I hope that Anthony Foster and his family, who intend to confront Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal George Pell in Sydney this week over the Catholic Church’s treatment of their late daughter, Emma Foster, who took her own life in January and her sister Katie, both of whom were raped as primary school children by Father Kevin O’Donnell, aren’t dismissed as “Catholic bashing” and raining on the World Youth Day parade or subjected to victim blaming as Anthony Jones was. Foster told the tragic tale of his daughters’ abuse and how it marked their lives horrendously for the worse, and probably brought Emma’s life to a close, on Lateline tonight.
Archive for the 'Media' Category
Lots of smart people discussing new and old media here at Luna Park. Check out the twitter feed on #fom08 for commentary. More to follow when I get to a proper keyboard. (this is from my mobile)
It’s no secret that “the sectarian strand” is one of the less attractive aspects of Australian history, and interestingly, probably not one featured highly either in the so-called “black armband” or triumphalist narratives so beloved of our home grown Antipodean culture warriors. That may be because the deep cleavages - overlapping but not identical to class and ethnicity - around Catholicism and Protestantism needed to be elided and to be buried in order to construct the “Anglo-Celtic” identity which came into its own at the same time that the state aid controversy was settled into its grave and multiculturalism launched on its career. And not coincidentally. “Anglos” and “Celts” were on different sides of the political and cultural coin in the Great Southern Land of the Holy Spirit for most of its whitefella history. In a way, Gough Whitlam is probably the progenitor of the “mainstream” Anglo-Celtic Australian. But sectarianism typically rears its head as a defensive accusation whenever the Catholic Church is particularly prominent in public debate, and whenever criticism is directed at the Church’s institutional power.
In the context of World Youth Day in Sydney this week, this accusation has been levelled both with regard to criticism of the extraordinary powers granted to police by Greg Craven and with regard to the ABC’s highlighting of Cardinal George Pell’s ethically very questionable handling of clergy sexual abuse complaints by Andrew Bolt. More broadly, the media sponsors of World Youth Day at News Limited have worked themselves into a lather of holy righteousness, denouncing “aggressive secularism” and lauding all the Popey goodness they’re sponsoring - without disclosing that sponsorship in their journalistic or opinion pieces.
It may well be that a residue of sectarian anti-Catholicism might be in play on the margins of all this, but one of the big ironies is that while Tony Abbott and others speculated that Pope Benedict’s message might not be communicated effectively, the Pope himself has seemingly become a football to be kicked around by the usual suspects in distinctly Australian culture wars which often have only a tenuous connection with his concerns. But are there not genuine issues - of public interest - that can and should be raised at a time when Catholicism is top of the pops in the media stakes?
Continue reading ‘Is criticism of World Youth Day automatically Catholic bashing?’
Tomorrow’s Newspoll - as just reported on Lateline - basically contains no news. 55/45 to Labor on the 2PP, and 65/14 in Rudd’s favour on the PPM, with Nelson down a statistically insignificant 1 point. So a Poll with no News. Will News Ltd - who “own” the poll - report it this way? Or could we be about to have a perfect test case on the manufacture of confected commentary and non-existent news? Let’s see.
Update: There’s the usual poll deconstruction thread at The Poll Bludger, and there’s a somewhat more interesting poll out from Essential Media which shows a majority of Coalition voters disagreeing with Brendan Nelson’s proposition that Australia should wait on the rest of the world before acting on climate change.
Brendan Nelson’s gone on holidays this week, meaning that there might just be a coherent opposition response to the release of the Government’s emissions trading scheme Green Paper on Wednesday. In Crikey, Bernard Keane takes a look at who Nelson was talking to last week (aside from all those phone hookups with Turnbull, Hunt and Bishop pleading for him to start articulating Coalition policy):
Nelson’s flirtation with a retreat on an ETS appears to have been orchestrated at least in part by the climate change holdouts at Concept Economics. Concept is run by Henry Ergas and Brian Fisher, and senior Howard Government staffers Peter Conran and John Kunkel are also there. According to Lenore Taylor, Nelson met Warwick McKibbin, who is urging Australia go it alone with a special McKibbin trading model, with Conran and Kunkel last week. Fisher, previously the greenhouse mafia’s go-to bureaucrat when head of ABARE, last week attacked the Garnaut Report and said we should wait a decade for an international agreement on addressing climate said. Ergas has previously and again today argued a hardline “let the planet cook” approach that favours adaptation to climate change over mitigation.
With the exception of Mark Latham’s Diaries, few books on Australian politics hit the best seller list these days. Whether that’s a sign of the anodyne and airbrushed nature of political personalities Latho himself took aim at is, I guess, a matter for speculation. Perhaps it’s because the insider horse race stuff really does have a very limited audience outside those who see themselves as Insiders. But in the promotional stakes, now, it seems, forthcoming books are mined for whatever juicy tidbits (or otherwise) might actually influence the insider horse race, or at least get Insiders excited. Typically, there’s a fair bit of astroturf going on here, with rival newspaper chains Fairfax and News contending for serialisation rights and trying to extract “news” value from touting otherwise tedious memoirs or turgid accounts of political history.
Peter Costello’s forthcoming tome is being talked down by the News Limited punditariat as likely to be “boring”. In other words, he supposedly won’t be tipping a petulant bucket on John Howard, according to “insiders”. This - for the News Limited opposition cheer squad - is good news because it means that their quixotic and probably doomed quest to install Costello in the Liberal leadership can proceed. It’ll be interesting to see how the Fairfax papers - which have the serialisation rights - play the book, which in any case won’t be released for yonks.
One that will be released soon is Peter Van Onselen and Phillip Senior’s Howard’s End (the ghost of E.M. Forster should sue). Continue reading ‘A tale of two books’
Tim Blair has followed the lead of the Insiders - and that astute judge of comedy, Gerard Henderson - in deciding that Working Dog’s new series - The Hollowmen - is all about Kevin Rudd. Despite, as Grodscorp points out, the denials of its creators. I guess the intention of the author is irrelevant in a postmodern world. No doubt Kevin Donnelly and Keith Windschuttle will point out how this hermeneutical laxness potentially threatens all that is great about Western civilisation.
I think it’s reasonably clear that the proximate inspiration of the series - in development before Rudd was elected - is the Blair government, and more broadly, trends in governance and the media across the Western world over the last couple of decades. But its biggest problem is… it’s a one joke show which isn’t actually all that funny. It’s neither West Wing nor Yes, Prime Minister. I think we need a lot more political satire with a cutting edge - I’m thinking about the glory days of the Gillies Report which tore Bob Hawke apart just as much it did Andrew Peacock and Ian Sinclair. But The Hollowmen ain’t it. Pity.
Continue reading ‘Our dried voices, when we whisper together are quiet and meaningless’
As Lord Downer of Cyprus Alexander Downer prepares to dump on the electors of Mayo less than eight months after they re-elected him, reasonable observers might wonder who exactly is treating the voters with contempt:
“I think they’re treating the people of Mayo with contempt if they’re not prepared to run a candidate when they’re the Government of Australia.”
Except on Planet Janet, there’s probably little interest around about Dolly’s musings, presumably concocted over a cigar or two while dreaming about his Hummer. But there is still some interest around about whether Labor should run a candidate in the Mayo by-election that will result from Downer’s resignation from Parliament.
Tim Watts at Tree of Knowledge thinks not, noting Antony Green’s summary of all the times the Libs eschewed the chance to run in by-elections they couldn’t win while in Government. The Poll Bludger suggests the ALP should:
No doubt their decision will be soundly based on research, but if I were them I’d go for it: the electorate that almost put John Schumann in parliament seems an unlikely candidate for an emissions trading scheme backlash, and a relatively good result would help shake the Gippsland monkey off the government’s back.
The media cycle being what it is, I suspect Gippsland’s now ancient history. I’m not sure if The Poll Bludger’s ever been to the Adelaide Hills, but it’s certainly not fertile territory for Labor. Antony Green’s already got a page up on the by-election contest, and he observes: Continue reading ‘No Mayo with that, please, it doesn’t go with my latte’
Although he tried to put the best face on it, Malcolm Turnbull could barely paper over the cracks in the Liberal Party’s stance on an emissions trading scheme on Lateline tonight. Turnbull states that the Liberals are maintaining their policy position prior to the 2007 election - the introduction of an ETS by 2012 at the latest, and no intention of tying its introduction to any commitments by developing countries. His former leader, John Howard, appeared to be happily trashing what he avowed last year, gleefully reliving the days of non-core promises, and the current leader, Brendan Nelson, has tied himself up in complete gobbledygook but left the strong impression that he opposes an ETS until after international agreement is reached.
In Crikey today, Bernard Keane characterises the Liberal shenanigans as a tussle between Greg Hunt and Malcolm Turnbull on one hand and denialist-in-chief and hard rightist Nick Minchin on the other.
Hunt, while resisting the opportunity to comment on what other shadow ministers have been saying, also stressed that he and Malcolm Turnbull are running the Coalition’s ETS policy. Yes, he admitted, Nick Minchin — who appears to have licence to comment on any issue that takes his fancy – has a different view on climate change and an ETS. But it’s his and Malcolm’s show, and they’re both absolutely committed to addressing the historical challenge of climate change, through an ETS and supporting measures such as energy efficiency and alternative energy technologies.
Irfan Yusuf has the money quote on all the World Youth Day imbroglios, writing in today’s New Matilda:
I guess it really boils down to values. Cardinal Pell once accused Muslims of having difficulty separating Church from State. Unless he openly distances himself from (and not just denies involvement in) increased police powers designed to protect pilgrims from annoyance, his own secular credentials might look compromised.
On Lateline last night, in the context of new revelations about the crimes of Father Terrence Goodall, and George Pell’s casuistry in dealing with clergy abuse victim Anthony Jones, and his avoidance of any admission of culpability and therefore responsibility for the consequences of his actions, host Tony Jones interviewed prominent Catholic journalist and author Robert Blair Kaiser.
And I think that model can be applied to modern times and we can be a much more responsible, accountable church in a local situation where the bishop is not appointed by the Pope but elected by the people.
In referring to the democratising forces unleashed by Vatican II, Kaiser was suggesting that the root cause - not just of clergy abuse but also of cover-ups and grossly inadequate responses to its “horror” - is a deeply authoritarian tradition and its accompanying mindset and culture. George Pell is one of the leading lights of the Catholic “restorationists” who want to put all the genies of Vatican II back in the bottle, and return to a “Father Knows Best” model which has given us Catholics a Church marred and contaminated by misogyny and authoritarianism. Pell’s attitude to political power (which has been on show with World Youth Day) and his treatment of those whom some priests and brothers have monstered is cut from the same cloth - a desire to protect the institution and its power above all else. Continue reading ‘Annoyed! III’
Kevin Rudd writes for The Australian:
THE science tells us that continued high levels of carbon pollution have led to global warming and if the world continues on a business-as-usual trajectory the consequences for us all will be significant. The economics tells us that the cost of responsible action is much less than if we as a planet fail to act on climate change now. The longer we delay, the higher the cost.
There’s been some (rather entertaining) discussion on a recent thread about alternative names for mainstream media blogs. After all, they really are a different sphere, aren’t they? Coincidentally, and it’s a happy coincidence, a guest Hoyden at Hoyden About Town has posted a very comprehensive guide to how to attain that bloggy success you’ve always hankered after. And the rules aren’t all that complex. One of the important tips - men blog about sport and politics, and women blog about dating. However, some things transcend the gender of the writer:
Now whether a male or female writer, one simply *must* make all sorts of gender generalisations, mostly about de wimenz.
The really comforting advice is that you don’t need to write all that much at all. Continue reading ‘“The bitch from Prada”’
This sort of thing was probably always going to surface in the media just before Pope Benedict XVI came to Sydney for World Youth Day, but I’m sure Cardinal Pell is annoyed that he’s been accused of lying to a victim of clerical sexual abuse in order to protect a priest who was later convicted. He might also be annoyed that there are documents obtained through legal action and given to Lateline which make a pretty convincing case that the allegations may have merit. When he was Archbishop of Melbourne, Pell was accused of offering victims hush money not to speak out (an accusation he denied), something that is now expressly prohibited by the Catholic Church’s protocol - Towards Healing - on dealing with clergy abuse victims. Broken Rites, a support and advocacy group, has criticised the Church’s protocols. It’s noteworthy here that the Archdiocese of Melbourne has a separate set of protocols, a legacy from the time when Dr Pell was Archbishop and his opposition (alone among all the Catholic Church’s Australian bishops) to the national standards regulating church responses.
If the ranks of columnists, pollies and industry shills lining up in battle formation to trash Ross Garnaut were thinking he was some sort of milquetoast retiring academic and policy wonk, who’d roll over in the face of the media noise machine, they’ve evidently made the wrong assumption. In fact, Garnaut seems to be doing his level best to keep the Rudd government from wobbling.
Garnaut’s retort to Michael Costa’s op/ed has the temerity to mention the elephant in the (Macquarie Street) room:
“The New South Wales [Treasurer] is a well known denier of the science,” he said.
In his article this morning, Costa called for “a sensible debate on important issues”. Decrying Garnaut as a “Chicken Little”, Costa himself painted all sorts of apocalyptic scenarios if dirty coal producers aren’t compensated.
Costa calls for “dispassionate” analysis. This from someone whose self interest - as the Treasurer responsible for the sale of electricity “assets” in a crumbling government - couldn’t be more blatant.
I was interested to read of the loud condemnations by Morris Iemma and Kevin Rudd of the cover of the latest issue of Art Monthly Australia. The cover features detail from a print of Polixeni Papapetrou’s Olympia as Lewis Carroll’s Beatrice Hatch before White Cliffs. In this artwork, the artist’s then six year old daughter, Olympia Nelson, is portrayed naked. My first thought was to wonder whether either Iemma or Rudd had actually seen the magazine in question, and that’s still unclear to me. My second thought was to wonder whether one of the media themes of the day - embodied in this piece by Nicholas Pickard in Crikey - had any merit. Pickard argued that the magazine’s editor, Maurice O’Riordan, was a “total fool” who was playing into “Hetty Johnson’s hands”. The two subtexts appear to be that the Bill Henson controversy had faded away, leaving artists to go about their business as normal (or something), and that O’Riordan was courting more controversy in order to increase sales of his mag, heedless of the dangers of raking up the cinders of the fire the Bill Henson controversy started.
But, unlike a lot of people who might have an opinion about this new controversy/furore/”debate”, I thought I might go and buy a copy of the magazine in order to form my own view. So I did.
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