The Australian Financial Rot

IT SEEMS the one thing life guarantees is disappointment. You think things are taking a turn for the better, that there has been an outbreak of common sense, and what happens? Reality goes all AFR on you. A year or so ago, the business paper with all those the anti-business columnists and reporters acquired a new editor from the Australian -- a fire-breathing type, it was hoped, aware of the rather obvious fact that a publication aimed at investors should probably support free markets, limited government and dispassionate appraisal of policies' worth and merits.

And what did we end up with? Lot's of this sort of stuff.

A comedian tells some sexist and unsound jokes at a gathering of the Australian Hotels Association and that is reported, which is fair enough. So what illustration does some unsupervised leftoid mole in the AFR's pictures department choose to illustrate the story? An old picture of Tony Abbott, who did not attend the event, wasn't there, didn't laugh at the gags and knew nothing about it. The picture and caption are below.

Federal opposition frontbencher Bob Baldwin (left), pictured with opposition leader Tony Abbott in October, says he doesn’t “support any attacks based on a person’s race, sexuality, age or weight”. Mr Baldwin was present at an Australian Hotels Association dinner during which Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Finance Minister Penny Wong were the butt of sexist and homophobic jokes. Photo: Andrew Meares

Gina Rinehart has been keeping own counsel of late, telegraphing no intentions or indications of what she might have in store for Fairfax. If she does not make her move soon there will be absolutely nothing left to rehabilitate.

UPDATE: Actually, someone is buying Faifax. FXJ is up to 46 cents and the volume, just 90 minutes into trading, is huge. 

Can't Trust Them In The Dark

DONNA LaFRAMBOISE takes a look at Fairfax's interest in Earth Hour and raises a question so obvious only Silly readers editor Judith Prisk and the paper's deputy editor Mark Coultan could overlook it. 

I think this raises a serious ethical concern. One would have to be utterly naive to imagine that the journalists employed by Fairfax Media are free to say negative things about Earth Hour – or about environmentalism in general. Yet Australia’s recent Independent Inquiry into the Media and Media Regulation report makes no mention whatsoever of Earth Hour in its 474 pages.

No chance of a harsh word from the Silly's  Catastropharian in Chief Ben Cubby, who must had a lovely time applauding his intellectual equals. A word of warning, Ben. With Fairfax's finances in such terrible shape, don't speak too highly of the 16-year-old winners. They might make very cheap replacements.

 

Don't forget to download a copy of Ms Framboise's terrific little book, The Delinquent Teenager Who Was Mistaken for the World's Top Climate Expert.

The Original and The Blessed

IN TODAY's Silly, the ever-original Ross Gittins addresses intellectual property and patent litigation, an interesting subject and, a quick check suggests, all his own work. Still, one wonders if this little sentence found its way into his column by way of Freudian slip:

...people like me won't be trying very hard to come up with new ideas

(Update will be posted shortly. Washing machine is unbalanced and shaking itself to pieces.....Load rebalanced and now hung on the line.)

UPDATE: Quite a bit of mail built up in the Billabong’s letterbox over the past two weeks, but this note and associated correspondence is easily the most fascinating item to emerge so far. It was passed along by a reader who reports having contacted the Silly’s readers editor, Judy Prisk, to ask what action her newspaper would be taking in regard to Ross Gittins’ cutting and pasting. Here is her response:

...Senior editors are looking at points raised about Ross Gittins's column. You will hear from me - or someone - soon.

Thanks again for your letter,
Judy

Judy Prisk
Readers' editor
readersed@smh.com.au

The Billabong’s correspondent waited until, eventually, he received this reply from the Silly’s deputy editor Mark Coultan. As an indication of the delusional depths to which the broadsheet Fairfax newspapers have sunk it is most revealing:

Thank you for your email regarding the recent column by Ross Gittins.

We do not agree readers would have been in any doubt that Ross’s article was about the OECD report and that he quoted from it extensively throughout, both directly and by paraphrasing.

Ross cited the OECD and the title of its report clearly at the start of his article and quoted directly from it in many places. Other markers throughout the article, including the conditional tense and references such as ‘‘the report asks’’, ‘‘we’re told that’’ and ‘‘the purpose of reports like this’’, make it absolutely clear that the report is the thrust of the entire article and that Ross is referring to it throughout.

Nevertheless we appreciate you having taken the time to draw your concerns to our attention.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Coultan

Deputy Editor

Now you might think no newspaper could do no worse than redefine plagiarism in order to establish a star columnist's innocence. But there is worse, as the Billabong's correspondent advises after checking Judy Prisk's tweets.

Remember, Prisk is the Silly's watchdog, the sentry charged with protecting its standards and enforcing its ethics.

Oh, and by the way, it is not just a Right Wing Death Bunyip who finds Prisk's performance more than somewhat lacking. Mumbrella is less than impressed as well.