Thursday, August 18, 2011

Manne On The Move

ROBERT MANNE is stepping away from The Monthly, the magazine's eager young editor telling Caroline Overington that his mentor is keen to "start blogging on a daily basis, and he wanted to do so as his own man, rather than as chairman of The Monthly. He wanted to express his own views, freely and independently, and he was worried that people might think that his views were those of the magazine, if he stayed on as chairman."

That may prove to be the case, but a reasonable person cannot help but wonder if  Bundoora Bob might not have been tapped for another little project. As we all know, there is much talk at the moment about the need to examine the state of Australia's media, and the first priority of any government establishing such a panel will always be to produce the conclusions its backers expect -- in this instance that Rupert Murdoch is the spawn of Satan and the noble Fairfax press could do with a handout..

Who better to make sure the inquiry produces all the right findings than the LaTrobe academic (please forgive that contradiction in terms)? Now that he has severed his Monthly connection, we will probably see the announcement of Manne's involvement soonish.He will not need any riding instructions.


4 comments:

  1. I let out a laugh when I first read of this migration. My wife asked why and all I could tell her was,

    "someone no self-respecting Australian has ever heard of has left a publication no self-respecting Australian would ever read."

    Wife: "what, is this something to with the Sydney Morning Herald?"

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  2. @ the Professor: Either that, or he is preparing to jump horses in midstream. Does he see the onrushing electoral juggernaut and desire to lie down with the winners? Or perhaps not so much lie down with the winners, as be seen to throw stones at the losers as soon as it is safe to do so?

    Was it Manne who waited until Rudd was out the door and then whacked a polemic knife in his back, laden with diatribe about how deranged and unfit for the post he'd always thought the man was? Or am I thinking of someone else?

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  3. (From previous post.) I correct myself - it was David Marr. But there was a Manne connection - http://homepagedaily.com/Pages/article10048-power-trip-david-marr-talks-to-robert-manne-about-rudds-political-journey.aspx - which is probably why his name came up.

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  4. The first comment reminds me of the description of pop music journalism.

    Interviews with people who can't talk, written up by people who can't write for people who can't read.

    It was probably Jon Hawkes who said that when he was editing Australian Rolling Stone.

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