Comments on: Janet Albrechtsen and the bitter end

By: Generic Person

Generic Person — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 01:35:57 +0000

Trevor, affirmative action is a nonsense policy and Obama’s victory is evidence that a black man can win on merit rather than on the back of a discriminatory policy that places skin colour above intellectual capacity for the job. People like Rice, Powell and Obama prove that you don’t need to fight discrimination with more discrimination; you fight it by being the better candidate.

By: Trevor Cook

Trevor Cook — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:32:41 +0000

Of course, News Ltd’s problems are much greater than the irrelevance of some its columnists but they can’t be helping

By: Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:04:47 +0000

News Ltd having troubles. Can they afford to continue offending by being anti-Labor and Liberal party flag wavers? Their credibility is falling in line with their share prices.

By: Trevor Cook

Trevor Cook — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:19:14 +0000

Generic, ’shake free of racial favours’ by which she means all those terrible affirmative action programs? Clearly she is bitter, she is bitter that the white candidate lost to all those people voting for the black candidate for what she sees as, affirmative action reasons. The paragraph you quote only emphasises her obsession with all this prejudice against the white race, Albrechtsen sees a moral equivalence between centuries of slavery, brutality, rape, persecution and more with a few decades of mild affirmative action. I reject that equivalence. I know it would be nice to just ‘move on’ but it aint that easy, you, and her, need to make a greater effort to understand history and social realities. A little effort at empathy wouldn’t hurt occasionally and that’s my main beef with J.A. she refused to understand how people like Powell and Rice, and so many millions, feel about these things. C’mon G.P. I know you can rise above the superficiality that Albrechtsen peddles.

By: mikecowley

mikecowley — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:17:33 +0000

yes generic person, where that preceding context clearly sets up her definition of “racist” as being willing to engage in a little positive discrimination to attempt to make up for many years of overt and systemic negative discrimination.

But of course, now that a black man has been elected to president everything is ok and people should just “move on”, get over it, that should keep them happy…

By: Generic Person

Generic Person — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 03:45:19 +0000

Trevor, what an absolute load of nonsense. There is nothing inherently bitter about Janet’s article – she is posing a logical and well-supported line of argument. I don’t know which article you read, but it certainly wasn’t the one to which you referred.

Also, you can’t quote this:

let me be the first to say – on behalf of the left-liberal media who won’t dare say it – that this election result confirms that the US is still, in part, a racist nation.

without mentioning the preceding context:

Perhaps, for those same people, they can now move on. Perhaps a black American president can be the first step towards a post-racial America where racial preferences are a thing of the past. Indeed, in Colorado and Nebraska, ballot initiatives sought to ban racial preferences in public employment and higher education. Can Obama’s elevation to the White House symbolise a nation that can now shake free of racial favours, firm in the knowledge that a man of race can be elected president? “Yes we can” should be the retort from the Obama camp as it builds upon its stirring message of hope and change.

Clearly, there is nothing bitter about that. Trevor, stop writing drivel pieces. You’re better than that.

By: Spam Box

Spam Box — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:40:52 +0000

Is anybody really surprised?, this is what she’s paid to do. That king of hard right dribble is her bread and butter, unwholesome as it is.

By: mikecowley

mikecowley — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:59:46 +0000

Uh guys, before you get too carried away with how much the world is changing, I just had someone in my office say to me something like “you know, I can’t believe how much fuss is being made about Obama being black, like it’s such a big deal”.

The person who said this (a senior manager and successful businessman, and not an idiot) I would say is a typically aussie lazy semi-racist – would not (knowingly) say anything offensive in the presence of a minority, hires and deals with minorities in business without problems, and certainly wouldn’t condone violence or overt racism, but basically just doesn’t see why minorities in this country or the US should have too much to worry about. Perhaps not surprisingly, he’s a big fan of Noel Pearson – cause he’s “not afraid to bag Aborigines for being lazy and hopeless”, also in this afternoon’s conversation.

My point being that, notwithstanding Ben’s comments above, there are still a lot of people in this country who will agree with JA’s thoughts (if that’s an appropriate term). And all the fuss over Obama is not going to suddenly shine a light in their eyes… and in fact might just provoke a bit of a negative reaction, as did the apology earlier this year.

By: Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 05:27:17 +0000

They should put Albrechtsen, Bolt, Ackerman and all of that ilk in their own little paper somewhere where readers desiring such cultural porn can go without polluting the MSM.

A sense of bitterness or spite pervades most of what she writes, is it any wonder the ABC has become an utter disgrace.

By: Trevor Cook

Trevor Cook — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 04:39:54 +0000

Thanks Ben. I wonder whether being a r-w commentator is quite so appealing to the newspaper’s audience now that Rudd has replaced Howard (remember JA’s ‘this is the hardest column I have had to write’ effort? yuck) and Obama has replaced Bush. Is there not a new mood a foot and I think maybe some of these outfits will be looking at refreshing their rosters otherwise they will be looking pretty dowdy and oh so ancient pretty soon

Ditto, Troye, it certainly will be interesting to follow their efforts to cope with Obama and a new political environment. Recent efforts by Janet A and Greg Sheridan indicates they got a long way to go in the adjustment process