September 18, 2003
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITZ
Further to the Liam Fitzpatrick piece posted earlier, Steve Waterson writes:
Dear Tim,
I have just had my attention drawn to Liam Fitzpatrick's book review and the analysis of it on your site.
Fitzpatrick is the Hong Kong-based travel editor of TIME's Asia edition, and the story was written, edited and published there. No one on TIME Australia's staff was consulted in its preparation. It will not be running in our edition.
Yours sincerely,
Steve Waterson
Editor, TIME Australia
Independent of this, I’m aware of one US-based Australian writer who has protested directly to Time editor-in-chief Jim Kelly. Apparently an “office investigation” is now underway.
Posted by Tim Blair at September 18, 2003 04:25 PMThis has got "if we're such a bunch of Nazis then hand over your passport and fuck-off, Liam" written all over it. I read his Aussie-hating spew and find it the result of too many Tia Marias with the gang at the eatery, probably followed by some good, clensing, self-loathing just for fun. Only a free democracy would tolerate such drivel without locking said wanker up.
Posted by: Jake D at September 18, 2003 at 04:49 PMHadn't read Liam's claims until today.They read as if Pilger had penned them or dictated them - camps in the desert, `shadowy survivalists' planning a last stand. Like Pilger, invented evidence. Government conspiracies plotted behind closed doors.Government meting out torture and other acts of brutality.All that is lacking are unpleasant photographs with the caption, this is what the government did.
Liam, ironically, has done a service. Since it is the line which has been run by other `news outlets' such as the ABC, even though without the level of hyperbole Liam indulged in,Liam has done a sterling job in showing it out for nonsense.Or was it Pilger,or both?
Tim,
I am surprised to find myself in agreement with you on something.
Wonders will never cease!
Rex
Posted by: Rex at September 18, 2003 at 06:29 PMSo its OK for Asians to read (and believe) this drivel?
Sheeeesh!
Posted by: Pedro the Ignorant at September 18, 2003 at 08:40 PMd,
Spot on !
We have been exposed to this low-level self loating from the Sydney Morning Herald, the ABC and community action groups (always consisting of one zealot, an inclusive sounding name and a fax machine - nothing else) that some of it starts to seep in (what they want).
Then along comes "lying-Liam" with his preposterous pistache of half-baked paranoia laced with doctrinaire anti-conservative dogma.
By publishing this rubbish, he has done a service to the hundreds of thousands of legitimate migrants who come here and quietly go about their lives - he has exposed the intellectual bankruptcy of the sad industry which has grown out of the most basic of human desires - a better life.
By giving succour to the smugglers and thieves who run the illegal trade in "refugees", how many drownings and suffocations in transit will Liam have caused - how many false hopes will he create - how much money will he put into the snake-head gangs who thrive in this trade.
Australia was a tolerant liberal open society before Liam's bigotted spray and it will continue to be the same afterwards - the only change will be in our diminished perceptions of his kind (at the SMH, the ABC and organisations like Lonely Planet) and the lame arguments and half-truths on which such articles are based.
Thank you for opening our eyes once again Liam to the utter falsehoods on which your arguments are based - 100 thousand legitimate migrants & refugees who come to Australia each year have nothing to thank you for.
The Elephant
Liam Fitzpatrick is the pen name of Paul-Drop Your Dacks For Asia-Keating? Oh the pain. Oh the shame.
Posted by: joejr at September 18, 2003 at 11:47 PMIf you translate that from Time Corporate-Speak into English, that was a very public Fuck You to Liam Fitzpatrick.
Posted by: Mike G at September 19, 2003 at 12:13 AMJoeJr likens Liam Fitzpatrick to Paul Keating.
Sounds more like Dr Mahathir.
Posted by: ilibcc at September 19, 2003 at 11:02 AMThere's an evil genius at work, glove puppets are popping up everywhere.
Posted by: d at September 19, 2003 at 11:09 AM