GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG - ISSUE NO. 36

20 NOVEMBER 2009

Media Watch Dog did not get out of the kennel last week due to conflicting commitments. But MWD is on the prowl again this week and next, before re-kenneling for the Festive Season.  So, here we go.

NANCY‘S PICK OF THE WEEK

Like John Howard, Crikey media writer Margaret Simons thinks it really matters who sits on the ABC board. Nancy believes it doesn’t matter - since the ABC board does not run the ABC. But this is a discussion for a future occasion. In Crikey on Tuesday, Ms Simons set out her ideal type of who should occupy the next vacant ABC board position:

Look through the current line-up on the board, and it is clear that certain talents and attributes are in short supply. One is left with the impression that the ideal candidate, if such a creature existed, would be a female ethnic lawyer with commercial experience in media and firm handle on Web 2.0 and new media.

Nancy begs to differ.  She would like Margaret Simons to get a gig on the ABC board following the recent appointments of two luvvies - Julianne Schultz and Michael Lynch.  Ms Simons would fit in well with this lot.  What’s more she is a dedicated gardener who enjoys having a roll in smelly fertiliser.  Just like Nancy. Nancy just loved Ms Simons’ tome Resurrection in a Bucket (Allen & Unwin) when she wrote about composting and all that. Shortly after the publication of her tome, Margaret Simons told The Age that “compost is the loveliest thing on the planet”. She continued:

Compost is earthy and sexy in both the literal and metaphorical sense. The smells of sweet, well-made compost are not dissimilar to the smells of a bedroom after sex. It is the smell of the stuff of life. To my mind, a good composter is likely to be a good lover - in touch with their sensuality and aware that sex has nothing to do with airbrushing and deodorising and shaving and counsels of supposed perfection. Sex is animal. It is to do with smells, tastes, fertility and growth. The same things are true of compost. (The Age, 27 May 2004).

Nancy says - right on.  There are enough metro-sexuals on the ABC board. It’s time to give compost-sexuals a chance. Nancy will move the motion.  Any seconders out there?

THE SYCOPHANTIC SPOON AWARD RETURNS - WELL DONE ANDREW PEGLER

MWD just loves the “what’s-in-today’s newspapers?” segment on the ABC 2 News Breakfast program.  It seems that conservative types cannot get up early so the guests are either university based lefties or left-of-centre journalists [Could it be that conservatives just don't get invited on to some ABC programs? Ed].

One of MWD’s favourites in this slot is a certain Andrew Pegler who is editor of a certain magazine called Plain English.  On occasions, Mr Pegler’s English is not as plain as it might be.  Still it is early in the morning.  Let’s go to the video of Andrew Pegler’s performance last Monday which started just like this:

Mary Gearon: Now for a look at national papers, today we’re joined by the Plain English editor, Andrew Pegler. Andrew, you’ve turned to The Australian first?

Andrew Pegler: I have. And good morning.

Mary Gearon: Good morning.

Andrew Pegler: Yes, the, as you’ve mentioned, the climate talks are in a bit of troub. Um, the political compromise deal, on the, er - they start off basically drawing up a 200 page draft agreement as to what they would hope to achieve.  Ah, and it would seem this is not going to go the way they’d hoped.  So Plan B has come into action and this consists of a 15 page document that would not be legally binding but, er, would allow nations to embrace emissions reductions, conditional upon other nations adopting and meeting their own targets.

Are you still following Mr Pegler’s plain English?  If so, well done.  The Plain English editor responded to a leading question from Mary Gearon and then took up co-presenter Joe O’Brien’s invitation to praise the Prime Minister.

Mary Gearon: Have you found, as a Plain English editor, that this debate has in fact just been dominated by obfuscation?

Andrew Pegler: Absolutely. Yeah. And there’s so many things going on that, you know, I’m very much in current affairs - but I find it hard sometimes to decipher who’s doing what, and how it’s going and ultimately this has actually simplified it a bit. I’d like to read the 15 pager. In fact, I probably could.

Joe O’Brien: And Kevin Rudd seems to be playing a key role in the run- up to Copenhagen. He was hosting these talks with Barack Obama and the leader of Denmark as well

Andrew Pegler: He was and is. And I’ve got to say he was involved in basically encouraging the APEC leaders to in fact step in themselves - because the minions who were negotiating all of this weren’t necessarily doing it as fast as they wanted. And I’m quite proud to see Kevin stepping, stepping into the international stage. He makes an impressive figure.

He sure does. And so does Andrew Pegler.  The nation needs more Plain English editors who are proud of their prime minister, MWD says.

PA-AO’s HOME AWAY FROM SCONE

MWD is grateful to Damien Murphy who, in his “PS Private Sydney” column in Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald, broke the BIG STORY of the week.  Namely that Phillip Adams AO, whom Murphy described as “ABC Radio National’s great voice of egalitarianism elitism”, had experienced yet another Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) moment.  You see the Weekend Australian Magazine columnist and RN Late Night Live presenter became so awfully upset when he discovered that Energy Australia was planning to erect a sub-station close to his property in fashionable Forbes Street in fashionable Paddington in Sydney’s fashionable inner-east.  Mr Adams AO is perhaps Australia’s wealthiest socialist.

It so happens that there is a growing demand for electricity in the area covered by Woollahra Municipal Council - and Energy Australia decided to construct what is termed a kiosk sub-station to handle this extra load.  So far, some 13,000 sub-stations have been constructed in Sydney.  They are 2.7 meters long, 1.5 meters wide and 1.6 meters tall and coloured dark green.  Energy Australia has received very few complaints about its kiosk sub-stations and virtually none from the teeming masses in Sydney’s Western and South Western suburbs.

But some of the good people of Sydney’s Eastern suburbs are somewhat more precious.  Learning that an Energy Australia sub-station was coming close to home, Mr Adams fired off an angry email to an Energy Australia manager.  He provided all the necessary information about himself.  Phillip Adams advised Energy Australia that he has lotsa money, an audience of “millions”, much property including a farm near Scone - and, of course, an AO.  Oh yes, Adams AO also declared that he did not want a kiosk sub-station near his front yards.

MWD obtained the email from Damien Murphy and it is reproduced in full below.  It is unedited except for some changes to the paragraphing and the deletion of a name and street number, phone numbers and email addresses.  MWD does not have an AO - but it does have standards.

Dear [name deleted]

This morning I spoke, rather tersely, to your “senior community liaison” officer. I asked her to pass on to you the fact that I, too, am in the community liaison business - with an audience of millions for my daily radio programs for the ABC and News Ltd.   And I hope I’m better at community liaison than she is - or your mighty company.

I’m used to receiving a lot of material from corporations of all shapes and sizes  - including your own - seeking to persuade me of their high standards of corporate citizenship, their “best practice” and noble intentions. All my colleagues, players in Australian media, get dollops of this stuff - PR handouts, press releases etc. And yet, all of a sudden, silence has descended on an issue that is close to both my heart and my two properties in Paddington.

One is a large home at [number deleted] Forbes Street. I live there. The other is a terrace home in Quarry Street  rented to a lawyer friend. These two buildings, valued at about $5 million, will be the closest neighbours to your proposed “kiosk sub station” in Quarry Street. And yet Energy Australia has told me nothing of their plans. Zilch, zero. Not a word. No letter, no phone call, nothing. I discovered what was going on while gazing incredulously at paintings on a roadway. Yes, on a roadway. Indeed, smack bang in the middle of one. On a corner. A particularly pretty corner. Arguably one of Paddington’s most attractive. There, on the road, are the sort of markings that one associates with a crime scene in an American movie. Where the last resting place of a corpse is clearly indicated in yellow paint. This time the yellow outline marks a crime that you intend to committ.

Having been finally alerted to the issue by a widening circle of alarmed, angry neighbours I now enter the fray. This is not a “not in my backyard” protest - rather it is a “not in my two front yards” protest. But it goes beyond self interest as I record my absolute astonishment that you could propose placing a ‘kiosk’ (cute term for an ugly installation) in the middle of a road! A few dozen yards away Woollahra Council has extensive property and there’s a large car park that could easily accommodate your ominous looking gadget. But no. You propose to plonk it, like an island, on an already dangerous and difficult corner. Where it will be a hazard to traffic and to pedestrians. In an area already made difficult and dangerous by the illegal parking of Woollahra Council vehicles and the patrons of the Lord Dudley Hotel.

The suggestion is not only outrageous but silly - so silly that I’ve no doubt much of the media will share in that amusement. But wouldn’t it be better if we had a quiet chat together.? You and I ?  Or both of us with a cross section of concerned neighbours?. Better still, simply remove your “kiosk” from harm’s way (harmful in the sense that it will harm a quite beautiful part of the district, harm our safety and your reputation).  Lest you  precipitate what will be, rest assured, an energetic crusade. Let’s save everyone a lot of effort. My number at Forbes Street is: [phone number deleted]. Much of the week, however, I’m at my farm at Scone: [phone number deleted].

Yours in the sincere hope of harmonious “community relations”.

PHILLIP ADAMS AO

MWD has a genuine concern for Phillip Adams AO. Not only is there the prospect of an energy sub-station in his neighbourhood but patrons of the Lord Dudley Hotel park their cars near his pile. PA-AO’s solution seems to be to have the sub-station placed in a nearby car-park - thereby reducing the number of parking spots and keeping a few more peasants out of Paddington.  But Phillip Adams AO is right about one thing.  Yes, sections of the media do find his plight amusing.  MWD included.

SBS’ (ROB) STARY, STARY NIGHT

Sometimes MWD wonders just how John Moore at 360 Degree Films does it. Your man seems to be able to get hold of a bucket load of taxpayers’ funds by doing co-productions with the ABC or SBS - and then produces left-wing documentaries which are essentially funded by conservatives or social democratic governments.

In 2008 the ABC ran 360 Degree Films’ documentary Menzies & Churchill At War which was funded by special budget allocation when John Howard was prime minister and Rod Kemp was arts minister.  The film’s thesis was the unproven left-wing line that Liberal Party founder Robert Menzies wanted to quit Australia in 1940 and go off and live in the Mother Country.  The Howard Government would have done better giving its money to, say, the RSPCA.

Last Tuesday SBS ran its co-production with 360 Degree Films titled The Trial: Inside Australia’s Biggest Terrorism Trial. This was supported by the taxpayer funded Screen Australia and Film Victoria.  The Trial was directed by Joan Robinson and produced by John Moore. Moore was one of the documentary writers - along with Joan Robinson and Steven Robinson.

The Trial was a one-sided documentary on the criminal trail which took place in the Victorian Supreme Court in 2008 and resulted in the conviction of six men on terrorist related charges. Some of the accused pleaded guilty before the jury delivered its verdicts.

The trial of Abdul Nacer Benbrika and others was conducted under legislation which enjoyed bipartisan support in the Australian Parliament . But The Trial bagged the legislation which was introduced by the Coalition government and supported by Labor.  The documentary ran the civil liberties lobby’s line that there’s no problem with a few jihadists discussing blowing people up since they didn’t get around to doing so.  [Wasn't this because they were stopped by police and intelligence services? Ed].

The Trial commenced with a quotation from Benjamin Franklin: “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.” And it concluded with defence barrister Greg Barns maintaining that Australia’s terrorist legislation is “radically wrong”.

Sure, on occasions, the sole dissenting voice of Peter Faris QC was heard in the film.  But, for the most part, the defence lawyers were the stars - including barrister Greg Barns and solicitor Rob Stary along with RMIT leftist academic Nasya Bahfen.

MWD just loved the extensive footage of Greg Barns jogging through the streets of Melbourne along with his instructing solicitor Michelle Myktowycz. And MWD was particularly taken by the description of Barns as someone who worked for the Liberal Party for ten years.  This conveniently overlooked the fact that Barns quit the Liberal Party in 2002 and joined the leftist Democrats.

But MWD was most impressed when Barns’ co-star Rob Stary was filmed making the following denunciation of John Howard and all his works.  Mr Stary saw no distinction between the action of some of his clients who had downloaded a jihadist beheading from the internet and his own action in once downloading the speech of an incumbent prime minister. Declared Stary:

There’s never any evidence that they’re communicating with anyone in Iraq.  Is there? So, no communication.  They simply downloaded the [jihadist beheading] material.  I think I downloaded one of John Howard’s speeches once. It was offensive. [Laughter].

You get the picture.  It seems that the civil liberties lobby - along with John Moore and the team at 360 Degree Films - maintain that terrorists should not be arrested until their weapons explode or are fired.

FROM THE GREEN CORNER

Last week London Sunday Times revealed that Beatrix Campell OBE will contest the 2010 British general election as a member of the Green party.  The OBE, who appears regularly on the Phillip Adams AO Late Night Live program, will contest Hampstead against the Labour Party’s Glenda Jackson.  What a contest.  For years Beatrix Campbell has been using her LNL gig to bag Labour from the left.  Will she continue to do this now that she has signed up with the Greens?  MWD will keep you posted - albeit not in the way the late the late Oliver Reed posted Ms Jackson in the 1969 film Women in Love.

DOCUMENTATION - AN AUNTY SCOOP

MWD did not attend the 2009 Andrew Olle Lecture but watched the occasion on ABC 1.  It was a lot of fun.  Especially when The Chaser’s executive producer Julian Morrow, this year’s lecturer, criticised the ABC - and was subsequently thanked by ABC managing director Mark Scott for delivering a “wonderful Andrew Olle Lecture”.

In his light-hearted vote-of-thanks, Mr Scott thanked Mr Morrow for turning his hair to a lighter shade of grey as he dealt with the controversies ignited by The Chaser team.  The ABC managing director’s final reference in this sequence was as follows:

Without Julian, Gerard Henderson would have nothing to write to me about.  That’s not true.  I’ve gone too far.

This comment scored a laugh.  Fair enough. What  Mark Scott did not say was that Gerard Henderson’s emails to him about The Chaser have always turned on the ABC’s sanctioning of Julian Morrow and The Chaser Boys (average age, 36) trespassing on private property and disrupting lectures and other such functions.

The scoop in Julian Morrow’s Andrew Olle Media Lecture occurred when he declared:

One thing I am certain of is that I’m the first person to give an Olle Lecture who’s also been thrown out of this event.  I once tried to gatecrash the Olle to do a Chaser stunt on Helen Coonan, the Minister for Communications at the time.  I was forced to leave the room before the speech began…

So there you have it. The ABC management approved of The Chaser gatecrashing non-ABC functions, as the 2007 correspondence between Gerard Henderson and the ABC reveals - click here.  However, ABC management would not let The Chaser gatecrash the November 2006 Olle Lecture which was delivered by the Minister for Communications in the lead-up to the 2007 Federal budget in which the ABC hoped to (and did) receive an increase in funding.

CORRESPONDENCE (CONTINUED)

At Michael Brull’s request, MWD publishes this nondescript correspondence.

Email to Gerard Henderson from Michael Brull - 13 November 2009

Dear Mr Henderson,

I see you’ve publically posted my private emails to you, without request or permission. I’m impressed by your ethical standards. To be fair, I grant you permission to print this email on your website.

Yours,
Michael

Email to Michael Brull from Gerard Henderson - 20 November 2009

Dear Mr Brull

I refer to your email of late 13 November 2009.  I’m willing to publish it in the next edition of Media Watch Dog.

You appear somewhat precious.  You write letters to MWD and then seem upset when they are published.  I thought that you would have appreciated the publicity.  Alas.

Best wishes

Gerard Henderson

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Until next time.