Pure gold, clay feet

Some Sydney journalists work very hard. I know I'm always having a shot at Auntie's journos, but for sheer crayon-clutching bad grammar, take this final sentence in an article ('Pilgrimage that's pure gold', Sydney Sun-Herald, October 16, 2005) by Cheryl Rogers:

"Legend has it that the house was the envy of the neighbours whose chimneys were made of clay."

I mean to say, you'd have to work pretty hard to screw up a sentence as completely as that, wouldn't you?

While we're mentioning that execrable rag, the Sun-Herald: I read a used one yesterday. It was as thick as its owners, editors and journalists, but, as far as I could find, contained not one reference to this week's two biggest stories, viz, 12 million people on the verge of starvation in Southern Africa, and the Pakistan earthquake tragedy which a UN official last week called "worse than the Asian tsunami". Is it not about time that readers of this awful 'newspaper' boycotted it entirely? For the life of me, I don't know why it still has a solitary reader, because its track record has been as bad as that for as long as I can remember. (If it was the Sunday Telecrap, please excuse me. Sydneysiders will understand, as it is almost impossible to tell the two publications apart.)

At ease. Back to Auntie.

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Fair and balanced

ABC is nothing if not even handed. For example, Saturday Breakfast today had two women experts talking on women's sexuality. As Radio National so often distinguishes itself by having two women discussing men's sexuality, this can only be seen as fair and balanced.

Classic ABC

Today's Australia Talks Back is classic ABC Radio National. Ostensibly a discussion about Aboriginal poverty, and welfare, all the guests were employed persons (my main gripe with the broadcaster). Good on a caller, Nigel, for mentioning that Noel Pearson has a job and "I bet he spends most of his time in Canberra", even if Nigel was predictably challenged by the (employed) presenter.

It's almost like having a program on music and making sure that all the guests are tone deaf. That's not broadcasting, that's filling up the airwaves with stuff. And that's ABC Radio National on the topic of poverty, unemployment and welfare. Always.

Good heavens

Breakfast Show, it's 'diocese', not 'diocee'.

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