Live long and prosper?
An eye on ABC NEWS: Keeping the bastards who keep the bastards honest - honest.
Monday, April 24, 2017
Monday, March 20, 2017
4 corners: age of consequences
4 Corners is screening "Age of Consequences" tonight. Another eco-catastrophe "documentary" produced by climate activists along the lines of Al Gore's erroneous Inconvenient Truth. One assumes that Climate Hustle will be screened to balance the ledger.
Friday, March 17, 2017
Sunday, March 12, 2017
Bleakless Insiders
Not sure if many can still stomach it but I watched ABC Insiders this morning. The main reason being to see what they would make
of Bill Leak's passing. Bill was a regular contributor to the Talking Pictures Segment and appeared a number of times on the show. Given Bill's long connection to the program and his significance
to Australian media and political life I thought it might have been appropriate to devote the "Talking Pictures" segment to him. Perhaps Warren Brown or Peter Hoysted (aka Jack the Insider) could have added some personal recollections about this Australian Legend.
Instead in this warped ABC world, there was nothing in that segment said about one of Australia's leading political cartoonists over the last 20 years. NOTHING. Instead to add insult ABC gave the guest spot to a hopelessly ordinary comedian; Mark Humphries, who helps out on The Feed, a low quality SBS "comedy". Humphries seem to be fond of that light weight Politically Correct form of "satire" that picks on easy targets and is not likely to offend anyone. It's that asinine, blow in the breeze type of "satire" common on government funded channels of late that's quickly forgotten and leaves as lasting impression on the world as a footprint on the beach. Hardly biting, hardly satire, hardly funny (but we all pay for it).
In August last year using tax payers money, the Feed broadcast what it described as "the most sublime takedown of Bill Leak's racist cartoon". This piece starred the aforementioned Humphries and side kick Jan Fran. The superficial analysis and level of ignorance demonstrated in this "satirical" skit is astonishing. It takes a great deal of intelligence, research and knowledge to produce good satire, the sort Bill produced day in - day-out. One of the keys being a kernel of truth. But there is no kernel of truth in the notion that Bill Leak was racist in anyway. The misrepresentation of his opinions and cartoons by these lightweights perhaps a testament to the long term failure of our education system to teach critical thinking. Unbelievably SBS describe this as "simply brilliant". It's simply crap; crap that we paid for with hard earned tax dollars. The perpetrator of this crap the person chosen by ABC for the Talking Pictures segment a few days after Bill's death. The insult is palpable.
But Insiders didn't stop there. Following the briefest of mentions of the sad news by Barry Cassidy and a very short 30 second clip, Laura Tingle, perhaps having raided Michelle Grattan's wardrobe of spotty dresses and grannies teeth pearl strands, struck a new low with perhaps the worst eulogy ever made.
Perhaps they will make up for it next week?
See also With Friends Like Laura Tingle... at Quadrant.
Instead in this warped ABC world, there was nothing in that segment said about one of Australia's leading political cartoonists over the last 20 years. NOTHING. Instead to add insult ABC gave the guest spot to a hopelessly ordinary comedian; Mark Humphries, who helps out on The Feed, a low quality SBS "comedy". Humphries seem to be fond of that light weight Politically Correct form of "satire" that picks on easy targets and is not likely to offend anyone. It's that asinine, blow in the breeze type of "satire" common on government funded channels of late that's quickly forgotten and leaves as lasting impression on the world as a footprint on the beach. Hardly biting, hardly satire, hardly funny (but we all pay for it).
In August last year using tax payers money, the Feed broadcast what it described as "the most sublime takedown of Bill Leak's racist cartoon". This piece starred the aforementioned Humphries and side kick Jan Fran. The superficial analysis and level of ignorance demonstrated in this "satirical" skit is astonishing. It takes a great deal of intelligence, research and knowledge to produce good satire, the sort Bill produced day in - day-out. One of the keys being a kernel of truth. But there is no kernel of truth in the notion that Bill Leak was racist in anyway. The misrepresentation of his opinions and cartoons by these lightweights perhaps a testament to the long term failure of our education system to teach critical thinking. Unbelievably SBS describe this as "simply brilliant". It's simply crap; crap that we paid for with hard earned tax dollars. The perpetrator of this crap the person chosen by ABC for the Talking Pictures segment a few days after Bill's death. The insult is palpable.
But Insiders didn't stop there. Following the briefest of mentions of the sad news by Barry Cassidy and a very short 30 second clip, Laura Tingle, perhaps having raided Michelle Grattan's wardrobe of spotty dresses and grannies teeth pearl strands, struck a new low with perhaps the worst eulogy ever made.
Perhaps they will make up for it next week?
See also With Friends Like Laura Tingle... at Quadrant.
Bill Leak 1956-2017
I can't believe Bill Leak is gone. If a cartoonist had to go this year why couldn't it have been Leunig?
A couple of my favourite Bleaks:
A couple of my favourite Bleaks:
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
ABC NEWS PRODUCTIVITY PLUMMETS. FORECASTS INDICATE ZERO OUTPUT BY 2022
EXCLUSIVE SPECIAL REPORT
In 2012 we were forced to discontinue our annual analysis of the productivity of ABC's NEWS service as the ABC's news archive limited the number of stories to the first 10 pages of items. At the time we asked then Director Mark Scott what had happened with the archive but got no reply. It seems ABC have re-instituted access to the full online news archive so here are the current results.THE RESULTS ARE SHOCKING!
RECORD LOW PRODUCTIVITY in 2016
ZERO OUTPUT FORECAST in 2022
The ABC NEWS WATCH productivity survey examines ABC's total news output for the month of June as recorded in the ABC's online news archive and compares this to total ABC NEWS staff numbers taken from its annual report. The result is a measure of the productivity of ABC's NEWS division.ABC NEWS PRODUCTIVITY SURVEY RESULTS for 2016
NEWS STORIES POSTED EACH JUNE 2003-2016
 |
| Stories per day from the ABC NEWS ARCHIVE for each June |
2003 7230
2004 6920
2005 6899
2006 6995
2007 7988
2008 8894
2009 7134
2010 6666
2011 5908
2012 6091
2013 7754
2014 7801
2015 7624
Staffing: Figures are based on ABC annual reports.
 | |
| ABC News Division staff, from ABC Annual reports. |
2003 766.24
2004 735.04
2005 756.6
2006 770.68
2007 842.37
2008 865.59
2009 913.14
2010 947.36
2011 963.14
2012 964.97
2013 1009.46
2014 1051.62
2015 1433.5
2016 1367.41
Productivity: 2016 record low productivity!
 |
| ZERO output projected in 2022! |
2003 9.4
2004 9.4
2005 9.1
2006 9.1
2007 9.5
2008 10.3
2009 7.8
2010 7.1
2011 6.1
2012 8.1
2013 7.7
2014 7.4
2015 5.3
2016 4.8
Analysis
In 2015 ABC news staff growth broke from its linear trend and accelerated alarmingly showing exponential growth. In 2022 our staffing models indicate numbers will reach a whopping 2137. At the same time modelling of staff productivity indicate ZERO output.Thursday, December 24, 2015
Christmas 2015
So 2015 ends as it begins with no major improvement to the ABC's news service. A new MD in March but no promise of any changes in editorial content or quality.
Anyway wishing you all a Merry Christmas and best wishes for the coming leap year.
Anyway wishing you all a Merry Christmas and best wishes for the coming leap year.
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