Turtles All the Way Down

Turtle pulling its head in

2006-10-19T10:30:00.000+10:00

Dear loyal readers,

I'm pulling the Turtle's head in -- closing this site down -- for the following reasons:

Firstly, the ABC is coming under too much governmental and right-wing attack. See this article and all these. I would hate to do anything to give ammunition to these iconoclasts, ideologues and philistines who are out to privatise and destroy one of the world's greatest media institutions.

Secondly, my workload is too great and I'm consolidating. As Thoreau wrote, "Simplify! Simplify!" Any ABC-related material as it occurs will now be at my main blog, Wilson's Blogmanac. I invite you to subscribe to that for free.

Thirdly, since Turtles started, there has been a marked improvement as to the repetition of programs. Early on in this blog, I bemoaned the fact that Radio National programs were endlessly repeated, and I suggested that listeners would prefer something from the vaults rather than repeats of what we heard the day before. RN is trying, it seems. For example, at 5.30 AM we are getting some pretty good old British comedy such as 'My Word', 'The Goons' and my favourites, 'Just a Minute' and Sunday morning's 'I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue', which is a lot better than what we were getting before.

As a closing remark, I would hope that my criticisms over the past 20 months will not go unheeded. The ABC does need some attention in the matters I've raised. The standards of journalism and the use of our beautiful language have declined markedly over recent years, and if the ABC is to defend itself against te aforementioned enemies, it would do well to get its act together. Not a day passes without primary school errors being foisted upon Radio National listeners, and that simply is not good enough.

So, the time has come to leave this blog here as an archive, and I bid you happy travelling. Thank you for your supportive comments since I began 'Turtles All the Way Down'. I hope you enjoyed your time here, as I did.

Abundance and gratitude,

Pip Wilson

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

Towards the English language

2006-10-06T18:08:00.000+10:00

Does ABC News employ a proofreader? If not, it should consider doing so.

'Toward' does not have the same meaning as 'towards' (at least, outside the USA) and 'to summons' does not mean the same as 'to summon'. Use a dictionary, please. Too easy.

While we're at it, 'Bathurst' is not pronounced 'BathURST', but 'Bath'st', and 'employer' is pronounced with the second syllable stressed, not 'employ-ERR'. All of the above primary school errors are frequently heard on ABC Radio National.

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

How to set up your radio system for The Night Air

2006-10-01T21:45:00.000+10:00

I'm often asked what the best stereo system is for listening to Brent Clough's The Night Air on Radio National. The solution is not only very simple, but inexpensive, as it requires ordinary equipment usually found in the average Australian home.

I begin with an AM/FM radio, nothing special. If money is a problem, anything from a bargain centre will do, but if you have a state of the art hi-fi receiver, so much the better. Now, tune your radio to the appropriate frequency:

Adelaide 729AM. Brisbane 792AM. Canberra 846AM. Darwin 657AM.
Gold Coast 90.1FM. Hobart 585AM. Melbourne 621AM. Newcastle 1512AM.
Perth 810AM. Sydney 576AM.

Or, for a quality listening experience, if you live in a regional centre, as I do, look up the frequency:

NSW :: NT :: QLD :: SA :: TAS :: VIC :: WA

Now, position your radio near an open window. This will not necessarily improve reception, but will assist with the next step.

Tune your radio to the correct frequency. Adjust the volume to your preferred mode of listening. Experience has shown that the next step is the most important one for listening pleasure with The Night Air.

Taking care to maintain the best reception available, pick up your radio and hurl it out the window as quickly and as far as possible.

Tagged: abc, australia, australian, radio, radio+national

Junior high school stuff

2006-09-14T16:39:00.000+10:00

NB Breakfast host: You can have a 'caricature', but you can't have a 'characterture', any more than you can "mitigate against" something. You might, however, 'militate against' something, or 'mitigate' something. Write 1,000 lines.

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

Eyes wide glazed

2006-08-02T23:15:00.000+10:00

Because Geraldine did a good piece last week, about Al Qaeda and Hezbollah, which I saw as a surprising departure from desperately boring and obsolete bits on sport and financial services, I intend this weekend to have another crack at Saturday Brekkie.

Tagged: abc, australia, radio, journalism, radio+national

Religion and belligerence

2006-08-01T06:22:00.000+10:00

Can anyone explain why ABC Radio National News calls Hezbollah "Muslim militants", but the Government of Israel "the Government of Israel"?

The Auntie Guillotine

2006-07-19T08:52:00.000+10:00

Have you heard of the Auntie Guillotine?

It goes something like this, during your average interview on ABC Radio National:

Interviewee: "... and then after my daughter committed suicide and my house burned down, I had a nervous breakdow--"

ABC interviewer: "Thank you, Ethel Snape. We now cross to Kylie Squirts, our gardening correspondent in Wagga Wagga, for a look at rhododendron blight. Hi there, Kylie!"

For years, Auntie experimented with such segues as "Well, our time is running out, and unfortunately we'll have to move on, but thank you, Ethel Snape for giving so freely of your time to us and our listeners" (then wait for Mrs Snape to say "OK" and "goodbye") then "Goodbye, and thank you again for doing this interview at no charge".

However, techniques of these kinds simply did not have the rude abruptness required, and over several months a working party developed Auntie's patented guillotine, which does the chop with all necessary brutality. The new method has been taken up with alacrity, even by the under-50s reporters and presenters who have yet to learn what alacrity is.

Tagged: abc, australia, australian, english, language, radio, journalism, radio+national

Fo-sigh!

2006-07-14T07:22:00.000+10:00

As is well known, before one can gain a degree in Sociology or Cultural Studies, one must master more than just the ability to "unpack a text" (or pack a pomo multisyllable).

No degrees are awarded to any person who clings to the abhorrent practice of saying "forums". It's fora or the door. (And you'll never get a job on ABC unless you can speak pomo.) We're all prepared for fora. Of course, we wonder whether those academics and journalists take their children to circi to see the elephants and clowns.

Nothing, however, could have prepared me for "fo-sigh" -- that's how the chap being interviewed pronounced "focuses" ... I mean, 'foci'. Did I say 'focuses'? I do beg your pardon.

These are the sorts of people who I love to hear say "platypi", as they believe it's the plural of 'platypus'. Of course, they're about three feet up their own bums, because they don't realise that the platypus has a Greek name, not a Latin one. Thus the plural form doesn't look like the plural of 'cactus'. The '-pus' ending is Greek for 'foot', and 'platy' means flat. It's 'platypodae', not 'platypi', but I really don't think it's sporting to tell these Sunday pundits. Fo-sigh!

Reclaiming possession of the mother tongue

2006-07-14T07:08:00.000+10:00

Mr Abbas has a house. The house is Mr Abbas's. It isn't Mr Abba's house. Not yet. Mr Abba wants the house, but he will not have it unless he takes it. If it should become Mr Abba's house and Mr Abbas reclaims it, the house will be Mr Abbas's again.

Does anyone else wonder why so many ABC people get the possessive wrong? For example, "Sydney is New South Wale's capital city". No it is not. Surely it is New South Wales's capital. And Alan Jone doesn't have a radio program: Alan Jones has one, so the program is Alan Jones's -- it is not Alan Jone's program.

And on Breakfast this morning, Damascus's became Damasca's. There is, as far as I know, no city called 'Damasca'.

Perhaps SCOSE (the ABC's Standing Committee on Spoken English) might have a little training session with ABC writers and speakers. The average ABC employee should be able to learn about possession in, oh, I should think two or three day-long workshops at the outside.

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

Missal?

2006-07-03T12:21:00.000+10:00

Tomorrow, Tuesday, is the Fourth of July. Maybe this is why today we hear on The World Today the word "missile" pronounced as Americans would pronounce it.

May we have our Australia back on Wednesday after your fireworks show, please Auntie?

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

The ABC screeching blackboard experience

2006-07-01T05:53:00.000+10:00

We all like crisp, accurate and clear expression, and we all want the ABC to be a role model of crispness, accuracy and clarity.

Thus we prefer it when presenters say "whence" rather than the tautological "from whence", and "whether" rather than "whether or not". For "whence" means "from where" (as in "I am going back whence I came"), and "whether or not" should only be used when particular emphasis is required. "Whether" is sufficient almost all the time.

And when we hear (as on Asia Pacific this morning) "But nevertheless" beginning a sentence, we have a right to wish that the redundant "But" had not been tacked on the front. "Nevertheless" stands alone, requiring no extra word to give it its meaning.

When alleged users of English write "But neverthless", can "Nevertheless but" be far away?

These are things children the English-speaking world over learn before they leave primary school, so it's natural that when paid ABC journalists and presenters get them wrong time after time, day in and day out, we should feel like we did as kids when the chalk squeaked on the blackboard.

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

It's not rocket surgery

2006-06-28T04:26:00.000+10:00

To Australia Talks Back (June 27, 2006):

'Criterion' is the singular; 'criteria' is the plural.

People haven't 'rang in', they have 'rung in'.

There, that wasn't very hard, was it?

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

Out of his depth

2006-06-28T04:20:00.000+10:00

Counterpoint presenter Michael Duffy (June 26, 2006) asks why, if people don't protest when killer whales kill humpback whales, they should protest when Japanese fishing companies do.

If you don't understand by now, Mr Duffy, don't mess with it.

Tagged: abc, australia, radio, journalism, radio+national

Be assured. Be very, very assured

2006-06-27T19:56:00.000+10:00

Yesterday ABC Radio National News used the word 'sovereignity'. I feel we can be pretty much assured that the word 'sovereignty' was meant, and that no new word has been coined without our noticing. I'm sure it's just an ABC journalism thing.

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

Exactly

2006-06-25T13:03:00.000+10:00

Heard on Radio National's Rear Vision last week: "While tobacco use goes back thousands of years, its modern use is a recent phenomenon."

Learning Latin with Country Breakfast

2006-06-24T07:11:00.000+10:00

Heard on Country Breakfast this morning, in an interview with a farmer of Australian bush tucker plants (paraphrase):

Interviewer: "So, the Finger lime is Microcitrus australien ... Micro, that would mean 'small'? Citrus: 'citrus-like'. And australien ... that would be 'Australian'?"

Farmer: "Yes."

Asked without a hint of irony, and it's not a show for primary school children.

Tagged: abc, australia, australian, english, language, radio, journalism, radio+national

Be my guest. Now shut up.

2006-06-21T06:33:00.000+10:00

In keeping with this blog's raisons d'etre, which includes a critique of ABC Radio National's self-removal from listener feedback, a word about RN website guestbooks.

In contrast to millions upon millions of personal websites whose owners bravely risk publishing the views of their readers, not all RN program webpages have guestbooks. For example, if you want to express to the Breakfast show disappointment that they headline sport above the state of the nation, the state of the planet, or international crises, apparently there's no guestbook available. If there is one, I couldn't find it and I withdraw my remark.

And, apparently, those that have guestbooks, such as the Counterpoint guestbook, there is no form field in which the commenter may type his or her own webpage or favourite site. It's a pity that ABC-RN doesn't allow this Internet convention and one can only wonder why it should be so. It seems to be just another example of the station's elitism.

Most webmasters moderate their guestbooks; that is, the webmaster usually adjusts the book's settings to require webmaster approval before a comment gets posted. This is reasonable, as it prevents the posting of spam, obscenities and very cranky or abusive feedback. Likewise, ABC-RN guestbooks filter out such posts, and it would be churlish to be critical of this practice. I have several moderated guestbooks, and reader criticism and suggestions have been invaluable to my efforts to improve the quality of my sites. (Regrettably my blog host, Blogger, does not allow a URL field in its Comments form; I refer only to my guestbooks.)

However, my own experience with several guestbook comments that I have made at RN -- polite, brief comments, although not necessarily ones that the programs wish to read (or have their readers see) -- is that they are usually filtered out.

Like the ABC Radio practice of frequently asking for listeners' emails (and here I speak of ABC generally, including News Radio, local radio as well as RN), but replying extremely rarely to such feedback emails, the ABC-RN guestbook practice verges on resembling window dressing.

My modest proposal is that all the programs have guestbooks, each with the barest minimum of moderation, and with the conventional form field in which listeners may place a URL. RN should not be afraid of letting 1,000 flowers bloom; it would brighten the place up a bit and, I believe, help ABC get back on the road to reflecting the thoughts of the Australian general public, whom it ostensibly serves. Australians who can read and write, at any rate. How the disenfranchised illiterate people might be catered for is beyond me, and up till now beyond ABC.

Tagged: abc, australia, radio, internet, radio+national

Intertextuality of interview and research

2006-06-19T09:25:00.000+10:00

It's Monday morning.

On Friday's Life Matters, the promo for today's program said that there would be a discussion about Tourette Syndrome. This morning the journalist was interviewing the author of a book on the subject, a British gentleman who has the syndrome himself.

A couple of minutes into the interview, the journalist asked (and I paraphrase from memory): "So, Tourette Syndrome ... I'm not sure I understand ... is that the condition where people feel compelled to swear?"

Postmodern journalism: practise the intertextuality of interview and research. The order in which they occur is a construct of society and thus immaterial, so forget about it.

Tagged: abc, australia, australian, radio, journalism, radio+national

I pro-test on behalf of a fine round fellow

2006-06-17T12:48:00.000+10:00

The little, cute, chubby letter 'o' has at least three ways it likes to be addressed.

There is the short 'o' sound, as in 'hot', the long 'o' sound as in 'omen', and, just because our chubby friend is an individual, the short 'i' sound as in 'women'. (He's a funny fellow, our 'o'.)

Thus, when we come across words like 'process' and 'project', little 'o' challenges us to make a decision. How will we pronounce the 'o'?

We may immediately discard the possibility that 'o' will have an 'i' sound (as in 'women'). That just won't do, of course.

So we are presented with a choice. Will we pronounce it as Australians do, with a long 'o' (as in 'protest' and 'program'), or as Americans do, with a short?

In the last year or two, ABC Radio National announcers and presenters apparently have decided that the Australian pronunciation is to be eschewed, so most of the time you will hear the American pronunciation, and your ears will bleed a little.

My only question is this. Why?

No. I have another question. Will SCOSE (ABC's Standing Committee on Spoken English) ever do anything about it?

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

A diversion

2006-06-09T18:52:00.000+10:00

PM: Is it not that we "divert traffic from", not "divert traffic away from"?

O, protect us

2006-05-30T15:45:00.000+10:00

Memo to today's The Deep End and its expert this week, Ms Crombie: Mozart was certainly a child prodigy, but hardly a child protégé.

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

Lincoln Hall's death was greatly exaggerated

2006-05-27T14:12:00.000+10:00

It's hard to criticise ABC Radio National on a Saturday, as I revel in the smorgasbord of excellent programming that always comes my way on this day of the week. The Music Show, the Philosophers' Zone, science, current affairs ... it's all so wonderful.

But it must be said that yesterday I and no doubt many other people unnecessarily were put into a flurry when The World Today (like many other media) reported that Lincoln Hall had died on Mt Everest. (My report here.)

Because I know Lincoln, I nearly rolled my car when I heard this story. I arrived at a meeting with tears in my eyes. I phoned a mate who also knows Lincoln and we had a long commiseration session on the mobile phone. (I'm not saying these things wouldn't have happened had I known Lincoln was alive but critically ill.)

I hate to be picky, but shouldn't this story have been double, triple checked? Note that Simon Balderstone, Lincoln's friend, referred to "the various pieces of information not always consistent flying off the mountain". Certainly Simon thought that Lincoln was dead, and so did a fellow climber of Lincoln's, but surely that isn't enough evidence for quality journalism. I'm a bit unhappy that I grieved for four hours over the death of someone whose demise was greatly exaggerated. Now I have something else to grieve about, namely Lincoln's severe illness, but that's another matter. All the media seem to have blown this story, basing it (or so it would seem) on a report on the Mount Everest website.

I appreciate that it's not as though The World Today could just ring Mt Everest and ask for all the facts. But because of that, the story should have been written with a question mark, not as fact.

Tagged: journalism, australia, abc, radio+national

Fingers crossed for Feedblitz

2006-05-17T10:15:00.000+10:00

If you are an email subscriber to this blog, your subs from today will no longer come via Bloglet but via Feedblitz. I hope the transfer goes smoothly, and you are welcome to let me know if it does or doesn't.

If you don't get this blog in your email box each day, you are very welcome to join the happy throng by signing up in the sidebar on this page.

Update: I'm a dirty rat. I've said harsh things in the past about Bloglet, but this post at Feedblitz explains a lot of stuff I didn't know, so this is my public apology to Monsur who pioneered blog-to-email subs and did it altruistically, not as a money-making scheme. He has actually allowed Feedblitz to import all his free 'customers' (read his new post). Good luck to Monsur in all ways, and thanks. And anyone else who appreciates what he did can email him at bloglet at gmail dot com.

Tagged: internet, rss, email, internet+resources, blog, bloggers, blogging

Auntie having a lend of us again

2006-05-07T11:10:00.000+10:00

Hey, ABC Radio National News: the present participle from the verb to lend, is "lending", not "loaning", as any child knows.

Any child outside the good old USA, that is. Australians lend things, they don't loan them. They take a loan from a bank, because it's a noun.

Sorry, I know it's painful to some ears, but I'm determined to be relentless in my campaign to tackle the ABC's apparent determination to destroy Australian idiom and replace it with American. I don't intend to give up. There are bigger issues here than just words. One of them is the whole mindset of acceptance of American cultural imperialism and the hold that it has on the ABC. ABC is the last place that should be undermining Australian culture, but it's one of the ringleaders -- and I'm not the only one who is disturbed by it.

We should be proud of our own culture, and Auntie should show some pride too. From sea to shining sea ... from the Redwood forests to the Gulfstream waters, we won't give up our culture as easily as the ABC wants us to.

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

When your pants begin to go

2006-05-05T20:12:00.000+10:00

It was one of radio's odd moments that grabs you by the seat of your pants.

The affable Richard Aedy, on Life Matters, was interviewing an American gent, a journalist from NPR (National Public Radio), on the subject of the New York subway. The American said something about some people not wearing 'pants' on the train, and Richard Aedy said that he must explain, because in Australia 'pants' doesn't mean trousers, but underwear.

Is that not an odd moment in radio? I've lived in Australia for 53 years and have always referred to my breeches as 'pants'. What man in Australia doesn't call his trousers 'pants'? One thinks of Banjo Paterson's well-known book Happy Dispatches in which he uses the word 'pants', meaning trousers.

And of course, who can forget one of Henry Lawson's most popular poems, 'When Your Pants Begin to Go' (1896)? Australia's national writer is surely not talking about underwear. Here's an excerpt:

... You are none the less a hero if you elevate your chin
When you feel the pavement wearing through the leather, sock, and skin;
You are rather more heroic than are ordinary folk
If you scorn to fish for pity under cover of a joke;
You will face the doubtful glances of the people that you know;
But -- of course, you’re bound to face them when your pants begin to go ...

Who could be more Aussie than Henry Lawson? Try googling "henry lawson" pants and you'll be left scratching your head why Mr Aedy pulled up the American journalist to provide a translation of what is, after all, a good old Aussie word.

"He cautiously drew off his pants, and then stood close to the wall, in his shirt, tenderly examining the seat of the trousers."
Henry Lawson, '"Dossing Out" and "Camping"', in While the Billy Boils, 1896

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

Hey, Auntie: advance Australia, please!

2006-04-29T17:04:00.000+10:00

A bouquet to Auntie: ABC Radio National is simply fantastic on Saturdays. I stick with it from early morning till about the time John Carga's opera show comes on at 4pm -- but I don't even hate that and usually have it on in the background. I admit that by 5pm and Into the Music, my interest is waning, but I much prefer talk to music shows. Especially those weird, quiet, repetitive and mechanical ones that seem to dominate weekend late nights. Yawn! Then I go dial surfing for some American evangelist -- anything, anything at all to stop the programming of 50 minutes of dripping taps or singing bridges.

Some of today's shows were spectacular, rolling one after the other:

What’s in a Selfish Gene?

Whatever happened to Helen Demidenko?

To Solaris and beyond

Painting the weather

Apart from that, all I have to say today about ABC-RN is that I wonder why they call coffins 'caskets'? This grating, unnecessary Americanism has been used many, many times this week in stories about the death of Private Kovco. Hey, Auntie: advance Australia, please!

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

Squidoo bedoobydoo

2006-04-16T01:11:00.000+10:00

Hey mate! Will you please rate my Squidoo?

Tagged: squidoo

Radio National underselling podcast service

2006-04-11T09:20:00.000+10:00

The ABC Radio National podcast service is the best I've found of any broadcaster in the world. Even the BBC has a far smaller number of podcasts available, and they are available on a one-week trial only -- I don't know what happens after the week, maybe you have to pay.

I listen to ABC podcasts on my computer, with its dial-up connection. That's why I find it odd that the promo ABC-RN is running for its service states that you need a broadband connection. I wrote to ABC-RN to point out that they're doing themselves out of approximately half their audience, but the ads are still running.

It's been my experience over the years that although ABC radio actively solicits emails and letters, they reply to them once in a blue moon, so I can't tell you what their attitude is to my suggestion. In the unlikely event that I should hear from them, I'll let readers know their response. Meanwhile, don't believe their ads: dial-up is slow, but adequate for receiving ABC's excellent mp3s. I highly recommend these podcasts, so dip in regardless of your connection.

Update: The the Editor of Presentation and Production at ABC Radio National has commented on this post (click the Comments link). Thank you, Tim.

Good on Auntie for custom RSS

2006-03-30T07:57:00.000+11:00

Auntie has made an experimental converter that takes a search and turns it into an RSS feed based upon keywords.

Brekky Kelly misses grand chance to nail war crim

2006-03-30T07:04:00.000+11:00

It must be hard to get up at 4am five days a week and present the Breakfast Show on Radio National. How Fran Kelly does it, I have no idea. And quite a lot of her interviews she conducts well for someone at that time of the morning.

All I wish is that she got her priorities right (more caffeine needed perhaps?) and that when interviewing war criminal Tony Blair (remember, the man who said Iraq must be invaded because it posed a direct and imminent military threat to Britain) she brought to the job some of the enthusiasm she lavishes each day on the throwing and catching of balls, and other forms of competitive games. What was Fran's problem? Was she star struck by the PM with the funny voice? Mister Bean has as much charm, so it can't be that.

If we could just hear Fran fawning over Blair and Bush's 150,000 massacred Iraqi men, women and children the way she does over muscle-bound, millionaire-sports-granted Australians, she might have a decent brekky show. Until then, it's marshmallow for the brain and, frankly, a disgrace to the ABC, many departments of which are working like the blue blazes to expose what's going on in the world. I wish one of her colleagues would slip a note on her desk: "Fran, you're making us all look pissweak".

Ms Kelly's bio says she comes from a background in entertainment. OK, Auntie, I don't mind if she sings, but please don't give her the hard interviewing jobs like tackling notorious world leaders like Bliar. We could use more penetrating interviewers like the ABC had 20, 30 years ago. Ms Kelly is probably a fine woman, but she just doesn't uphold ABC traditions of quality, and the show is daily growing more a sportsfest instead of a reflection of the real world we inhabit.

Please, Fran Kelly, less flummery, footy, fandom, foolery and flattery and more flagellation of the flagrant felons. It's a real world dying out there.

Tagged: abc, progressive, war, tony+blair, radio, broadcasting, australia, radio+national, journalism, investigative+journalism

Sign petition to save Australia's ABC

2006-03-30T05:37:00.000+11:00

"We are at a turning point in the future of a fundamental and cherished Australian institution, the ABC. Right now, the Cabinet's budget committee is deciding the ABC's funding for the next three years. Their next meeting is on Tuesday.

"As it stands, the ABC is $264 million poorer in real terms today than it was 20 years ago. The programs we rely on - from independent news and current and affairs to quality children's content - are under extreme pressure. In a very real sense, the integrity of the ABC is now at stake ..."
Sign the petition online

Free John Cargher

2006-03-04T17:01:00.000+11:00

Whatever it is that John Cargher did all those years ago, hasn't he paid his debt to society? People on the inside say that he is contrite and living a changed life, doing good works for the community. He makes model ships out of spent matchsticks and raffles them for the sick kiddies in hospital.

To force him to present Singers of Renown for thirty years is cruel and unusual punishment. How much longer must he pay for one silly moment in his youth?

We all makes mistakes when we are young. I know I did. Must we pay forever? That's not natural justice.

Turtles All the Way Down urges readers to form Free John Cargher chapters in your local area and not give up until John Carger is free.

Enough is enough, Minister for Justice! Let John Cargher go!

Tagged: abc, radio+national, music

Fran Kelly flogs with a wet lettuce

2006-02-15T08:12:00.000+11:00

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

2006-02-09T07:55:00.000+11:00

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

Back soon

2006-01-17T19:26:00.000+11:00

After five years of daily Almanac posting, I'm taking a few weeks to put my energy into a few things that need doing, including my nearly finished novel. I might pop in from time to time, but for about a month I hope you'll excuse me from regular posting. In the meantime, you might like to use the menu bar at the top of this page for plenty more at the Almanac. Thanks, dear reader.

Shit. Let's call the whole thing off

2006-01-04T09:38:00.000+11:00

I say 'excreta', and you say 'excrement'. But Life Matters today says 'excretement' -- twice in as many minutes, so it must be right, especially as this is on the national broadcaster which features only the elite of Australian journalists.

ABC's Jed Clampett School of English

2006-01-02T10:09:00.000+11:00

Yesterday the RN News informed us that there's doubt about how Ariel Sharon's state of health will affect his leadership "ahead of the March elections".

Ahead of? Ahead of, in what way -- as in a horse and cart? A head of steam? Is this from the ABC's Jed Clampett School of English (the one that brings you "set to" as in "the government is set to enact legislation")? Well, doggies! What ever happened to the word "before"? Not American enough and too Australian for Auntie?

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

A chill wind blows through my nervous system

2005-12-30T09:17:00.000+11:00

It's a scientific fact that the only people who say "Antartic" are break-and-enter criminals -- in fact, that pronunciation is a prerequisite for employment in their profession, and rightly so.

So if I were Auntie, I'd be keeping a keen eye on the woman who read the News on Radio National at 9 o'clock this morning.

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

More criterias

2005-12-29T07:26:00.000+11:00

Tsk tsk. Tony Eastley from AM, you weren't listening about criteria and criterion. No, I don't mean to me, I mean to your 6th grade teacher. Today you get a big turtle stamp, naughty boy.

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

ABC News: Language subversion, but why?

2005-12-18T10:44:00.000+11:00

Use of Americanisms might seem innocuous, especially as we all do it to a certain extent. However, it's very unfortunate that ABC Radio National News takes it one step further, almost as though some person or persons there has a mission to extend American terms and pronunciations beyond the usual 'guy' and 'hi' which we all use.

For example, they have cancelled a great and original Australian term, 'lifesaver' (we were, after all, the originators of beach lifesaving), and replaced it with 'lifeguard' (a la Baywatch). The word 'repeat' they now call 're-peat', with the accent on the first syllable a la Jed Clampett, and 'railway station' is now almost invariably 'train station', like something you would find in the USA (if they had a rail network even remotely as good as Australia's).

How can we subvert the subverters? I really don't know, except of course in whatever small way I can bring these things to attention by Turtling them. Why are they doing it? I haven't the slightest idea. Why don't people in authority at the ABC do something about it? I cain't figger it, pardner!

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

Reluctance and reticence

2005-12-13T20:46:00.000+11:00

I suppose, if we were to be generous at this season of goodwill (mwahahaha!), we would admit that even in a pre-recorded program such as tonight's The Europeans (ABC Radio National), the word 'reticence' could understandablyly be accidentally swapped for the word 'reluctance'. (There you go, see my slip of the keyboard? We all do it, but that's never my point in Turtles.) The presenter might be unable to read their own or someone else's handwriting. It could happen to anyone, and under pressure of broadcasting the presenter might not notice the malapropism.

However, the fact that the glaring error is broadcast twice in as many days, presumably after having been heard by the same presenter at least once, as well as by the journalist and producer or producers, and other staff, is not so easy to explain generously or excuse. Nor is it easy to work out why the reluctance/reticence gaffe is not unique to The Europeans, but is not uncommonly heard on other programs. Is Auntie reinventing common words?

Unless we have now to decide or agree that the ABC is no longer supposed to be something of a benchmark of good English, which I am steadily and reluctantly becoming convinced is the new belief at Auntie, then we can only ask, firstly, how it could happen, and secondly, why on earth the ABC doesn't employ a proofreader or two. Someone with a smattering of high school English could only improve today's Radio National. Or is it time to put a dictionary in each studio and office? These can be purchased for a dollar or two at charity shops, where they abound.

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

Auntie: It's all games for big rich kids

2005-12-09T21:16:00.000+11:00

Juan Samaranch: The Games of the 29th Olympiad in 2008 are awarded to the city of Beijing.

CHEERS

Mick O’Regan: Happy punters greet the news that Beijing has won the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games.

This was how an item started today on The Sports Factor (ABC Radio National). We're supposed to think this is just fantastic. Not a word about Juan Antonio Samaranch, one of Franco's Spanish fascists, a guy who presided over the corrupt Olympic Committee for years. Then it gets worse:

Mick O’Regan: There has been sustained criticism of the PRC over the years for its poor human rights record; firstly, how significant is an evaluation of that human rights records for the IOC?

Kevan Gosper: Well we’re not there to monitor human rights, we’re there to stage the biggest international sporting event on the globe. But we know that the Chinese have said that one of the benefits of the Games is it will continue to open up the country, and indeed in the last 20 years, they’ve opened up dramatically, you know they’ve become a member of the World Trade Organisation, they’ve got Expo coming to Shanghai just a couple of years after the Games. They’ve opened up market and democratic processes. However there is still criticism coming from around the world. A lot of people don’t take into account how much advancement there has been in this area, but I repeat, the discussion on human rights does come up from time to time but our preoccupation is with the staging of the Games, and I told you we’re very happy with that, and also with the freedom of the press relating to the Games. And that’s our main focus.

Mick O’Regan: But just on that: the sort of green and yellow cards that you referred to in the evaluation of preparations for the built environment, is there any sort of coding that goes with those less tangible but more politically sensitive issues like human rights?

Kevan Gosper: No, it would be quite wrong of us to have a measure on human rights as a sporting organisations. I mean, there are independent organisations and non-government organisations in the world who are responsible for the moving of such an issue forward, and every democratic government’s head who goes into China raises the subject. So whilst we obviously are concerned that there is progress, it really isn’t our province to lay down the law to China, a country of 1.3-billion, on this issue. Our preoccupation has to be that we are preoccupied to see Beijing stage a first-class international Olympic Games, and put the conditions forward they’re excellent for all athletes of the world, and as far as I’m concerned and the International Olympics Committee is concerned, it’s doing that.

Mick O’Regan: Australia’s senior Olympic official, Kevan Gosper.
Source: The Sports Factor

Real investigative journalism, that was, Auntie. You had Gosper on the run there. Hard hitting questions about the morality of the Olympic Games themselves, and their association with one of the most brutal dictatorships the world has ever known, while God knows how many Chinese citizens are being imprisoned, tortured and executed for their beliefs.

Google search torture china

Tagged: abc, radio+national, australia, human+rights, china, olympics, olympic+games, journalism

For ever and ever and ever, amen

2005-11-30T20:40:00.000+11:00

Who does the ABC programming these days? The Archbishop of Canterbury? Here's the page called Wednesday Schedule for Radio National.

5:00am Asia Pacific
with Linda LoPresti. Comprehensive daily coverage of Asian and Pacific affairs
5:30am Comedy - My Music
Wake up to a laugh from the BBC
6:00am Breakfast
with Fran Kelly. Includes Radio National's AM at 7.10am.
8:30am Religion Report
with Stephen Crittenden. The burning issues confronting today's religions Repeat b'cast 8pm. This week...
9:00am Life Matters
with Kate Evans. Personal and social issues
10:45am First Person
Serialised reading of published autobiographies
11:00am Bush Telegraph
with Michael Mackenzie. People, places and issues from rural and regional Australia
12:00pm News and The World Today
with Eleanor Hall. News and analysis from Australia and the world
1:00pm RadioEye
with Brent Clough. Radio Eye presents the best in documentaries and features from Australia and around the world.
2:00pm Book Reading
Fiction adapted for radio. Repeat b'cast 11pm.
2:20pm The Deep End
with Sian Prior. New music, interviews and ideas in the arts
4:00pm Late Night Live
with Norman Swan. Topical, political, cultural and philosophical issues
5:00pm News and PM
with Mark Colvin. Review of national and international current affairs
5:55pm Perspective
Expert commentary by opinion-makers
6:00pm Australia Talks Back
with Sandy McCutcheon. Australia's only nation-wide radio talkback program. To participate, call toll free on 1300 22 55 76
7:00pm Encounter
Documentary exploring religion and life
8:00pm Religion Report
with Stephen Crittenden. The burning issues confronting today's religions
8:35pm The Ark
with Rachael Kohn. Curious tales from religious history
8:50pm The Rhythm Divine
with Geoff Wood. World sacred music, everything from chant to the charts
9:00pm All In The Mind
with Julie Browning. From amnesia to artificial intelligence
9:35pm The Philosopher's Zone
with Alan Saunders. Big philosophical questions
9:45pm Ockham's Razor
with Robyn Williams. Science commentary.
10:00pm Late Night Live
with Norman Swan. Topical, political, cultural and philosophical issues Repeat b'cast 4pm next day (6pm in WA).
11:00pm Book Reading
Fiction adapted for radio
11:20pm The Planet
with Lucky Oceans. Richly varied music from around the world. Playlists available...
1:00am Asia Pacific
with Linda LoPresti. Comprehensive daily coverage of Asian and Pacific affairs
1:30am Religion Report
with Stephen Crittenden. The burning issues confronting today's religions
2:00am Verbatim
Oral history
2:30am Street Stories
Untold stories from the hidden corners of Australia
3:00am Australia Talks Back
with Sandy McCutcheon. Australia's only nation-wide radio talkback program
4:00am Encounter
Exploring religion and life

Tagged: abc, radio+national, religion, christianity, radio

Spellbinding by any criterion

2005-11-28T08:31:00.000+11:00

Another one of those inexplicable and kinda irritating Radio National presenter things is the use of the word 'criteria' as a singular noun. What is most inexplicable is how anyone can get through primary school or the early years of high school and not know the word 'criterion' and its plural. I heard a presenter get it wrong a couple of days ago, and Fran Kelly got it wrong this morning on the Breakfast cum Sports Show: "what is the criteria?" It is well beyond time for Auntie to have English training sessions for presenters and writers, or -- better still -- not to employ people who can't use the language well.

A bouquet, however, to that program for an excellent interview with two men who were involved with the execution of the last person to be hanged in Australia, Ronald Ryan. It was spellbinding by any criterion. A bouquet, too, to Auntie for its coverage of the Van Nguyen execution story over the past week or two. I am grateful that they have not let the matter 'drop' as this boy will drop in Singapore next Friday.

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

A 'prodject' to implement: Our own culture

2005-11-25T09:52:00.000+11:00

Creeping Americanization: When was the last time you heard an ABC Radio National presenter not pronounce 'project' the American way? One feels that they feel they derive some increased authority by jettisoning Australian culture, bit by bit, and adopting American pronunciations. Perhaps it doesn't matter, but there must still be some Australians who respect their own traditions and culture. And I'm sure there are many who don't want 'fries' with their 'to go' meals at the 'store' near the 'train station'. Come on, Auntie! Let's send 'prodject' back to the US of A, along with all the other American pronunciations and idioms that your presenters are adopting at an alarming rate.

Categories: scose, abc, australia, australian, english, language, radio, grammar, spelling, pronunciation

All the latest corporate analysis from ABC

2005-11-19T08:30:00.000+11:00

Did you know, Ms Geraldine Doogue asks us (Saturday Breakfast, today), that sometimes in movies and TV shows there are products placed for advertising purposes and that this is a commercial phenomenon known as 'product placement?

Well, jeez, no, we didn't know that! What's the world coming to? Next you'll be telling us Berlin Wall's come down and John Lennon's dead.

I just don't know how the advertising industry can get away with things like this in the 20th century.

Product placement? Is that anything like corporations placing products (and people praising products) in real life, such as in crowds and office buildings? Now that's a story.

Tagged: product+placement, advertising, media, hollywood, abc, australia

I'm paralyzated

2005-11-16T13:09:00.000+11:00

Note to The World Today: I'm all for innovations in language, but God I hope your "paralyzation" will not nudge "paralysis" out of the OED in my lifetime.

I have been to the mountain-top

2005-11-09T09:04:00.000+11:00

I had a dream.

In my dream, all the ABC presenters, convicted that they are part of one human species and that national borders are a dangerous anachronism, got together in a big ABC conference room and, after their watercress and cucumber sandwiches, wrote a charter.

In this charter, which they signed with in their own blood (or it might have been a classy hermitage), they vowed that they would challenge any guest, interviewee or fellow sinecurist who uttered words worthy of 19th-century nationalism. They pledged that jingoism would henceforth be treated on the ABC as an excrescence, a political incorrectness as heinous as racism, sexism or shouting "tossers" through the ventilators of the ABC headquarters.

Thus, in my dream, the presenters challenged and corrected, and collectively embarrassed and humiliated, each and every person who said things like "We did very well to thrash the Nova Scotians in that 43-Man Squamish game", "Australia needs to innovate to compete with China's output of plastic Christmas tree baubles", or "Thankfully, only one Australian was injured in the inundation of Atlantis".

Then I woke up.

Three syllables good, four syllables hard

2005-11-09T08:49:00.000+11:00

With the presenter of The Religion Report and a Christian guest having a discussion in which they both use the adjective 'evangelical' where 'evangelistic' is meant, and where 'evangelical' Christians are patronised by both parties, it makes for a spellbinding program on inter-faith dialogue. I could fairly hear, rising across the land, the hackles of veritable hosts of evangelical and evangelistic Christians. Thank God, I am neither.

Where's that chalk?

2005-11-08T08:36:00.000+11:00

The Law Report on Radio National is very good, but when you hear someone referred to as "a champion athlete and father", don't you have flashbacks to a primary school teacher hurling in your general direction a piece of chalk and the perceptive words, "Oh, he was a champion father, was he?" The ABC needs some chalk throwers, or at least some primary school teachers.

Pure gold, clay feet

2005-10-31T12:57:00.000+11:00

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.

Categories: scose, abc, australia, australian, english, language, radio, grammar, spelling, pronunciation

Fair and balanced

2005-10-29T10:19:00.000+10:00

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

2005-10-27T18:42:00.000+10:00

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

2005-10-04T08:32:00.000+10:00

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

Categories: scose, abc, australia, australian, english, language, radio, spelling, pronunciation

Rockheads on Parade, aka The Breakfast Show

2005-09-30T07:08:00.000+10:00

I won't say that Fran Kelly has ruined the Breakfast Show (ABC-RN) by turning it into a petrifyingly boring competitive sports show, but she has. All by herself, in just a few weeks in the chair.

It's appalling. I'm almost speechless. This morning I was going to give her a bouquet, not a turtle (truly), then suddenly the program descended into rugger buggery.

It would help if she could do hard-hitting interviews, but to be perfectly francis they're never as good as touted by the Auntierati. Today she let John Stanhope, Chief Minister of the ACT, walk all over her while she hit him with a blancmange. One had the feeling she was dying to get to the News, or else to a "real" interview about competitive sports. Let's have stories about the negative impact of competitive sports on Australian society. Now that would be a scoop, but one feels it's way above Kelly's head.

Yawn!

Tagged: progressive, broadcasting, abc, radio+national, radio, sport, australia, competition, cooperation

Understated and understateder

2005-09-25T10:32:00.000+10:00

Here at Sandy Beach I can hardly get reception of ABC News Radio, so I often listen in via the Wilson's Almanac Radio and TV portal.

What I like about that station is that you get a mix of much more than ABC, including Germany's Deutsche Welle, Britain's BBC and America's NPR. I don't know any other station in the world where one can get such a diversity of good news and current affairs programming.

I like the BBC segments, even though BBC correspondents tend to sing their reports. But other cultural traits are very interesting as well. The British tendency to understatement never fails to fascinate.

Today, a BBC reporter was interviewing a British museum official (perhaps from the British Museum), about finds of mummified human remains in Argentina (or Argentinia as the ABC presenter called that country). The interview was extremely odd. The BBC man asked the museum man a few questions and the museum man talked about how indigenous peoples worldwide often protest about the display of the remains of their ancestors, especially when those indigenous people have suffered at the hands of Western colonialism.

After this, the first odd question the BBC man then asked was whether this was happening a lot, to which the museum guy of course replied that it was. (I should have thought that this was common knowledge, and besides, the museum bloke had just said that it was.)

Then the BBC guy asked, and I think I have this verbatim: "Do you think that this has anything to do with post-colonial politics?"

The museum guy was as understated in his reply as the interviewer was in his strange question. But I bet he's still talking about it in the museum tea room.

Tagged: abc, australia, media, radio, postcolonialism, post-colonialism, bbc, museum, museums, indigenous

Sandy McCutcheon: Fearless ABC renegade

2005-09-19T10:15:00.000+10:00

Sandy McCutcheon (Life Matters, ABC-RN), you're a little beauty! When the rest of the ABC crew gang up on you for covering a story ('Vincent de Paul opens Vinnies Supermarket in Melbourne') of direct interest to one-fifth of ABC's demographic, call me. I'll bring the boys.

Tagged: charity, poverty, saint, vincent, abc, radio, national, australia, supermarket, poor, social, issues

SCOSE: A toothless pussycat?

2005-09-01T09:07:00.000+10:00

When a journalist at ABC-RN News tells you that "the baby died shortly after being delivered from a suspected blood disorder", all you can do is shrug your shoulders and mourn for the baby, the clot and the journalist (the latter two possibly being the same thing).

ABC has a thing called SCOSE, the Standing Committee on Spoken English, but it is assiduously ignored. Why this should be is a mystery to all.

It is not a difficult thing for someone who makes a living out of the spoken word, and for Australia's national broadcaster, to gain some sense of how to structure sentences -- how to put clauses and other parts of sentences into some kind of order that makes sense. I'm not calling for ABC journalists to be Shakespeare or Dickens, just for them to graduate from primary school.

Note to the ABC and SCOSE: the kind of writing referred to above is not unusual but can be heard on any day of the week. It has reached tipping point. No, it has reached chundering point, and once-proud ABC journalism has become a laughing stock. What on earth are you going to do about it?

Categories: scose, abc, australia, australian, english, language, radio, grammar, spelling, pronunciation

Interviewing the Um Err Umm Sisters

2005-08-30T18:34:00.000+10:00

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

2005-08-30T18:28:00.000+10:00

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!

Categories: scose, abc, australia, australian, english, language, radio, grammar, spelling, pronunciation

Happy 30, Science Show

2005-08-27T12:37:00.000+10:00

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?

2005-08-15T08:30:00.000+10:00

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

Categories: scose, abc, australia, australian, english, language, radio, grammar, spelling, pronunciation

London Tube a battlefield? ABC's new McCarthyism

2005-08-11T17:29:00.000+10:00

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

2005-08-11T17:24:00.000+10:00

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.

Categories: scose, abc, australia, australian, english, language, radio, grammar, spelling, pronunciation

ABC Breakfast with Islam

2005-08-10T19:23:00.000+10:00

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!

2005-08-10T19:04:00.000+10:00

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

2005-08-02T16:51:00.000+10:00

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".

Categories: scose, abc, australia, australian, english, language, radio, grammar, spelling, pronunciation

Innerestin

2005-07-28T12:28:00.000+10:00

I've learned a lot today. On Breakfast was an interesting piece about the Canberra bushfires and the role of the firefiders.

And on The World Today I learned that Morris Iemma has only been in NSW State Parliament since nineen-niney-nine.

Here we go again

2005-07-19T19:27:00.000+10:00

"The Egyptian authorities are prosecuting members of the smuggling ring" (ABC-RN News, 7:00 pm, today).

Wrong. Unless Egypt finds people guilty at the beginning of their court cases rather than at the conclusion (something that increasingly seems to be the ABC's preferred method of justice), the Egyptian authorities are prosecuting alleged members of a smuggling ring. Possibly an alleged smuggling ring.

Just hope that if you're ever charged with a crime, the ABC doesn't report it, especially if you are innocent.

Why does Radio National even bother having a legal show?

Of crime and criminals

2005-07-18T08:55:00.000+10:00

"Forensic Psychiatrist Dr Robert Kaplan looks at a number of past medical serial killers and talks about the events in Queensland where former Bundaberg-based surgeon Dr Jayant Patel is under investigation for the deaths of patients under his care."
The Health Report, ABC-RN, today

As discussed on June 26 in Turtles, the ABC is eroding your security and mine. Dr Jayant Patel, whom Dr Robert Kaplan compares with British serial killer Dr Harold Shipman, has not been tried, nor has he been charged with any crime.

Whether Patel is a criminal or not, monster or not, should it not be a crime to undermine publicly in such flagrant ways the "golden thread" of the justice system, namely the presumption that an accused person is innocent until proved guilty, and shouldn't those found guilty of that crime be made accountable?

Corosponents in fine voice

2005-07-10T08:29:00.000+10:00

One of the really good things about ABC Radio is that its foreign correspondents don't sing to us, they speak to us. (For this, one can almost forgive them the wording 'Corospondents' Report' in the title bar, which must have been written by foreign correspondents as the apostrophe is in order.)

The BBC foreign correspondents, on the other hand, sound like the losers on a Gregorian chant talent show, or the adenoidal sufferers of some tragic Tourettoid syndrome. Isn't it the weirdest and most annoying affectation you've ever heard?

Mark Willesee: please stay away from those pommy guys, or better still, come home soon. It is said to be very contagious and you seem not at all well.

Actually, on consideration: 'corospondents' is unforgivable on the national broadcaster's website.

Categories: scose, abc, australia, australian, english, language, radio, grammar, spelling, pronunciation

Sometimes those simple things can be so tricky!

2005-07-05T15:46:00.000+10:00

Good to see that Ms McCrossin is back from a few days off sick, and I listened in yesterday. I wonder if Messrs Adams and McCutcheon would be good enough to mention to her about the "disinterested/uninterested" thing we discussed on Friday.

The Songman The Songman The Songman The Songman

2005-07-02T17:40:00.000+10:00

I'm taking bets on how many more times ABC-RN (Street Stories) can broadcast The Songman before the tape wears right through.

I stand corrected

2005-07-01T20:05:00.000+10:00

Re this morning's post: N? writes: "To be fair, Lance Armstrong is a cancer survivor who has since won the Tour de France -- a 2,274 mile race through the Alps -- no less than 5 times. He has said that 2005 will be his last tour. More than 40 million of Lance Armstrong's 'Live Strong' yellow bracelets have been sold to raise money for cancer research. This is more than a sports story. :)"

I probably would have known this if I had paid attention, but I plead a sudden urge to go to the bathroom. It was, after all, ablutions time. Good on him for raising money for cancer.

Not interested in English?

2005-07-01T18:46:00.000+10:00

Here's a dictionary link, for Messrs Adams and McCutcheon and the many other ABC-RN folks who confuse the words 'disinterest' and 'uninterest', one of those primary school quiz standards.

A bouquet to Life Matters

2005-07-01T09:32:00.000+10:00

Life Matters is having a challenge to its audience to give up TV for two weeks, which is a good start. Congratulations oto the producers for heading in the right direction. I think I can safely guarantee that of the people who take up the challenge, many will be surprised at the withdrawal symptoms. If the challenge were made to cover a year, very many people would discover the improvement to the imagination and consciousness as the pathological effects of television start to subside. As with recovery from drug addiction, four seasons need to be gone through to know if one is addicted, and also to begin to feel really well.

Round round wheels go around round round

2005-07-01T09:05:00.000+10:00

The hours around 8:30 in the morning are when the mind is receptive and creative, a great time for stimulating radio programming. News, current affairs, educational and thought-provoking programs suit this time of day, and ABC-RN has much to recommend it on this score.

That's why it's a bad time for broadcasting a sports program. This morning for a full half hour listeners had to hear about some bloke from Texas named Lance Armstrong who apparently can ride a pushbike very well.

Now, I'm all for human excellence, and there are a great many areas of human achievement that should be lauded when they occur. We would all benefit by hearing about the person who is best at the world at, say, inventing technologies that help the poor get out of the energy-dollars cycle, the person who has found a cure for malaria or AIDS, or the man or woman who has contributed the most to a critique of war or pop culture.

But some areas of human achievement, set against the background of the real world we live in, are plainly silly and juvenile, especially when performed by alleged grown-ups. When the mind is fresh and clear at breakfast time, the last thing one wants to listen to is half an hour about the world's best popcorn eater, the champion yo-yoer, the world champion 43-Man Squamish team, or the man or woman who can make the biggest ball of string or make the longest paper snake from a Minties wrapper. Or be the faster rider of a tricycle, bicycle or scooter.

The national broadcaster is better today than when it used to be said that ABC stood for 'All Bloody Cricket', as they were wise enough to get rid of much of that nonsense. Can we hope that people who are good at riding pushbikes and hitting or chasing balls and so on can be discussed at a suitable hour (if at all) ... say, 4 a.m.?

Siebenschlafer ... nein

2005-06-27T12:21:00.001+10:00

I suppose the story this morning on Life Matters, the one that stated that today, June 27, is called 'Siebenschlafer', or 'Seven Sleeps' in German folklore, was a slip of the pen. The pity was, the whole item about Australian weather conditions was based around the assertion, which really should have been checked against an ecclesiastical calendar (or Wilson's Almanac).

The story probably refers to July 27, not June 27, which in the Christian tradition is called the Feast of the Seven Sleepers (not 'sleeps'). The sleepers are Saints Maximian, Malchus, Martinian, Dionysius, John, Serapion, and Constantine of Ephesus. I have an article on them in the Scriptorium.

July 27 is a rain prognostication day. "If it rains on Seven Sleepers Day, the rain will stay seven weeks more."

Radio National erodes your security and mine

2005-06-26T11:56:00.000+10:00

There is a doctor named Patel, now apparently resident in America, whom the Queensland government wishes to return to Australia, or at least Queensland, to answer certain questions about his practices at Bundaberg Hospital. He has not at this stage been charged with any offence.

Several times recently, in ABC-RN News reports, and RN programs, I have heard this man referred to as "Dr Death". This is yellow journalism of a kind I had not expected to hear on Radio National.

And, of course, it is rather silly as America's heroic Dr Jack Kevorkian is already known universally by that cruel nickname. One would think that the ABC could do better. It's like calling Ned Kelly "Captain Thunderbolt", when we already have a bushranger by that name, Fred Ward who ranged and robbed in the Armidale-Uralla districts. Half-arsed journalism at best.

But far worse is the violation of that 'golden thread' in the justice systems of all Anglophone countries, viz, the presumption of innocence. When taxpayer-funded bodies such as the ABC practise flagrant defiance of this tradition, you, and I, and the staff and management of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, have all had a bit of erosion to our liberties, and an increased likelihood of being some day convicted of a crime we did not commit. A small eroision perhaps, but any amount is unacceptable.

If, in the case of a public figure, such an epithet were used, it might be a different matter. For example, I would welcome the use of the name 'Dr Death' in the case of the Prime Minister, who has participated in the slaughter of between 100,000 and 200,000 people in the Middle East for no discernible reason.

If it might be argued that Dr Patel is a public figure, I might fairly argue back that his celebrity lies partly in the use of unsubstantiated assertions implicit in a derogatory moniker such as 'Dr Death'. His fame, or notoriety, at this stage in no way depends on any evidence proved in a court of law. I would not apply such a standard of proof in the case of a Prime Minister or Hollywood celebrity who has freely chosen to be famous and should expect parody, satire and even unfair criticism -- even if Australia's defamation laws do not agree with this principle that is sensibly respected in the USA.

If reason were to reign in the national broadcaster, in the case of of such breaches of a sane convention, that is, the labelling of an undefended person "Dr Death", the writers and utterers would be disciplined, for the sake of all our freedoms, which the ABC is (I would have thought) chartered to uphold. I would not expect the newsreaders to be brought to book, being only the readers and not the writers of the calumny, but even they should wear some of the culpability as they are under no obligation to erode your human rights for lucre. It is not good enough to plead "I was just doing your job, Your Worship", as was established at Nuremberg.

By the way, in the Wycklow Hotel in Armidale once, I met a girl who claimed to be descended from Thunderbolt. Her friends called her Thunderbreach.

Nuh

2005-06-24T10:49:00.000+10:00

"She's a public figure and a bit of satire comes with the turf, but maybe I'll remove that post about Vicki," I was thinking as I tossed and turned in my bed for the last three nights. (I'm a very sweet man.) Then I head her say "most latest".

Nuh.

Counterpointless

2005-06-21T21:21:00.000+10:00

If there are four things on ABC-RN I try to avoid criticising in this blog, they would be Vicki Kerrigan's general knowledge, Michael Duffy's Counterpoint, Vicki Kerrigan's English, and Vicki Kerrigan, because this is only fun for me when it's sporting.

I must say, however, that even if one accepts that Radio National has to have a rightwinger like Mr Duffy to balance all the centrists, which makes a strange see-saw, someone's nutzo here and I sure hope it's not me or Vicki. I have to wonder who's gone out of their mind when I hear someone actually argue for the retirement age to be raised .. "because we live longer these days".

I'll just pop down the mine and the factory and ask the chaps and ladies how they feel about it. Michael, you'd better stay well back in the billiards room in case things get out of hand.

Now you're cooking

2005-06-19T15:38:00.000+10:00

Yesterday's Saturday Breakfast (ABC-RN) had an admirable segment called Food Rescue, on saving food from the tip so that poor people can get a feed.

The spot featured employed people and not the recipients of the charity, which was a shame, and it's still a way off from getting in touch with ABC's poor listeners and even non-listeners. But it's a step in the right direction and I commend the program for it.

Oh, for crying out loud

2005-06-16T00:47:00.000+10:00

Australia's national broadcaster has a radio quiz show which I can get on my radio but I think emanates from Sydney -- 2BL. In recent months I have listened twice. Last week for five minutes, and tonight for another five.

Last week the quizmaster would not allow from the phone-in contestant that Harpo Marx was a musician. "He was a funny guy, but not a musician". I guess Adolphe Marx should have been called 'Funno', in that case. Or 'Amuso'.

Tonight's five excruciating minutes were of similar calibre. The quizmistress asks, "Which country cans three-quarters of the world's canned pineapples?" Not exactly rocket science. One fellow answered "the USA", a very reasonable answer which threw the presenter into such a tizzy that she actually had to put music on while she went off to talk to someone (almost certainly not a staffer), who apparently knew that Hawaii is a state of a nation, and not a nation state.

Now I've heard everything the ABC can possibly throw at me.

Until tomorrow.

ABC out of touch with at least 20% of Aussies

2005-06-11T08:08:00.000+10:00

Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are governed by the same laws. I speak of the rich and the poor.
Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister; Sybil, 1845

How many unemployed people work at the ABC? My question is, of course, rhetorical. Because they are all employed at the ABC, where is the voice for the unemployed? Who among the employed will understand the issues of the poor? My question can be applied to employees of all media outlets, to politicians, public servants and even welfare agencies and their employees. In fact, all workers and other owners of capital.

What man or woman in this country who has never been on social security knows what it is to search under the fridge for coins to buy bread? What employed ABC person knows what it is to save up for meat, petrol, shoes, a movie, a visit to family?

Such people, whether they work for the Public Service, private enterprise or Auntie ABC, would do a great service to the so-called debate on poverty in Australia by "engaging" or "unpacking" a tightly rolled department store catalogue about 30 centimetres down their cabernet sauvignon-lubricated "multivocalities".

While they're at it, they might shove a big intertextuality up their collective aporia.

What's for breakfast? Weet-Bix, same as lunch and dinner

Take, for example, Geraldine Doogue (Saturday Breakfast, ABCRN, today), who interviewed Wayne Swan, MP, Shadow Federal Treasurer, who seems to have considerably more concern than the typical Labor member for the Australian poor.

Mr Swan presented his case, and Ms Doogue challenged him according to the bleatings of some employed people at a right-wing no-think tank in Canberra that reckons the poor are getting richer. Ms Doogue, of course, has never stood 25 deep in a queue at the dole office. or if she has, she hasn't in the decades that she has been employed with the ABC. Not to put too fine a point on it: what the hell would employed people, especially media celebrities, really know about poverty?

The following are just some of the parts of ABC programming that are necessarily out of touch with at the very least 20 per cent of Australians because welfare recipients and their kids are excluded from the team:

News, current affairs, music, visual arts, books and literature, apparel, theatre, movies, social issues, architecture and design, history, Aboriginal affairs (even most Aboriginal interviewees appear to be employed by some quango or other), politics, recreation and sport, food and beverages, travel and tourism, children and family, technology and IT, the Internet, war, local issues, transport and motoring, real estate, work, industrial relations, commerce, legal matters, consumerism, psychology, media, gardening, academia, environment, health, pets, science ... I'm running out of breath, not examples, so I'll take a spell.

If you walk down the street, on average every fouth or fifth house has occupants who are the battling poor: the welfare voiceless. At least four million Australians have no ABC that speaks to them. I know because I'm one of them. Perhaps The Comfort Zone could do a show on Weet-Bix. I don't know about Alan Saunders, but I find the no-frills bix as good as the brand name, and possibly a cheaper source of nutrition than bread, especially when eaten with undiluted milk.

Letter to Wayne Swan, MP

Immediately following Ms Doogue's interview, I wrote Mr Swan this letter:

Dear Mr Swan,

As a former Labor voter, I wish to thank you for what I heard on Geraldine Doogue's program this morning. Frankly, I had come to believe that Labor had forgotten the battlers.

I am a 52-year-old man, long-term unemployed, willing to work. I live in rural NSW.

Did you know that for the past couple of years a new development has rendered it impossible for poor people like me to borrow money? I base my contention on what I was told by my credit union manager, and also from my failed attempts to borrow $1,000 to get my gearbox fixed last year. You can imagine how hard it might be to get a job without a car in the bush.

Every possible lending institution refused me for a loan of any amount large or small, solely on the grounds of my income. The Salvation Army, St Vincent De Paul and two Neighbourhood Centres could not advise me on where to borrow $1,000, except a loan shark that takes 25% interest.

The manager of the credit union at Woolgoolga advised me that until about 2 years before, he used to write about ten loans a day to poor people, and never had a default, as he arranged to have repayments taken from their social security payments. He said it had been quite satisfactory. He said (this was last November) that now he writes no loans to the poor. The reason, he said, is a new rule that came in about two years prior, that required loan applicants to have a certain number of dollars (I think it was $180) remaining after rent. He said that all lending institutions follow this regime now. I would like to know if this is collusion of the banks, or government regulation

What this panned out to for me was that I and literally millions of Australians (welfare recipients and their dependants) will never be able to get a loan unless we pay less than, say, $35 a week rent. No loans for car repair, dental repair, surgery or such fripperies as car rego, buying a car or travelling interstate. Now, I live in a cabin in a hick town with a tiny general store and my rent is almost three times $35. Who in this country pays less than me -- and who pays $35 a week rent?

This is scandalous in a fabulously wealthy country and I wish that people knew about it. I even know pensioners who do not know about the new regime because it is more than two or three years since they got a loan. Today, as far as my experience and information goes, they will not get one. I doubt that one person in 1,000 knows this has happened and I wish you would look into it. I might be wrong, but I had this experience myself and it concurred with what my credit union manager told me.

Yesterday my car rego ran out. Were it not for mates bailing me out I would be stuck in this burgh 365 days a year as the bus to Coffs Harbour (only 25km away) is $9 return ... $18 for non-concession. Nine dollars, sir, is about 7 per cent of the money I have each week after rent.

Keep it up, sir.

Pip Wilson

Back to Playschool

2005-06-03T14:18:00.000+10:00

With alarming regularity, the news writers on ABCRN finish their playlunch, ask Miss to sharpen their crayons, and write things like:

"Schabir Shaik was found guilty of fraud in a South African court."

Mr Shail was, in fact, found guilty, in a South African court, of fraud.

The ABCRN reporters for some years have seemed incorrigibly dedicated to the cause of "grammar doesn't matter so we shall deliberately flout it and hang the consequences (of which there are none)". Today's example is not the strongest one demonstrating where grammar does indeed matter, but serves to show how misinformation can (and often does) come about when such amateur scrivening becomes the norm. Yesterday I heard another from the News Department, of the same general construction -- as bad if not worse. It was a normal day.

The most remarkable thing is not that the News people do it, but that they continue to disregard grammar in the face of relentless reproach over many years from very many literate critics, for example in letters to newspaper editors. Of course, I make no assumption that ABCRN journalists ever read newspapers as these are pitched at the educated 12-year-old.

One must admire ABC journos' commitment to de-grammaring Australia, if not their raw talent. They serve their cause with the dedication of the greengrocer and his apostrophe.

Come on, guys! Our language isn't that hard, and I want to be nice.

Me again

2005-05-29T08:34:00.000+10:00

Sorry Geraldine, but I just can't let this one go (Short Story). Kenneth Slessor is not "one of Australia's first poets", or anything like it. It wouldn't matter if it was just a slip of the tongue, but you were reading from a script to introduce a book reading. You were introducing a reading related to WWII, so it's a wonder.

For the record, the famous Bulletin school of poetry reached its heyday some years before Kenneth was a glint in his father's eye, and there were many greats well before that, Adam Lindsay Gordon and Henry Kendall to name only two.

Train stations?

2005-05-29T00:06:00.000+10:00

Personally, I don't mind 'Labor' for 'Labour' or even 'revolutionize' for 'revolutionise' and so on, and I'm almost prepared to accept 'midway' for 'halfway'. If ABC management have instructed staff to eradicate Australian English on pain of dismissal, one would not wish to appear curmudgeonly. We must, after all, never lose sight of the fact that our writers should cringe beneath the obviously superior culture of the USA.

Having said that, I do wish ABC News writers would give us back our railway stations. Railway stations are good places to eat chips beneath the Southern Cross. Train stations are where Americans would eat fries if they had a 'midway' decent public transport system.

Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Weet-Bix

2005-05-28T08:13:00.000+10:00

Geraldine Doogue, Saturday Breakfast is a ripper, but when a social issue becomes an "artifact", I need some help to unpack the narrative so I can engage with my alterity.

Postmodernism Generator

Phillip, Phillip, Phillip

2005-05-27T07:37:00.000+10:00

You haven't head a single word I've said!

Che Guevara's first position in the ruthless Communist Cuban dictatorship was that of comandante of La Cabana Fortress in Havana. There he had jurisdiction over the notorious 'war criminals' trials, which allegedly resulted in the execution of 600 civilian and military officials.

When I hear you talk like that, my thoughts are just like those of the handsome Stalinist himself (in Motorcycle Diaries)

Crazy with fury I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any enemy that falls in my hands! My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood. With the deaths of my enemies I prepare my being for the sacred fight and join the triumphant proletariat with a bestial howl!

Listen Real Media Windows Media• Tariq Ali

On the plus side, your interview with Gillian Slovo, another who sounds quite unreconstructed, not to mention a tad loud, was fascinating.

I leave you, Mr Adams, with the words of one of Che and Castro's victims:

For me, it meant 8,000 days of hunger, of systematic beatings, of hard labor, of solitary confinement and solitude, 8,000 days of struggling to prove that I was a human being, 8,000 days of proving that my spirit could triumph over exhaustion and pain, 8,000 days of testing my religious convictions, my faith, of fighting the hate my atheist jailers were trying to instill in me with each bayonet thrust, fighting so that hate would not flourish in my heart, 8,000 days of struggling so that I would not become like them.
Armando Valladares

More

Better four decades late than never

2005-05-24T20:09:00.000+10:00

"At the recent ceremonies in Red Square to commemorate the Russian Army's defeat of Nazism, the Latvian President Ms Vike-Freiberga called it 'surreal', after not a single word of contrition was uttered by the Russian President Vladimir Putin, for the 'Stalinist terror' visted upon the Baltic states.

"In the aftermath of commemorating 60 years since the fall of Nazism, why has there never been a tribunal such as the Nuremburg Trials which has acknowledged the millions killed by Communism in the former Soviet Union and Cambodia?"

Who wrote this?! It sounds like me at any time since about 1966. But no, it's from Late Night Live.

I've given a lot of stick to Phillip Adams over many years (nowhere near as much as anti-communists copped for decades; certainly not as much as the victims), but I'll lay off for a little while now. Goodonya Mr Adams; I've heard a number of your mea culpas, and although not as impressive as if said through tears, they're getting better each year. And you do have the best radio program in Australia, if not the world.

Listen Real Media Windows Media

What we want from the ABC is an entire revision of its historical revisionism. When the darlings of the ABC are trotted out, it should be in the light of truth and historical evidence. When Frank Hardy is mentioned, let us hear "Hardy, who called Stalin the 'great helmsman', publicly debated Australians who accused the Soviet Union of unspeakable crimes against humanity". When it's Jessie Street, rather than lauding her, let the presenter say:

"A tireless propagandist for Stalin's Communist Russia, she refused to alter her contact with leading lights of the Soviet dictatorship during the years of widespread Soviet exterminations. Well into the 1960s, long after many had left the pro-Marxist-Leninist ranks, Street remained a prominent figure in such Communist front organisations as the World Peace Council."

When Hollywood in the 1950s is mentioned, let's hear the other side of the McCarthyist coin: the people in the movie industry who were in fact agants of Stalinism (check the KGB archives as some have done before). For 40 years the ABC has given us how much Communists suffered in Australia for being Communists. End of story. What about the anti-Communists whose careers were not advanced because they did not fit the dominant (ABC-led) paradigm?

When the Petrov Affair comes up (as it inevitably does with a snigger about how Menzies manufactured it in order to win an election), let the ABC researchers earn their salt and actually discover what really happened (another trip to the KGB files will help).

When some old codger is interviewed in Street Stories, let the producers not sweep past the said codger's 30 years in the Communist Party as though it were a badge of honour, but treat it as they most certainly would if he were three decades a Nazi activist in our midst. Let the codger be challenged as one would challenge a Nazi: "Mr Codger, how does it feel to know you defended and supported -- morally and even materially -- regimes in various countries that massacred scores of millions of workers?" Here's a story for the ABC History Department: how much money was sent from Australia to the USSR, and how many torturers and executioners did those Aussie pounds and dollars pay for? Will the ABC do it? In three words, "not bloody likely".

Phillip Adams is getting warm, but nowhere near hot. He admits to having been mistaken. Culpability, responsibility and amends are further steps for the Aussie Left whose second main aim was to pillory Australian anti-authoritarians. What we need to hear endlessly from the ABC is a whole new perspective in accord with the facts of the 20th century reality. What a history the national broadcaster could tell; what listeners they might gain!

Returns of the Jedda

2005-05-21T22:18:00.000+10:00

Now that I've heard AWAYE's program on the 1950s movie, Jedda, five times, three of them this week, I'm no longer pointing a finger at this program, I'm pointing the bone.

Bouquet to Satdy Brekky

2005-05-14T22:04:00.000+10:00

Waking up to the new Saturday Breakfast ABCRN program is the best way I know.

I like this, too: "Subscribe to our weekly mailing list and receive a weekly email alert telling you what's coming up on the program. "

Sharp as a box of rocks

2005-05-14T18:43:00.000+10:00

There are many ways Awaye (ABCRN) this week could have handled its documentary on the Tiwi islands. Following from the people they interviewed and the data they uncovered, we could narrow Awaye's choice of how to cover the story down to two main angles. These would be:

1) The Tiwi islands are poised to gain increasing international capital investment in industries that will bring prosperity to the people, God's in his heaven and all is well.

2) The Tiwi islands have been targeted by big, absentee, white capital and the indigenous people are being fitted up for globalization and environment- and community-rooting industrialisation.

D'oh!

More from the Kremlin

2005-05-12T07:22:00.000+10:00

See what I mean? (That is, what I was talking about on Tuesday.) Now Fran Kelly (Breakfast, ABCRN; yesterday; Listen [requires RealAudio]) says Stalin killed "tens of thousands of his own countrymen".

Then Hitler must have killed fives of thousands.

A gong to Spirit of Things

2005-05-09T21:37:00.000+10:00

I'm very partial to Rachael Kohn's interviews. The ones regarding Falun Gong ('What's Wrong with Falun Gong'; Sunday plus interminable repeats like most ABCRN programs) are captivating listening. Jennifer Zeng, who has suffered like so many for her faith in China, was a most impressive guest. Maria Hsia Chang, a political scientist, has interesting perspectives too, oppositional to the Falun Gong religion. On the whole, the program is very well balanced. Can we have more of this? Whenever a religion is the topic on Ms Kohn's program, may we also hear from its opponents, or was this just reserved for Falun Gong?

The Revisionist World Today

2005-05-09T19:58:00.000+10:00

"Twenty-seven million soldiers and citizens died during the war [WWII], many of them fighting what turned out to be some of the most decisive battles." So says Eleanor Hall (The World Today; ABCRN, today).

Then Emma Griffith says, "Twenty seven million people – soldiers and civilians – died fighting Hitler's army."

Shit of the horse.

Of course, for decades it has been known that Stalin and his murdering henchmen pumped up the figures (more like 11 million -- that's less than half the ABC's figure, which was the Communist Party's propaganda figure) to cover up the missing millions of their own citizens that they had murdered. Then in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Robert Conquest made the reality clearer, to which Auntie constantly and shamefully turned a blind eye.

Would Eleanor Hall and Emma Griffiths say "Hitler killed three million Jews"? Of course not. It really is not good enough that the ABC is so slack with history -- time, and time again when it comes to this subject (of which, more in the Book of Days). It's almost as though the ABC, unlike the rest of the world, has never heard of what really happened.

I note, too, that the Governor-General repeats the lie. Why not, he probably learned it from Auntie, as our kiddies do.

Today's is a righteous anger turtle on behalf of 16 million people missing from Auntie's persistent creative arithmetic.

On good authority for ABCRN News

2005-05-09T07:06:00.000+10:00

Etymologists are in general agreement that the words 'authority' and 'authoridy' share a common derivation; the main difference, of course, being that 'authoridy' is not a word.

It's time

2005-05-07T23:43:00.000+10:00

Robyn Archer is one of that select band of baby boomers who have always had a gold key to the ABC. It must be Old Mates Week because I've heard her on RN either sing or be interviewed about 6 times in the past 36 hours. Must have a new book out or something. Auntie should either give these Whitlam-era true believers a wage or charge them rent.

Beats the hell out of me

2005-05-06T22:15:00.000+10:00

Sound Quality. I admit that I must be missing something here.

Dangerous seas around the Horne

2005-05-06T21:45:00.000+10:00

I do some radio and it's fraught with dangers. Just Wednesday, I recorded 16 Almanac programs in the studio at 2BBB Bellingen and yesterday they emailed to say that the disk was blank. It will be a lost day to go and do it again, and $8 in petrol. Lucky I got my dole yesterday.

Like I said, radio is fraught. Yesterday's Late Night Live was good, and it was interesting to hear Mr Adams interview 83-year-old Donald Horne.

Philip was going great guns until he told Mr Horne that he had been among the best Australian writers of autobiography until Clive James came along. Was that a backhanded compliment, a forehanded double whammy, or just a serve? I felt, or hope I felt, the host bite blood from his wrist a moment after he said it, but live radio is as unforgiving as the live journal. j/k ... blogs forgive because we can correct ourselves.

A more important turtle: the link I've given above to Donald Horne has a precis of the interview, but you have to click back to the LNL link, also above, before you can hear the audio, which won't be there in a week but archived. It's great that we can listen in Windows Media or unReal Media, but the audio link really should be on the precis page and it would only take the webmaster a minute. Quite obviously, if people send a link to friends or post a linkback on their sites, they will want to post the precis page, not the LNL page, and it should have the interview on it. I frequently tell Blogmanac readers about something hot on LNL, and it's been a problem for me as I know that the edition will be hard for my readers to find and enjoy. Auntie, this turtle is a must.

Philip Adams is a ledge, and of course, so is Donald Horne. I sat next to him once at those huge tables in the Mitchell Library . When he left I snagged one of his signed Stack slips. It's yours to frame if you have a lazy fifty.