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Last updated on July 27th, 2017 at 11:59 am
The crappiest Media Watch host yet has fled after just one year. Perfect replacement: John Gatfield.
- Oh boo hoo. Give the gig to Magrok. she can use the dosh, I get to laugh and sundry residents of Newtown are happy with the ‘affirmative action’ policy that the ABC displays.Posted by Nic on 2005 11 28 at 08:24 AM • permalink
- Definitely the crappiest yet; her sneer was nowhere near supercilious enough. Not that I mind seeing sycophants and gutter-guys like Bolt and Penberthy getting their butts kicked, but Liz plainly wasn’t nearly so harsh on her fellow-travellers. Maybe crash is right, and the ABC does have a systemic left-wing bias. Just because we’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get us…
- Melissa Theuriau for Mediawatch!
Okay, so it will all be in French and no-one will understand a word of it, but that’s a plus as I see it.
- I gotta vote for Margo! This is the job she was born for. Besides, it will drive her crazy(er) having to show up for work two days in a row…Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 11 28 at 11:21 AM • permalink
Melissa Theuriau for Mediawatch! Okay, so it will all be in French and no-one will understand a word of it, but that’s a plus as I see it. —Pixy Misa
Well the comments here are usually in stryne and I can’t make heads or tales of them. But that doesn’t seem to pose a problem.
A dosh? Is that another name for an esky *?
* Aussie slang for a coooooooooooler.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 11 28 at 01:00 PM • permalink
- Dang, McEnroe’s comment beat mine again. I wish he would stop it. (I smell a conspiracy, probably involving space lasers. I think I’ll tell the webdiarists about it).
Of course, at least Iowahawk (curls fingers in a wiggling fashion) didn’t beat me. The piker.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 11 28 at 01:05 PM • permalink
- Another good subject for media inconsistency watchers is the rising crescendo of reporting along the lines of “the sedition laws will restrict freedom of speech”. Again, there is no reference to the restrictive Victorian anti-vilification laws, which have already resulted in prosecution of two christian ministers for quoting the koran in an allegedly disrespectful way. Free speech, anyone?
The anti-sedition parts of the new terror legislation are aimed at much more dangerous transgressors than your local christian minister. Despite the recommendations of the parliamentary committee, I would expect commentators to be able to draw the conclusion that the Victorian legislation should be amended or scrapped regardless of what happens to the anti-terror legislation.
- I reckon McEvoy should be dropping a line to Stan Grant of CNN China. He’s articulate, intelligent, is well regarded throughout media ciccles, and bring a level of professionalism to the gig not see since Littlemore.
If the ABC insists on continuing to run this trainwreck, at least get a driver that knows what he’s doing.
- ‘Lightening the program’, captain?
Here’s the level Jackson appears to have aimed at, and hit, heavily:
“It has been really good to do a job where the bus driver or the service station attendant says thanks for what you do.“Nice one Liz,
Enjoy the ‘serious’ 4 Corners, Liz..Why replace the program at all? It’s an old-fashioned, expensive, privileged ABC sinecure and is much better done by the blogworld. They will always live in fear of it now.
And I haven’t even mentioned the serial incompetence and bias in recent years.
- Have never seen the show since I don’t live in Australia, but if what Tim has reported here over time is even half-true (I’m just saying) then it certainly shouldn’t be called “Media Watch”. Or if it is, its tag line should be “We watch half the media so you don’t have to.”
A nautical analogy comes to mind. Media Watch is like the lookout on a ship in charge of watching the starboard side. If as much as a styrofoam cup floats by they are all over it. Yet they are never able to catch site of the towering iceberg rapidly approaching from port.
- Barrie, Liz always seemed to me to have the pretence of aiming at a higher level, even if her comments do not reflect that. I agree with your criticisms of the program completely. Don’t you think though that the new appointment suggests that have given up on even having the pretence of a serious program?
- Wronwright, maaaate, Esky IS cooler – they are all called Esky here. See?
And the australianbeers website looks interesting, too…
- He’s good, John Gatfield, and should at least broaden the show’s scope. Those dodgy hacks whose word-crimes miraculously keep evading the attention of MW better start minding their (Or rather, others’) Ps and Qs.Posted by Tony.T.Teacher on 2005 11 28 at 08:07 PM • permalink
- Someone suggested Clive Robertson, he’s available.
- Well, I kno’ dat kae. That’s what the asterisk footnote was for. But the why not just call it a coooooooooooo-ler. I mean it cools the beers, right? But does it eskys anything?
I STILL SAY all you Aussies are just trying to confuse us dum seppos, and you’re doing a splendid job of it with me.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 11 28 at 08:41 PM • permalink
- Wron. It’s not really a cooler, that’d be an Engel, but you’d have to sell your firstborn to afford to buy one.
The Esky just keeps the melting ice in while the beverages get warm. If you have a big party the bath or the laundry tub is a good substitute, with plumbing!
- Kae’s on the money. Clive Robertson could be fantastic (but bring back Littlemore). I well remember his tangential cynicism on seven’s late news all those years ago. He’d read a news item, and just start rambling on whatever took his fancy.
Once, a news item about people being buried at sea via airplane led him to talk at length on how that would be his preffered disposal, with the addition that it be done over Channel Seven during a board meeting. Regularly, he’d just say “No, I’m not reading that.” and drop items altogether. He was the poster child for everyone who hated their job, and had stopped giving a shit years ago.
Curiously, given his world-weary attitude, the man’s a devout christian (of the born-again variety I think). Kerry Packer stole him from Seven and then promptly snuffed out his fun shortly after, proving that Kerry doesn’t know everything about TV, although Robertson’s shtick paved the way for Graham Kennedy to return to TV not long after.
Posted by Mr Hackenbacker on 2005 11 29 at 12:13 AM • permalink
- I’d like to see Clive. Dry. Doesn’t give a shit. Very humorous in that kind of way. I remember him on ABC years ago and, now that you mention it Mr Hackenbacker, I remember him ‘doing’ the late news on 7 – well worth sitting up late to get a laugh from him doing the seriousnews!
I don’t know that he takes himself terribly seriously, well, not that you’d know, anyway.
Wasn’t he on Denton near the end of the 2005 series?
The Esky just keeps the melting ice in while the beverages get warm.
Yeah. That’s what a cooler does. See, you buy a bag of ice, rip the bag open, hit with your hand what appears to be a rock hard solid block of ice cleverly disguised as 1000 cubes of small ice, suck the blood dripping from your knuckles while cussing at the ice company, and dump the ice into the cooler. If you’re smart, you would already have dropped in one or two packs of bitter.
Ok now, here’s the deal. The ice together with the cooler lid being shut cools the bitter. You know? That is why it’s called a cooooooo-ler. What the hell does an esky do? What is eskying?
It sound vaguely Swiss, maybe involving the adding of chocolate. I really don’t like chocolate in my bitter.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 11 29 at 12:22 AM • permalink
- The Engel? We call it a refrigerator.
Ok, I get it. You Aussies don’t call something by its general name. You use the brand name. Actually, that’s kind of cute. In fact, I think I’ll start doing it. Like right now I have a need to go to the Standard Super Flusharama Model A1 Color Harvest Gold.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 11 29 at 12:28 AM • permalink
- Wronwright, um, nope, I wouldn’t be karate-chopping the ice – that’s what blokes are for! (I use a meat tenderiser to separate those little drink-sized ice cubes from the pack. I have a new york smoothie blender which is excellent for making pina-coladas, with real pineapple, bacardi, malibu, coconut cream (or, in an emergency, real cream with coconut flavouring) and ice. mmmmm)
And doesn’t the blood change the taste of the beer?Bloody hell, check out this esky!(search it for ‘esky’) You might be able to use it in your next covert operation….
Anyway, the icebox-type esky has a lot of uses!
Things you didn’t know about Esky! scroll down for:
*In the 46-year period since 1952, well over five million Esky coolers have been sold in Australia.
*A personal flotation device is one of the more unusual uses for an Esky cooler. There have been a number of cases where an Esky cooler has saved the life of anglers, the most recent being in Western Australia. A man was fishing from a small boat when a wave caused the boat to capsize. The man grabbed his Esky cooler, which he had been using to keep his bait cool, and floated to shore. Thanks to his Esky cooler, he lived to fish another day!
*The Hovey family from Horsham in Victoria boasts three generations of loyal Esky cooler users.and you can stand on them to see the footie/car-races, whatever.
- No, Wron, that’s a dunny.
It’s only some, ah, Iconic things that get the “brand name” treatment.
Can you tell me why tuna is called tuna-fish in the US? Is it because it could be confused with the other tuna, a piano-tuna?
The Engel is a portable fridge. There are other brands but the Engel is the best quality, I think. I know many people who have been able to purchase one (without selling the firstborn) and they just keep going for years and years. My Dad won one years ago, in the 70s, and it’s still going (shame dad isn’t, tho). Good thing he won it, I’m the firstborn!
Um, I think there is a differentiation here between and Esky and a cooler – the Esky was more substantial; the styrofoam things were useless, you couldn’t sit on them or stand on them.
- RhikoR — I’d pay cash money to watch you try to eat a peanut butter and jello sandwich…Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 11 29 at 03:23 AM • permalink
- OK, dosh, dunny…I’m screwed. I’m so behind in my strine (you do have to give us credit for one of the best words on the planet: OK). So, bad at strine, but…there is one thing that I can relate to without the need for slang of any sort, and that’s Aussie pies. Now those are magnificent. I am coming back there mainly for the pies. I need a pie really bad. I need to get back in the OzZone.
- No, nobody was more annoying than Liz Jackson. Awful, truly awful. A cross between a school teacher and a journalist with Today Tonight. I think the next host of Media Watch should be Toni Pearon or Red Symons.Posted by Major Anya on 2005 11 29 at 05:24 AM • permalink
- I vote Robbo. I remember him from years and years ago.
I miss him.
/sob
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2005 11 29 at 06:27 AM • permalink
- I thought that to Americans jam is jelly, and jelly is jello?
Am I missing something?
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2005 11 29 at 06:33 AM • permalink
I thought that to Americans jam is jelly, and jelly is jello?
Oh boy, I’m getting confused.
No, jello is gelatin. Which is good when it’s cranberry and has pecans in it. Yum. With respect to the fruity stuff that is spread over toast, it can be jelly, jam (which is thicker), or preserves (which is almost solid). Of course, if we followed the Aussie rule, we might call it Smuckers.
kae, I gather that eskys are basically a god given type of thing to Aussies. Everyone has one. Might not remember to bring your wallet or purse but you sure as hell will bring your esky. It’s like a Swiss Army knife. It has so many uses. I can appreciate that.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 11 29 at 07:00 AM • permalink
- The ABC should go for a quality host: Mr Squiggle. Or even better, Humphrey B. Bear – at least we won’t have to listen to him.Posted by Oafish and Infantile on 2005 11 29 at 07:04 AM • permalink
- Slightly OT, sbs showed a ‘doco’ on the lack of attention paid by the international community towards the massacres in Sudan. Naturally it’s all Bu$h’s fault (blah blah something about the religious right and US oil interests).
I didn’t end up watching it (seeing Jennifer Love Hewitt talk to ghosts was more compelling somehow) but I bet they didn’t mention the fact that the US tried to get through a bunch of resolutions threatening ‘serious consequences’ if the Sudanese government didn’t stop the militias which were all blocked by China and others.
/rant
Posted by Art Vandelay on 2005 11 29 at 07:05 AM • permalink
- Wronwright : Re #24 :
It works both ways, darl.True story:
In a previous life, I had to travel to the thriving metropolis of Akron, Ohio. In company with Herr Professor Doktor S. for some very classified talks about integrating a high tech US weapons system just being developed with our computer combat system.If you can imagine it… there we were at FMC corporation’s facilities, the ex-Goodyear plant, now deserted,with security everywhere. In the shadow of the huge hangers where they used to build airships.
The technical meeting was held in the cavernous boardroom, now silent as the grave, walnut pannelling, a long conference table that a small warship could sit on. Very High Powered technical people from FMC, clearances up the Wazoo, and us, the German Delegation, Herr Professor Doktor S and his tame Australian Weapons Genius.
So classified was the discussion, that we had to use butcher’s paper that went straight into the burn bag, not a whiteboard. And no ballpoint pens, lots of opportunity to stick all sorts of interesting eavesdropping devices in them. Just HB pencils.
So there we were, discussing various technical issues, and on the latest diagram, I noted a mistake.
And in a loud voice, asked the SuperGuru next to me “Hey, have any of you guys got a rubber?”
The silence was deafening, as my words echoed in that cavenous hall.
Herr Professor Doktor S. just looked puzzled, at the reactions of the high-powered US Delegation. And my anguished cry of “Eraser! I meant Eraser!” was far, far too late.
That was the most embarressing moment of my life (at least until my spontaneous sex change).
- Zoe,
I can sympathize. As well as my evil neocon brain will allow at least. Ironically, you asked the question at an old Goodyear Tire plant. At least it wasn’t a Trojan condom faciity.
It’s interesting how Aussies and seppos speak the same language, and yet we don’t. Personally, I’m adding strine to my vocabulary. I like it. Don’t understand it. But I like it.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 11 29 at 10:05 AM • permalink
- sam — Pretty sure trying to sing “must be non-gelled jam cause jam don’t shake like that” would make for some bad jazz…Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 11 29 at 11:09 AM • permalink
- “It’s about the public desire to have a program that holds the media to account.”
Says Liz Jackson.
Media Watch more like is about the desire of ABC apparatchiks to set up a show whose sole aim is settling scores with political opponents – at the expense of every Australian taxpayer .
The show’s current brazenness marks the communards’ ever-tightening grip on the corporation. Managers are ineffectual or pressured out, the Board toothless and leaking like a sieve and 0.00000000009% of complaints upheld.
I thought the ABC staff had over-reached long ago but the capture of the nation’s public broadcaster by the looney left continues with no end in sight.
- Rebecca, I’m from Ohio and we had a Frigidaire. We called it the frig. And it was Pepsi. When it comes to pop with sugar in it, Pepsi is far better than Coke.
At least it did when it came in 16 ounce bottles. With metal caps with cork as the lining. Placed in the freezer so that it forms just a small bit of frozen pop and the rest is super cold. Drunk on a hot summer day. When air conditioning was just a rumor as to what the rich people had.
Yes. A cold bottle of Pepsi on a hot sweltering day was a joy to be had by all.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 11 29 at 03:36 PM • permalink
- #34
I think that’s right, esky was abbreviated from eskimo (now an Inni just wouldn’t sound the same, would it?.. anyway, an inni is a bellybutton.)#39
Pies, Fernvale Bakery pies are prize winning and quite yummy, about an hour out of Brisbane, go to Fernvale on any Sunday morning for the markets, and grab a pie – dear as poison, but yummy.
There is a Pietaria (cross between pie and cafeteria) on the Warrego Highway about an hour out or Brisbane, Alvon Sundowner Pies, they are yummy, too.#45
scones are biscuits and
biscuits are scones in the US – figure that one out!#46 G’day Wron
jello is jelly here (we have our old brand Aeroplane Jelly, up there with Vegemite as an iconic Aus food – I think some foreign company owns it now).
Jam and conserve are preserved fruit spread (with the fruit, sugar and sometimes added pectin to set the fruit) – I think that jam is smoother and conserve has chunks of fruit in it.
Wot’s a Swiss Army Knife? (just joking)#47 O&I
Blackboard (“Harrumph, Hurry Up!”) gets my vote – and doesn’t Mr Squiggle look like his companion (Norman Hetherington, his creator/operator?).Look up Mr Squiggle on Wikipedia.#48
What does China, et al, have to gain from blocking resolutions to protect the Sudanese from Janjaweed (?sp).#49 How embarrassing!
#55
Pepsi? Gack, koff, splutter.I still reckon Robbo should get the MW gig.
- The ABC’s Midday Report today ran a story about Authors and members of the Arts community who convened a meeting to advocate civil disobedience if the Government’s current sediton legislation passes…and guess who was sitting right in the middle of all these freedom watchdogs??? Little Lizzy!
MEANWHILE, LAST NIGHT ON SBS…the Left have finally figured out a way to blame the crisis in Darfur on the United States! In a program called Never Again, the interviewer attempted to find out why the “world” had failed to act. Rather predictably the only accusations were aimed at the Americans. Koffi Annan was let off the hook, as were the U.N. obstructing Chinese and Russians…who also supply the weaponry used on Sudanese civilians, and the idle French and Germans weren’t even approached. Does it get anymore bizarre than that?
- Oh yeah, also on the ABC’s Midday Report today was a story about capital punishment, no not in Singapore…IN AMERICA!
A story about terrorist attacks in Bangladesh by Moslem militants who are determined to establish an Islamic state, was lucky to receive 15 seconds of air time. Although with the appalling ABC’s track record on these issues, I’m surprised they even acknowledged it at all!
