It was clearly the best ever Andrew Olle Memorial lecture. Friday night’s address
in Sydney was given by John Doyle, one half of the
dynamic duo, HG and Roy – inventors of the uniquely Australian take on
Olympic sport, The Dream.

He’s
also a fine scriptwriter and on Friday night, showed himself to be a
shrewd consumer of the Australian media as well as an insightful
critic.

Unlike the nine before it, Doyle’s speech engaged its
subject, the media, challenged its audience, cuddled up to the ABC
element and provoked thought and comment. But there was also the whiff
of hypocrisy, of biting the commercial hand that has fed Mr Doyle and
his mate HG.

But compared with the verbiage from losers like
Steve Vizard, the utterances of John Alexander and his fellow PBL board member, Chris Anderson, the meanderings of Kerry
Stokes and Lachlan Murdoch and the agonising of Jana Wendt, Doyle’s
speech was a fitting way to mark the 10th anniversary of the lecture.

A full report is on the website here.