AS VISITORS to this little blog will know, unseemly language isn’t
appreciated, so this post may strike some as an exercise in hypocrisy. Why
decry obscenity’s public ubiquity only to broadcast more of it, you may ask?
Well, given that Australia’s quality journalists have lately become the most
ardent disciples of Thomas
Bowdler in declining to repeat that
joke from the CFMEU dinner about Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin, the gag that
failed to outrage various members of the Gillard cabinet until their media
advisers noted that such a reaction would be a good idea, it seems a civic obligation
to pass it on.
We all believe in fairness and equity, after all, and memory
serves up no other recent example of self-censorship embraced with such silent
gusto. Indeed, the enthusiasm to tattle overheard examples of Tony Abbott’s
salty tongue makes this eruption of reticence curious indeed. For those with poor memories, here are a couple of reminders:
The ever-reliable
Michelle Grattan used the above incident to speculate at length on the
Opposition leader’s fitness of character, while little protégé Phillip
Coorey performed a double twist with pike in order to splash a
further exploration of that same subject, even as he conceded that
accusing “Abbott of deliberately making light of a trooper's death is absurd.”
Then there was this, another
eavesdropped incident resurrected of late to build the case for Abbott’s innate
sexism:
All this makes media
silence about that CFMEU joke a mystery – or rather, it would be if not for the
gallery’s determination to kill a dying industry all the more quickly was not
self-evident. With Fairfax stock at 36 cents (as of Friday) and News Ltd crippling
its push to digital it is one field
of endeavour in which quality journalists and their corporate masters cannot be
faulted. The other, of course, is the stenographers' selective candour.
Tony Abbott's chief of staff Peta Credlin does a good Head job. Come Clean. Abbott calls her the Vacuum Cleaner she cleans up his messes.
The excuse for not publishing that joke is that it is
slanderous and would see media organisations and reporters sued for defamation.
Yeah, right.
A paid comedian delivered THAT! More misuse of union funds.
ReplyDeleteThe most offensive thing about that joke is its utter failure to be actually funny.
ReplyDeleteIt displays about the same level of wit as a particularly troglodyte twelve-year-old haw-haw-hawing, 'ya mama's so fat!'
Lets see Alan Jones run with this.
ReplyDeleteMaybe editors thought that, the world being incurably sexist as it is, this slur falls more heavily on female Credlin and not much on male Abbott and editors figured that she is not a politician nor in the public eye and didn't really deserve to be in this kind of gratuitous and salacious line-of-fire. When it comes to the crunch the world is sexist and probably always will be. Perhaps this caused a rare moment of media restraint in this world of little restraint.
ReplyDeletePedro of Adelaide
I would like to know who the two female comedians were that caused a walkout at the National Family Law Conference at Hobart because they were so disgusting.
ReplyDeleteNo names were mentioned. What is the cause of this reticence by the msm.
Try to work it out...disgusting, crude, Melbourne....the chances are it was Deveny and Hardy.
Does anyone know?
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/blue-sketch-inadmissible-as-senior-judges-walk-out-20121020-27yiu.html#ixzz29rk3pJFx
Well Prof, not only is it nasty, it is also completely lame. The joke you have when you're not having a joke, merely a slur.
ReplyDeleteThat's a joke?
ReplyDeletePerhaps that's what they found offensive, it just was not funny.
Good to see the Professor has resources the msm apparently lacks. I Posted the following on the Destroy the Joint facebook page. It lasted all of two minutes and, naturally, I have been barred from commenting on their page:
ReplyDelete"Wow, love your description:
"This page is for people who are sick of the sexism dished out to women in public roles in Australia, whether they be our Prime Minister or any other woman". So what are we going to do about Swan and the other
Labor MPs like Roxon who thought the joke at the CFMEU event was funny? You know, this joke:
"Tony Abbott's chief of staff Peta Credlin does a good Head job. Come Clean. Abbott calls her the Vacuum Cleaner she cleans up his messes."
So any outrageous outrage forth coming anytime soon? Or is that only reserved for conservatives?
http://bunyipitude.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/no-laughing-matter.html"
The thing is, Destroy the Joint" is supposed to be non-partisan. LOL
AB on his blog today "For the Liberals a lesson: whenever you can, drag the debate out of the Internet/media/Canberra bubble and into the streets. And talk about your topics, not Labor’s."
ReplyDeleteExactly.
'Journalists Are the Stars'
http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2012/10/christopher-lasch-on-presidental-debates/
'We Live in a Media State'
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/023429.html
THANK YOU Prof Bunyip for "scratching that itch of mine" (if I may be as vulgar). Without being more voyeuristic than your average reader of 50 shades of grey, I really wanted to know HOW bad that "bad joke" was. And it is really even worse than expected because the level of humor is soooo Albanese.
ReplyDeleteAs to the systematic cover-ups by this Greens/Labor/Unions/ABC/SBS/Press Gallery&assorted media bunch, they are putting the former Stasi in the shade.
Also, like Bel Marduk above I would like to get a synopsis of these offensive "sketches" and the name of the "Aaaahrtists" too. Lets lift the skirts on all that misogynistic stench.
I'm deeply offended by it being described as a "joke".
ReplyDeleteYou'd have to get shickered at a great rate of knots for that to seem funny. You'd have to be as drunk as unionists at a conference.
ReplyDeleteAnyone else feel their skin crawl as the immature, and yes, repulsive Ms Roxon tried to mouth her nastiness?
ReplyDeleteThe left fully support misogyny provided it is used in attacking women who don't vote for them.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the confected outrage of Destroy the Joint against the maggot Billison who said the joke?
Will Jenna Price and her minions force him to undergo re-education at her cutprice UTS rate?
Not sure how anyone could possibly be offended by what Abbott said to Roxon.
ReplyDeleteNote he said "THAT'S bullshit" ..... which is a criticism of what Roxon SAID, not an ad hominem (feminem?) attack.
The handbag brigade can't make up their tiny pea-sized minds.
They want to be treated as equals mostly, but when they say something stupid, they want to be treated as "ladies" .
In any case, Roxon will be back doing suburban conveyancing when Tony is PM.
The Irish Lion
Bill Clinton is about to taste Monica's revenge, as reported here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2205490/Monica-Lewinsky-writing-tell-memoir-including-secret-love-letters-Clinton.html
ReplyDeleteIt will be more than Bill Shorten who taste the revenge of Peta Credlin in the coming months.
Prof I thought you might like this. It's a young bloke trying to get women to sign a petition to end women's suffrage.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uPcthZL2RE
Now I really don't think the JOKE? is even vaguely comic, and it appears that the genre of the "comedian" and his offered funny, blends in extremely with the audience, most of whom seemed to relish it. Are we not a lucky lot to be led by this bunch of clowns?
ReplyDelete