Panel beater
It sounds like such a great idea for a TV show: five opinionated and articulate guests drawn from a wide range of orthodoxies and professional fields, facing-off against an engaged studio and television audience that asks tough questions which challenge each individual and spark heated debate amongst the group. Such a program idea promises insight, provoked thoughts, and a little bit of verbal biffo, which is the dream television combination for political tragics on a Monday evening. But if it’s such a great idea why does its execution in the form of ABC TV’s Q&A suck?
Archive for the ‘Shameless plugs’ category
Answering the Q&A question at ABC Unleashed
March 10th, 2010Violence and vindaloo at ABC Unleashed
March 2nd, 2010Lost in translation
Last Wednesday night a large group of online-organised Australians went down to their local curry restaurant and Vindaloo’d Against Violence, hoping to publicly condemn recent violent attacks against Indians in Australia that some say were racially-motivated.Several observers of the event thought that it was a pointless stunt – and it certainly is pointless as far as preventing attacks or tackling racism goes – but I reckon there was an important point: the message it transmitted to Indians via the world’s media.
Political brainfarts at ABC Unleashed
February 17th, 2010From the mouths of politicians
Every night in cities across the country, thousands of Australians weigh up their sleeping options and make a choice.Option one: a warm, dry bed wrapped in crisp, clean sheets, door safely locked to keep danger at bay. Option two: a cold, hard slab of concrete with a filthy blanket or sheet of cardboard to stop the soaking rain, nothing to protect against the many dangers of the street.
Why would anyone possibly choose option two, some who have chosen option one wonder, and if they have chosen option two then they’re clearly not in need of our compassion or assistance. QED.
Article at ABC Unleashed
February 15th, 2010My first article at ABC Unleashed was published a week or so ago.
Kicking the political football
Before boarding a flight bound for Christmas Island last week, Senator Steve Fielding announced, in that uniquely self-righteous way of his, that it was time to stop using the issue of asylum seekers as a political football.Of course, from the moment that Fielding booked his ticket it was inevitable that he was going to use the issue of asylum seekers as a political football, and announcing his intentions to the media was nothing more than another giant, looping lollipop of a kick. And just like his open-minded study tour to the US to get across the issue of climate change, Steve will probably come back from the remote Australian territory next week with a laminated graph and a fierce, close-minded certainty that everyone must pay attention to him.
Back In A Bit
December 19th, 2009During 2010 I’m travelling through India, the Middle East and northern Africa. Follow my trip at the Crikey blog Back In A Bit
Introducing Groupthink
October 25th, 2009This blog’s been very quiet over the past couple of weeks and tonight I can reveal what’s been sucking up a lot of my free time recently. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the brand new satirical team blog Groupthink.
I’ll still be writing here whenever I have something to say that doesn’t quite fit the Groupthink mission statement but I’ll be writing at Groupthink very regularly. So make sure you head on over to the new place, check it out, and whack it in your RSS reader. There are ten Groupthink contributors who I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading.
Article at newmatilda.com
September 22nd, 2009Published today at newmatilda.com:
Difficult Kids Are A Part Of Life
The Victorian Principals Association wants kids with behavioural problems out of mainstream classrooms, but public school teacher Scott Bridges thinks that would be the worst possible outcome for all involved.
Utegate raises no end of questions for the media too
June 22nd, 2009This article was first published in the Crikey subscriber email.
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Here’s Crikey’s own Bernard Keane thinking out loud via Twitter on Saturday:
Not sure how both Rudd and Turnbull can still be leaders after this. One or other is in deep trouble.
And it’s starting to look quite that serious. Both men are calling aggressively for the other to stand down, and both are standing firmly by their stories. It’s a Mexican stand-off that will end with egg on face if nobody pulls the trigger. One (or possibly both) of the two men will certainly be seriously compromised when the truth does finally out.
» Read more: Utegate raises no end of questions for the media too
Nothing’s off limits for Bolt’s pompous point-scoring
February 9th, 2009This article was first published in the Crikey subscriber email.
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In July last year a newborn baby, umbilical cord attached, was found dead in a rubbish bin in regional Victoria. The traumatised local community and a stunned nation felt sadness for the child and concern for the unknown mother. There is an unspoken understanding in the media that such tragic events should not be the catalyst for political or ideological point scoring, but that didn’t stop Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt from callously using this child’s death as an excuse to lay the boot into environmentalists because the body was inside a green shopping bag.
» Read more: Nothing’s off limits for Bolt’s pompous point-scoring
