<< SUBJECT CHANGED ~ MAIN ~ BORDER FOLLIES >>
PEOPLE’S INQUIRY GETS RESULTS!
A People’s Inquiry led by Professor Bunyip and Blithering Bunny has unearthed troubling information about Judith Armstrong, the EU booster whose views (“it is tempting to wonder whether democracy is not wasted on voters”) were recently published in the Melbourne Age. Bunyip reports that The Age:
“... footnoted Armstrong’s column with a short and simple biography, introducing her only as “a fellow of the Contemporary European Research Centre at Melbourne University.”
And who funds the Contemporary European Research Centre? Over to you, Bunny:
I note that the Contemporary European Research Centre is a EU-awarded Jean Monnet Centre for Excellence . (Monnet, in case you didn’t know, was more than anyone else the father of the EU). In other words, the EU takes your money and doles some of it out to Institutes around the world who put out propaganda on behalf of the European project. At least the CIA had enough of a sense of shame to make its cultural bribes secret.
So does The Age, which neglected to inform readers of Armstrong’s EU connection. The Age also declined to reveal certain matters in the case of TV writer Marieke Hardy, whose new program launched recently. Here’s The Hack’s review:
Last Man Standing has one again proved my longstanding theory about Aussie television scriptwriting – that it’s clearly the itinerant fruitpicking of the writing world – seasonal, soul-destroying and woefully unskilled.
And piggybacking it off Desperate Housewives is not gunna save this turkey from the chop.
My prediction: LMS might just crash and burn faster than … er … Crash/Burn.
Mainstream reviews weren’t much better (“I could almost hear the brains of the scriptwriters crunching as they set up one cliched situation after another ... ”). The Age, however, thought Hardy’s series might be a winner, so ran a 1,328-word profile on the hyper-talented lefty script-churner and mysterious online ranter:
Although she prefers to keep her online identity a secret, Marieke Hardy, the 29-year-old Melbourne screenwriter who wrote and produced Seven’s 22-part drama, Last Man Standing, drops some fairly strong clues about it in her own publicity material for the show.
Along with her impressive professional credentials in the program notes for the 20-something series are the lines: “Marieke Hardy has a radio show, a political fashion label, a go-go dancing career, a regular DJ gig and a secret contentious life on the internet.”
Secret? Please; anyone who cares learned long ago that Hardy posts as Ms. Fits at Reasons You Will Hate Me. Not mentioned in The Age’s admiring profile was that Hardy has appeared in ads promoting the dull broadsheet. Blogger Ari Sharp presented the evidence, drawing a wrathful response from Hardy fans, who in other circumstances might be disinclined to support a Big Media shill.
UPDATE: References to canned Seven program Let Loose Live now deleted, since it isn’t anything to do with Last Man Standing. As should have been obvious, even to me.
(Via reader Rene).
UPDATE II. Media diversity opponents Tim Dunlop and Phil Gomes celebrate the removal of a conservative voice from The Age.
So what Australian TV shows are/have been any good?
Posted by Jim Treacher on 2005 06 08 at 02:01 PM • permalinkI expect that the EU money is only a small part of the Centre’s funding. I don’t want people to get the impression that I’m saying that it’s the main source of their funding.
But the principle remains. If a commercial company provides some funding to an Institute, it’s considered right and proper by leftists that that interest is declared when publishing any research or even opinion pieces on a subject related to that company. So sauce, goose, gander, etc.
(And as a taxpayer in Europe, I’d like to know how much the Centre is getting from the EU).
Posted by Blithering Bunny on 2005 06 08 at 02:09 PM • permalinkThe Melbourne Age could have shortened their biography to “Judith Armstrong, lobbyist”. Think of the savings in ink!
Posted by Major John on 2005 06 08 at 02:10 PM • permalinkWill the reticent writer of The Age’s puff piece turn out to be be The Last Weasel Slithering? Tune in and find out (but not to Channel 7, obviously).
Hardy has a “go-go dancing” career? C’mon! I followed the links to the original article and photograph, and she looks like Mona Lisa’s kid sister; can’t really picture her writhing before the boozewazie.
Oh God. She’s Frank Hardy’s grand-daughter. And she worships Bob Ellis. (I’m talking about that TV writer now, not Professor Judith “conflict-of-interest” Armstrong.)
(Perhaps someone who isn’t off to the pub now could fill the non-Aussies in on Comrade Hardy’s illustrious career.)
Posted by Blithering Bunny on 2005 06 08 at 03:12 PM • permalinkMarieke Hardy / Ms Fits is a nauseating bitch.
My favourite Ms Fits post concerned her crush on the character who tried to murder John Paul II. According to Ms Fits, had Ali Agca been successful “at the very least a few trillion Africans may have got less AIDS”.
Her grandfather was a compulsive liar, thief, and slanderer of an innocent woman (Jack Wren’s wife). Her grand-aunty was a manic depressive and, judging by the number of times she screwed up suicide attempts, a thorough incompetent as well. The fixation with Ellis confirms hereditary insanity.
With any luck, her show getting the ax will push ms Fits off the edge, she’ll fetch Aunt Mary’s razor and ...... no more annoyance for anyone except the bloke who has to mop up the blood.
I was suspicious that after `Associate Professor Judith Armstrong is a fellow of the Contemporary European Research Centre at Melbourne University’ it read `The opinions expressed are her own.’ It’s one of those statements so wholly inappropriate in context—what are op ed pieces, even by acas, even in The Age, meant to be?—you immediately doubt it.
Just went back and had a look at the Age story on the Hardy girl. It’s got this line in it
“She says her television-producer parents, Galia and Alan Hardy, have also been inspirational — although she has been at pains to establish her career independently, as has her great aunt, sardonic TV personality Mary Hardy.
Christ Almighty but the Age is friggin’ stupid.
Mary Hardy finally succeeded in cutting her throat in 1982 or so.
But the Age still has Mary alive as in the present tense “as has her great aunt”
Frank Hardy really was a pathetic old commie tosser, wasn’t he? Did he redistribute the royalties from Power Without Glory to all the winos hanging around central station? Funny how these Das Kapital deadshits turn from socialist to capitalist the minute they get thrown a wedge; hypocritical bottom-burps.
Had I been resposible for All together Now, episodes of Neigbours and now the soon to dissapear Last Man standing, I’s be using a psedonym and trying like buggery to remain anonymous as well. If she looks anything like her grandpa, she’d be wearing a paper bag anyway but now having ben outed as the guilty party responsible for the abovementioned horrors, she’s going to need an extra-large paper shame shroud.
thanks for drawing our attention to the Bunyip post. Anyone who wants to know anything about why ‘the Age’ is so bad these days should read Professor Bunyip, and especially this piece on how the new Marxist regime from Scotland has sacked Gerard Henderson and will no doubt soon be rid of Tony Parkinson, who is the only person writing for the Age who is even slightly conservative.
I wouldnt mind so much except that they always prattle on about how “independent’ and ‘fearless’ ‘unbiased’ etc they arePosted by arnienelly on 2005 06 09 at 12:02 AM • permalinkFor every mention of SeaChange I shall club a baby seal to death.
Though I may club some anyway, gosh it’s fun.
Posted by Aging Gamer on 2005 06 09 at 12:36 AM • permalinkAging Gamer — Try using a 3-wood. Better loft.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 06 09 at 01:13 AM • permalinkAnd I’ll drown a panda cub- fucking Sea Change, besides being lame, pointless and tedious, encouraged a shitload more Sydney and Melbourne ageing hippies and bitter leftists to pack up and further infest previously pristine costal areas- I’ve got the bastards on either side of me now at my place up the coast, and the next time one starts their ride-a-mower at 8 AM on a hungover Saturday morning, expect press reports of a power tool bloodbath to shortly follow. The last thing the ABC did right was Mister Squiggle, who’d read the news for a lot less than half-million Juanita.
Greetings all,
Good Australian TV shows
IMT (of course)
Australia from A to Z (with Noel Ferrier)
Australia you are standing in it (standing in it for Australia)
Aunty Jack Show (she’s a veggie queen, you know what I mean).
D-generation (at least some parts of it).AND ITS ALL GONE!!!!! sniff!! sniff!! sniff!!
#20: Excellent idea
#22: Ah, you have reminded me of one good show. Russell Coight’s All Aussie Adventures.
Posted by Aging Gamer on 2005 06 09 at 02:41 AM • permalinkAaaaaarggghhh - I just checked the eb-TV Guide - LSM has replaced my current favourite pre-bedtime viewing: Tour of Duty.
(which I was really enjoying - despite its low budget style, very refreshing to see a Vietnam story where the troops are portrayed as normal human beings, sometimes even as heroic. Also every week they’d knock off some Commies).
I can think of a few Aussie shows I liked - they’re all going back a bit though. The ‘kin Glyn ‘kin Nichols Show was one, and Frontline with Bruno Lawrence was pretty good too.
Tour of Duty is one of the finest war series ever made, if only for Paint it Black being the theme song.
This continues to cofirm my “good TV must die” conspiracy. The reason all the really great American shows are put on late, time slots altered numerous times (I’d check other days and times) and they’re axed because ratings are low (from changing time slots over and over).
Because if they let people see these awesome shows, everyone would find out just how completely awful Australian TV (especially drama) is.
Posted by Aging Gamer on 2005 06 09 at 03:04 AM • permalinkAaawww - c’mon, Aging Gamer, which of us doesnt know how awful and amateurish Aussie tv is. Especially the comedies. This mystifies me, Aussies have a well-documented sense of humour, but it never seems to come through in tv programs.
I loved the first series of Tour of Duty (in the last episode I saw, the unit called down an attack on itself and most of the men were killed). It was taken off after that series, and I cant quite get into the new one.
My daughters are amazed to see that, contrary to what they were taught at school, all US soldiers who fought in Vietnam were not drugged-out, murdering, racist, imperialist rapists.
The same idiots who keep watching Big Brother, and Blue Heelers, and making “SeaChange” into a “real” word.
Posted by Aging Gamer on 2005 06 09 at 03:23 AM • permalinkYeah, Aussie TV sure is painfully bad. For a country our size its an embarrassment.
What causes it d’you think? ...not enough competition, maybe?
(or do TV advertisers just not realise that TV ratings don’t take into account the vast hordes of people who’ve given up TV most nights to spend there time reading Blogs!)
I blame the incestuous nature of the left here. They infest the TV stations by having politically correct world views, then get their friends and family who are even dumber jobs, then they get their friends and family, the cycle goes on and we end up with the horror we have to live with now.
Posted by Aging Gamer on 2005 06 09 at 04:01 AM • permalinkBang on, ably assisted by the mandatory local content rules- they allow any old shit to run, because it doesn’t have to get a guernsey on merit. Plebs tune in to Blue Heelers etc because they’re used to it- if it dissapeared their blowfly-like attention span would have them lose all interest in Sergeant Tom et al in a week or two. PC hacks like Hardy would be relegated to the career which best suits their ability “you want fries with that” if not cosseted by regulation and hired through contacts and nepotism; kill local content rules and open up the market by getting rid of licences, or at least making them readily available so anyone who wants to stump up can go into broadcasting- see how long it takes for content to improve, the self-appointed clique sacked and public broadcasting actually become public and not a video version of Green Left Weekly. Not that it matters broadband webcasting will eventually fuck up convertional broadcasting for good.
It’s not just drama and comedy. Considering the size of this place (what are we, a quarter the size of the UK?), where the heck are the top notch documentaries?
I’m sure Aussie TV must run hundreds of hours of locally made documentaries a year, but none of them spring to mind. Yet I can easily recall a dozen or more excellent British ones and American that’ve been on in the last couple years.
(some brilliant WWII and military history ones recently)
Well that and DVDs. Still, being able to watch Invader Zim on an Internet channel or from my DVDs (which I had to import thanks to how horribly the regions were set out) at any time I like has been a pretty nice plus which normal broadcast TV never gave me.
Actually we’re getting an extreme version of what’s behind the DVD revolution, people are sick of networks in the States cancelling their favorite shows to make space for more reality TV so everyone just buys the DVDs and ceases to watch broadcast TV.
Posted by Aging Gamer on 2005 06 09 at 05:32 AM • permalinkI understand that morale is low at The Age, but the rank and file there have been much more appalled by the offer to Andrew Bolt than the disappearance of Henderson. (The paper is functionally unreadable with its diversion of central content to tabloid sections, whatever the quality of the actual content.)
Only a rumour at Crikey: also, when Crikey’s article was still private content, republished word for word by the ever-industrious Queen Margo.
Um, I think everyone here has forgotten that the UK hasn’t made a decent documentary for about 20 years either.
The media world-wide is infested with lightweight lefties, helped into jobs by coercion funded nepotism.
That’s why they’re getting such a kicking, they just don’t represent the people they are trying to market to.
No great Australian tv shows?
Don’t you remember Division 4 or Homicide?
And who doesn’t want to see Roy Baker (the guy on the left, not covered in blood - the other guy got convicted for a gay rape a few years back) from Cop Shop turn up as a Chief Superintendant on Blue Heelers?
Melanie, Jaspan has lost control. I know of one Age journalist who turned down becoming a section editor because he doesn’t want to be conspicuous when the revolution comes, and I fear what the staff, emboldened by their successful destabilisation, will be like for the next bloke. Sadly, Jaspan probably has been converted by his staff to the view that the Age should be a left-wing niche paper, whereas in a one broadsheet town there are possibly tens of thousands of people whose Age habit has not lapsed because of the tolerance of the likes of Henderson and Parkinson.
steve68: Crikey was bought for more money than its revenue could justify, in a mild throwback to the Dotcom era. You should assume any prick will broadcast your private content, which is why Crikey put it on its website the day after emailing it to subscribers. What they might have been surprised by was that one of their subscribers, an employee (or some variety of legally concocted ex-employee receiving an income) of a rival media organisation would block quote it on a site paid for by the rival and linked to by the rival.
My sympathy for him comes from the fact that he decided, even before taking up the job, that he would barrack for Geelong. That seemed very clever: lots of people’s second team, recent fabled period, nobody hates them, entering on a strong period. I said his paper is functionally unreadable, but the moving to tabloid of some sections, even if it leaves the paper incoherent, is a recognition of a long-term problem which someone will have to address. But I do agree he’s a bit clueless about local conditions.
We should be glad the Age has sacked Henderson. He was one of the few things in it worth reading and was propping up what circulation it has.
Posted by Susan Norton on 2005 06 09 at 10:56 AM • permalinkI think that’s wrong for two reasons: firstly because Henderson was mild enough and spoke the language of the ALP’s reform moment well enough that it is a loss that Age subscribers aren’t exposed to this voice of reason now; second, we have to hope that a major newspaper, read by influential people even if only because it is the right shape, includes a variety of views. (Though I must say I don’t buy the Age even to see if I’m in it.)
“Don’t you remember Division 4 or Homicide?”
Someone beat me to Aunty Jack. Phoenix wasn’t bad either. A US friend of mine watched it on cable and found it too hard hitting.
Posted by walterplinge on 2005 06 10 at 12:56 AM • permalink
Page 1 of 1 pages
Members:
Login | Register
| Member List
Very simple rule. If it’s on Channel 7 and it’s Australian, it’s awful. This same rule applies to Channel 9 and Channel 10…. and the ABC and SBS and most pay TV channels, if not all of them. There might be exceptions, it’s 3:25am and I’m tired.
At any rate if you want good TV on Channel 7, American shows shown from 10:30pm and later, especially the 11:30pm slot has nice stuff, like Scrubs (even if the later ones aren’t as good). However avoid Crossing Jordan and anything with lawyers.