Post by Freddy on Dec 4, 2013 21:06:46 GMT 11
www.theglobalmail.org/feature/lets-play-political-whack-a-mole/766/
Let’s Play Political Whack-A-Mole
By Mike SeccombeDecember 4, 2013
A carnival of Coalition nastiness relegates Labor’s manifest outrageousness to a sideshow.
Im getting so tired of writing about the nastiness and incompetence of the Abbott government. Truly. My intent today was to write about some of Labor’s stupidities.
That was the plan. To balance up the ledger a bit. To point to the idiocy of Labor’s determination to block the increase in Australia’s debt limit to $500 billion, for one. To highlight the hypocrisy of its decision to obstruct cuts to tertiary education, which Labor itself initiated, when in government.
These are tactically dumb calls, and, given the opportunity, I would have been happy to explain why.
But alas, the opportunity does not present itself. Every day, new examples of the nastiness and incompetence of the Abbott Government crowd out the possibility of writing about anything else.
And the events of the past 24 hours have been exceptionally target-rich, even by recent standards. It’s hard to know where to begin.
Perhaps we should start with Cory Bernardi. Remember him? Tony Abbott chose him as his parliamentary secretary when in Opposition. Alas, Cory was forced out after he gave a speech linking gay marriage to bestiality.
This homophobic, Islamophobic, climate-change-denying, free-market Christian fundamentalist burst back into the news overnight after word came out that he had initiated a major bitch session about the ABC in the Coalition joint party meeting.
Apparently the allegedly independent Speaker of the House, Bronwyn Bishop (whose early performances in the role, incidentally, suggest she may yet rival former Labor Speaker and trick cyclist Leo McLeay for competence and impartiality), joined right in.
Reportedly, so did Senator Ian Macdonald, of whom more in a sec.
Anyway, Bernardi, who someone once described as Sarah Palin without the lipstick (actually that was me), advocated cutting funding to the national broadcaster, the ABC, possibly breaking it up and forcing it to sell ads, or raise subscriptions.
Naturally, he went on ABC radio to talk about it.
He presented some odd arguments in support of his position. Like that the ABC “behemoth” was a threat to media diversity because it competed online with News Corp and Fairfax.
Diversity? Australia has the most concentrated print media in the developed world. The Finkelstein Inquiry found the big two operators controlled 86 per cent of metro circulation. News Corp alone had 65 per cent.
If Bernardi really cared about diversity, he would be welcoming of the arrival on the local media scene of Guardian Australia and The Global Mail. Actually, he despises both.
Let’s Play Political Whack-A-Mole
By Mike SeccombeDecember 4, 2013
A carnival of Coalition nastiness relegates Labor’s manifest outrageousness to a sideshow.
Im getting so tired of writing about the nastiness and incompetence of the Abbott government. Truly. My intent today was to write about some of Labor’s stupidities.
That was the plan. To balance up the ledger a bit. To point to the idiocy of Labor’s determination to block the increase in Australia’s debt limit to $500 billion, for one. To highlight the hypocrisy of its decision to obstruct cuts to tertiary education, which Labor itself initiated, when in government.
These are tactically dumb calls, and, given the opportunity, I would have been happy to explain why.
But alas, the opportunity does not present itself. Every day, new examples of the nastiness and incompetence of the Abbott Government crowd out the possibility of writing about anything else.
And the events of the past 24 hours have been exceptionally target-rich, even by recent standards. It’s hard to know where to begin.
Perhaps we should start with Cory Bernardi. Remember him? Tony Abbott chose him as his parliamentary secretary when in Opposition. Alas, Cory was forced out after he gave a speech linking gay marriage to bestiality.
This homophobic, Islamophobic, climate-change-denying, free-market Christian fundamentalist burst back into the news overnight after word came out that he had initiated a major bitch session about the ABC in the Coalition joint party meeting.
Apparently the allegedly independent Speaker of the House, Bronwyn Bishop (whose early performances in the role, incidentally, suggest she may yet rival former Labor Speaker and trick cyclist Leo McLeay for competence and impartiality), joined right in.
Reportedly, so did Senator Ian Macdonald, of whom more in a sec.
Anyway, Bernardi, who someone once described as Sarah Palin without the lipstick (actually that was me), advocated cutting funding to the national broadcaster, the ABC, possibly breaking it up and forcing it to sell ads, or raise subscriptions.
Naturally, he went on ABC radio to talk about it.
He presented some odd arguments in support of his position. Like that the ABC “behemoth” was a threat to media diversity because it competed online with News Corp and Fairfax.
Diversity? Australia has the most concentrated print media in the developed world. The Finkelstein Inquiry found the big two operators controlled 86 per cent of metro circulation. News Corp alone had 65 per cent.
If Bernardi really cared about diversity, he would be welcoming of the arrival on the local media scene of Guardian Australia and The Global Mail. Actually, he despises both.