Marieke Hardy gets pulled. On Tuesday a b-tchy article went up on The Drum by ABC resident’s snarky lass Marieke Hardy asking whether Christopher Pyne was the most despised man in Australia. Today it seems that the story has been pulled, with the link now dead (a statement from the ABC was due as Crikey hit deadline). Hardy compared Pyne to Kyle Sandilands, Brendan Fevola and other typical subjects of media mockery, deciding that yes, Christopher Pyne was indeed the most despised of them all. The article was referenced by Samantha Maiden in today’s Oz:
Earlier this week, writer Marike Hardy used a blog post at the ABC’s The Drum website to suggest that Pyne, a father of four, was among the most hated men in the country. “When Chris Pyne says Kumbaya, I taste a little vomit in my mouth,” she recounted as the view of another Pyne-hater, after “crowd-sourcing” this opinion from a stranger on the internet.
And then now it’s suddenly been pulled. Coincidence?
A tale of two papers. It was a classic tale of city vs city in the parochial southern tabloids this morning, as a story about Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle read quite differently in the Adelaide Advertiser and Herald Sun:
The Tiser:
The Hun:
Greens Watch. Just to make sure everyone knows EXACTLY what the Greens are scheming in parliament, The Australian (who called for the party to be “demolished” at the ballot box in one of its editorials) have printed this handy little reminder:
All that’s missing is the crocs. It’s good to see the Australian Jewish News have got their eye on our favourite Top End tabloid:
News Ltd warns of subbie staff cuts
“News Limited will centralise the sub-editing and design of its NSW publications in a seven-day production hub at its Holt St, Sydney headquarters. The restructure meant some roles would change, a small number of new jobs would be created and there might be ‘a handful’ of staff losses.” — The Australian
Greens MP Adam Bandt on the power of The Oz
“He speaks bluntly about the treatment of the Greens and the new government by The Australian newspaper, argues for a reassessment of neo-liberalism’s effects on Australian society and lays out a critique of the lack of political imagination in Australia.” — SlowTV
One in five unhappy with portrayal of homos-xuality on TV, report claims
“Nearly one in five people are unhappy about the depiction of gay, lesbian and bis-xual people on TV and radio, according to a report commissioned by the BBC.” — The Guardian
Women ‘significantly underrepresented’ in the media, survey suggests
“A research project which monitors the gender of those in and reporting on the news claims women are ‘significantly underrepresented and misrepresented’ in media coverage.” — Journalism.co.uk
Less ads, more funding for SBS
“The Greens yesterday introduced a bill to limit advertising on SBS. The bill aims to place pressure on the Gillard government to increase funding to the multicultural broadcaster.”– The Australian
Boston Globe to launch paid website
“The Boston Globe, part of The New York Times Company, announced on Thursday that it would start a new paid website in the second half of 2011.” — The New York Times
The ABC should find more to do with its time than deleting pieces by Marieke Hardy. Ms Hardy is funny, intelligent, and perceptive, and she nearly always pushes the envelope. Her pieces are not easy to predict, and sometimes she misses any possible target. That is part of the great Australian tradition of larrikin commentators and it is to be encouraged. The piece in which she had a go at Pyne was, perhaps, over-exuberant, and could possibly lay itself open to charges of being partly homophobic. It was certainly snarky. But it was also at least in part ironic. In a context where it is regarded as being a good thing to routinely and viciously blackguard refugee applicants in the course of a campaign it cannot be thought to be wrong to allow giving of a vigorous serve from time to time to one of the most powerful politicians in Australia.