Let Troy Newman in
John Richardson writes: Re. “Dutton is right to kick out extremist Newman” (yesterday). Good one, Crikey. Raise the drawbridge, lock-up your daughters and hide under your bed: that’ll learn him.
Compared to the hateful daily bile spewed-out by the shock jocks of talkback radio or diet of ignorance and bigotry served up by many of our “political class”, surely Newman is not a threat.
If we as a country have reached the point where we would “gag” every two-bit nutter because we’re worried about our fine sensibilities being offended, then Newman, Bernadi, Jones, Hadley and the rest have already won.
Let him in; make him an honorary member of “Team Awstrayla” and offer him a day out with Tony Abbott. That’ll really learn him.
Pity Tony Abbott
Peter Matters writes: Re. “Abbott, all too human, completely undone” (yesterday). Tony Abbott is a pleasant and decent bloke who has the misfortune to be staggering under a load of of hang-ups that not only caused his mind to be rusted on to the 19th century but also made him wear blinkers of a size to fit a horse. He does deserve a great deal of sympathy, for history will be very cruel to him. Julia Gillard will be respected as a prime minister who provided Australia with an excellent governance, considering the uniquely ugly, permanent tsunami of vindictive — and personal — abuse that ceaselessly burdened her time as prime minister. On the other hand, with the creatures of Murdoch’s gutter press/shock jocks combine featuring as Tony’s close friends, history has already now defined him as a buffoon.
Who’s jumping the gun?
Prime Media’s Emma McDonald writes: Re. “Jumping the gun” (Monday). I refer to Glenn Dyer’s piece from Monday, September 28. There were a few problems with it and contrary to Glenn’s claims: Both reports — AFR and the Oz — did actually note that there was no guarantee there would be reform before the election.
Both stories make clear that consensus does NOT need to include Kerry Stokes or News Corp, and Mitch Fifield has made it clear that consensus is not the same thing as unanimity.
Both reports flagged the possibility of changes to anti-siphoning.
Regional broadcasters (WIN, Prime, Southern Cross Austereo and Imparja) are in fact lobbying for the repeal of the reach rule and the two out of three rule. Nine and Fairfax also support this.
Seven is not the dominant regional network. Seven holds TV licences in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide. Perth and regional Queensland. Regional TV networks, in particular, WIN, Prime and Southern Cross, are dominant in the regions.
He is more than a “two-bit nutter”, he is one of those professional, charismatic liars who have often succeeded in swaying over large numbers of impressionable people, even against the advice of our scientists.
Need I remind you that asbestos mining continued for decades after our doctors condemned it? Quite recently, a high proportion of us smoked tobacco, believing that the charismatic voices in the advertisements somehow weighed more than our doctor’s advice.
Helen Caldicott thrills us with fears of horrible things happening if we even think “nuclear electricity” at the same time as windmill salesmen persuade us that they alone can rescue the greenhouse. Again, our experts are trying to tell us otherwise. Entertaining though they might be, we should not let paid liars drown out expert advice that we are unwilling to believe.
If Crikey is going to print the sort of nonsense from the Poster who claimed Tony Abbott’s mind was rusted on to the 19th Century, could you at least provide ONE of his major views which hasn’t even reached the 20th Century.
Apologies for suggesting someone do some actual research to back up you and your devoted acolytes assertions.