AS noted yesterday, it is a good thing Jon Faine found paid work as a toady on ABC Radio 774, rather than remaining with the law, because a compulsion to connect dots is generally regarded as an asset amongst learned friends. Faine, whose preciousness needs to be valued in carats, displayed none of that this morning, despite the oft-thwarted attempts of Michael Smith and The Age's Mark Baker. Each attempted to address the increasingly insistent question of our Prime Minister's fitness to hold the highest elected office in the land, and neither could get a word in edgeways.
Smith was seldom allowed to finish a sentence and, when he did, his point was engulfed by the shill's interruptions and poo-hooing. Baker fared somehat better, several times insisting on his right to complete a thought, but the Voice of the Taxpayer was similarly unmoved.
If the ABC answered to ACMA, as do commercial stations, listeners could complain, as another ABC Voice of the Establishment, Jonathan Holmes, urged Media watch's viewers to do in regard to Alan Jones' climate-change heresies. Sadly, ACMA has no authority over the national broadcaster, nor does the Press Council.
What that means, as complainants have learned , is that the ABC pays Faine a very generous salary, gives him a pulpit, promotes him as person worth hearing -- and then adjudicates on his fitness to broadcast. One might as well ask the College of Cardinals to discipline the Pope.
The ABC costs taxpayers somewhere north of $1 billion a year. Where do those of us who foot that bill file a consumer complaint likely to be taken seriously?
Pulpit eh?
ReplyDeleteFaine does remind one of an undescended...ie, shriller...version of the Reverend Ian Paisley.
John Fain's use of the pejorative "shockjock" is laughable. He is up there with the best of them.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, but not "shock" as in, taser style - more like a 9 volt battery on the tongue. You know, weak and leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
DeleteWrong. For Faine it should be "sickjoke" not "shockjock".
DeleteThis morning Faine again painted himself as a censorious and partisan fool.
ReplyDeleteThe extensive attempts to mock and deride Michael Smith and Ralph Blewitt before the interviews started were poor form enough, but the inventions during the interviews were dishonest and desperate.
According to the illustrious Mr Faine, Gillard's squeeze was only "trying to set up a splinter group" with his AWU-WRA.
Mr Faine was too busy say how many were in this "group", but the dishonest characterisation spoke volumes about Faine's integrity and campaign of censorship.
Smith's attempts to mention documentation rattled Faine. They provided the triggers to cut off his answers and for Faine to insert inventions.
Notable was his fantasy that Slater and Gordon was some sort of vast automaton where no one had a clue about any detail of any case; Smith was not allowed to relate the 'fingerprint' of Gillard on the mortgage arrangements.
The Professor has accurately described the interview style; it was an attempt to trivialise, mock, and bury evidence by talking over answers.
Faine unconvincingly said in his introduction, "I cannot see where there is a legitimate point of public interest", and he was hell-bent in trying to make sure no one else would either.
James Delingpole's "scuzzball" was a mild description of the fellow.
If the A.L.P.B.C.'s Comrade Faine was on T.V. instead of radio, I suspect that the audience would all be able to see the distinct brownish discolouration of the tongue which is highly symptomatic of the more severe cases of "Grovel Rash".
ReplyDeleteNo Parliamentary member of the A.L.P. need ever invest another cent in purchasing rolls of Sorbent while a sycophantic toady like Faine slithers about the earth.
As Faine's employer, I shall be raising my concerns as to his suitability to remain employed by the ABC in his capacity as host of Local Radio 774 morning show or any other role where he has access to a microphone. I will be asking the ABC to review Faine's contract.
ReplyDeleteBecause I find Faine so obnoxious, arrogant and a heap of other descriptive terms I have self-censored, I don't spend much time at all at 774. However, I have monitored 774 this week as I suspected there would be chatter about Gillard's lack of credibility as it relates to her tenure as Prime Minister.
We know how complaints are handled at 'their' ABC. However, I believe it's better they know of our displeasure rather than remain under the delusion they are doing a brilliant job as our public broadcaster. They are not and they need to be told.
JMH
Sell the bloody rubbish thing to News Ltd! Throw in SBS as a sweetener, even if you only got $500 ,think of the Future Savings? And when Abbot is thrown out of office in a few years for trying to fix the commos Stuff Ups,the commos will have to build a New Propagand Department with McTurdman as Commissar of Disinformation! As we all know after Massive Expenditure they will have an Inneficient Lying machine that NO One Believes!
ReplyDeleteJon Faine will remembered as the Australian version of Comical Ali - but not as funny. Yes, he was rude and spoke over his guests and had no time for the truth. Disappointing Mr Faine, just like Comical Ali - "there was no AWU slush fund, no dobbing on your mates, Abbott and NewsCorp are like snakes, we killed them all." you get the drift...
ReplyDeleteThere is no reason why the Federal Government should be running a huge media empire (the ABC and SBS) - as there is no reason for the Government to be running airlines or banks - particularly now that the you-beaut, all-singing, all-dancing National Broadband Network will provide the means by which every Australian can have access to every commercial media provider in the entire world.
ReplyDeleteIt is not the task of Government to compete with private enterprise. It is not the responsibility of the Government to provide a publically-funded "sheltered workshop" for battalions of black-clad, useless leftoids like fuzzy-faced John Faine.
The ABC and SBS should be sold off.
The likes of John Faine (and all the other ABC lefty luvvies) should earn their daily pennies by competing on the open market - just like everybody else. Doing so might shake them out of their very comfortable, tax-payer-funded smug complacency.
Gobsmacked of Gippsland