tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37725862009-02-22T02:02:27.188+11:00ABCwatchThe <a href="http://www.abc.net.au">Australian Broadcasting Corporation</a>: too important to be left to its Friends. <a href="mailto:uncleabc0001@yahoo.com">Email.</a>Auntienoreply@blogger.comBlogger1307125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1104464333358575422004-12-31T14:17:00.000+11:002004-12-31T14:38:53.356+11:00So this is what the old fool has been doing? All those hours locked away in the library, the mounting pile of empty bottles, and all for this?
I would have preferred adultery, but that was too much to hope for. From now on Uncle will be sharing sleeping quarters with the dog.
Let me assure those of you foolish enough to read this "blog" that I and my darling communards will not be deterred by Auntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1103020191103022542004-12-14T20:56:00.000+11:002004-12-14T22:25:53.146+11:00We are, as the pretentious like to say, on the cusp of change. The world is moving under us and we progressives must promote the politics of compassion against those who promote sheer, bloody-minded reaction to the seismic tide of history.
Remember the names Mulan and Mundine. They will stand for the coming era of Aboriginal policy as Wattie Creek and Lingiari did for the last.
Mulan is a Auntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1102935586749308192004-12-13T21:47:00.000+11:002004-12-13T22:13:31.096+11:00Media myths dismissed.
1. Global warming is raising the temperature of the surface of the world's oceans and threatening a catastrophic decline in coral reefs.
Such evidence as there is points the other way: New Australian research claims the world's coral reefs could expand in size by as much as a third as oceans heat up.
2. In a major embarrassment to the US's Iraq policy, Secretary of Auntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1102557373366997752004-12-09T13:45:00.000+11:002004-12-09T20:30:00.346+11:00The tawdry stunt that began with Mike Scrafton's letter to The Australian accusing the Prime Minister of deliberately misleading the nation over the kids overboard affair has come to its inevitably tawdry conclusion.
The Senate Committee's Labor majority has found in favour of Scrafton and against the Prime Minister. In one sense that is a remarkable achievement. As Senator Brandis's questioningAuntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1102554006380684212004-12-09T11:50:00.000+11:002004-12-09T12:00:06.380+11:00Southpaw and Moore.
A telling comparison of Auntie film critic David Stratton's response to the politics of Michael Moore (four stars for Fahrenheit 911) and the politics of South Park's Team America (one star).
The difference? Moore attacked Bush with lies and innuendo. Team America satirises Hollywood leftism (among other targets) in its own terms.
On Auntie, one's OK, the other's notAuntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1102552693147798142004-12-09T11:33:00.000+11:002004-12-09T11:38:13.146+11:00When Andrei Illarianov tried to tell Phillip Adams this the other day, According to the Kyoto protocol proponents, Australia and the US are the rogue nations. But in the eyes of the absolute majority of the world, they are reasonable and smart.
After all, Australia and the US -- along with nine developed countries and 167 other nations -- are refusing to undertake legal obligations in Auntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1102552263892897282004-12-09T11:24:00.000+11:002004-12-09T11:31:03.893+11:00About one third of Great Aunt Beeb's staff face the axe, if their new boss has his way.
The idea is to push funding from overheads and ancillary activities to programme-making.
Director-General Mark Thompson's other aims are to step back from reality programming and to hive off the commercial product sales.
Here's hoping for an Antipodean version. Anything that would reduce our Auntie'sAuntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1102550149148610612004-12-09T10:51:00.000+11:002004-12-09T10:55:49.146+11:00Corrupting the young is one of the few vocations left to aged Uncles, so this note was especially welcome: If memory serves, yours is the first blog I've ever visited, after one night getting really fed up with Tony Jones or the like and I typed something about 'ABC dissent' into ANZWERS. I got a link to you. Blogs were totally unknown to me then but I've never looked back since, so for that I Auntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1102546885445480622004-12-09T09:46:00.000+11:002004-12-09T10:46:56.450+11:00Who watches Auntie's Media Watchers? Why, the Watchers themselves, of course. And they really love what they see. At times, I've got on and I've been furious. I've been lofty. I've been continuously hilariously funny, of course.That's the tagline David Marr gives himself for his three years' work pontificating from the Media Watch chair.
Let's not be too concerned about a Presenter's self-praiseAuntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1102229101820874522004-12-05T17:24:00.000+11:002004-12-05T17:48:25.220+11:00Who cares who the people of the Ukraine want for their President, when it's the resurrection of the Soviet Union that really matters, according to the Guardian's Jonathan Steele.
Yuschenko is no better a person than Russia's favourite Yanukovich, and look who's supporting him.
Not President Bush, as it turns out, who's happy to see the Ukraine within the Russian sphere of influence, but the Auntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1102035166483421322004-12-03T11:47:00.000+11:002004-12-03T11:52:46.483+11:00One Presidential candidate is in prison for multiple murders.
Another is under indictment in the US.
These Palestinians sure know how to run interesting elections.
All we could offer the world was Mark Latham.
Auntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1102034671791308752004-12-03T11:40:00.000+11:002004-12-03T11:44:31.790+11:00Roger Sandall has been reflecting on the historical background of today's Sudan.
* Because much of 19th-century civilization in the Nile Valley depended on slave labor, in the fields, the house, and the boudoir
* Because both Ismail Pasha and his Prime Minister were deeply insincere and hoped, in their heart of hearts, that nothing would be done to disturb their lifestyle ...
They therefore Auntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1102031976836036662004-12-03T10:33:00.000+11:002004-12-03T10:59:36.836+11:00The Ivorian insurgency is not getting a good press, at least from the BBC, which thinks claims that French soldiers have indulged in some decapitation to be less than credible. Our own Auntie thinks French 'peace-keepers' are just doing their job.
When French forces suffered the indignity of friendly fire, they responded by destroying the Ivorian air force. President Gbagbo thought that an Auntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1101947111450671462004-12-02T11:17:00.000+11:002004-12-02T11:36:28.650+11:00How to be unilateral, in a multilateral kind of way.
This lesson comes to us from the European Union, which has bribed the Iranian regime to pretend to respect European influence, just for a little while.
The Europeans have done this by promising to prevent the UN acting on its non-proliferation policies.
As they can, since two of the Europeans on the delegation have Security Council vetoes.
Auntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1101946302192997282004-12-02T11:07:00.000+11:002004-12-02T11:11:42.193+11:00Mark Latham's leadership is strong, as even his enemies concede, at least until sometime next year. Unless they can agree on someone better, sooner.
It's called the Switkowski gambit.
Auntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1101714964278433832004-11-29T18:50:00.000+11:002004-11-29T22:14:13.550+11:00Young reader BM needs toughening up. He complains to Auntie and she agrees with him, so he stacks on a nervy.
I know it's unprecedented. Five independent enquiries wouldn't achieve it for Minister Alston. A crocodile in your bath is a more probable occurrence. But here at ABCwatch we expect sang-froid of our readers.
Here's Auntie's reply: Thank you for your email of 15 November regarding the Auntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1101713117932764292004-11-29T17:54:00.000+11:002004-11-29T18:48:20.873+11:00There are so many good signs of the terminal state of Latham Labor that the man's own attempts at self-destruction seem superfluous. Welcome, nonetheless.
As Latham holds Stephen Conroy in a head-lock while the latter expresses 'regret' over the current state of affairs you can't fail to notice that the strangled tone of Conroy's voice results from the fact that his gritted teeth are fastened onAuntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1101363294352966382004-11-25T17:10:00.000+11:002004-11-25T17:42:25.016+11:00African nations have blocked moves in the UN to condemn the murderous practices of the governments of the Sudan and Zimbabwe. "The African group remains unwavering in its total rejection of the country-specific resolutions within the UN," the South African representative, Pitso Montwedi, said.
He says that resolutions targeting individual countries run against the principles of "friendly Auntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1101338572735390242004-11-25T10:16:00.000+11:002004-11-25T10:22:52.736+11:00CorrectionHere's a big-media blogger who's prepared to confess his mistakes: Yesterday's item on Yasser Arafat (since corrected) should have stated, "Arafat is in stable condition after dying at a Paris hospital," not "Ararat." We inadvertently brought the mountain to Mohammed.
Auntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1101338045717069132004-11-25T10:08:00.000+11:002004-11-25T10:14:05.716+11:00By stepping aside from his 60 Minutes gig, Dan Rather has foreshadowed the findings of CBS's independent review of Rathergate - the use by Rather and his CBS minders of the Bill Burkett forgeries.
By continuing with CBS as a reporter Rather ensures CBS will continue to live with the consequences of his blatant partisanship.
For all the reaction to Rather, and much on Rather's consistent Auntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1101336746715791812004-11-25T09:39:00.000+11:002004-11-25T09:52:26.716+11:00You and I are growing older, and so is the population of Australia.
It's a disaster, according to this report: The booming aged population will halve economic growth in 20 years, leaving a $2200 billion budget hole over 40 years, a report warnsIt's a bonanza, according to this one:Australia will enjoy a golden era of income growth as wealthy baby-boomers retire leaving a legacy of an efficient Auntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1101087187793710692004-11-22T13:28:00.000+11:002004-11-22T12:37:05.440+11:00The Australian Democrats confront death.
"This is so unfair!"(From ex-leader, Meg Lees)
Auntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1101086674564870462004-11-22T13:16:00.000+11:002004-11-22T12:27:21.486+11:00Ralph Zwier is experienced in responding to Auntie's surreptitous preaching of communard politics, in his case her treatment of Israel. It's a thankless task, and complaining to the ABA is not much more rewarding, despite Auntie's own Media Watch finding a couple of scratches from the old ABA pussy-cat intolerable.
Among Zwier's discoveries is this remarkable ABA declaration. "... the Code does Auntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1101085693807636902004-11-22T13:00:00.000+11:002004-11-22T12:09:02.233+11:00Uncle is usually in bed with his last whisky by 10.00pm, but Tony Jones of Lateline never sleeps. Nor does his predictable communard mind-set, as wakeful listener GG observed recently. It's a classic, and well worth a little more attention.
"TONY JONES: Well, Harlan Ullman, it must be a sad day for you to see a man of such potential [Colin Powell] brought so low?
HARLAN ULLMAN, POLITICAL Auntienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772586.post-1101085078677174882004-11-22T11:48:00.000+11:002004-11-22T11:57:58.676+11:00Blind strokingReader JK wonders if I heard our Gastropod interviewing Boyer Lecturer Peter Conrad. Negative. Auntie's choices for Boyer Lecturers range from the sublime to the ridiculous and from hearing his first lecture I concluded that Conrad was, outside his own field, as close to the bottom as, say, Eva Cox, my personal dross standard. Conrad is pretty unreadable as a writer, and sounds much the same.
Auntienoreply@blogger.com