Fair weather Farrelly We bid farewell to The Sydney Morning Herald‘s long-term columnist Elizabeth Farrelly. The SMH’s new editor Bevan Shields brought the relationship to a close after Farrelly wrote a piece criticising Liberal and independent councillors in the Strathfield municipality, without disclosing that she had registered as a candidate for the Labor Party in the Strathfield local government elections. Farrelly has described the move as a “ruthless king hit”.
We are left to remember what was. Farrelly, like anyone allowed to write a column for more than three decades, had her fair share of odd moments. Probably the peak was her May 2017 piece about moving house. You may recall that she crossed a picket line to do it — her colleagues at what was then Fairfax were striking over the loss of 125 jobs. But hey, there was an urgent need for a piece about Farrelly moving house, so what was she to do? But she got an immediate lesson in what happens when you file for a publication where all the subeditors are striking: her piece was topped with the immortally weird headline: “I have no experience of ghosts but house is always haunt as moving proves”.
Fun with FOI We’re often critical the Morrison government’s the lack of transparency, up to and including wilful obfuscation regarding freedom of information applications. However, we’re inclined to believe that the following response — initially picked up by our former colleague Josh Taylor, to someone who identifies themselves, fairly grandly, as “All Citizen’s [sic] of Australia” — is probably genuine:
Having been asked to provide “all knowledge and documentation regarding the New World Order Project”, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet say it has searched for documents “within the scope of your request” and found that none exist. But then again… it would say that…
Jonesing for the spotlight As predicted by Crikey, frequent Tips and Murmurs target Alan Jones is back. The spurned shock jock is making a return to broadcasting by pivoting to digital. In a remarkably poorly produced press conference on Friday which was broadcast on his Facebook page, the Parrot said he had signed with “Australian Digital Holdings” and would produce a show not dissimilar to his previous Sky News venture. A website has just been launched too:
But who is behind Australian Digital Holdings?
Well, public records filed with ASIC show it was created late last month and is registered to a Jack Bulfin, who also registered alanjones.com.au. Bulfin, who was at UTS as of this year, works for a property development company headed up by his father. And what’s his link to Jones? Well a cursory look at his social media reveals that Bulfin is close with Jake Thrupp, Jones’ protege, producer and an occasional News Corp columnist. Looks like Jones has kept this one in the family!
Bess better bested Representation matters. And so we join LGBTQ Nation in praising Cameron Bess, who this weekend proved being an out pansexual furry is no barrier to travelling into space (they are the first to do so, hopping on the Blue Origin), as long as you work hard, never let discrimination stop you, and have a venture capitalist father who will buy you a ticket on Jeff Bezos’ private space flight. Inspiring.
I think it’s a bad move to terminate Farrelly at the SMH. Sure she has written the odd off piece (but who hasn’t), but she has a progressive (and let’s say it – anti-developer) take and following on what’s best for Sydney’s built environment and SMH are very foolish to turf her out. As has been remarked before, the 9 papers are heading rightwards and to our detriment.
I agree! Her columns are always well written and generally interesting. her fellow columnist Parnell Whatshername write in a somewhat turgid manner and is always very uninteresting. But I suppose she adds (ha ha) balance.
I started losing it with the SMH when they sacked Mike Carlton – another intelligent and interesting columnist
Parnell tries to be Chis Kenny’s little sister, say something but mean something else while supporting it with thoughts that make absolutely no sense.
Daughter of PP (Padraic Pearse) McGuinness, named after the Irish revolutionary Charles Stewart Parnell?
As the bulk of the Parrot’s audience is elderly what percentage are IT savvy? Does he imagine they will be online to follow his bilge?
What a great advertising demographic – angry old white men with little disposable income.
The incontinence market may be bigger than I thought
I will miss very much Ms Farrelly’s column. Always enjoy her writing – both for her ideas and her prose style. Hopefully, she will find some other outlet.
Well, Crikey should know about the freedom of information request. Apparently Crikey is a supporter of the ‘organisation’ that submitted the request.
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/
Right To Know facilitates FoI requests – they make the process easier for amatuers (and journalists who use the Pro package) so they don’t have to know as much about how the process works in the background. Whoever “All Citizen’s [sic] of Australia” is would have just used Right To Know’s web form to submit the request.
Strathfield Labor fed EF the “facts” which she reproduced in her column. One heavily criticised independent councillor, real estate agent with a fraud conviction is now mayor – voted in by the Strathfield Labor councillors – second prize of deputy mayor went to Strathfield Labor. Principles – what principles!
And the biggest loser was Elizabeth Farrelly – sacrificed her reputation and career for insignificant Strathfield local politics.