"The ABC Is Unaware...."

EARLIER THIS year, ratings collapsed for the Canberra edition of ABC's nightly news, but not to worry, as the senior news executive, John Mulhall, assured the local rag, "'I don't think it means any startling changes, and one thing we do know is that ABC audiences don't like change, or not big change or sudden change.'' Rejoicing in the national broadcaster's immunity from the tawdry business of turning a profit, which tends to concentrate the thoughts of commercial operators, the quality journalist continued: ''We have no plans to change anything but we will certainly be looking at what we are doing and we will be trying to get some quality audience feedback and we'd be more than happy to hear from our audiences."

Well some viewers, anyway, and recent correspondent Bill Parker evidently falls in the less-welcome category. Mind you, it might have been Parker's topic which inspired Mulhall's explanation of what, to an ABC journalist, constitutes a story worth reporting. Via Michael Smith, whose blog continues putting mainstream organs to shame (emphasis added at the Billabong):

Dear Mr Parker,

Thank you for your email regarding Mr Blewitt's statements. The ABC is aware of these statements but we do not at this stage believe it warrants the attention of our news coverage.

To the extent that it may touch tangentially on a former role of the Prime Minister, we know The Australian newspaper maintains an abiding interest in events 17 years ago at the law firm Slater and Gordon, but the ABC is unaware of any allegation in the public domain which goes to the Prime Minister's integrity. If indeed Ms Gillard has had questions to answer, ABC News reported those answers from her lengthy media conference of 24/8/12 in which she exhausted all questions on the issue.

However, if any allegation is ever raised which might go to the Prime Minister's integrity, the ABC would of course make inquiries into it and seek to report it. As for matters concerning Mr Bruce Wilson, ABC News will cover the case against him as it proceeds.
 

Once again thank you for your query.

Best regards,

John Mulhall
News Editor, ABC News

Your taxes at work, folks. Or rather, not at work -- and unlikely to start work anytime soon.

UPDATE: How to explain a news director so determined not to pursue news? Close association with Canberra University academic and Finko's get-the-gag offsider Matthew Ricketson may help to explain such selective blindness.

Mulhall is the bloke with ears on the far right of the back row. Ricketty is two empty spaces to his left.

  

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Divorce, Kerr Street-Style

MICHAEL SMITH has a new swag of documents relating to Julia Gillard, Bruce Wilson, the purchase of 1/85 Kerr Street, Fitzroy, and the beard Ralph Blewitt. They make for interesting reading and further the impression that the nation's leader is either very dim or very bent. With Mark Baker's latest article on the matter published today in The Age -- yes, The Age, so you know this is getting serious -- we can all assume the Prime Minister will need to summon a few sympathetic, ill-informed hacks and clarify her former youth and naivety all over again. That performance will be very interesting, no doubt, but not entirely so satisfying as might be if one of the quality journalists neglects to put the following question.

"Prime Minister, at the time you were handed Ralph Blewitt's pre-signed power of attorney, your lover Wilson was a married man with children and in the process of leaving his family in order to take up residence in Melbourne, where for several years he shared his life with you. Would it be fair to say that one obvious advantage of listing Blewitt as Kerr Street's buyer of record was that it shielded Wilson's wealth from his soon-to-be ex-wife and her divorce lawyers?"

Given Gillard's high-decibel assault this week on the patriarchy and her stridency in demanding that women be given a fair shake, a follow-up question would be in order:

"Does your sympathy for women extend to humble housewives cheated of their marital assets by the legal deceptions of philandering husbands' and their new girlfriends?"

Many of the hackettes are giving Gillard rave reviews for her Question Time harangue. Come the election (and may it come soon!), it will be interesting to see if that enthusiasm is shared by the wider female electorate, especially those who have been robbed blind by ex-husbands.
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The Broken "Record"

FROM Sydney, 2UE's Mike Smith puts some questions to our PM and gets -- surprise, surprise -- the runaround.

Hear here.