The Drum goes schtum

What is happening at The Drum, now under the supervision of Young Chip? If the site manages two updates a day it is an oddity. On its homepage right this minute an entire slab of columns has not been updated for weeks. Now it is true that Tim Dunlop is a remarkable writer -- there are few like him, that's for sure -- but is his prose so not-to-be-missed that an article published on July 11 needs to be kept in the front window, perhaps in perpetuity?

Why is this happening, or not happening to be more accurate?

Could it be that Young Chip has imported the languid pace and timing of his former nice little earner at the Sydney Writers' Festival, which required little more than ordering in some flagon whites but once a year and, when the pressure was intense, putting little bits of cheese on sticks?

Or maybe Mark Scott has ordered Young Chip and The Drum to lie doggo, to not bring too much attention to one of the best arguments for de-funding the ABC since the cancellation of Bellbird.

Then again, perhaps it is the ABC's generous employee benefits package and the many opportunities it provides for not going to work.

After the knifing of Julia Gillard, there must surely be a certain withered someone locked for her own good in the attic and in need of Young Chip's psychiatric nursing and general geriatric care. No doubt the blanket baths must be more fun than a Tim Dunlop column, but what of the public's right to further updates on the sort of man Clementine Ford dreams will one day sweep her off her feet?