Howard demeans the ABC

It is often claimed that the Government would love nothing more than to clip the wings of the ABC [some would say emasculate] in whatever way possible.

The appointment this week of Keith Windschuttle to the Board of the ABC must rank as one of the more bizarre and outrageous appointments made by the Howard Government. Minister Coonan on the ABC's PM program the other night could not proffer any cogent reason by 3 members of the ABC Board were associated with Quadrant magazine.

Mike Carlton, in his weekly op-ed piece in today's SMH, describes the appointment thus:

"Never let it be said that John Howard has no sense of the absurd. The naming of the loopy polemicist Keith Windschuttle to the board of the ABC is the most hilarious appointment to public office since the mad Emperor Caligula threatened to make his horse a consul of Rome.

In his youth, Windschuttle was a bomb-thrower of the hard left. Now he is a bomb-thrower of the far right. Like so many who have made that almost circular ideological journey, he rails at his former fellow travellers with a born-again ferocity verging on paranoia."

Read the full Carlton piece here.

Meanwhile, this [read it in full here] also from the SMH:

"Keith Windschuttle is comfortable with controversy. He's made a career out of it. So it was no surprise yesterday that the newly appointed ABC director was unapologetic about his comment that the broadcaster was full of "Marxists and radicals".

Some senior ABC staff have demanded their new board member name those he is talking about.

But Windschuttle is unperturbed. "It's not just a group of individuals; it's about values, it's a wider claim than that," he said yesterday".

Comments

Reading the Chilcot Inquiry Report more closely

Most commentary on the Chilcot Inquiry Report of and associated with the Iraq War, has been "lifted" from the Executive Summary. The Intercept has actually gone and dug into the Report, with these revelations : "THE CHILCOT REPORT, the U.K.’s official inquiry into its participation in the Iraq War, has finally been released after seven years of investigation. Its executive summary certainly makes former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who led the British push for war, look terrible. According to the report, Blair made statements about Iraq’s nonexistent chemical, biological, and nuclear programs based on “what Mr. Blair believed” rather than the intelligence he had been given. The U.K. went to war despite the fact that “diplomatic options had not been exhausted.” Blair was warned by British intelligence that terrorism would “increase in the event of war, reflecting intensified anti-US/anti-Western sentiment in the Muslim world, including among Muslim communities in the

Robert Fisk's predictions for the Middle East in 2013

There is no gain-saying that Robert Fisk, fiercely independent and feisty to boot, is the veteran journalist and author covering the Middle East. Who doesn't he know or hasn't he met over the years in reporting from Beirut - where he lives? In his latest op-ed piece for The Independent he lays out his predictions for the Middle East for 2013. Read the piece in full, here - well worthwhile - but an extract... "Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the idea of freedom does at present agitate some minds even in Mecca...” So let’s say this for 2013: the “Arab Awakening” (the t

An unpalatable truth!

Quinoa has for the last years been the "new" food on the block for foodies. Known for its health properties, foodies the world over have taken to it. Many restaurants have added it to their menu. But, as this piece " Can vegans stomach the unpalatable truth about quinoa? " from The Guardian so clearly details, the cost to Bolivians and Peruvians - from where quinoa hails - has been substantial. "Not long ago, quinoa was just an obscure Peruvian grain you could only buy in wholefood shops. We struggled to pronounce it (it's keen-wa, not qui-no-a), yet it was feted by food lovers as a novel addition to the familiar ranks of couscous and rice. Dieticians clucked over quinoa approvingly because it ticked the low-fat box and fitted in with government healthy eating advice to "base your meals on starchy foods". Adventurous eaters liked its slightly bitter taste and the little white curls that formed around the grains. Vegans embraced quinoa as

Mahler's Prodigal Son

Search This Blog