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CORRECTION!

In this piece, I’ve mistakenly attributed a quote – “Once we were larrikins with a taste of defiance; now we are lapdogs with a thirst for conformity” – to Greens senator Bob Brown. The actual author was Richard Neville.

Posted by Tim B. on 12/17/2006 at 08:11 PM
  1. Well, that’s a relief.  I knew Bob was stupid, but even I was surprised he was that stupid.

    Posted by entropy on 2006 12 17 at 08:19 PM • permalink

  2. Sounds like Tim is trying to set himself up for a position at Reuters.

    However, before that glorious day, he will need to learn not to acknowledge his mistakes quite so readily…

    Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 12 17 at 08:28 PM • permalink

  3. speaking about brown,seems he still thinks latham’s forestry fuckup policy was a winner

    CHRIS UHLMANN: For the last time the Labor Party took your advice on forestry policy it lost two seats, do you think that Kevin Rudd will be listening to you?

    BOB BROWN: Well, he’ll need to, because even before the forest policies were announced, the polls showed that they were likely to lose three seats.

    radio national ‘am’ programme this morning

    Posted by eeniemeenie on 2006 12 17 at 08:38 PM • permalink

  4. A perfectly understandable mistake Tim.

    Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 12 17 at 08:39 PM • permalink

  5. Can I just say that the red cross ambulance saga was a real turning point in my opinion of the mainstream media purely because Chulov, Smiles etc and their editors couldn’t admit that they had made a howler.

    (Did I hear correctly that Martin Chulov won a Walkley for his coverage of the Israel-Lebanon conflict?  What a joke.  I hope Glen Milne presented it to him)

    Be honest with your errors and keep your credibility I reckon.

    Posted by SeanM on 2006 12 17 at 09:02 PM • permalink

  6. i hope mike hudson sees this thread and realises just how much easier and more dignified it is to correct oneself than to dig deeper and deeper into shaky ground

    onya tim

    Posted by eeniemeenie on 2006 12 17 at 09:32 PM • permalink

  7. Quick quiz Timbonauts: Who is attributed with this quote?

    “A man’s height is the height of his thought.”

    Worked it out?

    Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 12 17 at 09:32 PM • permalink

  8. But it bespoke reality so it must be right…

    Posted by Jack Lacton on 2006 12 17 at 09:41 PM • permalink

  9. “Fake but True”

    Posted by Steve at the pub on 2006 12 17 at 09:43 PM • permalink

  10. Aaaaah Richard Neville. What a guy! May posterity forget that he is one of my countrymen.

    Posted by Penguin on 2006 12 17 at 09:51 PM • permalink

  11. #7 MM

    The bit about ‘To forsake loyalty and filial devotion is to lose one’s life’ explains the gulags. It’s probably over the gate archways like ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’.

    I notice there is nothing along the lines of:

    To modernise one’s hairstyle is the sign of a reactionary.

    Posted by Penguin on 2006 12 17 at 09:57 PM • permalink

  12. Okay, and which dissent crusher is attributed with the quote: “Expect criticism”?

    Any idea?

    Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 12 17 at 09:58 PM • permalink

  13. As far as Tim’s misquote goes:

    What no dissembling? No appeal for contextual misunderstanding? No obfuscation? No knee jerk counter-accusations?

    That is most unlike a typical journo.

    Posted by Penguin on 2006 12 17 at 10:01 PM • permalink

  14. Interview in The Weekend Australian with Felix Dennis, Richard Neville’s old comrade in the OZ magazine days.

    Apparently nowadays he owns several top-selling magazines (Maxim may be the best known). I believe he also owns the hilarious VIZ comics.

    Felix Dennis=LEGEND! Richard Neville=NOT!

    Posted by TimT on 2006 12 17 at 10:02 PM • permalink

  15. That’s better

    Posted by Penguin on 2006 12 17 at 10:02 PM • permalink

  16. It must be terrible to be Richard Neville, and to have to define yourself, every day of your life, in terms of what you did and who you were forty years ago.  I saw him on the news the other night, expressing his relief that his home in the Blue Mountains narrowly missed being burned down in the current bushfires.  Who is he to question the wrath of mighty Gaia?  He should be happy to offer part of his carbon footprint as a toasty sacrifice to her.

    Posted by cuckoo on 2006 12 17 at 10:07 PM • permalink

  17. RN: the gloom-n-doom ‘Futurist’ from the sixties ...

    Posted by egg_ on 2006 12 17 at 10:39 PM • permalink

  18. Penguin: You’re not a full-fledged member of Tim Blair’s Comment Academy until you leave the italics cabinet open, at least once. Welcome! Receive your robe of investiture (a sheep-skin poncho lined with wallaby fur).

    Posted by paco on 2006 12 17 at 10:50 PM • permalink

  19. a sheep-skin poncho

    Steady on, paco. There’s a few of us New Zealanders who frequent Tim’s blog you know. And after a few glasses of mead, a Penguin in a sheep-skin poncho can look a lot like an actual sheep. Beguilingly so, in fact.

    Posted by RexW on 2006 12 17 at 10:56 PM • permalink

  20. Apologising for a mistake? What has happened to the noble perfession of journalism?

    When we can handle the truth we’ll let you know, thanks.

    Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 12 17 at 10:57 PM • permalink

  21. Nice to see the difference between Kiwis and Aussies highlighted though.

    Us: Once were Warriors.
    Youse: Once were larrikins.

    No wonder the haka causes so much consternation. I’ll consult with my countrymen and see if we can’t get it changed to chants of “Whaddarya?!” accompanied by suitable finger gestures.

    Posted by RexW on 2006 12 17 at 11:00 PM • permalink

  22. My first instinct was to apolgise to Andrea, but then I thought further on it and realised that Wronwright is more than capable of send ERovebots to my computer to perform such an outrage.

    Posted by Penguin on 2006 12 17 at 11:00 PM • permalink

  23. Once we were parakeets with a taste of defiance; now we are lapdancers with a thirst for attention

    Posted by egg_ on 2006 12 17 at 11:01 PM • permalink

  24. #3
    “Brown noses ahead in polls, Garrett green with envy”

    Posted by egg_ on 2006 12 17 at 11:17 PM • permalink

  25. Seems Mirander is missing an opportunity.
    Allow me.

    [\troll]Way to go, king of the blogosphere. And all the blairite lapdogs grovel instead of seeing this ritgh in frontof their eyes. Sheep. [\rent-a-troll]

    Posted by rinardman on 2006 12 17 at 11:18 PM • permalink

  26. In re: #19:

    Psssst! Penguin! You might want to turn that robe inside-out for the first few days.

    Posted by paco on 2006 12 17 at 11:24 PM • permalink

  27. #7

    Of Dear Leader Kim Jong Il,

    Boy, I didn’t know they could stack it that high.

    Posted by kae on 2006 12 17 at 11:30 PM • permalink

  28. Penguin, DO NOT turn the robe inside out. It’s a cruel hazing trick they play on newbies. The howls of laughter as you stroll through the Neo-Con Club wearing an inside out jacket, violent pink inner lining glaring, will scar you for some time. Believe me, please believe me.

    Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 12 17 at 11:31 PM • permalink

  29. #26

    Seems more dangerous with the wallaby skin on the outside. I surmise blokes like CB are heavily armed and enjoy shooting at the fauna.

    Might just stay over here with my back against the wall, avoiding eye contact but muttering continuously about my highly contagious hepatitis.

    Posted by Penguin on 2006 12 17 at 11:38 PM • permalink

  30. The big difference between Richard Neville and Bob Brown is that Neville is not a fool.

    Posted by Bonmot on 2006 12 17 at 11:40 PM • permalink

  31. That’s how a journalist makes a correction.  Simply state it.  No “fake but accurate”.  No “might not entirely accurate, but it speaks a truth”.  Just “what I said was not accurate”.

    Well done Tim.

    Posted by wronwright on 2006 12 17 at 11:41 PM • permalink

  32. #16
    The ‘Futurist’ couldn’t foresee that he lives in a fire-prone area?
    [The tree bark was charred for years after the fires of ‘68].

    Posted by egg_ on 2006 12 17 at 11:42 PM • permalink

  33. #27
    I hear he has atomic piles nowadays

    Posted by egg_ on 2006 12 17 at 11:43 PM • permalink

  34. Is this a cricket thread yet?

    Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 12 17 at 11:55 PM • permalink

  35. #30 Bonmot.

    Not sure I agree with you on that one. Have a read of this.

    Neville is a moonbat’s moonbat.

    Posted by Penguin on 2006 12 18 at 12:00 AM • permalink

  36. #29 “Seems more dangerous with the wallaby skin on the outside. I surmise blokes like CB are heavily armed and enjoy shooting at the fauna.”

    Oh come on, ya shoot a few newbies in their brand new coats and ya get a rep. Sheesh, if you don’t want random shots heading in your general direction, then stay out of the post offices and supermarkets…

    Incidentally, Freddies gone. Jones will go shortly.

    Posted by CB on 2006 12 18 at 12:02 AM • permalink

  37. Jones gone from a piece of genius fielding by Punter. Jones won’t play again for Land of Eng. You heard it here first.

    Posted by CB on 2006 12 18 at 12:09 AM • permalink

  38. I’m turning it into a cricket thread.

    Unusually for Perth it’s as humid as an outdoor dunny in Thailand and the ball should be swinging like a rich man in the 60’s.

    The English, as is their modern day wont, are showing all the resistance of Paris Hilton’s pants. In less than an hour the Ashes wil again be Australia’s and the correct order of things sporting will be restored.

    Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 12 18 at 12:11 AM • permalink

  39. I don’t see what the problem is. All Tim did is attribute a quote to the wrong plastic turkey. Anyone could make that mistake!

    Posted by AlburyShifton on 2006 12 18 at 12:15 AM • permalink

  40. But can anyone say for certain that Bob Brown did NOT at some stage utter that same remark?  huh? huh? huh?

    Posted by Steve at the pub on 2006 12 18 at 12:21 AM • permalink

  41. Ya know… it’s almost as if some journos take pride in getting things right, in matters big and small. They don’t pretend to infallibility, just reliability, and correct stuff with the same emphasis they put on the original report.

    Even if it is a minor detail. Even if it is a matter of no great import. Because they try to report the truth, not truthiness. It’s a matter of principle, the ethics of the profession.

    Hooda Thunkit?

    Posted by Zoe Brain on 2006 12 18 at 12:31 AM • permalink

  42. Is “futurist” a euphemism for moonbat-idiot?

    Posted by kae on 2006 12 18 at 12:33 AM • permalink

  43. Poor Tim. If only he were a failed journalist and self-described best-selling author, like Antony Loewenstein, he could refuse to do corrections. They are so…. Uncool.

    Posted by Dan Lewis on 2006 12 18 at 12:36 AM • permalink

  44. Sheesh. Did the colon spelunker say it, or the raddled drug-deranged malodorous hippy?

    I am having a hard time giving a ....

    HEY! Wallaby!

    <bang!>

    Got the little bugger!

    MarkL
    Canberra

    Posted by MarkL on 2006 12 18 at 01:33 AM • permalink

  45. #42
    These guys are Pro’s, but I doubt that Neville is amongst them.

    Posted by egg_ on 2006 12 18 at 01:34 AM • permalink

  46. Mark L

    Are you on holidays, too?

    Or are the wallabys in town ‘cos of the drought?

    Posted by kae on 2006 12 18 at 01:40 AM • permalink

  47. #42
    Every time I read ‘Monbiot’ I think of ‘Moon-bot’: a ‘droid for a moonbat?
    Neville’s little future helper?

    Posted by egg_ on 2006 12 18 at 01:46 AM • permalink

  48. This sounds like the “Me,Myself,I” mantra Kevvy Rudd seems to be adopting for the election: “Onc we cared about each other, now we only care about ourselves”. It’s sure to go down well with David Williamson and the other elitists, but I expect the rest of Australia will reject it as insulting, as John Howard has already done.

    Posted by mr magoo on 2006 12 18 at 02:06 AM • permalink

  49. The Federal Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd, says his new environment spokesman, Peter Garrett, was too busy to accompany him to Tasmania (from abc radio)-

    perhaps he was washing his hair? isn’t that the traditional reason for standing a date up?

    Posted by eeniemeenie on 2006 12 18 at 02:17 AM • permalink

  50. I wouldn’t worry about who you attribute the quote to Tim, Brown or Neville. They are both a pair of. . . well ‘tools’ is a word that comes to mind.

    Posted by BJM on 2006 12 18 at 02:26 AM • permalink

  51. #49
    Reading between the lines:

    CHRIS UHLMANN: Well, if the Green vote was a big winner for Labor in Tasmania, surely then Peter Garret would be accompanying Kevin Rudd on this trip.

    BOB BROWN: Well, what’s happened to Peter Garret? He’s been everywhere else, but he’s not coming to Tasmania.

    CHRIS UHLMANN: Kevin Rudd’s office says there’ll be no announcements on this trip because it’s a listening tour. Harry Quick agrees that that’s a reasonable point of view but, like State Labor, broadly supports the Howard Government’s policy and he has firm ideas on who Mr Rudd should be listening to.

    Posted by egg_ on 2006 12 18 at 02:29 AM • permalink

  52. #48
    KRuddy’s I ... I ... I mantra is to stamp his name on the leadership within the Party but comes across as an autocrat to the punters?

    Posted by egg_ on 2006 12 18 at 02:32 AM • permalink

  53. Once we were larrikins with a taste of defiance; now we are lapdogs with a thirst for blood

    There, it’s better now.

    Posted by rhhardin on 2006 12 18 at 02:48 AM • permalink

  54. Tim is a bad bad man. It’s because of him, and the few like him, that I have to exercises some moderation when spouting off about the blood debt owed to the industry of journalism.

    I hate exercises, makes me all sweaty and tired.

    I don’t do moderation at all well. I tend to get lost in “yeah but” loops and end up all squishy-soft sounding.

    Now, please, knock it off Mr. Tim. Either be a journalist or be honorable. Quit mixing the two.

    Posted by Grimmy on 2006 12 18 at 02:57 AM • permalink

  55. It is rumoured that once they finally get round to inventing killer-droids well be able to explode their simple robot brains by simply presenting them with a circular logical conundrum. Their circuitry will overheat and their heads explode.

    This I suggest someone scurry up to Mr Rudd and ask the following:

    “You say we once cared about each other, now we only care about ourselves. But ‘ourselves’ is in fact a collective noun which could conceivably include each and every one of us. Thus is your statement not in fact a self-negating fallacy?”

    Then run, and get behind something mush-proof before his head goes off like a blancmange hit by one of CB’s shells.

    Posted by RexW on 2006 12 18 at 04:41 AM • permalink

  56. “Once we were larrikins with a taste of defiance; now we are lapdogs with a thirst for conformity”

    #23:
    Once we were parakeets with a taste of defiance; now we are lapdancers with a thirst for attention

    #53:
    Once we were larrikins with a taste of defiance; now we are lapdogs with a thirst for blood

    Any more, punnsters?

    Posted by egg_ on 2006 12 18 at 05:45 AM • permalink

  57. #55
    Is the fork-in-the-road a phallacy?

    Posted by egg_ on 2006 12 18 at 05:47 AM • permalink

  58. a fallacious phallacy, maybe?

    Posted by Grimmy on 2006 12 18 at 06:48 AM • permalink

  59. Once we were librarians with a taste for tea; now we are pirates with a thirst for grog.

    Posted by ushie on 2006 12 18 at 06:48 AM • permalink

  60. Once we were toddlers in diapers; now we are old people with bladder retention issues.

    Posted by Grimmy on 2006 12 18 at 06:50 AM • permalink

  61. Once we were young and beautiful, now we are old and decrepit.

    that might be a bit close to the bone.

    Posted by kae on 2006 12 18 at 06:52 AM • permalink

  62. Once we chased the young and beautiful; now we’re just stalkers.

    Posted by Grimmy on 2006 12 18 at 06:54 AM • permalink

  63. Once I was chased, now I am chaste.

    now that’s a tragedy

    Posted by kae on 2006 12 18 at 06:58 AM • permalink

  64. LOL Grimmy, too true.

    Posted by kae on 2006 12 18 at 06:59 AM • permalink

  65. we once chased the chaste; now we simply sit in our own waste.

    Posted by Grimmy on 2006 12 18 at 07:00 AM • permalink

  66. once we were lorikeets with a taste for de pine nuts?

    Posted by eeniemeenie on 2006 12 18 at 07:07 AM • permalink

  67. #66, eeniemeenie:

    Yeah, sure but then what’d you turn into? You cant stay the lorikeet forever ya know? Folk will think you strange.

    Posted by Grimmy on 2006 12 18 at 07:14 AM • permalink

  68. grimmy, will lap-laps with a burst of fertility do?

    Posted by eeniemeenie on 2006 12 18 at 07:17 AM • permalink

  69. Once we were Australians with a taste for beer; then we became Koreans with a taste for fried dog.

    Posted by Grimmy on 2006 12 18 at 07:18 AM • permalink

  70. now we lack clogs our feet are corn city?

    Posted by eeniemeenie on 2006 12 18 at 07:20 AM • permalink

  71. #68, eeniemeenie:

    I guess, sure. Btw, what’s a lap-lap and bursting fertility does get messy, don’t it?

    Posted by Grimmy on 2006 12 18 at 07:20 AM • permalink

  72. laplap=loin cloth worn in the south pacific

    Posted by eeniemeenie on 2006 12 18 at 07:24 AM • permalink

  73. ohh.. I can see how those’d be affected by burstings of fertility. I’ve often wondered if western man invented mulitiple layers of clothing just to cover up such stains?

    Posted by Grimmy on 2006 12 18 at 07:27 AM • permalink

  74. Once we were larrikins with the chaste to defend; now we are old dogs trying not to burst our ‘Depends’

    Posted by egg_ on 2006 12 18 at 08:02 AM • permalink

  75. Once we practiced chastity at home; now we do depraved debauchery in the street.

    Posted by Grimmy on 2006 12 18 at 08:31 AM • permalink

  76. Right. That’s it. Now your just being silly.

    Posted by CB on 2006 12 18 at 08:53 AM • permalink

  77. #76

    Python-pooper

    Posted by kae on 2006 12 18 at 09:26 AM • permalink

  78. Nominations for Richard Neville’s best ‘Futurist’ moonbat prediction?

    Posted by egg_ on 2006 12 18 at 07:33 PM • permalink

  79. Erm.

    Ummm.

    Purely, you understand, for, aahhhh, information reasons (yes, information!).

    Has anyone, perhaps, seen Penguin since I shot that wallaby at #44??

    MarkL
    Canberra

    Posted by MarkL on 2006 12 19 at 02:35 AM • permalink

  80. Hey, Kae!

    Just about to be on holidays (tomorrow, yay!)

    To answer your question: Bloody roos!

    Last week I was driving in to work early (0530-ish) via Commonwealth bridge. Smack in the middle was this poor bugger who had just collected a large Eastern Grey kangaroo. The front of his car was wrecked and the roo was off to roo heaven. The drought is so bad here that the eastern greys are moving in to within a km of Parliament house looking for food.

    The trouble is greenies. These wankers have bought ‘rural suburbs’ with houses on 5-100 acre blocks. Before this happened they were sheep pastures. So they took off the sheep but left the dams (water) and grass (feed). So the populations of eastern greys around Canberra have simply exploded. The greenies like to look at ‘em as they graze in a picturesque manner on their otherwise empty blocks.

    The graziers are less enthused. So are the hundreds of motorists who hit the bloody things every year. Now it is summer, and the roos are starting to starve to death. But this ‘natural’ and horrible fate is MUCH to be preferred to culling the damned things with a rifle bullet. Just ask a greenie….

    MarkL
    canberra

    Posted by MarkL on 2006 12 19 at 03:05 AM • permalink

  81. Yo Mark L

    Bloody Roos. Yes, they are a hazard, and will certainly bugger your car.

    Have a great holiday!

    Watch out for roos.

    Posted by kae on 2006 12 19 at 03:39 AM • permalink

  82. Does this mean I erm, accidentally shot Penguin?

    PACO!! You utter swine, why did you play that old joke on Penguin?

    On the other hand, a Penguin skin rug’d be nice in the Minion’s games room.

    MarkL
    Minionmeister to the VRWC

    Posted by MarkL on 2006 12 19 at 05:26 AM • permalink

  83. Tim, your list of the best quotes of the year is excellent!

    Thank you!

    Posted by Brian on 2006 12 19 at 08:16 PM • permalink

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