Interviewing the Um Err Umm Sisters

Radio interviewing must be a nightmare. I heard long ago about a radio presenter who had to interview a boxer in the studio. The boxer's answers sometimes took the form of a nod or shake of the head.

A bouquet to Michael MacKenzie whose interview last week with two incredibly inarticulate people (Letters to the Editor, the segment is called) was one of the best examples of courage and grace under fire I've ever heard on radio. Mr MacKenzie is one of the best presenters ABC-RN has, and always very pleasant. His replacement during his six months off, Amanda Smith, was also good, but we're pleased to see MacKenzie back.

Back to normalicy

On most days, the journalists on PM are very inventive users of the English language. For example, I listened for ten minutes today and one journalist said "continue on" and another said "normalicy". Excuse me while I retrieve my radio from the backyard. Good shot!

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Happy 30, Science Show

Congratulations to the Science Show on ABC-RN, celebrating 30 years of continuous broadcasting, with Robyn Williams at the helm the whole time. The show is still worth listening to each week. It should probably leave the comedy to the comedians, but the science is great.

No past aspirations?

Peter Thompson, in the promo for his show, says that he asks guests about their future aspirations.

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London Tube a battlefield? ABC's new McCarthyism

I wish I could find more elegant terms for it, but I can't. Shame on PM for today's interview with a Muslim man in New Zealand.

For some years now, parts (not all) of the ABC have exhibited an extraordinarily reactionary stance on Islam. Not that I think Islam is a progressive religion, but the confusion of Muslims with Islamists, and Muslims with terrorists, seems as rife in the ABC as any of the quarters one would expect it. One does not appreciate the national broadcaster sounding like the public bar of the local pub. The times are too pregnant with danger for this.

Today's ABC McCarthyist victim was a man who kept protesting to the interviewer that for years he has been preaching against terrorism. He affirmed most earnestly that Islam condemns terrorism and the killing of women and children. In my view the young bloke was under no obligation to give Mark Colvin the dignity of a reply to such assertions as that, since he (the Muslim) believes that death on the battlefield is honourable, he must be promoting terrorism. Colvin ignored his protestations, without a scrap of evidence against them.

I would have told Colvin to get fucked and go and use the same slander on any serviceman or woman in Australia, or the world. Colvin's charge was not only preposterous, it was yet another case of the ABC's recent disturbing slide. It's a very troubling development which I first noticed some years ago when very few, if any, ABC sinecurists opposed the illegal invasion of Afghanistan.

Male chauvinism isn't chauvinism

I was nearly dozing off when Asia Pacific last night promised an item on "chauvinism", but thought it would be interesting so I allowed myself to wake up. Sadly, the story from a foreign correspondent was on 'male chauvinism'. That's an entirely different thing and I wonder if the journo (a) understands the difference, and (b) cares that I lost some sleep.

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ABC Breakfast with Islam

Yesterday I had a bit of a stoush with someone who asserted strongly that Muslims are all vegetarians. Monday's Breakfast piece on Islam has nothing to do with vegetarianism, but a lot to do with similar ignorant prejudice. I was appalled to hear Amjad Mehboob, boss of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, grilled with such bullshit questions. They might have been written by any Rupert Moloch reporter.

If you want to listen to it and haven't got Real Player, that's tough because that's what the ABC mainly uses. I think they like all the ads and adware of this proprietary software. Go figure.

ABC's search engine works at last!

The new homepage for ABC is not bad, but not as good as the previous one. Let's hope the search engine indexes the whole site every day instead of every ten years like the old one. Oh! I just tested it with 'barnaby joyce' and it returned an August 10th news item. Well done, ABC webmaster!

While I'm on the subject, ok, any subject, if the host of Australia Talks Back really does "detest sport", he and I don't detest the same way. These were his words in a correspondence to me following a former criticism I made of what seems like a pro-competitive sport stance of the program. Tonight's bit on soccer and Sandy's "it's been an absolute pleasure having you" to his soccer-mad guests, belies this detestation. So why did he say it?

Being a totally reasonable person, I don't hope that anyone detests sport. I only want them to detest competitive sport. The fact that only a small proportion of the Australian populations seems to understand the difference is just another reason for detestation. Come on, Sandy, you can do it. Let's see some real hatred here!

A new wind blows, more or fewer

An ABC-RN personality has not only used the words 'less' and 'fewer' in the same sentence, but has used them correctly, with attention to their different meanings. I won't name that person in case they suffer reprisals from management or staff, but "well done, well done".

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