October 07, 2004

NEWS BRIEFLETS

• Remember how The Day After Tomorrow was going to change everything?

It sounds unlikely, but this summer might just see an alliance of commerce, populist entertainment and feel-good concern combine to weaken President George Bush and hand votes to his expected Democrat rival John Kerry.

• Peter Kerr is back. Go visit.

• Take a stroll through Dinkytown with James Lileks, and meet the scared Che doll.

• Cathy Seipp recalls an interview with Rodney Dangerfield: "He was sitting at a dining room table covered with packs of cigarettes, a blood-pressure monitor, three cigarette lighters, assorted vials of pills, and a jumbo box of Advil. It was 1:30 in the afternoon, and he was wearing a bathrobe and ripped bedroom slippers."

• Phillip Noyce demands truth in government. How about some truth in Phillip Noyce movies?

• John Kerry competed in the Boston Marathon. The event is seared -- seared, I tell you -- on his memory.

• Put your money on Paul Krugman!

• "John Howard killed my wife." He also "employed a Senior Manager to intentionally injure me with anxiety neurosis."

• David Marr is quitting as host of Media Watch: "The thing you learn in the job is no matter what you expose going on in News Limited, it doesn't seem to affect their careers. You can have the most outlandish plagiarism, and it's a sober experience to expose it and see that there has been no discernible effect." Wow. Tough call on Phillip Adams.

Posted by Tim Blair at October 7, 2004 02:42 PM
Comments

An ABC spokeswoman said she wasn't aware Marr was leaving...

As ever, on top of the news.

Posted by: Hanyu at October 7, 2004 at 02:54 PM

David Marr quitting Media Watch? "You Beauty" Fantastic news. If he is wondering why Media Watch is a toothless tiger, or wants to find some dud journalism, he will find the answer to both simply by gazing into a mirror!

Bring back Stuart Littlemore, put some credibility into Media Watch.

Posted by: Steve the pub at October 7, 2004 at 02:55 PM

Put your money on Paul Krugman!

Hmm, I recall an episode of "Profiler" (not that anyone but me would bother remembering that show) in which somebody was killed by being buried underneath several tons of quarter coins. But that's not what you had in mind about "putting money on" Krugman, is it? Drat.

Posted by: PW at October 7, 2004 at 03:05 PM

To maintain the ABCs standards of outstanding unbiased journalism they have one obvious successor - Kerry Obrien .

VOTE 1 - Kerry Obrien for Media Watch.

hehehehe...

Posted by: Will S at October 7, 2004 at 03:23 PM

Why not comrade Tony Jones?
just as good as Kerry!

Posted by: fred at October 7, 2004 at 03:39 PM

I am for Janet Albrechtsen to present media watch.
I heard that it was between her asnd Marr last time.For the sake of fairness the ABC should appoint Janet or Tim Blair.

Posted by: gubbaboy at October 7, 2004 at 03:53 PM

Comrade Maxine McKew = should be shortlisted along with comrades Jones & O'Brien?

Posted by: Steve the pub at October 7, 2004 at 04:01 PM

Slightly off topic, but speaking of comrades, a friend of mine married an ALP guy a few years back and I was stunned to find that the Labor goons still addressed each other as "comrade". Did they miss the Berlin Wall coming down?

Posted by: Art Vandelay at October 7, 2004 at 04:26 PM

No Art, the ALP didn't miss the fall of the Berlin Wall, they were devastated by it! The cappucino sipping sect of the ALP was suddenly without a tangible goal, their blueprint for Australia was internationally discredited!

Posted by: Steve the pub at October 7, 2004 at 04:49 PM

John Kerry ran the Boston Marathon after being wound three times in Vietnam? Kerry's lucky CIA hat must have magical healing powers.

Posted by: pajama_jihad at October 7, 2004 at 05:04 PM

"John Howard killed my wife"

Just reading that site made my brain bleed!! Can someone more erudite than I please tell me what the hell he is on about?? Or what he's smoking??

Posted by: BruceT at October 7, 2004 at 05:07 PM

John Kerry ran the Boston Marathon after being wound three times in Vietnam? Kerry's lucky CIA hat must have magical healing powers.

In fact, he was so pumped up after that race, he continued to run all the way to Washington to throw his medals over that fence...

Posted by: PW at October 7, 2004 at 05:14 PM

No Art, the ALP didn't miss the fall of the Berlin Wall, they were devastated by it! The cappucino sipping sect of the ALP was suddenly without a tangible goal, their blueprint for Australia was internationally discredited!

I dunno....they're still trying to completely socialise health and education in spite of it. Once they've succeeded there, no doubt they'll move on to tractors and potatoes.

Posted by: Art Vandelay at October 7, 2004 at 05:24 PM

Art, re the use of comrade. When I first started learning Chinese I was taught that people no longer addressed each other as Miss, Mrs or Mr on the mainland; they all just used the generic term comrade (tongzhi - 同志). You can imagine my shock, then, upon arriving on said mainland to discover people using Mr, Mrs or Miss. In fact, the term tongzhi is now a term to mean gay (i.e., all the tongzhi gathered in Sydney for a big parade). So much for comrade.

Two lessons here: One is to never trust Chinese language teachers who've been out of the country for a decade. And two, the ALP is now lagging behind even the Chinese quasi-communists in the political correctness stakes or they're all closet gays.

Posted by: Hanyu at October 7, 2004 at 05:43 PM

Two lessons here: One is to never trust Chinese language teachers who've been out of the country for a decade. And two, the ALP is now lagging behind even the Chinese quasi-communists in the political correctness stakes or they're all closet gays.

I think the former is more likely given the attitude these guys take towards personal fitness and dress sense. If you ever want to see what life was like in the 80s, go to an ALP function.

Posted by: Art Vandelay at October 7, 2004 at 05:49 PM

Art, don't you mean the '70s?

Re Media Watch, David Marr has obviously seen the writing on the wall. With the re-election of the Howard Government, the ABC will have to make peace with its paymasters and David would be a the appropriate sacrificial lamb(old mutton would probably be a better comparison).

Posted by: mr magoo at October 7, 2004 at 06:15 PM

following Littlemore, Ackland, and Barry, Marr was the fourth host of Mediawatch, I think... This regeneration is reaching Doctor Who proportions - so let's lobby for Tom Baker as the next host of the program!

Posted by: Ben P at October 7, 2004 at 07:21 PM

Marr going!
Did he fall, or was he pushed I wonder?

Posted by: Boss Hog at October 7, 2004 at 07:49 PM

Marr going!
Did he fall, or was he pushed I wonder?

Posted by: Boss Hog at October 7, 2004 at 07:49 PM

Professor Bunyip to replace to him!

Posted by: yobbo at October 7, 2004 at 07:50 PM

Here is Marr complaining that Media Watch is a toothless tiger.

If he didn't push his own lefty agenda so often, it would not have been so easily dismissed as simply partisan politics.

He has no-one to blame for Media Watch's impotency than himself.

Posted by: 2dogs at October 7, 2004 at 09:22 PM

Erm, how old was that glamour shot of Marr?

This would be closer to the Marred One.

Or possibly this.

Talk about your file footage!

Posted by: Al Bundy, at October 7, 2004 at 11:46 PM

Yay, kick the pompous ass! but I wish they'd also get rid of those incredibly annoying voice-overs that they insist on using! I'm more left than right, and even I find myself cringing and clenching my fists through most of a Media Watch episode.

Posted by: Dan K at October 8, 2004 at 12:18 AM

Regarding Guardian articles that are way off the mark, I like this article, which Tim linked to in this post.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 8, 2004 at 02:28 AM