No doubt about veteran journalist Margo Kingston - she's good and she's a goer.
For those of us who use blogger as a substitute for shouting corrections at television journalists along with calls for fact-checking and greater research skills, her experience described here is a comfort albeit a disturbing one.
Read here how The Drum - you know, that television program which is like the curate's egg - backs the wrong horses. The Drum, like the curate's egg, is good in parts. The parts where it is not good are clearly delineated, however. These are the parts where a besuited smug looking young late 20s or early 30s male (always a male, it seems) speaks on behalf of the Institute of Public Affairs.
Complaints last year seemed to result in an easing off of appearances. However, I have a sneaky feeling that they are increasing again. Tim Wilson is the one that upsets me most of all. His overbearing presence topped off by that grin is too, too much.
And who on earth does the ABC as well as the IPA think they are? Does the IPA have a direct route to the ABC Board Room or The Drum Production Unit? Clearly, the ABC has some information that I don't. In my ever so humble opinion, I don't see a majority opinion anywhere near favouring the IPA and its libertarian views.
Where are the political candidates standing directly for the IPA? What are their polling numbers? Yet scarcely a week seems to go by (this may be an exaggeration but it sure feels like they are on at least once each week and sometimes more often!) without the sanctimony of the IPA strutting its stuff on The Drum. So how dare the ignorami at The Drum ignore Kingston and her story!
Does questioning the Leader of the Opposition's deceptive use of donations make her inferior to Tim Wilson and Co from the IPA? If so, could the ABC please cough up with the reasons which support their decision to run away and hide from Kingston's assertions? Kingston has been tried - and in my view not found wanting - in the fires of significant political journalism. The besuited boffins from the IPA tea-room cannot provide such a track record.
Keep up the good work Margo and more power to your arm.
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Political Commentators exist above politics, it seems.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about The Drum, which is annoyingly superficial.
Obsessed with balance they jump from one "expert" to the other with no attempt to evaluate the opinions given.
QandA is similarly curate's egg-like.
Tim Wilson (no relation) is simply biding his time till the Libs offer him a Senate Seat, I suspect.
But why stop there> Gerard Henderson smarms his way through many many ABC Programs. denigrating people whose opinions or sexual politics he does not like.
But so do many of their regulars.
My answer is to restrict my ABC watching to very few programs which do not piss me off so much.
Wasted opportunities all of them.
Radio National is my medium of choice most of the day.
Denis