…then it probably isn’t true, right?
I don’t know what else could explain this monograph which appears alongside Greg Sheridan’s columns at The Oz:
Greg Sheridan is the most influential foreign affairs commentator in Australia.
Technically this is true. I suppose the marketing people jazzed it up from the first draft - ‘Greg Sheridan is the only foreign affairs commentator in Australia.’
But that shouldn’t deter us from pondering Mr Sheridan’s influence behind Australia’s signing of Kyoto, the dismantling of the Pacific Solution, the impending Iraq withdrawal and our recognition of Kosovo.
Perhaps Mr Sheridan’s influence can best be seen at work in the timing and venue of the former foreign minister’s luncheon appointments.
Nevertheless, the future looks bleak for Mr Sheridan’s influence. As I depart for San Francisco in two days’ time, he stands to lose fully 20% of his readership.
In the months to come, I hope to bring LP readers some up-close views of US education policies. So, until my next missive from across the Pacific, may I bid you farewell from the nicest, gentlest, most sweet-tempered education commentator in the Southern Hemisphere.
I think the marketing department missed an opportunity there: technically, Greg Sheridan is the most influential Australian foreign affairs commentator in the world! In the history of the 21st century even.
I read Greg’s offering today. He’s still delusional. (Iraq’s going well, Obama will cause a catastrophe in the Middle East, … ) I don’t know why I bothered.
Good luck and Bon Voyage, Mercurius!! I look forward to your blogs from the US.
I thought Sheridan’s article today was quite disturbing, actually, and I’m surprised there has been so little reaction to it.
Sheridan is an idiot, but like it or not he moves in circles of powerful idiots. Now he is saying that Israel may well have “no alternative but to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities”, particularly if Obama wins. And Bush and/or Israel might even attack Iran “if it looks like Obama will win”.
That’s close to psychotic. He’s almost threatening US voters to choose McCain… or else! And somehow he thinks that it is in Australia’s interests if McCain wins, because he can “handle” a nuclear Iran. And we all know how that’s going to pan out, right? “Bomb, bomb, bomb…”
Bush and his neoconservative supporters are getting increasingly desperate. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sheridan is channelling some dangerous talking points here. I’d like to laugh him off as yet another incoherent Murdoch hack, but I fear there may be more to this than meets the eye.
I’m sure Greg’s got real pull with the Rudd Government. I mean, they’ve just gotta be hanging on his every word, now that he’s lunching with the Toad of Toad Hall.
I can see it now: “Greg, sould we ditch the contract for those second-rate fighters Nelson signed us-up for?…Greg, should we join the Yanks when they nuke Teheran, or just applaud politely? Greg, should we break-off diplomatic relations with them if Obama gets the job? Greg..Greg..Greg.
What a wanker. He oughta put away his copy of The Deep Thoughts of Ronald Reagan and take-up chess or something.
Check out the latest Keating attack on the woz stablemate of Sheridan.
[link]
The money quote from Keating:
“Albrechtsen is a no-talent proselytiser for causes overtaken by history and events.”
Indeed.
Back to Sheridan, I can just see Stephen Smith hanging off his every word. Not.
“Nevertheless, the future looks bleak for Mr Sheridan’s influence. As I depart for San Francisco in two days’ time, he stands to lose fully 20% of his readership”
Look forward to a detailed analysis by Dennis Shanahan on the figures, and the outcome as it affects John Howard. Bloggers will prredictaby provide an amateurish counterpoint.
FLAME ON
There is a land across the sea
Where Neocons can hold sway
Where the Ratbag Right can settle
To get them out of our way
The Kulcha Wars are fought all day
In this idyllic life
John Howard is Prime Minister
David Flint the Queen for life
Pauline Hanson deports all
Who are not of pallid hue
“Iron Bar” Tuckey beats them first
Until they’re black and blue
No latte sippers here allowed
Only bogans with VB
No Muslims, Africans or those
Who like the ABC
There’s just one God and He is Bush
Fundamentalism’s taught in schools
This place has its own Taliban
So dissenters will know the rules
Gays are all back in the closet
Women at the kitchen sink
“Unions” is a no-no word
No one is allowed to think
They get their Newspeak daily
From Janet, Bolt and Blair
From Shanahan and Sheridan
Their thoughts are everywhere
A paradise for all who wish
To leave Rudd’s new Australia
Because November 24th
Showed them their price of failure
Let them pass to their new land
Christmas Island or Nauru
For accommodation is already there
They built it, so let them make do
Keating was too nice ro Janet, whom I never read, except through links provided for purposes of discussion on LP. As for Sheridan - guess he must have been chatting with Dolly, who had been chatting with the Wollstonecraft Hermit (I’m told some journo pinched that from LP) who, as we all remember didn’t like the idea of Obama running against, and even beating the American Imbecile. (Because Obama was black?) Lets hope nobody in the White House takes Sheridan seriously. What the pollies do here in OZ is utterly irrelevant.
sorcerer @ 10
Great work
“Check out the latest Keating attack on the woz stablemate of Sheridan.”
He da man!
Thanks for the link to Keating article, Steve - made my day. What I love about Keating is, he takes it personally! And why shouldn’t he? Albrechtsen and other have made living for many years from slagging off his name.
can we get a post up about the “Silence Of The Hermit”?
Some 12 or so years ago, as an undergrad, I spoke to the ANU’s Michael McKinley re Gareth-Gareth’s attempt to get an Aussie on the UN Security Council. As part of the interview/conversation (somewhere I still have the tape!), I mentioned Greg Sheridan’s piece in the Aus that week. McKinley’s exact words still stick in my head: “I don’t pay that much attention to what Greg Sheridan says…”
McKinley has occasional articles in the Fairfax press and is interviewed by the ABC here and there (so he’s probably a leftist and can’t be trusted), but his analysis of global politics is IMHO superior to any other “expert’s”.
Slightly off-topic, I know, but Planet has done a huuuuuge dummy-spit about Keating’s spray. Se seems to think it validates her position, or something. I tried reading it (Planet’s piece, that is - Keating was, as always, enormously entertaining), but almost lost the will to live about three sentences in.