13 April, 2007

I Wouldn't Mind If It Wasn't So Bloody Obvious

I don’t mind if these people rush to Alan Jones’ defence in the wake of the ACMA finding against him:
Well they would, wouldn’t they?
I don’t even mind if The Herald Sun ignores the too-obvious defence of Jones by the above in its online National roundup. Or if The Australian editorializes against ACMA’s findings on the basis of free speech needing protection and puts David Flint on its op ed pages to back that up.
Or Helen Coonan expressing dissatisfaction with ACMA and flagging changes to accommodate Jones and other coalition-friendly shock-jocks.

Well, they would, wouldn’t they?
I expect that.
But I just can’t stomach this bloke:not providing an alternative view to the forces he’s supposed to be in Opposition to.
That’s been left to The Age, and they’ve done it here and here.
As much as I wish Kevin Rudd well, I hope his advisors are getting in his ear about the electoral perils of "me-tooism".

7 comments:

Legal Eagle said...

Couldn't agree more, Lad Litter. Have just written a post on the issue trying to look at it objectively.

I hate the politics of fear. Why can't our politicians reject Jones? I agree that Rudd's failure to reject it is particularly disappointing.

Lad Litter said...

Read your post, LE & confess to being one of the 10000 visiting your blog. My blog wants to be just like yours when it grows up! At the risk of sounding cynical, surely there would be some political advantage for Rudd eschewing Jones? Similar to when the Howard govt dismisses UN Conventions: "They can't tell us what to do..."

Steph said...

Bring back KEATING!!! :P

Legal Eagle said...

If Rudd eschewed someone like Jones, it would certainly work for me. But perhaps it would alienate those who saw Labor moving away from the working class?

Still, I think it's worth doing, on principle. That's why I'd be a terrible politician, I wouldn't want to toe the party line.

Lad Litter said...

Steph, the style of Keating: one-liners; barbs; inspired use of Aussie vernacular. You can see what the ALP were hoping for in Latham.
LE, surely Jones' "struggle street" audience would be working-class Tories anyway.

Anonymous said...

Rudd has a bit of the Beasleys and I would have thought he was a bit smarter than that and the lesson learnt. As I heard someone suggest, Jones audience are very fixed in their political views so there may not be much political advantage to Rudd by smooching Jones anyway.

Lad Litter said...

Thanks, High Riser. It's a funny thing, but the British election of 1983 was fought by a Labour Party that held to many of its long-held principles like socialism; no-nukes; US bases out and they were almost wiped out. The electorate has become more right-leaning, but not as far right as Jones!