Monday 23 August 2010

Did the Cairns Post back Entsch subliminally?

You could have been forgiven for being hoodwinked and subliminally supporting the LNP's Warren Entsch, if you followed the cover of the weekend Cairns Post.

There it was, a picture of a large road sign, with Entsch at the top, twice the size of the incumbent MP, Labor's Jim Turnour.

Maybe it simply was meant to reflect the proportion of the two men in real life?

However, if you dug into the depths of the paper, editor Andrew Holman clearly told us who he was supporting in his Saturday editorial.

"At the moment, the maverick, foot-stomping and table-thumping approach from a reinvigorated Warren Entsch is the experience and voice we need," Holman wrote.

Was it fair in this dirty game of politics?

18 comments:

nocturnal congress said...

Shit mate, the worst bloody thing the compost ever did to Cairns was to oppose the new hospital back in the 1990s. Mackensie was in there too, bellowing away on his radio program. Nothing will ever compare to that bastardy because no matter how many bloody lies anyhone says, a brand new hospital is out of the question for years to come now. It's a long way to Townsville when you're crook mate.
In fact, some people have died enroute.
Stuff which politician they support, they have done far worse things to the people here.

Balaclava Rd Bandit said...

Just about every newspaper in the world does it Mike, day before the election coming out with who they support. It doesn't mean that for the rest of the campaign they dont give a decent hearing to all parties.
I'm pretty happy with what i saw in the Post, the editorial piece on Saturday were picked a side but the general reporting on that day and all through the campaign was very balanced.

I think the Labor party had given up on Jim as soon as Warren threw his hat back in the ring.

Syd Walker said...

[I wouldn't know about the Compost Mike.

I used to believe CairnsBlog has independence and sufficient integrity to be worth taking seriously.

Last week changed my view.

Most notorious of all was the article you ran about the NBN on election eve: Why Labor's national broadband plan will fail

It was pure party-political propaganda, which made extreme assertions without supporting references. It seems to have been part of a deliberate last minute anonymous email election hoax / dirty trick.

You gave it undue credibility by claiming "I got this contribution from an expert technical mind in the industry"

Sorry, Mike - I don't believe this article came from "an expert technical mind". I doubt any fair-minded person who followed the discussion believes you either.

Unless you can authenticate the NBN article without further delay, I think you should belatedly apologize to readers for misleading them over that article.

Policy debates such as the future of broadband are too serious to trivialise and pollute knowingly with deliberate disinformation.

Your coverage of environmental issues has also become increasingly banal IMO, focusing more and more on the antics of a couple of exhibitionists and not dealing honestly with the many important issues at stake.

Disappointing.

You don't have to publish this if you prefer not Mike, but I hope you read it. Material I submit in square brackets [] is usually not intended for publication]

Bryan Law said...

Is that the sound of a dummy being spat Syd?

Frankly, I’m amazed. You call yourself a Green, and in 2010 you won the best national result available. The balance of power in the Senate, an influential voice in the House of Reps, and ten skilled members in the Party room. That means ten offices in Parliament, and ten electoral offices around the country with forty staff, and whatever additional benefits are available for third party status. That’s a terrific position to occupy.

From there you can take control of the Internet debate and, in consultation with the three independents you can require either Labor or Liberal to oversee the provision of needed hardware, alongside principles of a free and open net.

Yet are we hearing from you about how the Greens will be using this opportunity? No! We’re hearing about how just plain unfair it is that the ALP wasn’t re-elected.

That’s what I mean Syd, when I say that your arguments aren’t arguments at all, rather empty piffle. And that all your pronouncements are based on nothing more than tribal sentimentalism and virulent Metcalfism. That’s why Leichhardt was among the very worst performers for the Greens in the whole of Australia.

Leuco Gaster said...

Gee, Bryan,you don't give up do you? I often disagree with Syd but he has a point this time - but as usual you just want to turn it into a personal slanging match.

As for the Cairns Post - the Murdoch press generally doesn't even pretend to be objective, why would the CP be any different? I don't bother reading, or buying, it.

Jude Johnston said...

Syd, think you're " a bit on the nose" and have a very short memory. I remember Mike giving you plenty of assistance when you belatedly decided to run for the local elections. Also think Mike gives you plenty of Blog time to espouse your views, some of which sounds pretty dubious to me. Your call, if you ain't happy with Mikes post's take your toys and go and play in someone else's sandpit.

Tropical Lassitude said...

Bryan Law still harps about the Greens recommending preferences to Turnour before Entsch. But only a few elections ago Law was fervently convinced Warren Entsch was a Nazi. There were even handbills produced with Entsch’s face slightly to the right of a swastika that had been prominently photo-shopped into the picture.
Well a Nazi, is a Nazi. There can be no drawing back from that level of loathing. Except Law has jumped back across the chasm and now is a fervent supporter. While Law’s powers of self-delusion are certainly vast, he `definitely has no grounds to criticise any one else, or any party, who still prefer to stay well away from Mr Entsch.

Michael P Moore said...

Syd,

You're welcome to believe what you want about CairnsBlog.

If you came to a view that this site was one of "independence and sufficient integrity to be worth taking seriously" previously, and now don't, then that's your right.

I stand by my view that the NBN is something a government should have no part in. do u know how much we are taxed now? and you want us to fund the 80 billion goof ball plan? these are things for the free market and commercial businesses and more importantly, the consumer(s) to pay for.

I wouldn't trust Labor to run this project given their last three years wasting billions on all in sundry. Likewise, the Libs shouldn't be involved either.

Yeah sure, Id love even faster data access, and we do lag wwwaaaayyyy behind some other countries that feed TV and all their communications via a high-speed data link, but do I want people like Conroy connected in any way with this? No. I wouldn't trust him to sit the right way round on a toilet seat.

Finally, just because you refute the credibility of the article I published late last week, doesn't prevent me from doing so again. I could publish some 911 claims. I choose not too. I could publish the crop circles that appeared in Bryan Laws back yard mysteriously last week. I choose not too. I could publish Warren Entsch scandalous affair he had with a foreign rent boy. I choose not too (mainly because he'd box me out, and the unreliable email witness wouldn't testify).

I also am considering suing you for $350,000 defamation, for imputations that this blog is one of "independence and sufficient integrity to be worth taking seriously."

Be warned Mr Walker ;-)

Thaddeus said...

Sarah Palin also lovingly describes herself as a "maverick" along with Entsch. (Ya gotta build up an "image" see...).
The compost's editor is a mexican, another new bloke in town. He hasn't watched years and years of this "foot stomping and table thumping" and dramatics, and bombastic bluster. Nor has he witnessed Entsch's habitual "blame" game. People suck it up for a while but then it just doesn't work.

Leuco Gaster said...

Mr Moore - an apt (and funny) response to Syd Walker, who is taking himself too seriously, as usual. I've never seen a trace of wit or humour in anything Syd writes.
But you're wrong about the NBN. One of the very real problems facing rural and remote communities is the widening gap in infrastructure generally, especially telecommunications. Private enterprise will never provide a service to the bush. The whole principle of govt services is that we pool our funds (tax) to provide services wherever they're needed, despite the cost exceeding the locally-generated income. The private enterprise arrangement you prefer is typical of suburbanites who don't understand or care about the bush.

Alison Alloway said...

Syd does have a point. I couldn't believe Mike taking a Telstra person seriously. (Wasn't Sol, was it?)

Alison Alloway said...

Leuco Gaster, I congratulate you for putting the case so succinctly. The NBN, as Katter has pointed out, will help save lives...those occasions when young inexperienced Doctors working at an outback hospital get called upon to perform difficult life-saving surgery etc. The NBN will allow them to call upon experts in city hospitals to guide them through the procedures. Well, that is as I understand it.
Private enterprise would NEVER, never undertake such a venture.

Oliver Redlynch said...

Yeah well Mike, your credibility lost it for me when you started believing the spin put out by one side more than the spin put out by the other.

The Essence of Good Taste said...

The dis-illusion of city folk. In my opinion, the NBN will not help country folk. It might help Cairns, and maybe even Atherton (if they're lucky) but anyone in the Gulf and Cape won't see it. By the time the powers that be have spent the $43B starting in the cities and realised they were never going to be able to provide what they promised for even close to the budget, they'll cancel the project as new technology makes cables obsolete (just like digital vs CDMA - old technology works but is not cool) and the bush will miss out again. If the government really wants to demonstrate their committment - start the project roll-out in Aurukun and Mapoon, Weipa, Normanton and Thursday Island - and work their way back to the big smoke. And when they run out of money before they reach the western edge of the Great Divide, they just might find some more to get over it as there will be enough voters on the east to overcome gravity and drag it uphill...

Wendy Davie said...

Bryan Law lost any remaining creditability when he put personal vengeance ahead of good government.

Media Australia wide, including Cairns blog, have been overtly and covertly influencing public opinion. As long as we neglect Julia Gillard's education reform people will not have the skills to evaluate misinformation or realise that even an inocent looking cartoon is influencing their opinion.
Let's work towards educating Australians to being the best worldwide, with fine minds capable of achieving anything they aspire to.

Unknown said...

Well I believe "Wassa" and "co" will fail to deliver on many fronts and promises made to the area.

If the leaders in the area can't do a postive thing about employment, but rather fight on who /what how a valcano then "wassa" will simply join the fray!

And at the end of the day - same outcome broken promises... How soon the viting public of australia soon forget

Alison Alloway said...

The Essence of Good Taste...you may have a damned good point. I haven't a clue how it is going to be rolled out, nowever I did hear on Mackenzie this morning the Chief Executive of the Rural Doctors Assn agree that the NBN is necessary.

Observer said...

Mike, an observation. if you were to take your scissors, and a hard copy version of the paper, cut out Jim's sign and impose it over the top of Wazza's sign, you'll find Wazza's isn't double. sure it's bigger. i think you'll also find it's laid out that way for design reasons. plus TCP knew, from the feedback they were receiving in the public arena, that Jimbob didn't stand much of a chance.