image: Peter Rae for The Sydney Morning Herald

The former MediaWatch addicts in this domicile all agree that the present season is pure drivel. MW was at one time must-see; truly the most powerful 15 minutes in Australian weekly television- but has been severely diluted and white-anted post the addition of Howard’s ringers to the ABC board. MW has devolved nearer to its earliest incarnation, too often nitpicking typos and other fluffs, far away from its investigative peak when David Marr was in the chair, shredding Cash-for-Commenters and the like. This season’s inclusion of talking head comments from investigation targets allows MW episodes to be hijacked, wasting several of those scant 15 minutes.

Oh- but it’s all for the sake of balance, of course… as if MW investigation targets don’t have access to media to tell their end of the tale. I’d rather see MW off the air as it was in 2002 during the reign of the evil Jonathan Shier than to see it go half-measures.

Indeed, the media story of the past week was Mary Kostakidis’ stoush with SBS on the basis that SBS in general but SBS News in particular are being twisted too far out of their original, public servant shapes, as part of the Howard Government’s War On Multiculturalism- and MW completely passed it up… but why? (more…)

A little KRuddy grabass? How about none at all?

Scores boss Elliot Osher says Mr Rudd behaved like a gentleman throughout the brief visit.

And he says neither Mr Rudd, Mr Snowdon or Mr Allan touched the dancers or were thrown out of the club.

Mr Osher said it was Mr Rudd who asked his group to leave.

“I guess when he sat down he kind of realised it was a strip club and he said ‘Oh no, this won’t do’,” he said.

“I remember we got a call from I think it was the owner of the Post, or the editor of the Post, saying that he was coming in with some political figures from Australia, some bigwigs,” Mr Osher recalled.

“It was only a one-time thing ‘cos I remember that was the only time the editor of the Post came in.

“They came in, we took them to the Champagne Room which is on the main floor and they only stayed for about 15 minutes.

“When you walk into our club, you walk down a long corridor and you don’t really know what kind of club it is until you’ve been inside.”

K, which newsies have been bending this tale to say KRudd was thrown out of the club for inappropriately touching a dancer?

We can start with the world famous Walkleys drunkard, who can add ‘liar’ to his title.

Mr Milne, 1st rule of holes: When in one, stop digging.

-weez

4 years ago, the PM in-waiting was accused of getting shitfaced and sexually harassed a titty dancer.

Bad Kevvo. Bad.

If it happened.

I still have suspicions that Kev’s church is going to eventually conflict with my state but I’m actually relieved to find that Kev O’Sev is somewhat more human than I had previously feared. I don’t want to hear that he makes a habit of this sort of nonsense; it’d be a shame if KRudd could be Brogdened by his own troops at some later date.

Regardless, I don’t see this one derailing a Labor landslide. In fact, I’m sure someone in the ALP will come up with some bawdy rock paintings, salacious engravings or pornographic stone tablets depicting Johnny HoWARd’s bucks’ night… video formats in Johnny’s day included granite, shale and sandstone, of course.

But wasn’t it dishy and ironic that Murdoch trotted out the drunkest journo in Australia to have a slap at Kevvo?

Now, nothing to see here, move along…

-weez

image: Alan Moir for The Sydney Morning Herald

On 25 June 2007, I wrote:

Prohibition doesn’t work- and aboriginals are full Australian citizens. If you could reasonably (and constitutionally) shut off the booze and send in the Army to Vaucluse to stop their abuse problems, you should reasonably be able to do it to aboriginal people- but not before.

Crikey picked up my comment, seems Alan Moir feels the same… but why haven’t any other media seen the inequity between the HoWARd gubmint’s handling of child and substance abuse in Mutitjulu and Vaucluse?

You can’t make me believe Vaucluse has no abuse problems; it’s time the Army went in with elbow-length rubber gloves and got a few silvertails’ kids on the exam table, just to be sure.

You can never be too careful. Won’t somebody think of the children?

-weez

..but not for anything he really should be sorry about.

image: Ron Tandberg for The Age

(more…)

The HoWARd government has pulled the above “ WC ” mythbusting promotion from TV and print advertising after reports that Damian Richardson, the actor pictured on the far left, has a painting company that is alleged to have underpaid young staffers like Erin Gerbert, the fellow at right in the blue T-shirt.

The solution to this little embarrassment? Investigate the bad laws and change them?

Um, no.

   WorkChoices     minister Joe ‘Shrek’ Hockeypuck has ordered a full, emergency investigation… of all the actors in the government’s party-political yet taxpayer-funded butt-saving ads!

That’ll fix it all right up!

After all, it doesn’t matter what you do- what matters is what you appear to be doing.

-weez

Have a look at the comments attached to Terry Sweetman’s story in The Courier-Mail, ‘Drug epidemic makes us sick.’

Specifically, see comment #1, where the writer purports to be Paul Dillon, the Media Liason Officer/Information Manager of NDARC:

I have been asked to reply to this story and give my views on drug abuse and the lives and futures it can take with it.

I am Head Information Officer at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre in Sydney (soon to be Deputy Health Minister if we all keep our votes for Liberal) (more…)

Mr Bean and Mr Andrews are both hapless and hopeless screwups; however, one is an actor- and one just can’t help it.

Fresh out of the Haneef cockup where Kevin Andrews believes that an oblique comment from non-native English speakers chatting online about Haneef ‘not being found out‘ is cause to revoke Haneef’s work visa, Andrews is pulling out some more pure HoWARd wedge politics with a new ‘citizenship test,’ which is absolutely nothing but thinly veiled racism- and not so thinly veiled, to boot. (more…)