Two For The Road

MRS RINEHART has moved mountains of dirt in her mining career, so sweeping the sludge from Fairfax newsrooms will be a piece of cake -- especially as some who should top any necks-for-the-axe list appear eager to execute their own swan dives into the soon-to-be proprietor's gully trap. Showing the way is Ross Gittins, who has said:

“The independence of Fairfax is the most valuable commercial asset and could be easily lost if no sufficient respect was paid to protect the freedom of journalists as reporters to report without fear or favour, and as commentators to call it as they see it. I’m not particularly keen on the idea of anybody telling me what I’m allowed to say about the mining industry."

Asked what would happen if no guarantee was forthcoming, Gittins replied: “I would have to reconsider my position.”

 There is one of those 1900 jobs that won't need to be cut by fiat. And here, possibly, is another: Silly Readers Editrix Judy Prisk admits to a flutter in her matronly breast at being reminded of a newspaper in America whose staff voted to put it out of business rather than be saved by Rupert Murdoch.

The story that so moved Ms Prisk is here and should be a source of comfort to all sensible Australians. It is not just our own precious luvvies who exist in that special little world where, the more people decline to buy their journalism, the louder grow their assertions of its magnificence.

Gittins and Prisk should make a nice matched pair as they clean out their desks. Some months ago, Gittins was caught cold borrowing the vast bulk of his column with, at best, oblique attribution. Having been called to account, his exoneration was then justified by Prisk.

They will look just the perfect pair marching out the door in lockstep.

Robert Manne Writes...

WHILE traipsing about the countryside last week, terrorising fish and cadging soft beds off rustic friends, a note from Bundoora Bob lobbed in the letterbox:

Bunyip,
You seem intelligent if rather, hmmm, right-wing. Did you realise that I have written an extensive comment on the subject of Keith Windschuttle and Robert Edgerton? It is available via The Monthly website. Indeed it has been available there for years. So far not one Windschuttle supporter has commented on it. Nor of course has Windschuttle, who refuses me the opportunity to write about his egregious articles on Aboriginal history in Quadrant, a magazine I edited for eight years. My challenge to you, Bunyip, is to read my Windschuttle/Edgerton analysis and then offer your views. I wait your response with keen anticipation. -- Robert Manne

Alas, Robert, you will be waiting a little longer - and it will not be, as you suggested in a subsequent note, because censorship is the policy at the Billabong. While it will come as a surprise, the reference to your tussle with Windschutle was not primarily about you or, indeed, the current Quadrant editor. Both of you are big boys and can duke it out amongst yourselves -- although Windschuttle may be at something of a disadvantage in that the news and opinion pages of the Fairfax press do not put themselves immediately at his disposal, as they appear to do with you.

Just to recap, the point of the post was to note the different tacks Fairfax takes when investigating accusations of plagiarism. When Ross Gittins, one of its own, lifts and borrows, Fairfax rationalises with an enthusiasm that puts the wiliest Jesuit to shame. When it is a demon of the right on the receiving end, sim-salah-bim, it is on the front page before the author can say "I'm off to edit The Drum".

Robert, there is much pain in this cruel world, and the Professor has no desire to boost its volume by denying you the attention to which, conditioned by ABC and Fairfax's feting, you have come to regard as your due. So, Bob, what about a bargain? Your counterpunch at Windschuttle will get a good look at the Billabong if you undertake to give an opinion on Ross Gittins' plagiarism and his deputy editor's defence of it. The respective analyses will be published on each other's websites and there will be no censoring of reader comments. (Only salty language is censored here, by the way.)

What could be fairer? Gittins is one of your statist allies, and the Professor is kindly disposed to Windschuttle. Let this be an interesting exercise in dispassionate analysis.