tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post7250453070033003893..comments2023-12-06T00:23:28.790+11:00Comments on Press gallery reform: Studies have shownAndrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-76513753238821312662011-08-12T15:48:49.555+10:002011-08-12T15:48:49.555+10:00Had a professional meeting yesterday with a middle...Had a professional meeting yesterday with a middle-aged regional earthmoving contractor in fluoro, who had an iPhone over which he had complete control, (while ten guys on site put up fencing). As the meeting came to a close he mentioned he was off to the Sheraton Port Douglas next week, and really looking forward to the degustation menu. Never presume.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-68849271733789479372011-08-10T12:54:11.213+10:002011-08-10T12:54:11.213+10:00Just apropos of this: "Tudehope points out so...Just apropos of this: "Tudehope points out some of the immediate distortions of the web world. Tradesmen and manual workers do not sit at desks with computers on them."<br /><br />FFS.<br /><br />Was talking to the guy tiling our kitchen floor yesterday. We were talking politics. He told me he had recently rediscovered his family in Chile via Facebook (he was given up for adoption and the new family came to Australia).<br /><br />Having found his old family, he discovered they were involved in campaigning about government cuts to public education. He has spent the last week discussing the matter with them and using online sites to protest and send critical letters to the Chilean Govt.<br /><br />One example, I know, but it is a brave person or a fool (or a fuckwit) who simply presumes 'tradesmen' don't do either politics or social media or the two combined. FFS.TimDunlophttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06733623340418231323noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-28019074932515934632011-08-09T18:55:43.190+10:002011-08-09T18:55:43.190+10:00'inner urban, tertiary educated largely atheis...'inner urban, tertiary educated largely atheist elites described by some as "insiders"'<br />This is the sort of stereotyping that really annoys me with conservative commentators. Despite BEING the inner city elitists, they spend their lives attacking people who disagree with them as elitists, who have far more clout than nearly all the people they attack. I grew up in the "heartland", lower middle class in the outer suburbs surrounded by farmland, and I can tell you plenty of them are atheists, or even anti-religious, and many don't consider themselves "conservative". When was the last time Divine, Bolt or Ackerman actually left Bondi or SouthbankAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-41986070689933774852011-08-09T16:29:02.362+10:002011-08-09T16:29:02.362+10:00A slight digression into the tabloid realm of News...A slight digression into the tabloid realm of News Ltd.<br /><br />One of the really heartwarming things about doing a low-paid unskilled job is the realisation that the News Limited media commentators are largely unknown to their own "readership". An unscientific poll of twelve truck drivers working out of my depot revealed that none had heard of Miranda Devine and only one had heard of Piers (this is <i>Telegraph</i> country).<br /><br />I think we need to be careful we don't conflate the act of publication of opinion with its ability to form perceptions in the community. The banner headlines do have an impact though, although not as much as the Rugby Leasgue coverage (or AFL in the case of the <i>Herald Sun</i>) or celebrity gossip which attracts the dwindling audience for hard copy tabloids.<br /><br />Television is a different kettle of fish entirely. That's where opinions are formed.<br /><br />Oh, and all twelve truck drivers regularly accessed the internets, which I think can be safely declared ubiquitus.<br /><br />I cannot fathom how a "hard headed" person such as Mr Rupert can continue with such an obvioulsy failing business model. And that's without even getting near News Limited's disastrous forays into things like My Space and the NRL. It is imploding around him even without the help of questionable journalistic methods. Someday in the not too distant future a smart politician is going to call emporer's new clothes on the media and appeal directly to households through the internets. They will do well.<br /><br />Hillbilly Skeleton is right. Imagine if Miranda Devine had to hold down a job on her merits!Lachlan Ridgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-24236978405736351432011-08-09T16:20:08.826+10:002011-08-09T16:20:08.826+10:00kulturkrieg or kulturkampf?kulturkrieg or kulturkampf?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-9987867447645799862011-08-08T20:58:22.555+10:002011-08-08T20:58:22.555+10:00HS, as a >40yo with kids I don't begrudge t...HS, as a >40yo with kids I don't begrudge the man a decision like that. When Kerr is on song he's very good, but here he's in a fog of his own creation punctured by lashings-out at critics real and imagined. <br /><br />ewe2, I read Christian's piece online so you can imagine how funny it was - pot, kettle &c.Andrew Elderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-47908602275243920902011-08-08T18:51:22.331+10:002011-08-08T18:51:22.331+10:00"There are fears that the often angry tone of..."There are fears that the often angry tone of web-based political discussion is making mainstream debate derogatory."<br /><br />Translated: maybe we can blame blogs for our paranoid common-enemy rhetoric and the sheep will follow.ewe2https://www.blogger.com/profile/06176137381361256982noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-5196202171767903392011-08-08T08:56:07.717+10:002011-08-08T08:56:07.717+10:00Alas, poor Christian, I knew him well before he so...Alas, poor Christian, I knew him well before he sold his soul to Murdoch and had to learn to debase his principles so as to pay the mortgage and for the education of his kids at a local Canberra Private School, like all the rest of Canberra's journalistic and Public Service denizens(which is just about everyone in Canberra).<br /> I can clearly remember, in the good old days at Crikey when he repudiated the importuning of the minions from Murdoch the first time they came calling at his door, that he just couldn't stand the thought of debasing his principles, which he held dearly at that time, by accepting the offer from The Austrollian. However, comes a time, like when a man reaches 40, gets married finally and has a baby on the way, and when the offer becomes too good to refuse, that, as Murdoch likes to say, "Every man has his price", and thus did Christian have his. Ego had a bit to do with it too, I believe. To wit,however, that Christian realised that this price involved Christian having to agree to follow the Murdoch party line. I just think he honestly believed that he could change The Australian, rather than the other way around. Sadly, that appears not to be the case anymore after manfully giving it a red hot go at the beginning of his tenure there. To the point where he has now named his second born after the old buzzard, Rupert, himself. Sad, really. I mean, he really does despise a lot of what the Liberal Party has come to represent of late. Sad that it has had to be subsumed into obedience to his paymaster.<br /> Miranda Devine, on the other hand, is just a soulless, heartless, opportunistic cultural warrior and journalistic whore and low life.Hillbilly Skeletonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-48872690343364960552011-08-07T17:58:57.755+10:002011-08-07T17:58:57.755+10:00Anon2: thanks, fixed.Anon2: thanks, fixed.Andrew Elderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-71548926863443596252011-08-07T17:49:30.396+10:002011-08-07T17:49:30.396+10:00Greg: your blog was one of the last of those read ...Greg: your blog was one of the last of those read in any volume to lose its anonymity. When you were outed it wasn't the naming that people (including m'self) objected to, but the bulldozer-cracking-a-nut unnecessary and overbearing nature of it. If Canberra had a News Ltd tabloid it wouldn't surprise me if they'd done story after story on you doing the shopping or putting the bins out, where your wife works, etc.<br /><br />diemperdidi and Michael: Good points, well made.<br /><br />Rhiannon: It was lame when Labor people did it and it's lame now. There was a time when caffe latte was only available in inner-city cafes, but recently I've gone to outer-suburban shopping centres and small country towns - all of them serve lattes because there's a real market for them. Watching culture warriors go on about latte-drinkers is a bit like listening to all those Redgum songs from the 1980s going on about colour TVs.<br /><br />Anon: I went to a few events years ago where she went off pop, resorting to bullying ("I'm Miranda Devine. If that doesn't mean anything to you, it should. If you want a future ...") at a surprisingly early stage when encountering difficulties.Andrew Elderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-55601693982332301622011-08-07T16:20:29.619+10:002011-08-07T16:20:29.619+10:00FYI, typo: "When Vera Lynn sand It's a lo...FYI, typo: "When Vera Lynn sand It's a lovely day" I am fairly sure should read "When Vera Lynn sang It's a lovely day".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-6684282073749337072011-08-07T15:41:42.274+10:002011-08-07T15:41:42.274+10:00funny, my tradesman partner is sitting right besid...funny, my tradesman partner is sitting right beside me on his laptop, which he is almost permanenetly attached to when he is not at worksites, where he also uses the lapttop frequently...<br />my fave bit is this:<br />"Yes, Virginia, Miranda is patronising you. Part of this is endemic to her: you should see her with events management people and waiters"<br />oh, please, Do tell us what's she's like with events management ppl & waiters! MareeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-43635196786681942772011-08-07T13:40:31.643+10:002011-08-07T13:40:31.643+10:00My manual worker and tradie husband spends an awfu...My manual worker and tradie husband spends an awful lot of time at his computer in the evenings (in between helping the kids with their dinner, reading them stories and so on, because we are the Chosen People with a happy family life etc. Possibly could be described as 'Aspirational' but given that we are extremely broke and everything we own is second-hand (almost) we should more accurately be described as 'Battlers'...except that either of those terms make me want to vomit)<br />Er, anyway, he generally talks to people online about aircraft, rather than politics, but it is still a stupid, careless and patronising generalisation. <br />Funny how culture-warriors who cannot restrain themselves from trying to force a wedge between 'real' Aussies and 'The elite' can't quite get it to sound as though they are not being patronising 'Elitists' themselves. Elite indeed. I fail to see how someone's voting preferences determine what sort of freakin' coffee they drink.<br /><br />Anyway after that rather incoherent cranky-pants rant, I will just say, great post Andrew, thanks again.Rhiannonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-10599791179953163982011-08-07T13:04:27.378+10:002011-08-07T13:04:27.378+10:001. Since when did voicing an opinion "on som...1. Since when did voicing an opinion "on someone else's time" somehow make it less valid?<br /><br />2. If Christian Kerr wants to know who's 'driving opinion', he might care to enquire why comments on blogs / responses to tweets and etc are often worth reading - whereas comments on newspaper articles are almost invariably not worth bothering with.Michaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-57343074213704674552011-08-07T11:49:22.861+10:002011-08-07T11:49:22.861+10:00"Tradesmen and manual workers do not sit at d..."Tradesmen and manual workers do not sit at desks with computers on them" because their computers are in their pockets ;-)diemperdidihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16638606311677507855noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-72363395040765533782011-08-07T09:10:25.614+10:002011-08-07T09:10:25.614+10:00Nice work Andrew. Two utterly shite pieces from tw...Nice work Andrew. Two utterly shite pieces from two very predictable sources. <br /><br />"THE anonymity afforded by the internet makes it hard to know for sure who is driving online public opinion."<br /><br />What utter horsesh*t. Most blogs that most people read read (like this one) actually have a name attached. Mine didn't, but it wasn't a secret that I was a public servant. So please Christian, direct me to these all powerful anonymous drivers of online opinion? Name 10. Hell, name 5. <br /><br />Ooh someone on Twitter is anonymous! Quick let's follow him/her and watch them drive opinion!!!<br /><br />The stupid it hurts.Greg Jerichohttp://grogsgamut.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com