{"id":749,"date":"2010-08-31T21:39:38","date_gmt":"2010-08-31T11:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/?p=749"},"modified":"2010-09-01T07:05:29","modified_gmt":"2010-08-31T21:05:29","slug":"portrait-of-a-douchebag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/?p=749","title":{"rendered":"Portrait of a douchebag: How MediaWatch got used to grind an axe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WhatFairfax reporter Adam Turner made the grave error of referring to Tony the Abbott in rather foul terms while livetweeting the Mad Monk’s post-election speech- and found himself the subject of a segment on MediaWatch<\/a>. This indiscretion got Turner reprimanded by his boss.<\/p>\n

[Adam Turner] has received an official first and final warning.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Statement from Paul Ramadge (Editor in Chief, The Age) to Media Watch, 26th August, 2010<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, okay.<\/p>\n

Doubtless, working journos damage their credibility when they make such crude commentary about politicians who are the subject of their reportage. Does nothing for the credibility of the reporter nor the news op they work for. Turner deserved to be upbraided.<\/p>\n

Now… if the person who dobbed Turner in to MediaWatch had been Helen Lovejoy, who in pureness of heart and filled with innocent desires, both to improve the standard of Australian journalism and to protect the virgin eyes of her Twittering 9 year old daughter, alerted MW, that’d be one thing.<\/p>\n

But the dobber wasn’t Helen Lovejoy.<\/p>\n

The MediaWatch informant was one Robert Candelori, an out-n-proud right-wing nutjob who simply wanted to cause trouble for a journo who made an untoward comment about his favourite politician.<\/p>\n

Candelori set about gloating and bragging<\/a> about causing some grief for Turner:<\/p>\n

Hahahaha – I reported @adam_turner to media watch, and they’re playing it! #mediawatch<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wow, how ’bout that.<\/p>\n

Despite Candelori’s claim in this tweet<\/a>…<\/p>\n

@guru_kscope I’ve got nothing to be afraid of because I’m not in the habit of using vulgar expletives to describe politicians or others.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…Candelori is about as squeaky clean as a dunny brush as regards his use of colourful language<\/a> in political discussions:<\/p>\n

RobertCandelori swears like a Scottish Comedian<\/em><\/p>\n

Ranked: 174,376th worldwide Swears: 93 Score: 95 of 100<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Consequently, Candelori’s complaint about the shocking, SHOCKING, I TELL YOU<\/em> language used by Adam Turner stinks of utter partisan hypocrisy and mean high-school girl tattletale politics.<\/p>\n

When called out, Candelori put on his very best nonchalant act<\/a>…<\/p>\n

@renailemay @weezmgk I’m quite enjoying the wet lettuce twitspit #mediawatch<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Before gloating over dobbing in Turner, Candelori’s Twitter profile proudly told us all about his ‘family biz<\/a>,’ Candelori’s Ristorante + Bar on The Horseley Dr in Smithfield NSW:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But after Candelori was called on the carpet by Renai Lemay<\/a> and myself, Big Rob’s Twitter profile suddenly changed:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wow, where did the reference to the ‘family biz’ go? So much for that nonchalant act, eh? Maybe an elder Candelori advised young Rob that foul-mouthed bitchy political commentary isn’t so good for the ‘family biz.’<\/p>\n

Huh, maybe it’s not just journalists who need to mind their civility in public political discourse.<\/p>\n

Rob, let me tell you what you are: you’re a hypocritical bitch. You make Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan look positively macho. There’s a picture of you in the dictionary next to the definition for ‘catty.’<\/p>\n

MediaWatch can’t necessarily be faulted for being used to drive some Liberal douchebag’s political agenda… but MW certainly should be mindful of the possibility. Moreover, at the end of the day, just how newsworthy was this little snit? Was it as good as David Marr’s keelhauling of Alan Jones and John Laws over ‘Cash for Comment’?<\/p>\n

I don’t think there’s any Walkleys in this one, dearest MediaWatch.<\/p>\n

You can do better.<\/p>\n

-weez<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fairfax reporter Adam Turner made the grave error of referring to Tony the Abbott in rather foul terms while livetweeting the Mad Monk’s post-election speech- and found himself the subject of a segment on MediaWatch. This indiscretion got Turner reprimanded by his boss. [Adam Turner] has received an official first and final warning. \u2014 Statement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/machinegunkeyboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}