BOB KATTER has clocked up nearly 40 years as a parliamentarian but he can't remember the standard of political debate being as low as it was in 2012.Mr Katter, the Katter's Australian Party leader, said 2012 had been a year of unprecedented vitriol, the result of ''a complete lack of ideology and a complete lack of intellectual content''.

The Liberal frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull blamed a lazy media and spin-focused political class for an impoverished public debate.

''It has never been easier to get away with telling lies. It has never been easier to get away with the glib one-liner,'' Mr Turnbull said in an address at the Woodford Folk Festival. He called on any web entrepreneurs in the audience to start a fact-checking site to hold public figures to account.
Mr Turnbull savaged politicians who he said showed contempt for voters by speaking in short grabs and slogans.
''It is our job above all in politics to tackle the big issues and to explain them and have the honesty to say to people 'there are no easy solutions here'.''
The acting Greens leader, Adam Bandt, accused Mr Turnbull of hypocrisy. ''The old parties pretend to hate the game, but they keep playing it and they actually love it. To Malcolm Turnbull I say that long-term thinking isn't just for Christmas, it's for the whole year.''
Mr Bandt agreed that the standard of political debate was ''low''. ''I give a press conference about a sovereign wealth fund or the country's looming revenue crisis, only to be asked about text messages and escort services.''

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/articulate-morons-mps-call-for-better-public-debate-20121228-2bz9r.html#ixzz2GPLt2Myu
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And as usual, rather than place the blame where it's due — Tony Abbott pushing useless shit uphill relentlessly — the pollies and the press try to equalise the responsibility, for balance...

WHY NOT FOR A CHANGE SAY THE OBVIOUS TRUTH: THAT TONY ABBOTT IS SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR HAVING DRAGGED POLITICS TO BELOW GUTTER LEVEL INTO THE SEWERS!!!  OKAY????  These mongrels are scared of him, aren't they? They are scared of the truth, aren't they?...

This country does not have a lefty press. A lefty media is where most of the intellectual essence resides...

With Gina and Singo infiltrating Fairfax, this situation is only going to go worse...  The ABC has long lost the war for truth and is now doing balance pieces, with 50/50 porkie and truth — often leaning towards the porkies to make sure the bias is not going to upset the likes of Pyne and Brandis, who still think that truth about reality is slanted against the intellectually bypassed ritewingnuttery they proudly belong to...

The Australian Greens are concerned that John Singleton and his long-time friend Gina Rinehart are teaming up to push for a significant say in Fairfax Media.
Mr Singleton and his partner, the venture capitalist Mark Carnegie, announced late on Friday that their Gutenberg Investments had purchased a stake in Fairfax, publisher of this website, and would align with fellow shareholder, Gina Rinehart.
However, Greens Acting Leader Adam Bandt said Mr Singleton's move was cause for concern.
"I'm very, very worried that up until now Gina Rinehart has been unwilling to sign on to some very basic principles of journalistic independence and if she's now joining forces with other Australian millionaires in an attempt to set the Australian media in a different direction, I think it's of great cause for concern," Mr Bandt told reporters in Melbourne.

"I don't want to wake up every morning and find that my newspaper choice is between Rupert Murdoch and Gina Rinehart.
"I think that will be a bad state of affairs for Australian democracy."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/rupert-or-gina-no-thanks-say-greens-20121229-2c03o.html#ixzz2GQExig68

In the fullness of time, says Gee, the true story of Peter Slipper will be told. And it starts like this…

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/life/satire/how-history-is-made/

We stand with Adele Ferguson on this matter, and support her 100 per cent. 

Personal attacks are getting more common in News Corp’s papers of late as playing the man is becoming increasingly accepted.

Personal attacks like this are getting more common in News Corp’s papers of late. 

Two weeks ago The Australian hacked into Neil Chenoweth and Michael Stutchbury from the Australian Financial Review after the paper suggested an $882 million tax refund to News Corp had blown the federal budget. 

Chenoweth’s output was deranged and blatantly dishonest, The Australian told its readers. 

And as for his editor, Michael Stutchbury, who edited the Australian from 2001 to 2006 ... it claimed.


Stutchbury ... was considered incompetent by staff of this newspaper before his removal as editor ...

— The Australian Online, 19th February, 2014

We think that’s nasty, bullying and unnecessary. 

But playing the man seems to be increasingly accepted. 

Last Tuesday The Australian allowed Sydney businessman John Singleton to have several free kicks at the people who run Fairfax at the people who run Fairfax, which happens to be News Corp’s biggest rival. 


Singo has news for 'incompetent' Fairfax

— The Australian Online, 25th February, 2014

Taking aim at the two men who run Fairfax Media, chairman Roger Corbett and CEO Greg Hywood, Singleton was allowed to abuse them as 

Incompetent
Weak
Out of touch
Duplicitous 
Dead 
and Third-rate wankers 
and to suggest Fairfax would soon be Absoutely F**ked. 

The Australian did not contact Hywood or Corbett, to ask them to respond. 

Singo then went onto his own radio station 2GB where Alan Jones let him repeat the attack, calling Corbett a prick and suggesting he drank too much. 


JOHN SINGLETON: if you’re a proper chairman, a decent human being, not a precocious pretentious prick ...

JOHN SINGLETON: if he doesn’t drink he certainly does a really good impression late on Sunday night…

JOHN SINGLETON: he’s only got a year to go, you know, and then he can be president of the Avoca bowling club or rotary or something, some self-important, pompous, puffed-up job for him.

— 2GB, The Alan Jones Breakfast Show, 25th February, 2014

It was amazing stuff.

Although Fairfax soon dismissed it by saying: 


“Anyone who had the misfortune of hearing John Singleton’s deluded and self-indulgent sprays on 2GB and elsewhere this morning can only feel sorry for the man.”

— Fairfax Media Statement, 27th February, 2014

But what was it all about? Well, at one level it concerns a failed merger between two of Australia’s leading commercial radio networks.

This would have seen Fairfax’s 2UE, 3AW, 4BC and 6PR join forces with Sydney’s all-conquering 2GB, whose stars are Alan Jones and Ray Hadley.

But more broadly it’s about the inability of warring tribes to make peace. And in case there was any doubt about that, Ray Hadley put it to rest: 


HADLEY: ... I was not asked whether I’d work with Fairfax, but by gee, I’m glad I didn’t get the chance to find out what life would have been like under those nincompoops. 

— 2GB, The Ray Hadley Morning Show, 26th February, 2014

John Singleton has now sold his Fairfax shares. And it would appear the merger is dead, or in Singospeak: Absolutely F**ked

http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s3956014.htm

See toon at top and articles as well...

Fait divers: (brief news stories that are sensational, lurid, etc)

Here's hoping John Singleton has not finally killed off that most Sydney of institutions: the long, long lunch.

Last Monday's scenes at Kingsley's Steak and Crabhouse in Woolloomooloo, when John Singleton shocked fellow diners after he attempted to lunge at his old mate, the billionaire burger baron Jack Cowin, while brandishing a broken wine glass were certainly jaw-dropping.

And when it comes to his poor taste in humour and the ill-conceived comments he made about "belting" women, he himself admits they were "appalling" things to say. But in his defence, he says it was a bad joke that went terribly wrong.

But when it comes to Singo and many others of his generation, long boozy lunches are hardly an isolated incident, it's just that we don't see them as often as we once did.

Today, lunching for nearly six hours, as Singo did last Monday, is virtually unheard of.

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/celebrity/private-sydney/private-sydney-the-last-of-the-lunchtime-hellraisers-20150516-gh0ou8

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This news item is not worth a rabbit's fart would it not be that Singo is a captain of the news industry — who, of course, use the media to politically promote his interests ahead of yours. We're the poorer for this. See toon at top...