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Last updated on June 24th, 2017 at 10:37 am
After years of slamming The Australian (or the Government Gazette, as he prefers to call it) – including condemning the paper’s alleged attempts to “influence and control and circumscribe political debate”, railing against its “disdain for critics”, and describing editor Chris Mitchell as “afraid” and “completely discredited” – you’ll never guess for whom lefty academic Mark Bahnisch is now working.
Coincidentally, Bahnisch has lately become quite respectful towards the former Government Gazette:
Writing today in The Australian, Mike Steketee rightly points out …
Although Bahnisch couldn’t bring himself to use the horrible title in a belated announcement to readers:
As some perceptive commenters on the Saturday Salon thread noticed, I’ve got a gig at the Higher Education Supplement doing some blogging for them.
UPDATE. My News Ltd colleague Bahnisch defends himself:
My only contribution will be blogging at the Higher Ed Supplement’s website – on stuff to do with higher education … the politics of the editorial staff of the Higher Ed couldn’t be more different from those of the rag itself.
Interesting. Bahnisch claims that leftist bias in higher education is a myth, but is happy working at the Higher Education Supplement because it’s run by lefties.
UPDATE II. Lefty Kim asks: “What private employer isn’t open to ethical objections …?” Answer: none of them! Money is impure unless cleansed by the state.
- After so many years of not having a job, one can see why Mark would leap at the chance to be gainfully employed, even if it meant that he was a hypocrite.Posted by Nic on 2008 04 04 at 09:25 PM • permalink
- Yea, it’s a bit like you pulling your punches on News or, rather, not throwing them in the first place.Posted by Pig Head Sucker on 2008 04 04 at 09:40 PM • permalink
- #3: Excellent, Nic! I was going to say that he looked like the Grinch Who Stole Gay Pride Day.
As one reads his announcement, one can almost see him swelling up like the proud bullfrog of fable, and hear a fanfare of slide trombones in the background. His writing is, of course, atrocious – a clear sign of the permanent PhD candidate, and just right for an “educational supplement” (I imagine that The Australian didn’t want him screwing up the Classifieds).
- Lo and behold, courtesy of the internet, Milton Berle in drag
- #3 My first thought was Howdy-Doody’s half-brother.Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2008 04 04 at 11:19 PM • permalink
- Outraged LP reader gandhi is “outta here.”
Had to laugh at one of the reasons why: “What about the substance of that little episode involving Murdoch censorship of Tim Dunlop’s news.com blog?”
When I took on Tim D’s collection of wide-eyed left-wing galoots for politicising Private Jake Kovko’s death, all of my comments were deleted from the thread. The episode now exists in cyberspace as a bizarre example of “progressive” debating principles. With commenters referring to an opponent airbrushed out of the picture, naturally they “win”.
- # 12 LP politics, tails they win, heads they win.Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 04 04 at 11:39 PM • permalink
- A belated announcement, alright. Mark’s been working for the Oz since December 5 when he wrote an article titled “It’s time for the humanities to sing a new song”. (No link, sorry.) I’d figured he was moonlighting because that’s when El Pee was experiencing all sorts of server trouble.Posted by Tony.T.Teacher on 2008 04 05 at 12:01 AM • permalink
- #14
“The man who is not a socialist at twenty has no heart, but if he is still a socialist at forty he has no head.”
– Aristide BriandPosted by stackja1945 on 2008 04 05 at 12:11 AM • permalink
- The substance of LP’s claims – that there is no entrenched Left bias in the Humanities Faculties at Australian universities – is so laughable that even a cursory glance at their study programs provides evocative proof.
Take my old alma mater, Sydney Uni’s Faculty of Arts:
* Department of Art History and Film Studies
* Film Studies – yes, a different unit! Splitters!!
* Digital Cultures Program (Arts Informatics) – when I hear the word ‘culture’ I reach for my gun.
* International and Comparative Literary Studies – i.e. postmodernist crap
* School of Languages and Cultures – how the heck is the substance of this different from the immediately preceeding?
* Department of Gender and Cultural Studies – say no more (especially if a WASP male).
* Department of History – with not a single conservative academic
* Department of Government and International Relations – with not a single conservative academic
* Department of Political Economy – i.e. too Left even for the Economics Department
* Department of Sociology and Social Policy – Liberal voters? I think not.
* Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies – you know, the sort that award Peace Prizes to terrorists and their mouthpieces.Tenured radicals all.
So, nope, no problems there for ol’ Mark B. Everything just hunky dory in Academiaville.
Posted by Apparatchik on 2008 04 05 at 12:40 AM • permalink
- I notice some wanker in that thread sputtering about dickheads who decide to get a degree in environmental policy …ngo’s apparently still can’t quite force these ticks’ heads permanently into the host. NGO’s appear to have mites as well.Posted by stahlblume on 2008 04 05 at 12:56 AM • permalink
- #18 What is he at 60?
Very smart. I know I am.
To get a pass you have to have leftist bias in your “higher education” essays.
Why bother?Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 04 05 at 02:32 AM • permalink
- #24
Leonard Cohen
They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom For trying to change the system from within
I’m coming now I’m coming to reward them First we take Manhattan, then we take BerlinSo first we take LP then we take News?
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 04 05 at 03:07 AM • permalink
- “Doctor, can you explain this rash?”
“I’m guessing you’ve been out to Larvatus Prodeo.”
“How on earth did you know that?”
“Looks to me like an obvious case of bahnisch.”
Posted by Margos Maid on 2008 04 05 at 04:33 AM • permalink
- Je suis Nostradamus. En Anglais, first step towards replacing fatty, balding Phil as the leftist in residence.Posted by LaVallette on 2008 04 05 at 04:38 AM • permalink
- Je suis Nostradamus. First steps in finding a replacement for the elderly, predictable, “misspeaking” Phil, and all memories seared into his brain as the resident lefty at the OZ. Just trying him out in the Higher Education Supplement.Posted by LaVallette on 2008 04 05 at 04:45 AM • permalink
- Sorry; system showed a disconnection and first message not sent.So, which ever you prefer.Posted by LaVallette on 2008 04 05 at 04:47 AM • permalink
- Sent this off to the Oz comments page, wont be surprised if it is liquidated…
Given the large number of apparently odd research topics to gain funding why do you think this is?
“..Although there have been a number of surveys of academics’ political affiliation in the US, I’m not aware of any similar data for this country..”“Perhaps the data hasnt been collected because the results might be seen as a little lop sided?
A much more to the point article might ask why that data hasnt been collected.
The first step to clarity is to get the data, you are writing an article about what you think, with no data, despite (one would assume) the ease of gathering some.
I completed a law course a couple of years ago, not by answering what I thought but answering what I thought the prof wanted to hear. It worked.
All from what Id be inclined to call a “left” slant.”Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2008 04 05 at 08:33 AM • permalink
- #37, Frollicking, I did a half-unit in “Economic Development” many years ago, and the lecturer was so far out on the left, he made my brain hurt. He was absolutely fixated on the “Japanese” model of economic assistance, thinking that it was far superior to have a Japanese multinational setting up shop in say Chad than an American one. His hatred of all things Yank was astounding.
As an aside, he always wore sandals, long white socks and brown shorts.
Needless to say, I regurgitated all the shit that he wanted to hear through the year and got a good mark for my coursework.
Then came the exam. I got drunk beforehand, bought a ticket to Europe and spent 15 minutes writing a short essay describing what a pile of crap his course was and how much I was looking forward to being on the other side of the planet, away from him and his crap, before walking out to applause from my fellow students (who knew what I was up to).
If he is still there, I am sure he will be forcing students to study the Venezualuan system of development.
Posted by mr creosote on 2008 04 05 at 09:09 AM • permalink
- mr creosote
The funny thing was I still got blindsided by some left crap.In one section a magistrate was held to be at fault because the Aboriginal man accused had some personal history with his interpreter.
This ended up as grounds for an appeal, it was bizarre to find the interpreter wasn’t blamed, just the magistrate.
who didn’t speak the language.
Who used the court appointed interpreter.
Who didn’t know their background.But was held to have failed his duty. Weird stuff in bizzaroworld.
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2008 04 05 at 09:16 AM • permalink
- Apparently Mark likes to eat regularly. I’m not so sure about ghandi.Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2008 04 05 at 09:44 AM • permalink
- A very revealing “money quote” is in the paragraph after “What private employer isn’t open to ethical objections …?”
… mentioning souls no longer pure she blithely cites the example of public servants who work for a right wing government.
Posted by Steve at the pub on 2008 04 05 at 12:11 PM • permalink
- Is that where ghandi wound up?Posted by richard mcenroe on 2008 04 05 at 04:45 PM • permalink
- Mark Bahnisch is confused and misleading on this issue. He attempted to recruit Andrew Norton to smear the Liberal “stunt” and then ended up agreeing that it could do some good. As described on this site. Does his left hand know what his right hand is doing?
I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that my only shot at earning six figures at an early stage of my career would have been to ditch the academic life altogether. I’m not claiming any political virtue for refusing the odd offer that has come my way, but merely pointing out that I’ve exercised a choice to do what I enjoy doing and to privilege values other than the strictly material.
When one has no skills to sell, job offers tend to be odd. Deadhead.
Cheers
Posted by J.M. Heinrichs on 2008 04 05 at 07:11 PM • permalink
- The first money I ever made, $10 for feeding the neighbors cat for a week, is tainted? My whole life has been a lie. I never knew my food and shelter allotment was to come from a government entity. I blame my parents.Posted by dean martin on 2008 04 06 at 06:11 AM • permalink
