Stay Tuned

APOLOGIES, seriously, for going on about Fairfax lately, but the company’s antics really do make it difficult to turn away. This morning on 3AW, which is owned by Fairfax, compere Neil Mitchell mentioned in passing that a carbon tax may boost domestic electricity prices by 30%. This ticked off Green Establishment spokesman and alarmist for all seasons Adam Morton, who moonlights as the Phage’s environmental reporter. Morton next launched into a series of mildly indignant tweets, one of which Mitchell answered thus:

adamlmorton Adam Morton

@3AWNeilMitchell Where does the 30% increase in electricity bills over 3 years under a carbon tax figure come from?

14 hours ago

in reply to @adamlmorton ↑

@3AWNeilMitchell Neil Mitchell

@

@adamlmorton industry two weeks ago

Morton has an endangered native bush bee in his bonnet by this stage and posts a few more tweets that sum up two rival online polls, each a Fairfax endeavour. On 3AW’s site listener opinion is running against Cate Blanchett 64-36. At the Phage, a similar poll sees readers taking the actress’ side 80-20. One gathers that Morton believes the latter poll is the more righteous, and he goes on to tweet and retweet links and comments defending Blanchett, attacking the Daily Telegraph as “a meth addicted hillbilly with glazed eyes pointing a shotgun at hallucinations” and even explaining how a green reporter decides what news to report and which to filter.

adamlmorton Adam Morton

@

@WhyPaulHowes If you can show govt paid for ad, i'm interested. Otherwise this "debate" is all just hot air I'm afraid.

All of that is interesting, but also predictable. While Morton is habitually blind to stories that do not serve his green mates’ agenda, gve him credit for labouring publicly and proudly under those misconceptions.

It gets more interesting when  Morton’s colleague Jill Stark weighs in with some observations about Mitchell’s veracity.

@jillastark Jill Stark

@adamlmorton No reply from Mitchell yet either about your query on his power bill stats. Can't believe how unaccountable he is for nonsense.

A few years ago, before Fairfax bought 3AW, Mitchell was given to frequent and sneering dismissals of the Phage as anything but a serious newspaper, one certainly not staffed by grown-ups. That sort of criticism is not much heard these days, but tomorrow it just might be. While it can sometimes seem that Mitchell prefers to niggle and bash his staple Three Cs – Collingwood, Catholics and cartage contractors – he may well be about to expand the repertoire . Mitchell’s ego is so large it could be deemed a hazard to navigation. He will not take kindly to being branded a piffle peddler by a slip of a 20-something gal, especially one who works for the same company. 

Tomorrow should make for wonderful listening if he takes the bait – one arm of Fairfax getting stuck into another.