Our weekly (mostly) look at media spin tactics: let’s dissect the PR and propaganda that aims to blow one’s own horn, bury one’s errors, resurrect the shambling zombie corpses of well-flogged deceased equines, and ooh look! A Big Distracting Thing! Cui bono? What’s really going on?
Please note – this thread’s just for the analysis of media manoeuvres and their intended effects – discussion of other aspects of issues of interest belongs elsewhere. e.g. browse the archives | roundtables | open thread
Not sure if this counts: shark appears in water after Abbott gets out.
(Oh, I think I added spin to that one.)
Does that imply that not even sharks want to swim with him?
Funny cartoon?
http://www.kevgillett.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/310177-120109-leak-cartoon.jpg
More Coalition boosting by Their ABC Radio National this morning. At the program’s outset, Breakfast‘s summer host, Jonathan Green, when pointering the upcoming ‘features’, said they would be looking at the Opposition’s claims about multiculturalism and Gambaro’s comments about immigrants and deodorant. Deodorant, FFS! It’s the ABC and Coalition that are on the nose!
FFS. On a hot summer’s day I smell worse than any immigrant and some of the smelliest men about are white guys in singlets turning red in the sun.
What a transparent dog whistle by the Coalition. The Morning Shows were abuzz with it, pretty much laughing at the Coalition at raising this.
As for the shark? Too soon for the ‘professional courtesy’ joke?
Sunce the topuc hez been raised, the smilliest underarm un Austreliyen hustory was Trivor Cheppill’s.
I listened to that interview with Gambaro, and Jonathan Green suggested that she was being ‘trivial’ regarding the controversial (?) deodorant issue, also saying that surely many Aussies are deodorant-challenged on public transport. She couldn’t back-pedal away from it fast enough.
I’m a bit skeptical regarding the alleged “hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars” costing for diverting a coast guard vessel from its scheduled position to go and pick up the protestors who were detained on the Japanese whaling ship. It’s not like the mission has been put together from scratch, after all – the Coast Guard vessel was already out there in the approximate region doing its appointed rounds – so surely the real cost is just the cost of the fuel it will take to move to the whaling ship’s position?
Gambaro is just being candid. She thinks that apparent hygiene and actual hygiene are the same thing — a piece of reasoning that her party uses all the time, most obviously when using the Eau de Murdochracy to make their politics seem sweet, rather than an example of putrefaction.
No doubt Teresa Gambaro will be “on the nose” with the Brisbane migrant community,”out of context” she pleads ?unadulterated “merda” typical would be heavyweight Liberal outlook, they all stink.
via Bernard Keane
As noted by several people on Twitter, Margaret Court is complaining out loud to journalists about “not being allowed to voice my opinion” (against same-sex marriage) in response to people who disagree with her opinion intending to wave rainbow flags at a tennis match that she plans to attend. Riiiiight.
Listening to “Louise Saunders” this morning on ABC702. There flowed, predictably, the usual banter about gun control, with the ready-made copy and paste responses from the gun lobby — guns don’t gill people; middle easterners, imported guns, DGU; stiffer sentences for criminal usage & etc.
One of the callers threw in another trope though.:
Heroin’s illegal and yet you can buy it outside any state high school.
I’m not sure why state high schools were singled out. Presumably, in this chap’s view, the prime market for heroin is amongst people attending state schools for one reason or another. Personally, were I a heroin dealer, I’d go where the cash was, and as far as I can tell, people visiting state schools aren’t especially cashed up. Also, presumably, people like him who think you can buy heroin outside state schools will be out spotting the said dealers with theirt fancy cars and bling and calling the police or at the very least bringing it to the attention of teachers, which would be a damned nuisance for your average heroin dealer. Sadly, I can report that in more than 20 years of teaching in state schools, I’ve never once spotted a heroin dealer outside a school I’ve been at, nor even heard of anyone who has reported seeing one. No children at any of the schools I’ve been at (including some in the S-W and West and N-W of Sydney) have ever been caught in possession. No welfare matters involving heroin have been raised. The closest thing to drugs near any school I’ve ever taught at was the bottle shop in Minto Mall.
Regrettably, “Louise Saunders” let this one go unchallenged: #theirABC at work.
And this:
Fat tax urged for airlines’ health
So clearly, not a proposal for the state to attach Pigouvian (sorry about the pun) impost on those going on flights. Mr Webber is saying that airline companies should charge heavier passengers more.
How long can it be before some dimbulb rings up 2GB or similar and asks why this “big spending” government is looking for yet another excuse to “fleece the public” so as to “balance the budget” in the name of better health?
Again, this simply underlines how debauched public discourse has become.
FTR: As far as I know, there would be nothing to stop airlines imposing extra charges on heavier passengers. That would be a commercial decision.
Ah, but wouldn’t that be misandry (as men are usually bigger than women) and would therefore be far more likely to be slugged the extra charge. Perhaps the Men’s Rights Activists (don’t say that three times while looking in the mirror) should focus on that instead of carpet-bombing feminist blogs with their blather.
Gah – of course the first sentence should have a ?
Grammar-challenged on a Thursday afternoon…
Fran @ 14 – might not anti discrimination laws kick in if an airline tried to do this?
tigtog @ 11 – reading that tele article they’re not blaming Garrett for pool deaths, but suggesting he should add CPR to the national curriculum. I learnt CPR at school – was part of PE classes (as was basic first aid). Is that not something that happens at most schools anyway? I think it should.
What anti-discrimination laws would they be, Chris? While discrimination in employment on the basis of ethncitiy, sexuality, and a number of other categories is prohibited and public services must be provided on a non-discriminatory basis, private organisations have the right to refuse service to anyone. That would be poisonous marketing, so they tend not to act in this way, but there’s nothing I’ve heard of specific to statute law stopping them from doing so (though I think there are some restrictions on private landlords denying tenancies on the basis of ostensible ethnicity, sexuality etc …)
They could in any event simply make the case that carriage of all people and goods was based on weight and service. I believe that some US airlines require those who can’t fit into single seats without impinging on adjacent seats to pay for an extra seat, unless the flight is not full.
Fran @ 18 – perhaps on the basis of disability since for at least some people their weight is clearly due to a medical condition? Restaurants (private organisations) for example must allow guide dogs onto their premises.