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RICHARD CARLETON
Veteran 60 Minutes reporter Richard Carleton has died while covering events in Beaconsfield.
Who says that nothing good comes out of mine disasters?
Posted by Mike Jericho on 2006 05 07 at 01:37 AM • permalinkA tragic event no less, but I wonder if we’ll get MSM coverage of his death out of all proportion because he is an industry figure?
Let’s not forget one other individual died in that mine. Were the MSM going to let that overshadow the celebrations when the other two are recused? Probably not.
Will the MSM now put a negative spin on the impending rescue *fingers crossed* of Todd Russell and Brant Webb because one of their own has died? I’ll wait to see.
Leigh, that was the appropriate version.
Call me old fashioned. I’ll drink to an adversary, but never to an enemy.
Posted by Mike Jericho on 2006 05 07 at 01:44 AM • permalinkHe had no problems doing his utmost to derail the allied attempt to bring democracy to millions of Iraqis.
I classify that as a rather greater act of disrespect, don’t you?
He can rot in hell. Good riddance. False platitudes are worthless.
Posted by Mike Jericho on 2006 05 07 at 01:47 AM • permalinkIt would be in poor taste to celebrate his passing, someone will miss him (stuffed if I can figure out who, though), so suffice to say that 60 Minutes will never be the same (or as bad) again.
Appropriate that the very last “journalistic” question he asked was an attempt to pin blame for the disaster on the mine owners & was met with the reply “we will consider the reasons why once the trapped miners are safe”. He died as he lived, as a scum sucking bottom dweller, reviled by everyone he met.
CraigC - we also have MacDonalds and KFC and Starbucks, Ford cars and ABC television.
Really, we are not all that backward here, despite having the world record for crazy-dude-with-gun deaths (35), and numerous other records of note (most pertaining to the velocity of beer consumption).
Suffice it to say, Australians have their own language, and it is quite normal for someone to be taken “to hospital”.
It is also linguistically appropriate for an Australian to say that somebody was “taken by a shark”.
As Dave Allen (Irish comedian) once famously said “Taken? Taken where, for Christ’s sake?”
And yes, 60 Minutes is the typical left-wing MSM cesspool of shock reporting, as it is in the USA.
Haven’t these old media personalities ever heard about retirement or even semi-retirement. Richard Carleton already had very highly publicised heart surgery and he still couldn’t let somebody else get a jump on him. He had to be there, can’t have a younger journalist making a name for him/herself. I call it selfishness, pure and simple. Whatever happened to passing the baton gracefully to the next generation. Besides, fieldwork is a young person’s job.
I certainly do not wish to celebrate a person’s death, not even the death of someone I disliked as much as Richard Carleton. However, I can definitely take solace in the fact that “60 Minutes”, not to mention television journalism in general, may gain a modicum of the objectivity that Carleton himself so lacked. For anyone to say of Michael Moore’s work “It’s pure propaganda, and I fully support it because I oppose the war.” and still expect to be taken seriously as a journalist is laughable.
Posted by TokenModerateGuy on 2006 05 07 at 01:58 AM • permalinkHe was a narcissistic, dishonest journo so what, you don’t express pleasure over someone dying, (unless he’s a terrorist, dictator or war criminal or something). It’s not right to gloat over someone’s death because they had different political opinions to you, that’s the kind of ugly, fanatical shit the KOS crowd do.
How is that fanatical? I call it honest. I won’t throw a party, but I am glad he won’t be doing any more harm. If given the choice, sure, I would have preferred that he just be fired, or quit. But if he dies, so be it. The end result is the same.
I think that people who disliked him, who mutter empty platitudes now that he has dropped dead are full of crap. I’m not so indiscriminant with my sentiments. There are many leftists who I know, whom I disagree with vehemently, who I would genuinely mourn if they died. Carleton was not such a person.
But if you do mean what you say, Amos, and you feel a deep inner need to weep for the loss of every terrorist enabler who falls down dead, then I feel sorry for you.
The people who oppose us won’t respect us or our memory when we’re dead. Carleton was helping them, and was thus their defacto ally.
Let more such people be sent down to Tasmania. Let it become the journalist’s ‘Eastern Front’.
Posted by Mike Jericho on 2006 05 07 at 02:12 AM • permalinkTim, I’d rather focus on the other Carlton dying this arvo. The old dark navy blue variety. Enjoying the slaughter by internet stream because, of course, no other way to listen or watch in Sydney.
The Logies will be even more unbearable this evening.Posted by Ben Haslem on 2006 05 07 at 02:21 AM • permalinkThere is particular irony though of a man who, presumably, with pate laden picnic basket in paw, goes to cover the possible deaths of two miners, only to have the miners walk out alive and Carleton carried out dead.
Thats life. Sympathy to his family, though I for one won’t be lighting a candle to his memory.
I find it ironic that as in his dying moments he was being shielded from the media, his fellow reporters and camera crews. WTF, that guy had no respect for anyone’s privacy. He was totally blinkered and biased in his interviews- all he wanted to do was to project his opinion and his idea of what the truth was. He was never after the facts, never after the truth- even if it was staring him in the face.
Posted by Wylie Wilde on 2006 05 07 at 02:28 AM • permalinkYeah #22, agreed, sympathy to his family.
Posted by Ben Haslem on 2006 05 07 at 02:33 AM • permalinkI’ve never been able to work out this “show respect for the dead” bollocks- if someone was an arsehole while living, they don’t become a saint when they kark it.
A true bottom-feeding, self-rightous, self important, biased puffbucket who never lost his aura of smug, sanctimonious ABC superiority.
The media is mildly imporved by his exit, but not much- there’s a lot more like him out there.#23 Wylie, I was thinking the same thing. The media loves to stick the camera and mic in the faces of unfortunate folks in their moment of least dignity - and call it “news”. Now, when one of their own has fallen, they shield him with blankets to hide him from his own and from themselves. Truly ironic.
#18 Melanie, thank you for the insightful link.
Will there be cameras camped outside his family’s home, as the media usually do with a ‘celebrity’ death?
Will there be footage shown of his tacky moments (many), as the media usually do with a ‘celebrity’ death?
Will his last moments, lying prone on the ground be put to air, as it would with other ‘celebrity’ deaths?
Yeah, right. With every-one else it’s the “public’s right to know”. With the media itself, privacy & respect is everything.
And CraigC. Dunno what you mean about “English” “to hospital” versus “to the hospital”. Both are English language. The first usage is one Australian form; the second is (one) American (form) (I guess). If you want to dissect it, “to hospital” means they are going to a medical facility, undefined. “to the hospital” means they are going to a medical facility that the listener is presumed to know about. But don’t lets talk about Strine; you will get a headache.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 05 07 at 02:46 AM • permalinkI remember Carleton telling a Muslim cleric that we have free speech in Australia and he (Carleton) could call Mohammed’s daughter a whore if he wanted to. He then did so about three times - the interviewee’s head nearly exploded. Pre 9/11 it was. He also proved what an un-polished little twerp Bob Hawke was when he asked the then union boss what it was like “having blood” on his hands after the Hayden hatchet job.
Isn’t this hate-fest getting a bit overwrought?
Richard Carleton was a rude, self-important man in life, so it’s no surprise that his last moments on earth were rude and self-important.
Channel 10 (a rival station) has just broadcast the news they describe him as ::chortle:: a ‘highly-respected journalist who show no fear or favour’.
For those here calling for restraint on demonstrations of antipathy, I put it to you: this man may not have been a terrorist or a war criminal but he was personally responsible for needless misery of countless people because of his irresponsible reporting and grotesque ego.
The only kindness I can offer is a prayer for his family.
—Nora
needless misery
People liers who weren’t
police officer seatbelt liar and fascist 1988Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2006 05 07 at 03:21 AM • permalinkEr - Pardon the bits below my sig.
As I was writing the post Nicky walked in and reminded me that Charleton called people liars who weren’t.
One such example of the big song and dance he made in 1988 after being booked by a policeman for not wearing a seatbelt.
He accused the cop of lying, of being corrupt and being a fascist.
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2006 05 07 at 03:25 AM • permalinkI agree #23
The 30 cameras that happened to be at the press conference were dedicated to capturing wide angle close-up panic shots of dead miners being dragged from a dirty pit.
The elites deserve a privacy screen and a respectful blanket. The unwashed masses get what they deserve, gushing accounts of XX dead delivered by bleach blonde morons or mousse haired Kent Brockmans
He once drove through an ultra-orthodox neighbourhood in Jerusalem on a Saturday. Just to provoke the locals and make a story. What an arsehole. I thought at the time why didn’t he try something that actually might require some courage? Like eating eggs and bacon on a Tehran sidewalk while wearing a bikini.
#35
Like eating eggs and bacon on a Tehran sidewalk while wearing a bikini.C’mon Geoff - that’s not the way I want to picture Carleton - dead or alive!
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2006 05 07 at 03:39 AM • permalinkHappy dirt-nap Dick!
Posted by Islam/cancer-Chuck Norris/answer on 2006 05 07 at 03:46 AM • permalinkIm sensing a lack of love (looks off into distance with hands outstreched)
Bugger him, bad for his family big dont care factor from me.Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 05 07 at 03:56 AM • permalinkLast time I saw that nasty prick was when he was goading a USMC colonel, trying to push his jaundiced view on Iraq; I had no respect for him then, and don’t now.
I do however have a great respect for the Marine bird colonel, who admirably resisted the clear urge he had to stab the offensive, sclerotic fat git in the head with a bayonet.
Fuck him, and the waste of public money that hatched him.Carleton was no more “self-important” or inclined to call people fascists and liars or of being “grotesque” than about 500 right-wing bloggers, myself included.
Why not just say he was rude and objectionable, followed by a dozen or so examples of his journalistic trespasses (of which there are scarcely any mentioned here).
For the record, I didn’t particularly like the man but I don’t think his demise ranks - for celebratory purposes - alongside the fatal shots in the Fuhrerbunker.
#9 – Tom H – yeah, fancy anyone trying to pin the blame for mine safety on the mine owners – sheesh, people are so dumb, huh?
I used to watch Carleton religiously when he was on the ABC; compulsive viewing, very entertaining stuff. I’ve never found 60 Minutes informative or entertaining, no matter who the reporter.
Slightly creepy to see footage of Carleton in tight close-up as he stepped away from the media scrum, seconds before he collapsed – or seconds before he died, which is how it sounds, although not declared dead until reaching the hospital.
Only a couple of weeks ago, on ANZAC day, we had that other thread full of much guffawing over hundreds of young people dying in workplace accidents (although still only a fraction of total death at work each year) – the same day on which one miner died and two were trapped; the same week in which 7 or 8 Victorians were killed at work.
Today a well known Australian journalist dies, witnessed by dozens of his colleagues. Yes, he polarized opinions, but if he had been bland & beige like most other television journalists, you’d all be putting the boot in for his being bland & beige; or there’d be some other, spurious and redundant, reason.
It’s not about respect for the dead; it’s about the disturbing zeal with which the death of others – pretty much anyone, apparently, unless a soldier in Iraq – is seen as good reason for celebration and a competition to see who can make the most degrading and / or frivolous comment. Pretty sick really, particularly when it so closely resembles nothing more than a 1000 parrots.
#42
Okay CL here’s the obituary you wanted and that you won’t see anywhere else.—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2006 05 07 at 05:16 AM • permalink#46 Ah Ck, to know him was not to love him, from my perspective at least.
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2006 05 07 at 05:19 AM • permalinkHe getting a kicking for his blatant bias, mis-reportage, agenda-driven polemics and hypocrisy of persuing a luvvie/lefty agenda while pocketing a large income from the detested Kerry Packer; I don’t know why the Big Bloke hired the pompus turd- nearly everyone hated him.
I expect no less when Leunig, Phatty, David Marr, Alan Ramsay and assorted other half-wits and moon pies infecting our airwaves and print media go on to their reward*.*(Searing heat, much tormenting of nethers with pitchforks, and endless loop tapes of Walkley Award ceremonies.)
Radio National’s 5pm news (Perth time) had a brief item. So brief that it could only mention that Carleton incurred displeasure in Canberra for his (near accurate quote) ‘aggressive questioning of locals in East Timor’ without mention of the wider circumstances.
Much to my surprise, though, the story didn’t open with “Tributes have been pouring in…” I was expecting that. It really would have spoiled my dinner.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 05 07 at 05:20 AM • permalinkexpect no less when Leunig, Phatty, David Marr, Alan Ramsay and assorted other half-wits and moon pies infecting our airwaves and print media go on to their reward*.
I suspect the almighty has something more appropriate for that lot. Dave wants to be surrounded by blokes bottoms, Ramsey wants beer, Phil to be surrounded by a cheering crowd, and Leunig, clear skies and lots of green grass.
They will all be reincarnated at the MCG!
I didn’t know him, in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever met any journalists, so I don’t have any personal emotions attached to their lives or deaths, collectively or individually.
I may not share their opinions (far too many to count!), they may even infuriate me with their bias, or ignorance, or putting themselves at the centre of the universe with their desperate longing for influence and relevance in the world at large, but so what? Why would I have an emotive reaction to their death? There are far worse people on earth than journalists.
#46 ck
Yes, he polarized opinions, but if he had been bland & beige like most other television journalists, you’d all be putting the boot in for his being bland & beige; or there’d be some other, spurious and redundant, reason.Like sacrificing the welfare of others for his stories (East Timor)?
Like being deliberately provocative to create a story (Jerusalem)?
No, he wasn’t bland and beige, ck, he was an arrogant, self aggrandising, provocative, dissembling, egotistic dickhead (as opposed to a fair and objective journalist). When those sort of people fall off the perch, they risk continuing to get what they got, and gave, in life. No respect.
C’est la mort.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 05 07 at 05:41 AM • permalink11 Suffice it to say, Australians have their own language, and it is quite normal for someone to be taken “to hospital”.
Curiously we don’t omit the definite article from other usages, e.g., we go to the shops, the vet, the movies, the station, the doctor, &c. If I was taking sometime to a specific hospital I would say, “the hospital”, or “The Austin”.
‘To hospital’ has a hint of Yorkshire about it.
Posted by walterplinge on 2006 05 07 at 05:54 AM • permalinkT’hospital sound more Yorkshire, by gum.
And what’s wrong with kicking someone when they’re down? Better to get a few shots in to make sure the bastard can’t get back up.
Carleton was a shill and mouthpiece for the enemy, not much better than Lord Haw Haw; I’d have liked to dump him in downtown Felluja with a God Bless America t-shirt on and a iPod superglued to his back, feeding a pair of speakers sprouting Mohommad Blows Goats on repeat mode.
Certainly he put the boot into Labor leaders, but his shameless pro-Arab stance and buffoonish grandstanding (which caused turmoil to a lot of innocent people) is inexcusable. I slagged the windbag when he was still breathing, why should I stop just because his metabolic processes ‘ave ‘ad their lot?
You don’t really need to convince me, Nora. I’m familiar with all of that.
The question that interests me is whether the political right is now indistinguishable from the Daily Koz left in these moonbat post-mortem death-heckling extravaganzas.
Carleton was just a journalist, he wasn’t Himmler. The interest he took in banging on about heart disease, prostate cancer and those other illnesses he covered recently probably saved lives. It’s a Carletonian thing to do to imperiously draw up the balance sheet on a man’s entire life.
Considering five Australian journalists were murdered in East Timor and both political parties here (and Jakarta itself) lied about it for 30 years, I really couldn’t give a rodent’s bottom about how ruthlessly Carleton treated some militia scumbag. Horta supported him. The likes of Brereton condemned him.
For “clownishness.”
Laurie. Brereton.
Give me a break.
We on the right tend to condemn the excuse that “militias” get “provoked.” We tend to argue they should behave themselves and cope with the Carletons of this world simply because they are morally obliged to.
The Pell interview was a shocker, though not as bad as Hitchen’s brainless attack on Mother Theresa.
I’d also point out that Paul Keating gave up the working class to become a pseudo-asthete and pop-star himself. His disappointment with Carleton reads like disappointment with himself.
I repeat: didn’t like his work, didn’t like his approach. But talk of happy “dirt naps” and Carleton’s “countless” victims is comparably bizarre to any stunt he ever pulled himself.
Habib - slag away! I just have trouble understanding why people get hysterical over a person they’ve never met, and even greater trouble understanding any form of histrionics over the death of someone they’ve never met. But then, I didn’t shed a tear over “saint” Di either, yet the rest of the world went into a bizarre showy hyper-mourning.
People vent over odd things, but that’s only odd to me!
Who’s celebrating? I couldn’t give a shit, as I avoided having to look at his self-satisfied mug like the plague; death doesn’t cause a person’d history to evaporate- as I said before, I bucketted him in life, his joining of the choir invisible doesn’t make him impurvious to criticism. Now when Malcolm Fraser bites the big one, I’m going to tie one on for days, when Gough coughs it’ll be weeks- I might have to pick up a pair of taps.
Journalists don’t warrant such attention, as they’re basically twerps with no real power to affect lives, except to ruin reputations and belittle achievements (present company excluded, of course). Politicians on the other hand can and do- when Keating finally gets the cremation he had to have, I’m buying- I’ve almost recovered the shitload of money that shitstain cost me in the early ‘90s. I hope he expires in a really messy frog clock malfunction. (spring over-wound, snaps and pierces medulla oblongata etc).# 62 I do not think his death is a thing to celebrate
Neither do I. But neither were his career and professional ‘achievements’.
A man’s demise is a punctuation, the last full stop, and it provokes comment. One of those comments was from a shocked Liz Hayes on National Nine News who said Carleton was a man people either loved or hated.
And that’s as good an explanation as any for some of the reactions here.
—Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2006 05 07 at 06:44 AM • permalinkNobody is celebrating Carleton’s death, Entropy and others, although - this being Australia, thank God - many are enjoying being able to provide their opinions about the late journalist’s work.
Call it instant obituary, call it what you will; but here, we understand that there are still two men who could live or die at the caprice of some rocks.
In the context of that, a smartass fell over after asking a stupid question. Goodbye.
#2 Mike Jericho, you beat me to it. Fuck the venomous bitch.
Posted by Susan Norton on 2006 05 07 at 06:53 AM • permalinkThe TV news sin is addressing the audience as if they’re morons.
Every public debate as a result is edited for morons.
So what is the correct response to the death of one of these?
Probably a column-filler along with bus plunge stories. Leave it to the family, if they have one.
There is, however, the hope that the news biz will quit the moron audience, and a change will happen. It won’t. News doesn’t attract enough eyeballs to support the business unless it caters to the soap opera news people.
The news people, of course, are not morons. They just cater to them. They’re in a business.
They’re willing to acknowledge that most people are not morons, in fact, just not their audience, and not on screen.
The question is why prostitution is not legal as well
I must admit I laughed out loud in the car when I heard. Good riddance to a proponent of agenda peddling, all the news that fit to make up, journalism.
My wife just watched (in Perth) the 60 minutes segment he was working on. I didn’t. I haven’t watched 60 minutes for years. Their brand of sensational staged journalism annoys me too much.
It may have been a great piece but he lost thinking viewers like me a long time ago.
A more significant passing this weekend
—Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2006 05 07 at 07:08 AM • permalinkWow, you guys are all class - Shining beacons of civility.
For the record, Carleton was disliked by people on both side of the political divide (a good thing in my opinion).
PS - Mike Jerko, I didn’t know you were still alive - thought you perished in some imaginary epic battle..Clown.
Posted by gustov_deleft on 2006 05 07 at 07:56 AM • permalinkBig boots to fill, and an even bigger head. I’m unsure I’m facetious, smarmy and supercillious enough for that gig, and no doubt there’s plenty of ABC staffers slavering at the prospect of a large income and audience increase, all the while being able to prattle on with their undergraduate obsessions.
Anyone want to take a punt on Red Kezza, or (Allah forbid) George Fungus getting a resurection?
Interesting thread. I had a heart attack three years ago and holy shit, it’s frightening and it hurts. But at least I’m still vertical. I hope he died quickly. I didn’t like him as a journalist / interviewer (for reasons given above by others and especially the link given by Melanie), but for better or worse, he’s been a part of of political journalism in Australia for decades.
So I’m with you Ck, let him go and prayers for his family
Posted by Whale Spinor on 2006 05 07 at 08:03 AM • permalinkThe notion that there should be respect for the dead rises, I think, from the notion of fair play. We duly have contempt for those who would not say a bad word against a person whilst alive but sneak forth after they are dead with tales against them. However this is not what we are dealing with here.
I can respect those who take the view that death somehow makes one immune from genuine criticism. My view however is that a shit is a shit, dead or alive.
CL particularly seems unable to move beyond his grouper roots. Carleton may have had that memorable clash with Hawke but I was always told that the subtext was that Hawke had something to do with the breakup of Carleton’s first marriage.
I do have genuine sympathy for his family and loved ones, except for complete sociopaths everyone is loveable to someone.
Posted by Just Another Bloody Lawyer on 2006 05 07 at 08:04 AM • permalinkWouldn’t have pissed on Carleton when he was alive, but unlike Jim Cairns, I won’t go out of my way to piss on his grave either.
There are degrees of evil, and Carleton was a fair way down the list compared to Cairns.Sonorous lamentations from his media colleagues lauding this so called “journalist” remind me of the local villain’s Mum just after he has been convicted of bashing a pensioner, robbing a deli, (or similar):
“‘E’s really a good boy, “e wouldn’t hurt a soul, the coppers ‘ate his guts, ‘e loves his Mum. . . .” etc.Puke.
Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2006 05 07 at 08:15 AM • permalinkHe was a smarmy hypocrite who was very selective whose cage he rattled, and was a shameless self-agrandiser and apologist for all manner or turds, douchebags and psychotic shitheads.
His first agenda was Richard Carleton, his second was the same bullshit and mis-information that abounds in every form of public broadcasting in this unfortunate land.
You can take the dickhead out of the ABC, but you can’t take the ABC out of the dickhead.
He did discriminate. And he had an ugly streak behind that nasty smug smile that would have not have been out of place on the mug of a Ku Klux Klan Grandmaster during a lynching.
But I do agree, his passing seems to have generated more heat than the mongrel deserved. I will not be mentioning his name again. He will be forgotten forever by midnight.
Obit:
Forever remembered with fondness by his reptilian media comrades as having the decency to drop off the twig during the most excruciatingly drawn out media circus since Thredbo, thereby giving them at least another twenty hours of advertiser paid footage. Big Kezza would have been proud of him.
A professional to the end, the bitter, bitter end.
Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2006 05 07 at 08:55 AM • permalinkI think Richard would have wanted his death marked by a doorstop interview with his wife sneeringly insinuating that she caused his death for the insurance payout. But of course, what we are all really wondering for with bated breath is Bill Shorten’s opinion on the subject.
Posted by Jim Geones on 2006 05 07 at 09:23 AM • permalinkI think that I’ll save my sympathy for this journalist instead:
http://tinyurl.com/j2th7Posted by andycanuck on 2006 05 07 at 01:14 PM • permalink#91 agreed! Journalists affect me that way too.
Posted by Crusader rabbit on 2006 05 07 at 02:47 PM • permalinkI am reminded of my brother. A guy who had once been our boss, one of the 2 or 3 most disgusting, loathesome individuals it has ever been my misfortune to know, died of a heart attack at about age 55. When someone mentioned that it was a ‘tragedy’ for someone so young to die, my brother replied, “The only tragedy is that it didn’t happen much sooner and that he wasn’t driving 90MPH at the time like usual with X and Y (two others just about as bad) in the car with him.”
He said all he got was a shocked look. Some people are not worth mourning.
Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2006 05 07 at 03:09 PM • permalinkI could not believe my ears this morning.
John Faine[sp?] of ABC Melbourne refers to Carleton as “another victim, along with Larry Knight, of the Beaconsfield Mine Tragedy”.
Now that’s just plain wrong, isn’t it?
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 05 07 at 07:12 PM • permalinkAll the great men and women achievers of history get remembered. Those that in some way change humanity for the better by their lifes actions and creations.
Condolences to the Carleton family but on the day after his death in the big scheme of things I say “Richard who??”Posted by Hank Reardon on 2006 05 07 at 07:54 PM • permalinkAs the great Gary Coleman once said, we owe nothing to the dead except the truth.
To Richard Carleton, we of the blogosphere owe a considerable debt.
Richard Carleton pioneered an ego-driven style of journalism in which a reporter has an agenda and then compiles items to try and support it - for example, ignoring any expert commentary on the Chernobyl anniversary, and then compiling a filmic dossier of anyone within 100 miles who has anything more severe than a bad case of acne.
He pioneeered a pompous and inept style of journalism that is now the norm, and if it did not exist, blogs would a lot less fun.
He was a yellow-bellied sap-suckers’ yellow bellied sap sucker.
In the meantime, none of us are waiting for questions to be made to management of Channel 9 about their culpability in Carleton’s death - or indeed any media organisation who has a reporter who is killed in war zones.
It is thanks to Carleton that we owe this blinkered and self-serving approach to journalism that makes blogs the fun alternative that they are.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 05 07 at 08:00 PM • permalinkThe most wretched, disliked, miserable, stingy, badtempered, tightfisted old man in an Irish Village died.
At his service, the priest announced, “And now it is customary for someone who knew him to say something about the deceased. Who would like to speak?”
No one moved.
“My children,” the priest said, “it really is the charitable thing for someone to say a few kind words about the departed. Now who will speak?”
Silence. Pews full of statues.
“Right,” said the priest. “Now here it is: the man is entitled to a eulogy and by Heaven he’s going to get a eulogy and I’ll keep the lot of you sitting there until he does. Now who will speak for deceased?”
Much discontented grumbling, parishioners looking at each other. Then a little man stands up the last pew, to shocked gasps. He looks around at his glaring neighbors, clears his throat nervously, and says:
“Well… his brother was worse.”
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 05 07 at 08:18 PM • permalinkBest wishes to Carleton’s family.
As others have said Carleton’s reporting was a mix of ego driven self promotion and sensationalism. In which case any subject he reported on was bound to be misrepresented. I think Carleton’s character can best be summed up unthe incident where he took a delicacy laden hamper into a hotspot, East Timor just after independence if memory serves me correctly, where everybody else was more or less on the equivalent of MREs. Some camermen found his stash and scoffed it, and Carleton went ballistic over the fact that he’d had to suffer just like the proles.
I’m not taking any joy out of the fact he is dead. As others have expressed here, I would have preferred him to retire and stop doing shoddy arrogant journalism a long time ago. Like this:
YISRAEL MEDAD: We took this territory as a result of a defensive war in 1967.RICHARD CARLETON: And you should give it back.
YISRAEL MEDAD: If that’s your opinion, fine. My opinion’s very different.
RICHARD CARLETON: No, world opinion. World opinion as represented by the United Nations.
I saw him ask his malicious “controversial question” on SkyNews but better still I saw the mine manager Matthew Gill,without hesitation or malice,cut the ground from under him by stating that his first prioity was to free the two miners who are still trapped,apportioning blame would be better left until after that job was completed.Maybe it suddenly dawned on the MSM Hero that he had just been shot down by a bloke that he would regard as easy meat.No comeback from the great man,he just toddled off and died.Outstanding!Predictably the SMH gives us his “controversial question” on its front page but neglects to publish the answer that left the turd looking like a mature-age trainee journalist.
My sole comment on this man’s death is to put it in perspective, something the media seems unable to do:
John Faine[sp?] of ABC Melbourne refers to Carleton as “another victim, along with Larry Knight, of the Beaconsfield Mine Tragedy”.
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 05 07 at 09:40 PM • permalinkthough not as bad as Hitchen’s brainless attack on Mother Theresa.
On the contrary, Hitchen’s article was a breath of fresh air. It exposed yet another money-grubbing pseud who hindered more than helped. MT cost lives.
Like Ghandi, a massive ego cloaked by false piety. Sickening.
Posted by walterplinge on 2006 05 07 at 09:55 PM • permalinkOK here we go… here’s what he does.
May I come?
ISRAELI SOLDIER: No, only the camera.
RICHARD CARLETON: The camera?
CAMERAMAN: No.
RICHARD CARLETON: No, if you do that you’ll confiscate the camera, I don’t trust you.
ISRAELI SOLDIER: You’re not allowed to take pictures of this.
RICHARD CARLETON: May I come up and talk to you?
ISRAELI SOLDIER: You’re already taking pictures?
RICHARD CARLETON: May I come and talk to you? I mean the Israeli settlers are allowed to walk around in there. Is the curfew only for Arabs, is it?
ISRAELI SOLDIER: Yes.
RICHARD CARLETON: So that’s just plain racism.
ISRAELI SOLDIER: I’m not talking about that.
RICHARD CARLETON: So Jews can walk around but Arabs can’t?
ISRAELI SOLDIER: Sorry, no comment.
RICHARD CARLETON: The whites in apartheid South Africa used capricious curfews of this kind to deal with their problems too.
ISRAELI SOLDIER: Can I please ask you to take out your film and give it to me.
RICHARD CARLETON: Is that an order, sir?
ISRAELI SOLDIER: Yes.
RICHARD CARLETON: It seems this officer was simply trying to intimidate us. We took our chances and we kept our tape. I’d been on the settlers’ side of this particular checkpoint the previous day. There, Palestinians now entering are searched whilst the armed settlers who’ve moved in are unhindered. The few Palestinians left inside the cordon live like this, in cages to protect them from the settlers’ rocks. The settlers treat them with contempt, even dumping their garbage in the Palestinians’ backyards.
***************************
Meanwhile, Rich doesn’t make any reference to the fact that the Jewish people at Hebron are constantly under attack by the Arabs.
Posted by Wylie Wilde on 2006 05 07 at 10:14 PM • permalinkWhen Eddie the Eagle Edwards passes on - hopefully not in the near future - his obituaries are unlikely to extol his athleticism.
Richard Carleton was to good journalism what Eddie the Eagle Edwards was to good ski jumping.
IMO, if you are truly crap at something, it is only right that it should be part of how you are remembered.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 05 07 at 10:55 PM • permalinkFlorid rubbish, Margos. You accredit Carleton with pioneering things he never pioneered. Apparently Carletonian exaggeration is OK on a blog thread.
Hitchens’ story on Mother Teresa was rubbish and he only did it because he wanted to bolster his status as the world’s most dashing half-drunk contrarian.
#105. The point of Carleton’s question was to deliver a sermon presenting Carleton’s POV. He wasn’t interested in the reply. He immediately started walking away with a satisfied smile on his face, as he had got what he wanted (to ask the question - the bozo on the receiving end could have said “I don’t know, coastguard?”) and it wouldn’t have mattered). Immediately followed by a big surprise when he found himself outside the pearly gates (or wherever).
Personally, Carleton went out doing what he liked most. Not many people can say that. And that has nothing to do with whether any of us think he was doing a good job.
#110 - People have written entire books outlining, in much depth. the workings of Mother T; Hitchen’s couldn’t possibly have provided anything new to the work produced by others.
entropy - “satisfied smile”? It was a very tight smile, verging on a grimace. “He wasn’t interested in the reply”. How do we know? Probably a good thing the reply was short, otherwise Carleton would have dropped dead on camera right in the middle of the answer. Maybe he wasn’t feeling too good & was anxious to take a step back out of the crowd. What an array of motives and fanciful interpretations go into such a mundane circumstance.
Looked like a smug smile to me.
As to his modus operandi, it’s what I call the ‘Liz Jackson School of Journalism’.
1. Work out what you want do do a story about;
2. write the story; then
3. go and get a few soundbytes to act as filler around your editorialising.Richard Carleton was the master at this approach to journalism.
I am willing to agree to disagree with the Carleton defenders here, but it is noticeable that his defenders don’t seem to have examples of his good work - and are arguing about everything else.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 05 07 at 11:51 PM • permalinkNews directors and editors will thank Carleton to high heaven (or more likely the inverse place) for finally giving this yarn a twist. Day after day, hour after hour of no new breaks was giving it the staggers. But the best development from Dicky’s passing was the removal of the spotlight from that opportunistic cynic Shorten: the heroic union leader who thinks so much of his members he is abandoning them for Parliament and presumably a shot at leadership. Perhaps when they get the miners out, one of those Tasmanian miners-cum-halfbacks could lay a gentle hip and shoulder on him in the vicinity of the mineshaft.
Margos - I’m not out to defend him or his work. There are far worse journalists writing in every daily newspaper in the country. I don’t know them personally either, so if any of them drop dead - which they almost certainly will - my reaction would be exactly the same “oh, well, there ya go”. Ditto politicians, criminals, etc.
The Berk in the Burqua has passed at last
Posted by Astonished on 2006 05 08 at 12:32 AM • permalinkI heard about it last night from the wife, but she mucked it up:
“Did you hear Mike Carlton just died?”
“Mike Carlton! You’re Kidding! Yippee!”(goes to fridge in search of celebratory beer)
“Yeh. Dropped dead doing an interview at the gold mine. The guy from 60 minutes.”
Pauses. “You mean Richard Carleton, don’t you? Damn”.
So I was actually a little disappointed when I heard the (correct) news (but only a little). So hopefully both Mike Jericho/Habib etc and Ck will find my reaction acceptable.
PS I’m guessing Bill Shorten has already got the 60 minutes gig, since he was presumably on hand to see the vacancy for “media whore” become available.Bit to much of a bogan for Nine’s flagship, doncha know? Even though it’s squarly aimed at cretins, they like to think Sixty Minutes (minus 22 minutes of Toyota ads) is a bit upmarket, highbrow and incisive. I’m tipping another ABC blithering idiot with passable diction (ie sounds high-falutin’ to Jimmy Packer when he’s had a few). Might even be another shiela, but I doubt Juanita Phillips would be interested in a paycut and increased workload.
Another innovatiuve saocial use for blogs. Now that there is a means for letting the surviving Carltons know how much they are despised, perhaps, just perhaps, some of them migt clean their acts up.
Posted by Susan Norton on 2006 05 08 at 03:22 AM • permalinkIn fairness, at least Eddie has reduced recurrent costs at Channel 9; plus the teevee movie of the guys in the mine will have a bit of action in the second half, after all, the first part of the script, covering the first five days, are going to be slow going, ditto days of selecting and setting up a drill, and then days of drilling. See, there are benefits on many levels.
#123 - Susan - I’ve never seen any of his family members in the newspaper, or a jail, or even as a journalist. What have they done to be despised, exactly? What has his young son, probably not yet in high school, done? Are they all on drugs? What “act” do they have to “clean up”, and on whose command?
What a random suggestion.
No-one here has attacked his family, they have only played the man.
Hey, is the bastard still dead?
Regards, R/P.Posted by Islam/cancer-Chuck Norris/answer on 2006 05 08 at 04:55 AM • permalinkHaving read Hala Jaber‘s new account of the unbelievably violent death of 30-year-old Iraqi journalist Atwar Bahjat in his article Part of me died when I saw this cruel killing (The Sunday Times online), I was hoping that it would be quickly reprinted in our part of the world.
The description of her torture and beheading, reportedly filmed on mobile phone camera is horrific.
A Sunni Muslim with a Shia mother, Bahjat emerged from Al Jazeera television to become one of the most influential Iraq television journalists for Dubai-based (Saudi Arabian-owned) Al Arabiya following her country’s liberation in 2003.
Well known for her advocacy for a united Iraq, she typically signed off her last report before her abduction and murder with “Whether you are a Sunni, a Shi’ite or a Kurd, there is no difference between Iraqis united in fear for this nation.”
I was pleased to see The Age headline, Tears over reporter’s death, but my presumption was misplaced. The Age was but promptly covering the peaceful demise of Australian journalist Richard Carlton during a press conference in Tasmania.
More understandably, it was The Australian that picked up the article from its News Ltd-stable-mate and it appears in today’s edition as Brutal beheading of journalist who lived for unity.
It is quite extraordinary that information on Bahjat’s 22 February torture (10 drill holes to the left arm, 9 to the right arm and on her legs and in her navel and right eye) and subsequent beheading were not reported when her body - and those of her cameraman and soundman - “were discovered the next morning laced with bullets, dumped in the dirt on the outskirts of Samarraher.”
To add to the mystery, an unidentified person has just added the following uncited note to her entry on Wikipedia: that Jaber’s account “is not-true at all, as pictures of her corpse still circulating in Getty Images show her body all in one piece (her head is not severed) and she was fully clotehd in her green coat that she was seen wearing immediatelly before her sad death, her head scarf however, was removed from her head which was stained with blood from her right hand side.”
We do know that Bahjat’s funeral procession on 25 February was attacked twice, first by gunmen who opened fire on mourners and later by a roadside bomb that targeted the funeral cortege as it returned from the cemetery. At least three security personnel were killed in the attacks on her funeral and four people were injured.
But who were Bahjat’s murderers and who were the gunmen and bombers at her funeral?
Although Iraqi Defence Minister Saadun al-Dulaimi announced on 18 March the arrest of six men suspected of involvement in the murder of Bahjat and her crew, there appears to be no further English-language reports of the fate of the arrested men or disclosure of their identities.
Are there journalists concerned about this?
Posted by Geoffrey MG on 2006 05 08 at 05:29 AM • permalink#125 I dsid not mean the Charlton family, who I have nothing againbst. I meant his clones in the media. I apologise for the lack of clarity.
Posted by Susan Norton on 2006 05 08 at 06:06 AM • permalink#128 - okay - HUGE difference!
But they are bland, beige, and parrot each other. Not a lot of originality happening. There are no clones of R.C. All gently, gently, making sure they don’t get anyone off side, gotta keep everyone happy & comfy.
Oh, yes, a few exceptions - but they’re mostly on the right of politics, ironically!
Ck What’s your beef? Surely you would agree that Richard Carleton would APPLAUD what has been said here?
In true Carleton style we have comments that are:
* provocative
* offensive to some
* made from a jaundiced viewpoint
* not based on deep or sufficient researchSurely Dicky would be looking down from above (or below) and thinking.. “son of a gun”.
“You reap what you sow” is a quaint little phrase and I don’t know why it comes to mind now.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 05 08 at 07:00 AM • permalinkS.C.D! - funnily enough, I seem to be the only person who doesn’t have a beef. Why would I? I didn’t know the man. I just always find it odd that the left and the right of politics have the same over-the-top & gleeful reaction to things that are incredibly minor. Not begrudging comments or anything - hell, we all shoot the breeze about all kinds of triva & crap on blogs - just don’t understand the level of hatred and anger (ok, it’s NOT as bad as the lefties, and jeeze I’m glad no-one had a consipiracy theory…).
No conspiracy- the AWU had their comrades in the Kremlin organise a Bulgar with a brolly to inject dioxin into the biggest blowhard in the media scrum, to direct attention back to Bill Shorten, ensuring he is remembered more from the whole incident than the trapped miners, ensuring his ascention to the leadership when Fremantle fatboy “accidentialy” chokes on a whole Caspain sturgeon.
Fait acompli- the Soviet Socialist Repblic of Straya is the next step, with Bob Brown as secretary for re-education and Julia Gillard as the commissar of the wimmins proletarian liberation corps.
Veteran journalist Richard Carleton exposed the plight of blind Africans to the world, the widow of pioneering Australian eye surgeon Professor Fred Hollows said today.
Gabi Hollows has paid tribute to Carleton, who travelled to Eritrea with her husband in the late 1980s, highlighting the humanitarian medical work there despite an ongoing civil war.
“Richard’s reports were responsible for showing the world what was happening in Eritrea,” Mrs Hollows said.
“He travelled side by side with Fred and alerted Australians to how they could help.”
More of Carleton’s “countless victims.”
#133 Carleton deserves credit for this - but it’s rare case of him finding a useful cause to champion.
Mind you, Eddie the Eagle Edwards also deserves credit as being the current British ski-jump record holder, and Tiny Tim’s “Tiptoe through the Tulips” was a real toe-tapper - however you need to look at the other evidence.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 05 08 at 06:18 PM • permalinkSee you in a while, CL I’m off to the library. In the meantime if you could just get the list started…
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 05 09 at 12:03 AM • permalinkCL Now that you mention it, I do have a blinkered and self serving approach to slandering people.
This means you have to do the research.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 05 09 at 01:20 AM • permalink
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Sorry - very, very difficult to show proper respect, given Carleton’s lifetime career of journalistic disrespect to the living and the dead.
Given his history and ‘form’, I’m sure Carleton would appreciate the comments made, for instance in the previous thread and here, as soon as murph & geoff show up.
BUT the mine management obviously conducted an unsafe press conference - surely they should have checked everyone for potentially fatal heart problems before they allowed questions? They will be held accountable.