Fran Kelly flogs with a wet lettuce

Fran Kelly's interview with the former USA ambassador to Iraq (yesterday, Breakfast, Radio National) brought back memories of This Day Tonight and the glory days of ABC journalism. Not because it was a clever, hard-hitting interview, but because it wasn't.

The guy is a spokesman for US policy in Iraq. Where were the searching questions about the deaths of probably more than 100,000 civilians? When the former ambassador said that his government always knew the war would be for a long time, why did Ms Kelly glide right over it? Why are ABC radio journalists in general so wet these days? If management has squashed half the life out of them, shouldn't they go on strike?

For the record:

I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today would last five days, or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on November 14, 2002, speaking on National Public Radio and Infinity Radio, USA More

Myths of the 'war on terrorism' and Iraq

Tagged: iraq, war, usa, foreign+policy, journalism, investigative+journalism, disinformation, abc+radio+national

A caricature of spoken English

caricature



• noun a depiction of a person in which distinguishing characteristics are exaggerated for comic or grotesque effect.

• verb make a caricature of.

— DERIVATIVES caricatural adjective caricaturist noun.

— ORIGIN Italian caricatura, from Latin carricare ‘to load’.



It's a common word, a pet-shop parrot could pronounce it, and it definitely isn't 'characterture'. Please, Breakfast and AM.

Tagged: scose, abc, australia, australian, english, language, radio, grammar, spelling, pronunciation, journalism, radio+national