I’m watching ABC tv news at the moment, and there’s a classic instance of the sort of thing I was complaining about in a previous post. A story by Greg Jennett on Kevin Rudd’s trip to Japan was introduced and framed with the claim that it’s “an open secret” that the Japanese government was deeply unhappy with Rudd’s supposed focus on China. The only support for this “objective news” in the story was two grabs from Opposition shadow foreign minister Andrew Robb, whose partisan spin was identical to the alleged facts in the intro from the newsreader and in reporter Jennett’s story.
So “news” becomes the press gallery narrative, which is identical with the opposition’s claims.
Wouldn’t any journalist worth the name have actually tried to ask the Japanese government what they were thinking? Even if they believed that the answer would be diplomatic niceties, surely it’s not beyond the resources of the ABC to cultivate some contacts in Japan? But, no, too much work. Much easier to assume that whatever Andrew Robb says is gospel truth. Pathetic.
If this story isn’t the most confected pile of press gallery merde I don’t know what is. And you’re right, I haven’t seen anything anywhere where an Australian journo has asked the Japs themselves to comment publicly on this, I suspect that it’s because they will get the diplomatic answer and that does not fit into their little bit of opposition inspired made up fantasy.
Maybe LP needs to start a regular weekly post canvassing it’s readership on the kinds of questions the press gallery should be asking on the daily issues, surely they wouldn’t mind the help would they? Lets call it “Helpful hints for the Press Gallery”.
Not a bad idea at all, Phil. We might be able to count on their laziness to actually get some of the questions asked!
So are you Mark, truely pathetic. A pathetic apologist for Kevin Rudd. All the time a simple consistent though incredibly stupid line viz: {Rudd = good, Criticisms of Rudd = bad}.
Do you have a brain? Anything approximating an independent mind that can think?
It is a confused pathos too. While you present yourself as a man of the left Rudd is a mealy-mouthed bureaucrat who stands for nothing that you would hold important.
What losers you both are.
Ah, harry, whose own blog comments threads are full of claims that people who don’t agree with you aren’t civil.
You can forget about commenting here again. You’re obviously completely incapable of any form of polite engagement.
Its an easy way of filling a few minutes of “air time” for bugger all. The media in Oz overall are pretty slack, you can probably learn more of what is happening with a few middies at the local than in the local paper.
My old man found a rather large nest of corruption at the Gero council involving one of the towns biggest building companies. It wasnt hard to uncover, and in the end, he let the council know what he had found and got an outcome he wanted in a claim he had against them.
My point being journos should be looking for crap, not sitting back and waiting to be drip fed leaks.
Did I hear someone from Melbourne just have an organism….or was that orgasms? They’re so confused down there. Nice brain snap HC!
Completely weird.
Weird isn’t the word for it.
Back to the story. Where is Stephen Smith in all of this? I think this government is starting to resemble the Whitlam government in an important respect. For 18 months or so Whitlam was foreign minister as well as PM. He then officially relinquished the post to Don Willessee, but remain de fact Forein Minister. He just couldn’t let go. Foreign policy was his passion, and he wasn’t going to let the mere fact that he was PM stop him from diving into the minutiae of it. Rudd has got a touch of the Whitlams, methinks.
As for the Japs, who cares what they think? Just so long as they remember who won the war.
My first question for the gallery?
“Prime Minister Fukuda, if you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?” and a follow up question, “Is it true that Japan plans to extend it’s scientific research into Bonsai whales in the Great Southhern Ocean?”
I thought it was just the regionals using Opposition spokesmen for comments re Government stories ,but the same applies now to seemingly all ABC news and bringing them very close to the commercial programs for style and content.Eerily reminds me of the attitude to the Whitlam era.
Mark, are you sure this hc is the real hc?
Can’t believe it myself.
Perhaps after an afternoon of tippling? But only for research purposes of course.
Unbelievable. Pathetic. And in spades. All round.
I support the concept of keeping a log of MSM ommissions, perhaps with the restriction of them being federally related. Be most unfortunate to be chasing the Daily Terror among others down every rabbit hole. So a standing brief on the Canberra press corp. A weekly query list of opinion masquerading as fact.
I would also be interested in what might include under reporting.
For example, I’m still curious as to why Australia turned over their Iraqi base at Taren Kaut (?) to US forces and not to the Iraqis. Is the province they were supposedly protecting incapable of coming under local control as the Brits did when they withdrew from nearby Basra. Do we have to wait for an Ed Loughlin piece from on the ground in Iraq to fill in the gaps left out of the Canberra corps’ reading/filing of a Rudd press release?
Less offensive than the nasty pro Israeli propaganda piece earlier on SBS.
That speaks more of the bottomless contempt the writer feels for the (typical, as to this subject) SBS peice than any respect from reactionary ABC baiters of whale lovers and Laborites.
Pablo,
The following quote from The Age of about a week ago might answer your question:
wpd at 11, yes it’s the real hc. It’s not the first time.
Yes Mark, and the “frame” on this confected news item has been developing over the past fortnight through News Ltd Dancing Bears Sheridan, Shanahan and Akerman, who have been relentlessly spinning the not-happy-jappy line without any evidence whatsoever.
Its all rubbish, well spotted.
But it is beginning to look like the Howardistas did manage to stack the ABC news room after all - beginning their long march through the institutions of power no doubt…..
“wpd at 11, yes it’s the real hc. It’s not the first time.”
Unbelievable. And he talks about losers.
Talk about trashing the ‘professor’ brand.
Mark, the story doesn’t eminate from Opposition, as you like to claim.
This story has its roots in a Greg Sheridan article several months ago where he claimed Japanese bureaucrats he had contacts with had told him Japan was very upset that Stephen Smith announced Australia was withdrawing from the Quad security dialogue with India, USA and Japan, but he made the mistake of announcing this while at a press conference with the Chinese (Premier?). As China has been whinging about the Quads from day-one, Japan too the manner in which the withdrawal was announced as sucking up to China, and a slight on them.
If you think this story has no merit other than the Opposition, you should maybe frie off an email to Greg Sheridan and ask him who his contacts in the Japanese bureaucracy are.
You asked for info from contacts in Japan, and there you have it, though I suspect you don’t like that, so will blow it off as only being from Greg Sheridan. Which in itself would do nothing to disprove the claims.
I really should proof read for typos, shouldn’t I?
It’s a chicken and egg thing, Stephen - Sheridan or the opposition? Who’s been running with it? When did Sheridan’s column first appear - before or after Nelson started pushing it… and let me just say that Sheridan’s been wrong a lot, and is hardly without his own agenda on all this stuff.
In any case the fact that Sheridan may have contacts in Japan doesn’t mean that ABC journalists shouldn’t cultivate some and put this stuff to Japanese officials. Unless the actual task of news gathering is to be outsourced to op/ed columnists who provide opinion not reportage?
Stephen Lloyd, whether it’s right or wrong, that sort of editorial shouldn’t occur in the news bulletin. It’s op ed stuff and it’s important to separate fact from opinion.
Given that, I’ve heard whispers that Labor ministers are hard to contact, whereas it’s easy to get sound-bite from a Lib. I think Labor needs to look at its media management. Journos work on very tight deadline and bulletins have to filled up.
Same kind of thing happened on ‘Insiders’ this morning - you had Julie Bishop and the pundits talking about the disregard Rudd has shown to Japan and the great offence he has caused. At some stage, one of the bobbleheads actually asked whether anyone had confirmed with the Japanese that they were offended - Piers Akerman replied that he had just been talking to a Japanese speaker and could confirm that it was a big flamin’ deal. One of the most preposterous conversations I have seen, even within this context of increasingly preposterous discourse. (and BTW, the Heiner affair is going to become a big deal on the federal stage in the next couple of weeks)
Which of course is part of the problem isn’t it. So Labor is getting done over on this because of their so called media management issues (another press gallery complaint BTW) rather than fact?
Heh!
Tobias and Ms.Pettigrew mention that fool Akerman, wild eyed demented after the fashion of Bolt. Doing his “fourth form of St Trinians” this morning on Insiders, like the fat, whining frump that he is, he set forth a frenzied Blather concerning NSW Minister Della Bosca for alleged misbehaviour at a function somewhere, to the embarrassment of his co-panellists. But just a little while ago an SMH article online refuted the story citing comments from the establishment involved.
Hands up who has noticed the Murdoch pursuit of Della Bosca, the spokeperson of the anti privatisation forces, since Iemma’s unmasking and embarrassment a month ago.
maybe the journo’s? in question could have their membership of the MAEA changed from full member to “provisional” nad then. subsequently publish a list of said ‘provisionals’ with a proviso to use extreme caution when reading/listening to their “opinions”. a tag line along the lines of “not authorised by the liberal party but actually paid for” would also work a treat
To me ‘The Insiders’ was always a program designes to appease the anti-ABC conservative commentators anyway.
I also would like to say that SBS news also seems to suffer from this anti-Rudd bias. It sounded like Brendan Nelson was almost ahead of Rudd in the polls the way they went on about it when Newspoll came out.
Correct me If I’m wrong, but it is my recollection that immediately after the Murdoch press raised this nonsense at the time of Rudd’s trip to China, the Japanese Government was going through some serious internal problems.
I also recall that the only comment ellicited from a Japanese Government official by the press attack dogs was an acknowledgement that it was not at all perturbed, that Rudd’s China visit was entirely opportune and appropriate, and that a later visit would better suit the Japanese political situation.
Apparently this was too nebulous for the fatheads to absorb.
Apologies for the length… All way more complex than Sheridan and the ABC would ever bother to report.
Just reading some articles from Japan Times on-line. The second quote is from an article which is interesting as it provides a bit of background to the kind of manoeuvring going re: the Quad, whether you agree with it’s overall analysis or not, but possibly points to why Rudd announced his proposed Asia-Pacific Community alternative like, just before his trip to Japan (rather than what some dumbarse opp. member was given airtime for alluding to - ie. diverting attention away from fuelwatch or the price of chicko rolls) or what Sheridan states is ‘just cobbled together’.
Nov 26, 2007
Peter Drysdale, an economist and former executive director of the Australia-Japan Research Center is quoted in one article:
“I think the most important thing to understand, and it’s not widely appreciated in Japan, is that a Rudd government will bring continuity in Australia’s foreign policy approach, generally, and toward Japan,” Drysdale said.
After recently travelling to Japan, Drysdale said he detected a lot of anxiety and expectations about the implications of a Rudd government because of his background. “It’s a total misread of what a Rudd government would mean in Australia,” Drysdale said. “I think a lot of foreign policy analysts in Japan are inept at analyzing these things. If they analyze in terms of personal connections and so on they miss the point.”
While fundamental policies should remain the same, Rudd will have a deeper understanding of Australia’s relationship with the U.S. and Japan, and will look to use this to develop more constructive political and economic relations with China, Drysdale said. But one area that Drysdale predicts will be affected by the change in government is Japan and Australia’s free-trade negotiations. “I think Rudd will pursue this more vigorously than Howard,” he said.
***
Brahma Chellaney, a professor of strategic studies at the privately funded Center for Policy Research in New Delhi.
20 Feb 2008
“The Howard government wasn’t exactly enthused by the Quad proposal when it was first floated. Beijing had already taken a dim view of Canberra’s U.S.-backed bilateral and trilateral defense tie-ups with Tokyo. But Howard was persuaded by the U.S. to take part in the initiative.
Australia’s growing wariness, admittedly, may be no different from India’s. After having called liberal democracy “the natural order of social and political organization in today’s world,” Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on the eve of his China visit last month that the Quad “never got going.”
Even the U.S. has publicly downplayed the initiative, whose real architect, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who had spoken of an “arc of freedom and prosperity” stretching across Asia, was driven out of office last fall.
Yet, it is significant that the Quad staged weeklong war games in the Bay of Bengal five months ago, roping in Singapore. Those war games came close on the heels of major military exercises involving practically all SCO members in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region. (China that took the lead in 2001 to form the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to help unite it with Eurasian strongmen in a geopolitical alliance. Designed originally to bring the Central Asian nations — the so-called Stans — under the Chinese sphere of influence, the SCO is today shaping up as a potential “NATO of the East.”)
The Quad was not intended to be a formal institution. McCain, however, in a recent article published in Foreign Affairs, said: “As president, I will seek to institutionalize the new quadrilateral security partnership among the major Asia-Pacific democracies: Australia, India, Japan and the United States.” McCain also has larger ambitions: “A ‘worldwide League of Democracies’ that could be a “unique handmaiden of freedom.”
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20080220bc.html
***
Sheridan manages to avoid all the hard stuff in his piece yesterday, instead just makes alot of noise & paints Rudd as some naive Beijing patsy…. it’s all about telephone calls…. and who studied what at university….
“Now there are broadly two types of East Asianists: the Chrysanthemum Club and the Panda Huggers. Ashton Calvert, the brilliant Japanologist who headed the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for several years under John Howard, was a Chrysanthemum Club man, with, I think, four diplomatic postings in Tokyo.
If your mind is formed in a Chinese consciousness, you tend to be anti-Japanese, to see them as a derivative and second-rate culture. If your mind is formed in a Japanese consciousness, you tend to be anti-Chinese, seeing them as historical and cultural rivals and a brooding, menacing presence.”
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,23823013-7583,00.html
****
It will be v. interesting to see what Rudd actually does in Tokyo. I’m hoping just like his China trip, that he’ll confound his detractors.
Observing Japan’s post today, Rudd’s vision, is of much interest regarding potential Japanese support for an APC.
Maybe the Mercurius @ Keating vs Rudd 22 chess game is a few more moves in than we imagine.
Also worth a read is an earlier Observing Japan post, Japan passing, Australian style, especially the comments of James below, regarding the fact that Simon Crean’s vist to Japan in January was the very first of the new Government’s overseas trips (check Japan’s MOFA Press Release also), and how the ’snub’ was (barely) reported in Japanese media at the time.
Akerman on Insiders today couldn’t have sounded more like a propagandistic cog-head.
Predict egg on face very soon.
Didn’t Stephen Smith go to Japan very soon after the government was elected and announce that his doing so was a deliberate signal of the government’s foreign policy priorities? Was that too boring for the press to note/remember because it couldn’t be beaten up into some partisan nonsense? If the only “serious” journalism on foreign affairs we get is from Greg Sheridan, we’re in deep doo doo.
So true Nick (useful links) & Kim. So tired of the SPIN.
“Akerman on Insiders today couldn’t have sounded more like a propagandistic cog-head. Predict egg on face very soon.”
lol…will add to the omelette.
Yes…
Also worth noting Stephen Smith’s preferencing of the Japan relationship(s) in this speech to ASPI, two months ago in April.
And just generally that Japan were so outraged and offended at our Government’s stance on Japanese whaling, in March they invited them to the G8 forum, July 7–9.
So Rudd will be back there again within a month.
Benedictus @ 28 - you recall correctly. Fukuda at the time was facing a distinct possibility of crucial defeats in the Diet and a total block of his legislative agenda. Dissolving his government early was an option he was seriously considering. There was a slim but real chance that his Prime Ministership wouldn’t last until the end of Rudd’s tour.
Suffice to say, a tea ceremony with Rudd wasn’t high on his to-do list that month.
Perhaps if Greg Sheridan’s relied less on his “well-placed” sources and more on The Japan Times (hint: it’s in English, Greg!), he’d be able to do some straighter reporting:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080118f1.html
Well, for better or worse, Fukuda has survived (for now), and so the visit can proceed.
And, yeah - I look forward to hearing from the Murdoch Muppets about how all the photo-ops of the two PMs all smiling and tickety-boo means that the Oz-Japan relationship faces unprecedented crisis.
And do expect to hear further diplomatic noise about Rudd’s Greater East Indo-Australasian Co-Prosperity Sphere
Wow, I only had to write the same letter 5-6 times before they published it (albeit in a truncated form)
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/letters/index.php/theaustralian/comments/good_to_play_hard_to_get/
Greg Sheridan … he supported the invasion of Iraq didn’t he?
And he’s still employed as a foreign correspondent?
Is the Opposition Organ’s cupboard so bare?
As for Harry Clark, the only explanation for his outburst is that he selected a spoiled bottle of Ben Ean Moselle from the back of his drinks cabinet.
“Wouldn’t any journalist worth the name have actually tried to ask the Japanese government what they were thinking? Even if they believed that the answer would be diplomatic niceties, surely it’s not beyond the resources of the ABC to cultivate some contacts in Japan? But, no, too much work…”
There is the whole problem of restricted access due to the role of press clubs in Japan. Basically all news especially anything as controversial as a negative criticism of a foreigner would be feed out through a favoured member of the press clubs.It is unlikely anything official would be anything but diplomatic nicities.
This link gives some background about the role the press clubs play.
http://www.japanmediareview.com/japan/media/1056657646.php
I have heard and witnessed many times the so-called journalism of the ABC pretending expertise in a manner… Their journalism is an excuse,often,for breathing in a manner that allows one to sound authorative.The rest is of another type of windbag. In my case as listener.. “familarity has bred contempt.”
As I’ve commented on another thread, yesterday’s Insiders was clearly anti-Labor, so much so that I really, really noticed it.
I don’t mind if the media gives the Rudd Government a serve. Sometimes they really deserve it eg Henson controversy,cuts to solar energy subsidy,failure to increase all pensions. And sure, sometimes these criticisms are going to be Opposition talking points. None o0f that worries me.
What does worry me is a flavour coming into commercial TV news, more than the ABC and SBS, that is reminiscent of the anti-Labor hysteria of the Whitlam years. My fear is that between now and the next election this hysteria will build, as it did with the Whitlam Government and we’ll see a similar campaign to destroy, what is, on balance, a government more preferable than Howardism. Some of the things they do or don’t do make me shudder, but they definitely, unlike Keating/Hawke, are not A(nother) L(iberal) P(arty).
Back to the ABC News piece that started this thread: I did notice that Jennett happily referenced “Japanese officials” at being upset about the Rudd Government’s so-called ’snub’. And then, expecting a cut to said Japanese officials for a juicy quote, what do we get but another sound-bite from Andrew ‘The Google Assassin’ Robb! That really was pathetic.
I also liked how nearly the whole report was backed by pictures of whale after whale being harpooned. Is that the only Japanese stock-footage they own?
Deeply concerning.
Mercurius @ 34, Very interesting!
If all goes well for Kevin I guess the MSM will be obliged to focus on how ‘frumpy’ Therese looked!
Mercurius @ 34, you didn’t by any chance get Fukuda confused with Abe who was facing a no-confidence motion at the time and was replaced by Fukuda.
also on ‘insiders’ Barry Cassidy asked Bishop her position on the changes to foreign aid re: abortion programs which she admitted was hypocritical given these programs are available here in Oz. You would have thought the next question would have been well how do you reconcile this with the fact that until six months ago you were a minister in a government that instituted and maintained this policy for ten years, Isn’t this a bit hypocritical? But no instead we got the sneering dorothy dixer from BC to B ‘well would it help if the PM and For.Min. clarified their position? It appears the ABC is going to give the tories a complete pass on their contradictory positions ie. a WA senator, 85% of wa’s, and 3/4 state opposition leaders think fuelwatch good/worth alook (all conveniantly swept under carpet for period of controversy) and instead maintain a constant stream of snear and smear directed at the Labor Govt.
Er no, I think you’ll find Abe fell some time late 2007, before Kevin07 became PM08.
Fukuda’s been in since then, but has had trouble getting his bills past.
This effort by David Burchell is a classic case of the shallow level of opinionated nonsense that we continually see in today’s media.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23831642-7583,00.html
As an example of an effort at undergraduate standard assignment writing it would receive a pass mark but as a supposedly serious contemporary article in a MS journal, it is so deficient in so many ways that the average reader, with a basic knowledge of history and culture would be left shaking their head in disbelief after an in depth read of it.
Burchell puts himself inside the mind and thought processes of so many different individuals as well as the whole population of the US and, depending on the reader’s awareness of the subject matter and political leaning, virtually everyone could agree or disagree with virtually every point he is trying to unveil.
A simple example is the following which I can wholeheartedly agree with, but others would not.
{John Howard grappled like a man possessed, first to get the job and then to retain it, as if the prime ministership were his only possible source of air.}
And this, which I think is bunkum, but others may not.
{Kevin Rudd also gives off the air of a man who has convinced himself he was born for this job alone, as if the diadem had been forged especially for him.}
He could also have said that Rudd believes that in the current situation, that he is the best placed person to lead the country through the troubled waters ahead.
Definitely, Burchell’s take on Historical figures and their influence on world events gives cause for individuals to pause and wonder at how he arrived at those conclusions.
It is well worth a close read. I would love to see a close analysis of it by others more qualified than me and read their conclusions of it.
Um that would cut into their drinking time Mark.
>
Story: my first bit of experience in journalism came when I did some intern stuff at a commercial TV newsroom. One day the local minister claimed that used car dealers in a certain part of the city were a bunch of crooks. So we sped away to said district. The journo, who I won’t name, said: “What we’ve got to do is find some dickhead we can frame as a crook…” Etc.
>
We get there. We find a very shonky looking dealership with a fellow out of central casting. He was monstrously ugly with carbunkles on the carbunkles on the warts on his nose; slovenly, dirty, mashed and greasy. The cars looked much worse then he did, most of ‘em were obviously unroadworthy. So the journo confronts him with minister’s assertions and the guy comes right back with some bit of bullshit as to how he buys the cars off people ’cause he doesn’t want unroadworthy vehicles on the streets, doing his civic duty y’see.
>
And the journo bought it!!! That’s the story he ran! And he’s now a Major figure. Wankey award winning and everythang! Look in any paper, magazine whatever - you’ll be hard pressed to find hard news and when you do it’ll be very light on. They simply feed chow to the Monster (we’re the Monster).
“also on ‘insiders’ Barry Cassidy asked Bishop her position on the changes to foreign aid re: abortion programs which she admitted was hypocritical given these programs are available here in Oz. You would have thought the next question would have been well how do you reconcile this with the fact that until six months ago you were a minister in a government that instituted and maintained this policy for ten years, Isn’t this a bit hypocritical? But no instead we got the sneering dorothy dixer from BC to B ‘well would it help if the PM and For.Min. clarified their position? It appears the ABC is going to give the tories a complete pass on their contradictory positions.”
The ban was put in place to placate Brian Harradine when he was influential in the Senate. In 2007, a cross-party committee recommended that it be rescinded. The issue divides opinion in both the parties but Labor is in government and Stephen Smith is the Minister empowered to change the policy. Given the passion that the issue evokes, journalistic attention is a given.
“Given the passion that the issue evokes, journalistic attention is a given.”
Yep, GH @48 that is the history.
Still, why didn’t Barry Cassidy, ask Julie Bishop a few critical questions, about this subject, that she might have some knowledge about? It is pretty obvious that the Lib/Nats, are all over the shop, on the legislation that THEY ran, for the Harradine vote. Nelson is opposed, while she is for change….Boswell threatening…Washer for repeal.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/04/2264812.htm
She seemed to be completly, let off the hook, as Fat Freddy suggested. Just because you lose power, does not mean that the slate is clean, as many journos seem to believe.
“Also worth noting Stephen Smith’s preferencing of the Japan relationship(s) in this speech to ASPI, two months ago in April.”
Indeed. Not exactly the middle finger to Japan that some Libs & Murdoch minions are howling about. Thnx for the link Nick.
“It is pretty obvious that the Lib/Nats, are all over the shop, on the legislation that THEY ran, for the Harradine vote”
There’s division in the ALP as well joe2. They’re now the government so the ability of Stephen Smith to deliver on the cross-party committee’s recommendation becomes the
guts of the story. It’s not a question of letting the Coalition off the hook. The fact that lots of them are troglodytes on the issue is a matter of record but they don’t have to deliver on the policy change.
I missed Insiders as soon as I was Ackerman I turned it off,Bolt is just a dissembling twit but Ackerman is a very sick bit of work,how anyone could believe anything he says is beyond be.
What did he say about Hiner,I had thought that this bit of rubbish had be laid waste in the OZ last time he dragged it out,why they have this turkey on I dont know
There seem to be two subthreads up and running.
One deals withthe mendacity of media and press.The other deals with Rudds efforts to engage the semingly recalcitrant Japanese in discussions concerning real world issues.
Firstly the whale murderers. They pretend it is we who are in the wrong, but it is
they who lie over the “scientific” harvesting of rare species.
Back to vile Aussie press/media.
Re Bunter Akerman’s Della Bosca smear, why has SMH suddenly changed its tune re this from “jp with liberal connections takes stat decs”, to Iemma(magesterially…hypocritically? )”ordering Della Bosca not to drive…”?
Its a complicated issue. No doubt the Japanese government are rather concerned about Rudd visiting Japan on a later trip to the China trip. They are worried this may signal a preference for China by Australia and Rudd. And the beat-up by the MSM on this has probably made them more worried.
But in fact they and the MSM should stop worrying, because Kevin more than most knows the problems that a rising China may cause. He is not a
chinaphile. He is a china realist. He will be determined to establish good relations with the Japanese government so that together we (ie Japan & Australia) and others in the Asia region can manage the impact of the Chinese behemoth. He is in a unique position to play the ‘good friend of China’ role, and will be able to get different points of view through to the Chinese leadership that others could not do. In fact, paradoxically, the apparent differences with Japan that the MSM are beating up, may have the side-effect of increasing Kevin’s credibility with the Chinese, and so he will more easily be able to foster the interests of both Australia and Japan vis-a-vis China.
There realy is a dearth of recent information re. Australia’s invitation as a guest to the G8 summit…was starting to wonder if I had my facts wrong.
But this interview yesterday with Shigeyuki Hiroki, “deputy director-general for international cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”, appears to confirm it:
Africa: G8 Summit - Japan To Champion Continent’s Cause
The ABC hasn’t changed one bit.
In an unexpected development, perhaps this site has progressed a little toward reality?
Last year anyone who suggested on this site that there was bias in ABC reporting was either shouted down, informed they were a fool, or was advised that bias (ABC style) is “good”.
The ABC is still as sloppy, narrow minded and even on occassion, downright biased as it ever was.
mark says:
Of course the press gallery is going to take on opposition talking points in order to drum up interest on a slow news day. Which is more or less every day now that the political worlds most boring man is our leader.
The ABC and other news networks played the same kind of oppo-researched gotcha game with Howard. Its called the “adversarial process” and it is the ethos that informs our legal, political and journalistic industries. Also blogging, in case you hadn’t noticed.
Journos, like lawyers and politicos, rise in the status-hierarchy to the extent that they can claim the scalp of an opposing big-wig. Its no surprise that an ABC journo would want to take an ALP PM down a peg or two. ‘Twas ever thus, even under Hawke and Keating.
The tall poppy lopping syndrome must be even more tempting given Rudd’s stellar poll numbers. Especially given the way some members of the op-ed and blogoshphere are given to shameless fawning and synchophancy over him (no names, no pack drill).
Terangeree
Thanks for that explanation. Will add ‘The Age’ to my reading list.
Get real, SATP, there was a chorus of people complaining about anti-Labor bias prior to the election. Since the election, nothing much has changed, except of course that Labor is the government.
Bloody hell - now “the ABC understands” that there is concern because Rudd hasn’t accepted his invitation to the Olympics. The source of the only quote in the article suggesting Rudd urgently needs to tell China he’s coming? Andrew Robb.
Looks like we’re going around for another lap.
Yes Tobias, infuriating isn’t it. This item was 3rd or 4th on the main news, after a mildly positive story about Rudd’s visit to Japan. In the news highlights, the Japan story was deleted to be replaced by this negative beat-up.
mark says:
Actually there is some objective support for the Opposition line. The Japanese are obviously annoyed with Rudd over his overtly pro-Chinese tilt, esp things like cancelling the quadrilateral dialogue involving the US, Australia, Japan and India. This strategic re-posture was obviously a snub to Japan and a sop to China.
And then there was the Australian hoo-ha about Japanese whaling. Way over the top, and a calculated offence to Japanese domestic political sensibilities.
mark says:
The Japanese are too polite to voice their concerns in public forums. Anyone who knows the Japanese diplomatic style would realise this immediately. They communicate their displeasure by silence, not by giving voice. Japanese PM Yakuda’s recent speech on the APEC region was eloquent in its slight of Australia’s role in the region.
This on the verge of Rudd’s big “Asian Union” kite flight. It seems a reality check about our importance is in order.
mark says:
The idea that the ABC is a hot-bed of pro-LN/P bias would strain the credulity of an African witchdoctor. I guess I should not be surprised that Mark is prepared to countenance it, let alone dedicate two posts to this absurd premise.
The list of ABC journos who have become ALP politicos is endless. Bolt reels it off:
But this hardly does justice to the ABC’s political bias which is best described as moderate Green, rather than pro-ALP.
http://friendsoftheabc.org/why-cant-liberal-party-sympathisers-get-jobs-in-the-abc
“……a significant number of ABC staff have had Coalition connections. For example:
Gary Hardgrave, a former minister in the Howard government, is a former journalist with the Brisbane bureau of the ABC’s 7.30 Report.
Peter Collins, Leader of the Liberal Party in NSW for several years, was also a former ABC TV journalist.
Peter McArthur, a former current affairs reporter and TV newsreader for the ABC served several years in the Victorian parliament as a Liberal member.
Bruce Webster was a sports broadcaster for the ABC and later the Liberal member for Pittwater in the NSW parliament.
Jim Bonner, after leaving the staff of Malcolm Fraser, held senior editorial positions with ABC radio and television in Canberra and Adelaide. He later resumed his connection with the Liberal Party when he assumed the position of Director of the Liberal Party in South Australia.
Pru Goward, a Canberra based high profile ABC journalist reported on federal politics for a number of years. She recently won Liberal Party pre-selection for a seat in NSW.
Cathy Job, a current affairs presenter for ABC radio in Brisbane became a media adviser to David Kemp after resigning from the ABC.
Vicki Thompson, a senior political reporter for ABC radio in Adelaide became Chief of Staff for John Olsen, Liberal Premier of South Australia.
Ian Cover, a member of the ABC’s Coodabeen Champions crew, served as a Liberal member of the Victorian Parliament between 1996 and 2002. (Note: the Coodabeens focus was on sport rather than politics).
Rob Messenger was ABC radio broadcaster in Bundaberg. He is now the National Party member for Burnett in the Queensland parliament.
Grant Woodhams, National Party member for Greenough in WA worked with ABC radio in Tasmania, South Australia, NSW and Victoria.
Ken Cooke, State Director of the National Party for 13 years, and a close associate of Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, was an ABC journalist before taking up his position with the National Party.
Chris Nicholls, an Adelaide ABC journalist, broke a story revealing that Barbare Wiese, a minister in the Bannon Labor government in South Australia, was involved in a conflict of interest. He was accused of improperly obtaining details of Weise’s financial affairs, but was acquitted. Nicholls, and his story, were defended by the ABC’s News Editor, and the ABC State Manager. Some time later he left the ABC to work for Liberal Senator, Grant Chapman.
Eoin Cameron,the former Liberal member for the federal seat of Stirling, presents the breakfast program on ABC local radio in Perth. He is a popular and respected broadcaster.
Cameron Thompson worked for the ABC in Longreath and Darwin before winning the seat of Blair for the Liberal Party.
The current State Director of the ABC in Queensland, Chris Wordsworth, is a former press officer for one time Liberal Defence Minister John Moore.
Darce Cassidy February 2007″
FFS Jack, does your reading ever extend beyond the Murdoch press.
Silly question.
***
“In any case, the notion that Australia killed the quad is just one of many myths about that mysterious forum, its origins, disappearance and the question of whether it has a future.
Meanwhile in Washington, the idea that democracies work best with democracies was gathering steam. Think tanks promoted a world order based on a ‘concert of democracies’.
Then came a push by a new Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, to arrest Japan’s eclipse by China. He saw India and Australia as the extra security partners Japan needed, and called for ‘values-oriented diplomacy’, an ‘arc of freedom and prosperity’ and a new four-country forum.
Canberra, Washington and New Delhi responded coolly, even if some voices, notably Vice President Cheney, were enthusiastic. A tentative first meeting was held on the margins of a regional forum in Manila last May: four officials, no formal agenda, and no red-flag word like ’security’ in its title.
Even this was too much for Beijing. It issued diplomatic protests demanding to know what the talks were about. This may have increased New Delhi’s interest in the new forum: a few months later, India held a naval exercise involving the four quad countries plus Singapore.
“His replacement, Yasuo Fukuda, was not interested in the quad. The forum went dormant. Nobody suggested reviving it. Thus Australia’s subsequent public rejection of the quad was needless. But nor would it have shocked or insulted Japan.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/09/2211600.htm
The problem with the ABC has nothing much to do with the political beliefs of its employees. It’s partly to do with extremely lazy journalism and just going with the flow and partly to do with a related misconception that being “independent” is equivalent to pushing the lines being pushed by the opposition.
Apart from a couple of important stories - one a revisit to the loveably grumpy teacher, inspired ankle-biters & the mangroves (great stuff)…the other related to Western Sahara & it’s desire to be independent from Morroco & why are we using super-phosphates w/out thought? - my wife & I were convinced that the ABC was doing a CH.7 tribute tonite…w/ a touch of the Murdoch (smear-merchants) Revisted. At least up til 8:30 pm. Mebbe we missed something? Isn’t it amazing how many ways you can advertise on a tax-payers’ channel?
50 ways to hook in the viewer & create a yearning for CONSUMPTION. Sports celebs & athletes sure have alot of company scrawl and signs on their outfits these days. Can’t understand why they don’t just compete wearing billboards…one way or another it’s all pretty HEAVY. In a light-weight kinda way.
“That the Rudd Government did not have to explicitly defer to China’s concerns, because Tokyo and New Dehli had already backed away from the quadrilateral arrangement, is itself a clear indication of China’s rising influence and perhaps Washington’s gradual relative decline in Asia.”
http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2008/03/Who-really-killed-the-Quad.aspx
And I would think this is exactly what Rudd wants to avoid i.e. “Washington’s gradual relative decline in Asia”.
Which is seemingly counter-intuitive to numbskulls on the other side who can’t get past the man speaking Mandarin. A commie double agent, like obvious.
It seems if anyone got the poops over Smith’s Quad announcement, it was some sections of the Indian punditry who chose to misinterpret it as another Australian snub against India and at Beijing’s urging, coming off Rudd’s no uranium sales (unless they sign up to the NNPT) and the second test in Sydney in January probably didn’t help matters.
Hopefully Rudd’s APC proposal which includes India, and a trip to India later this year may soothe some fevered sub-continental foreheads. Warnie’s winning Rajasthan’s Royals and other Australians playing in the IPL alongside Indian cricketers has helped to dispel some of the animosity in that arena.
And that’s enough from me. Sorry, Mark if this all went off thread vis ABC bias, but it seemed important to bung up some opinions & reports from foreign affairs experts not named Greg bloody Sheridan.
Jeez, Jack. Some reporters join political parties - Labor, Liberal, National (and probably Greens, Democrats and very minor par4ties as well.) Big deal!
Della, or more particularly, his unlovely and untalented wife, did that all to themselves, I can assure you. ‘Don’t you know who I am’ is her perpetual cry, as she threatens working class stiffs in her electorate with the sack on a regular basis, for the crime of actually doing their jobs, and not deferring to her claims for special and different treatment.
Don’t waste any time over that pair. It would be better spent on the numerous people who have been threatened with the sack by that appalling woman, just because she likes throwing her weight around. She is a particularly graceless example of the type thrown up by one of the tight and tiny family networks controlling one part of the dominant faction in NSW.
What I found disturbing about the Murdoch ptess and rhe Dellabosca saga, if this morning’s Today show is any indication is its morphing into an unwarranted attack on Rudd because, quite correctly, unlike Howard, he refuses to comment on domestic politics while overseas.
While I admore and support Dellabosca for his fight against electricity privatisation, thuggish behaviour from the goons of the NSW Labor Right has been par for the course for years.Murdoch’s papers’ attacks on him are indeed suspect, and it would appear the Liberal Party has something to do with it. (Surprise!) But that’s no excuse for Della and Belinda treating ordinary workers like garbage.In this case, they’re getting what they deserve.
Harry Clarke strikes back!
http://kalimna.blogspot.com/2008/06/great-leader-rudd.html
“The problem with the ABC has nothing much to do with the political beliefs of its employees.”
Fair enough Mark.
Still one has to wonder, in your words where the “related misconception that being “independent” is equivalent to pushing the lines being pushed by the opposition” ,came from.
It is a pretty new construction. I cannot remember this approach being part of the political scene before the election.
Grace Pettigrew@16 said… “But it is beginning to look like the Howardistas did manage to stack the ABC news room after all - beginning their long march through the institutions of power no doubt…..”
I think she may be right, to the extent that pressure has been exerted from higher up, on news rooms and further, to implement bias in the name of balance.
I think it has been, and it’s also probably a result of funding cuts and a different news culture.
In other news, Tim Dunlop on foreign policy cringe in the Australian media.
joe2 wrote:
I don’t think there’s a deliberate move to bias, but I do get the impression that the enforcement of “balance” is a real problem when the balancing information is just blather. The ABC should be free to be critical of the government of the day and in the name of that freedom, the feds ought to revoke the Howard led “balance” agenda and just let ‘em loose. Keating hated the ABC, remember?
“I think it has been, and it’s also probably a result of funding cuts and a different news culture.”
Maybe, Kim, but there is no excuse for obvious media bias whether it is on Aunty or elsewhere.
I agree, joe2!
“I don’t think there’s a deliberate move to bias, but I do get the impression that the enforcement of “balance” is a real problem when the balancing information is just blather.”
David Rubie, will you agree, at least, that the ABC Board was stacked by “Howardistas”, as Grace, so well describes them?