor-General set to the country over the weekend.
A few bits and pieces to kick off the thread. The first is to note that Professor Joshua Gans has returned to the vexed topic of public urinal behaviour. We’ve noted before that Gerard Henderson has taken it upon himself to criticise Gans and his colleague Andrew Leigh (now also the ALP candidate for Fraser), and I’ve enjoyed the lulz as Gerard completely misinterpreted Gans’s posting of an xkcd comic as an indication that he has engaged in “urinal research”. Gerard took another swipe at Gans in Media Watch Dog a couple of weeks ago; Gans’s Hendo-baiting response is brilliant, and I only hope Gerard has time to accommodate it in today’s issue of his zine.
In other news, the campaign ad of Alabama congressional hopeful Rick Barber, which Andrew Bolt described as “effective”, helped him to secure a loss (with 40% of the vote) in the Republican runoff election. Maybe calls to impeachment and the simpler times of armed revolution aren’t so appealing after all, even in the Republican Party primaries. But it’s not all bad news for Bolt — do you remember the other guy whose ad Bolt liked? Well he came last out of the three in the original race, but the guy he endorsed in the runoff ended up winning. Here’s the endorsement ad:
TV line-ups are over the fold.
Sunday’s Insiders (courtesy of Mike Bowers) has Barrie Cassidy interviewing Barnaby Joyce (NB: Mike Bowers confirms that this has been changed to Tony Burke), the panel consists of Lenore Taylor, Dennis Atkins and Micael Stutchbury, and Talking Pictures will have Chris Taylor talking about the Chaser’s new show for this campaign season, “Yes We Canberra”.
Thanks to Mark Croxford, we have full line-ups for the other Sunday shows on free and pay TV. Meet the Press has Hugh Riminton, Fran Kelly and John Stanley with Nicola Roxon and Galaxy Research’s David Briggs. The Oakes interview is with Wayne Swan, or if you have Sky News you could check out the new Australian Agenda show at 8:30, which doesn’t appear to have guest information yet but will involve a panel of The Australian‘s best and brightest — do yourself a favour and get some Sunday morning Shanahahas into you.
Have at it.
UPDATE: Tonight’s Lateline (at 10:35) has Tony Burke and Christopher Pyne.
UPDATE #2: Gah – I messed up and listed last week’s info from Mark Croxford. All fixed now — also note that there has been a change to the Insiders line-up.
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Please please let the Coalition take all Bolt’s advice…certain Failure.
UPDATE: Tonight’s Lateline (at 10:35) has Tony Burke and Christopher Pyne.
UPDATE #2: Gah – I messed up and listed last week’s info from Mark Croxford. All fixed now — also note that there has been a change to the Insiders line-up.
The government dominates the Sunday shows this weekend.
Election announcement tomorrow anyone?
Weekend religious fundie alert. Those lovely chaps at the Vatican release new laws to help prevent clerical abuse. With an interesting twist:
Yes, how surprisement that equality in the church should be ruled a crime.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/16/2955994.htm
Shorter catholic church: Stop the sexual abuse of children by priests: outlaw women clergy!
UFBL.
Confessions, it would be a joke if the consequences weren’t so horrific: the assertion that a celibate old man can somehow provide something more than a woman in terms of compassionate nurturing. The Catholic Church is the quintessence of corruption.
Blog censorship in the US.
A free WordPress platform which hosts more than 73,000 blogs has been completely shut down on the orders of the authorities. Blogetery.com has been with host BurstNet for 7 months, but on Friday July 9th the site disappeared. … Due to the fact that the authorities aren’t sharing information and BurstNet are sworn to secrecy, it is proving almost impossible to confirm the exact reason why Blogetery has been completely taken down.
Probably to do with copyright violations, but to strangle 73,000 blogs because of half a dozen file sharers on the same host seems somewhat excessive!
http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-authorities-shut-down-wordpress-host-with-73000-blogs-100716/
Basically the Catholic Church claims that ordaining a woman is as reprehensible as raping a child. What a fucked up institution. That people support and defend this most corrupt, heinous of institutions is beyond me. Any of their good works doesn’t absolve their disgusting crimes..
As a aside, why don’t Catholic Women who want to be ordained form their own church?
Speaking of Bolt
I”m of half a mind to scoot over to yarralumla and get a photo of the press waiting outside government house. But I won’t do it. I’m too lazy.
Angra @8
That does look interesting. The hoster is in a no-win situation, there.
Laurie Oakes really is milking his scoop, isn’t he?
I don’t see the issue with Gillard’s supposed reneging on a “promise” to Rudd. If the spill vote was going to be that one-sided, as it proved to be, it was clear that Rudd was doomed. What else was she to do?
10.30am: election called for August.
1pm: Online poll at Oz predicting Coalition victory 350 votes to 160 votes.
I voted twice for Labor and once for Coalition just to make it statistically viable with a margin of error maxing out at 100%
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/julia-gillard-en-route-to-meet-governor-general-to-set-election-date/story-fn59niix-1225893171175
Also in the Oz:
The nation’s first female Prime Minister has had the top job for less than a month and the early election will attempt to capitalise on her “honeymoon” period in public opinion.
However, she risks the appearance of trying to bury the furore over claims she reneged on an alleged leadership deal made with former prime minister Mr Rudd the night he was rolled on June 23.
Would you like some heavy-handed editorialising with your reportage?
Another day, another example of the “adult talk” that Andrew wants to see more of:
Wrong kind of immigrants steal $6.5 million
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/wrong_kind_of_immigrants_steal_65_million/
I can only assume that there is no other credit-related crime occurring in Australia or he’d have mentioned that too. Note that these aren’t Andrew’s words – he’s quoting Assistant Commissioner Nick Anticich, the newly-minted assistant commissioner for the WA police:
http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/ccc-man-appointed-assistant-police-commissioner-20090714-djvo.html
So, putting aside any reasonable doubts about anything an expectantly-incoming commissioner might say, being reported by the West Australian and then picked up by Andrew Bolt (which more or less adds up to “doubt, but verify” in my book) … I don’t know anything about this guy and I have nothing against him.
But this next paragraph deserves some attention:
To me, that’s a “jumping the shark” moment. I’ve seen reports of just about everything being “potentially” a source of funding for terrorism. Right down to software and movie piracy – no, I’m not making that up. It’s the Godwin’s Law for the political stratum of law enforcement – sooner or later somebody will link whatever it is they’re working on to terrorism funding. Now, he could actually be right. It’s not inconceivable. But starting the claim with “And there are concerns that” is not compelling. “I believe” would have definitely got my attention – particularly if it were followed by some sort of explanation as to why this makes a scrap of difference to the WA police’s efforts to arrest the perps.
Now, back to Andrew. I’m sure he’s not suggesting that it’s the TAMILS who are “the wrong sort”. I’m sure he really means criminals (it would be instructive if he’d occasionally publish some stories about the RIGHT sorts of immigrants. Just so we could understand more clearly). I’ll be curious to see if his readers make the necessary distinctions. I’m not optimistic, though (I’m actually surprised by how many of his readers think the LTTE are Muslim).
And he’s still referring to this guy (no, not Sally – Sergei):
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/half-of-sri-lankan-arrivals-have-ties-to-tigers/story-e6frg6nf-1225891388934
Notice she calls him a “Defence analyst”. That’s misleading – he’s a masters’ student at Curtin University, and his area is Australian defence policy in the indian ocean. He does not work for the department of defense. But he IS quite consistent in his writings about Sri Lankan asylum seekers, so he gets a good hearing in the Murdoch press:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/there-are-tigers-among-boatpeople/story-e6frg6ux-1225791869835
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/beware-of-asylum-seekers-bearing-tales-of-woe/story-e6frg6zo-1225850659899
Some fairly robust responses to his theme on S/L ASes can be found here:
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2953176.htm
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/panglossian-picture/story-fn558imw-1225851121519
Although, if you go to more (ahem) serious places you’ll find he does write some interesting stuff:
http://the-diplomat.com/2010/01/25/the-road-to-normalcy/
http://the-diplomat.com/2009/10/28/sri-lanka-the-new-great-game/
The main problem in this case is that he relies so heavily on hearsay:
See, that’s problematic. He hasn’t (apparently) investigated the arrivals himself, or got hold of any Immigration Dept data. He’s relying on off-the-record comments from inside the source country that nobody can verify. It’s unfalsifiable, and we old-school skeptics know what that means. I even recall a time when this sort of evidence apparently deserved derision:
IPCC’s latest source: what some blokes told some green student
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/ipccs_latest_source_what_some_blokes_told_some_green_student
And I dare to predict that the article mentioned therein was probably MUCH better referenced than the (apparently unimpeachable) claims from Sergei. I guess I need to brush up on the rules for how this “adult talk” works.
1.25pm: poll revises votes to 131 (Labor)/288 (Coalition), somehow losing 72 Coalition votes.
Right now someone on a Bolt blog is using it as solid evidence of imminent Coalition government.
Just to put that skimming story in its broader context:
Sydney:
http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/news/local/news/general/credit-card-skimming-probe-goes-global/1730309.aspx
Brisbane:
http://www.securecomputing.net.au/News/172499,man-charged-for-importing-card-skimmers.aspx
Melbourne:
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/pair-charged-with-card-skimming-20100414-sdjo.html
The world:
http://www.couriermail.com.au/business/global-credit-card-fraud-sting-nabs-178-suspects-in-12-countries-including-two-in-australia/story-e6freqmx-1225880395924
Queensland:
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/shrewd-crime-gangs-exploit-licence-loopholes-20100626-zaih.html
London:
http://www.securecomputing.net.au/News/217776,police-arrest-london-teenagers-in-cyber-crime-swoop.aspx
The impression I’m getting is that these are connected. The NSW police have previously commented about “a particular part of asia”, but I haven’t seen anything that clarifies that.
The macdonalds-based scam was particularly disturbing. Whoever pulled that off showed some serious initiative – and luck, not to be caught (or maybe they were?)
Today Abbott declared “No slogans” will come from the coalition.
Then happily stammers away with the usual ‘Green Army’, ‘Great Big New Tax’, and ‘Real Action’.
Git.
Don’t forget “Stop the boats”
I’m curious to see what part the subject of AGW plays. I’m not sure which side would less want it front-and-center in the campaign. It’s probably too soon for the ALP to try to take it to the electorate again, but a lot of the party faithful really do seem to be quite teed off about them dropping it. On the other hand, Tony Abbot talking about anything to do with AGW would provide a target-rich environment. I’m betting he hopes not to be asked too.
I reckon both sides will leave it out until the other side mentions it. Eventually it’ll become a game for the press to try to get one of them to do so
I wonder if Monckton is going to pay us another visit? I think Anthony Watts just arrived on our shores, so maybe it’ll be deemed unnecessary. He’s sticking around until July. Lucky him – he’s probably about to get more far exposure than he could have ever hoped for.
Now that the dust has settled somewhat, I’m still baffled and amused by something.
After 8 years of:
- creeping increases on information restriction (beginning, more or less from day one, with a suspension of the automatic time-based declassification of government documents)
- secret, warrantless wiretaps of american residents.
- secret, warrantless snooping on international financial transactions
- arbitrary arrest of foreign nationals and indefinite detention without trial
- flying people between countries in secret to get past human rights and jurisprudence obligations
- at least one arrest and deportation from US soil for the purpose of torture
- attacks on journalists of a kind that haven’t been seen since the Vietnam war era
- smearing and persecution of officials who speak truth to power
It takes one year of a president who wants to ensure that all Americans have health insurance for large numbers of conservatives to start shouting about “tyranny”.
Does this make anyone else squint?
Peter Hartcher labels Gillard’s election call “opportunism”…. but then goes on to state that the Opposition has less of a grip on policy than Labor does. Errrm…Peter….the last time I looked, it was acceptable for a government to call an election when they had the perceived advantage over their opposition. In today’s case, you’d have to wait another four years before the opposition got its lame post-Howardian arse into gear and actually formulated something useful. Abbott is the most vacant regurgitator of the terminal cliché in modern politics. If I hear “Labor is ….uh…the party of…uh…the great big new tax…uh…” once more, I will heave my lunch.
Iran is blaming the terrorist group Jundallah for the Mosque bombings that killed 27 people. It is said to be revenge for the recent hanging of their leader, Abdolmalek Rigi, which is what they claim on their web site. Iran claims that Jundallah is supported covertly by US, Israel and other western forces to destabilize the Iranian regime. Interestingly Rigi had been in a US military base 24 hours before his arrest and was carrying an Afghan passport supplied by the US.
The usual suspects will say Iran always blames the west for any domestic terrorist acts within their borders.
But there IS considerable evidence of the west providing support for this bloodthirsty group, including reports by ABC News, Daily Telegraph, and journalist Seymour Hersh.
This appears to have been confirmed by General McChrystal and maybe be the real reason behind his sacking, as suggested by the Huffington Post –
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/garrett-johnson/what-must-the-world-think_b_631901.html
“Reports of U.S. support for Jundallah have been circulating since 2007. McChrystal’s crime was that he confirmed it.
Make no mistake about it, Jundallah is an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group that is on friendly terms with the Taliban … Of course, supporting “good” terrorists has become official policy in Washington.”
So we condemn bloody murdering terrorists when they attack us or our interests, but support them when they attack our opponents by blowing up a Mosque.
Well I’m not really surprised, just sickened.
It should soon dawn on the australopithecines at the Bolt blog that AGW is really happening. I posted a suggestion in Saturday’s Tips over there to the effect that Bolt may now start the difficult business of admitting his folly and apologising to all the scientists he’s insulted over the years. I’m willing to forgive and forget if he makes a humble statement of contrition.
Who the feck am I kidding? *slaps self in face*
The Horror! Those nasty what-is-it-with-Teh-Leftists have attacked and beaten some peaceable Liberals. There’s only one problem with the tale: we only have the candidate’s side of the story. Apparently the alleged perpetrators have also filed claims of assault with the police, who have yet to lay any charges. So the situation could equally have been an assault by the candidate’s volunteer. We’ll like as not never know. But Bolt yesterday averred that the campaign was going to become filthy, and has rushed to fulfill his own prophecy by smearing Labor in this rubbishy manner.
Since the advent of television, the advertising business has remained virtually unchanged. Raise a budget, come up with a catchy slogan and jingle, hire an attractive ambassador, produce a commercial, and book television advertising spots across the networks during programs that appeal to your target audience/s.
But with the rise of digital set-top recorders, remotes and multi-channel pay TV platforms, viewers are finding it increasingly easy to avoid the adverts. So the return on investment for traditional advertisers is declining, even though the price they are paying for spots on the TV networks remains the same.
Traditional full-service advertising agencies are mortified, watching the “good old days” melt quickly away, hoping their corporate clients won’t notice the law of diminishing returns at work. But of course, in a business where almost every action is measurable and every dollar counts, the underwhelmed clients do notice.
So what is to become of advertising, the universal lubricant of capitalist economies? The consensus seems to be that the advertising business is going mobile, driven by a paradigm shift in communications per se and the enthusiastic embrace of mobile phones by younger demographics in particular.
Using Bluetooth technology, new advertising pod technology means advertisers can now broadcast 30 second television commercials, coupons, POS offers, music, games, etc, direct to mobile phones that come within range of the device. Such messaging is not deemed spam as recipients have to agree to receive the advert.
In Britain and the USA, mobile advertising grew by 32% and 43% respectively during 2009, a year when the traditional advertising sector contracted sharply. Adding to the attraction of the mobile advertising business model, Bluetooth adverts cost nothing to send and nothing to receive. Going paperless also reduces printing costs and environmental impacts.
Colleagues in Britain and the US claim any business using brochure and coupon-based advertising is going to switch to mobile advertising technologies within the next three years. Early adopters in these markets include major retailers, fast food chains, hotels, sport and entertainment clubs and law enforcement agencies.
No one know how fast this (r)evolution may occur but with the next generation Bluetooth protocol set to allow live television streaming direct to mobile devices, US analysts expect their mobile advertising market to be worth at least $US 2 billion a year by 2012.
Who knows what will happen in Australia? Time will tell. But one thing you can say for sure is that for traditional advertising businesses – like journalism – the days of the well-lubricated long lunch are at an end and the era of wilfully over-servicing the client is fading fast.
Mw@26, exactly two years to the day, Andrew Bolt, published seven graphs to show that global warming is not taking place. It was titled: “Seven graphs to end the warming hype”.
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/column_seven_graphs_to_end_the_warming_hype/
The first line says:
“THESE are the seven graphs that should make the Rudd Government feel sick.”
I think if Andrew were to update the graphs now, he will be the one that should be feeling a little sick.
Unlike you, I won’t forgive him. He has stirred up the mindless, which has made corrective action very difficult. Many of those stupid disciples of Andrew (some of who post here) would do themselves a favour and check the updates of these graphs and ask themselves why they would believe a person who deliberately misleads them.
mw @26
This might just be exactly what it looks like. It apparently happened outside the Plympton Coles on Marion road:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=-34.963179,138.554689&spn=0.00382,0.006368&t=h&z=18
That area isn’t really what I’d call “rough” – it’s a patchwork of nice bits and quite shabby bits. It also contains a fair bit of light industry, and rents aren’t necessarily the highest around. And the world does indeed contain unhinged thugs who’ll fly off the handle like that. I’ve met some.
I expect AB to milk it – you’ll notice that he’s not running the “oh, woe, what is happening to our culture?” line on this one – it’s the “they’re just leftists” line. The attackers might have even been asylum seekers or family – “conspicuous compassion” might have had nothing to do with it.
But you’re right – we actually don’t know anything about what took place. Obviously there were a couple of thugs involved (and no, I don’t mean the liberals). Other than that, we have to take their word for it. And I’m willing to bet money that the other guys aren’t going to tell their side of the story very convincingly.
As for the two attackers phoning in the assault claim … that’s what I call “rat cunning”. They’d just punched a politician. Even the stupidest creep knows that’s trouble.
Come to think of it. Can we develop a hypothetical work-flow that AB could use to decided which outrage template to apply? Clearly, in this case, it was “typical leftists” rather than “not my culture”. If they’d been (insert this week’s bad guy here), could it have been a “wrong kind of immigrants” story? What if the attackers were lesbians? Ouch, ouch … *head explodes*
Ray Hunt @27
Has the broadcast/print advertising industry actually seen a decline in profits? That’s the question. Classifieds, sure – they’ve gone online, and that HAS hurt newspaper profits.
I’m not sure that people are skipping ads as much as you think. Ever since VCRs appeared, people have had the ability to fast-forward, but that doesn’t mean they actually do it. And I suspect that most people are now buying FreeView boxes (because they’re cheaper) which don’t do any automatic ad-skipping (that’s the point), so it’s the same mechanism.
I suspect that, to survive, advertising just needs to target people who are actually interested in the products. As long as people are LOOKING to buy, say, cars or TVs or shampoo or whatever, they’ll actually be on the lookout for advertising. Advertising isn’t actually the bane of everyone’s existence – it just has to be not rubbish.
AB’s linking to this:
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/pipelines-to-disrupt-thousands/story-e6frea83-1225893406090
From my distant vantage-point, that story strikes me as a bit sneaky. It emphasis a spooky connection to the desalination plant, but there’s actually a bit more to it than that. The work is being done to connect the northern and southern reservoirs. The actual pipe to deliver the water to happy valley is (I believe) already complete. Also recently completed was a pipeline to deliver treated water from glenelg back into the city parklands – which is going to water ovals as far out as unley and west torrens. I wonder if there was quite the same fuss about that?
But there is something that leaps out about this story. All the people in the story are from the leafy eastern suburbs. They don’t have a single interview with anyone from the north-eastern suburbs (e.g paradise or klemzig) who’ll be similarly affected. In fact, nearly all of the interviews are from a single street, at the base of the eastern foothills, just across the road from the old Penfolds winery. Interesting. I think this is a NIMBY-with-connections story, and mostly played out in Chris Pyne’s seat.
Matthew @ 30
Agree, up to a point. I’m not questioning the future of advertising itself but I am wondering out loud about the current structure of the business and aspects of the model.
The decline in impact/results/returns from traditional advertising forms means the current structure of the business may be approaching a tipping point. Eg, network TV delivers around 30% less eyeballs than a decade ago but advertisers still pay the networks prices equivalent to 10 years ago to run their adverts. Is this sustainable?
Mobile advertising on the other hand is portable, it allows you to take your message direct to where target audiences work, play, shop and commute. And it is free. You are broadcasting your propositions direct to mobile phones, the preferred communication channel for young consumers, where the ad is automatically stored for future use.
Mobile advertising is also the most effective way to launch viral campaigns. For example, people could forward an appealing Crikey subscription offer they’ve received directly to their like-minded friends, who in turn forward it to their friends. With the right pitch, the potential audience reach is huge.
Retail advertisers can barcode their mobile advert, cashiers scan the code directly from the customers screens and the retailer know the exact number of responses to their proposition, in real-time …
Today Andrew has a “Pot, Kettle, Black”, moment;
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/the_real_fault_lies_in_the_liberals_not_changing_ir_laws/
ROFL
RH @32
“Agree, up to a point. I’m not questioning the future of advertising itself but I am wondering out loud about the current structure of the business and aspects of the model.”
And I think you’re right to be doing so. There are so many more opportunities arising. The ix’s (iPads, iPhones) are a huge opportunity for advertisers to push out interactive and broadcast-like advertising to an essentially print-based market. Just think what fashion/car/design magazines are going to be able to do with that. Advertising will be highly targeted, because users will actually ask for it.
I’m curious to see what happens to the news business, along similar lines. Now that the revenue that used to pay journalists is being diverted elsewhere, why is it necessary for journalists to even work for the newspapers at all? If people are going to subscribe to their news, and the news publishers are going to be subscribing to their own feeds – is there a place in the market for companies that do nothing BUT research and investigate? Suppose the mastheads buy the stories they think fit their readership, stick in some local colour and sports/advertising and push it out to customers.
But then … what if customers decide to skip the mastheads entirely? If I’m just interested in technology, then right now The Register and Slashdot (and a few other more specialized sites) are already the most up-to-date and interesting online news aggregators around. They don’t tell me what’s happening in the Australian industry, though (although they’re quite good if you happen to live in the UK).
I look forward to a free market for news. I think that will be very interesting to see.
Vesper Lynd @33
Nicely spotted
Yes, selective quotation seems to be all the rage these days.
What I want to see, what I’m really looking forward to, is catching one of our favorite columnists actually splicing unrelated sentences together. I’m expecting it will happen eventually.
Here’s an example I just whipped up to show the potential for innovative reportage. Here’s a sample of the important parts of the first sentence of the US Declaration Of Independence
There you go – the founding fathers were apparently in favor of segregation. You heard it here first.
More information can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence#Text
So who should I vote for?
I respected Kevin Rudd and what he stood for. Tony Abbott I don’t trust. And Julia Gilliard stabbed Rudd in the back. I am tempted to vote wholly for the Greens, as the only ones with any principals.
Who is left “to keep the bastards honest”?
Prove me false or true.
PS there was a kids character called Pinocchio who’s nose got longer the more he told lies. Tell me Julia’s nose is not growing longer!
I think I should have said “principles”
No one is perfect. Especially with PC keyboard that has been in a road accident.
“I respected Kevin Rudd and what he stood for.”
I have to admit – I never really cared all that much. I just wanted to see what the ALP would do. I don’t need my politicians to be celebrities. My one strong opinion was that the guy needed to get somebody else to do his public speeches, particularly if they involved any sort of emotion – he was rubbish at it.
“Tony Abbott I don’t trust”
I do. I know exactly what we’d get with Tony Abbott. That’s why I wouldn’t vote for him.
“And Julia Gilliard stabbed Rudd in the back”
*shrug*
There are a lot of ways to see what happened. Rudd was becoming massively unpopular and he knew it. He tried to cut a deal to give himself time to see if he could turn it around and the party decided it didn’t want to chance it. They probably wouldn’t have had the spill if they didn’t think Gillard was up for it, but it was made pretty clear that the party wanted a change of leadership. I doubt that Rudd would have been able to pull it together in time for the election, so she had a choice – challenge when she did and be a leader that had a chance to win the next election, or challenge later and be a leader with less of a chance.
I don’t think the libs’ laundry is any cleaner. There was apparently a deal between the coconut and guy smiley and howard reneged on it. Hewson was right about him.
Matthew @ 34,
Quality newspapers like The Age that use their resources to produce unique news and important investigative stories will endure, with more HDTV on their websites, they may even thrive.
Newspapers that stick to ‘agenda clusters,’ publishing the same cheap guff as everyone else, are probably up the creek, where they belong.
Tabloids will increasingly become free commuter rags offering the old staples: scandals, sleaze & sport.
The old hack in me sees many opportunities for niche publishing – hard copy, online, or both – that delivers meaningful content for readers with specific interests.
For broadsheets, it’s all about quality going forward. Either they deliver it or most of us will be reading the Guardian and Independent online.
I think I could rack up an AB post. Now I don’t know the stats but I think it would be safe to say that Julia spent more than the average amount of time with GG dissolving the houses. You know, first time doing it etc. So this would be the starting point of the smear, err…post.
Anyway you start with the headline which would have to be “What else did Gillard and Bryce discuss”. Dun,dun,dah…(scary music) emphasis on the “else”. That is the key because it sets the tone for the trolls to dance to. Next you insert the stat and say that Gillard “broke” with tradition and spent an astonishing Xminutes extra with the GG than Howard did in (insert year/s here). That shows she has no respect for conservatives.
Then you link back to your extensive “Actvist GG” file and repeat something about Kenya or whatever.
End result is about three lines and 10 minutes work. The conclusion is implied that something untoward took place which threatens life as we know it, and that the Libs are being unfairly treated.
And that’s is about all you have to do! The trolls take over and amass dozens of hits and voila, happy Rupe.
Angra @ 36
Isn’t this a long established political tradition that dates back to at least Julius Caesar? At least in Julius’s day when a politician was removed in this manner he stayed removed
Ray Hunt@39
The Age website has become an annoying festoon of ads, and I have noticed there is an increasing degree of tit-and-bum imagery cropping up. I think the Age website is one of the less interesting, certainly well below the Guardian and the BBC. If it wasn’t for it’s Australian news content, I’d give it a miss altogether. The quality of its commentary has also decreased. It’s resembling the News Ltd. site more and more.
Meanwhile, as we’re in the media mood, the Great Murdoch Paywall Experiment seems to have died in its cradle. One source I read on the subject last week said advertisers would steer clear of paying for something that guaranteed them a fraction of the exposure that free sites give them. As I suspected, the majority may read Glenn Milne or Andrew Bolt at the moment, but their reasons for doing so are not worth paying for.
MoC@29
I’d be the first to agree with you that it might be just that: I’d also caution you to avoid appointing blame on the reputation of a postcode. I’ll reserve my judgment until some source with less of a stake in the matter comes forward.
Well, this creates an interesting situation:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/18/2957002.htm
This is how AB covered the first part of that:
Nixon ducks out of the office again
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/nixon_ducks_out_of_the_office_again/
If she chose to step down because of an expectation of medical problems and to allow an orderly handover, then somebody probably deserves to feel a bit silly.
I would just like to ask what the regulars here think of the idea that even scum bags like Peter Suttcliffe ( the Yorkshire Ripper) can be reformed and if they should be eligible for parole or be held in jail for the rest of their natural lives.
IH @46
I have no problem with it, if the professionals who know him think that’s what needs to be done and they don’t take the decision lightly. There really are people who are just so far gone that they’re not worth the risk. The trick is, I guess, how to identify them. As long as there’s transparency, freedom from political pressure and proper independent oversight and review, I’m willing to leave that decision to the professionals and be glad that it’s not me who has to make the call.
There was a very good interview a couple of years back on “the law report” with a prison psychologist who worked(s?) with the worst violent offenders to work out whether they’re safe to be readmitted to the community. He was an interesting chap, and a very interesting interview. On the one hand (from memory) he seemed to think prison had its place and wasn’t always the most appropriate course of action. On the other hand, he had met people that he genuinely never ever wanted to see released.
I’m all for prison if it has some sort of useful benefit. If not, then I’m against it. I think it’s pretty obvious (to most) that shoving trivial juvenile offenders in The Big House doesn’t (always) make them better citizens. But that’s obviously not what we’re talking about here. Prison isn’t always just for rehabilitation.
Josh and Chuck did a good show about this a couple of months back. They have a couple of stories about people who were let go when they shouldn’t have been.
http://podcasts.howstuffworks.com/hsw/podcasts/sysk/2010-05-25-sysk-serial-killer.mp3
{Removed – let’s stick to the issues – Tobby}
Abbott insists on three debates with PM Julia. Equivalent of Daryl Cullinan demanding to face Shane Warne.
(note# the bunny was never that stupid.)
Wish they would include Bob Brown in the debates.
You really have to wonder what kind of response Ian is hoping for? A bunch of tree huggers who think anyone can be reformed and a monster should be released?
No Ian, plenty of realists here. And plenty who believe in both science and the value of left politics…that must really hurt you. Sane people who find your right wing extremist apologies repugnant.
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