The challenge from the scrapheap

What's new ? Well we hope the ABc catch on before its too late - before the news team and there same old same old view of other people's stories gets the axe .Many of us clearly have been looking to find something far better and more real in the way of reporting between 6:30 and 8pm for years! Reality TV--- we can't get enough of it . As for reporteres telling us what the reported are supposed to have said - we have had enough!!!
Hiden from view too is some of the good stuff . Good things can come from unexpected and unpredictable places and are not all are secular in origin .eg The Junkyard of industry and the junkyard of progressive ideas?

Take the huge bit of gobsmack for the elite churchmen of our time ? >" How do churchmen ( of the very old kind) like Rudd and Obama get to run things??"" I thought we had ditched all that religiuos stuff and were progressive Believe me, when it comes to understanding, especially in crisis of faith times for secularists like these, its either you believe in democracy ( wisdom of the people) or you believe in aristocracy( the dumbness outside my own church) ( so what choice did you make ? --manne and hichins ( ontony's segment )are too lonely a pair of figures to be hiding behind at times like these -- are their profiles really ones of worth, or are they just joining the big badbogemen brigade to hide their hurt over the sacredness of the secular being ignored - yet agin??

Why waste time watching ABC News etc?

Obamas victory speech . Unreported !
Why waste time watching the ABC NEWS? They struggle to find a good story ( cf SBS)and they manage to miss reporting the story on this day of all days - Nixon and Brumby got the time Obama should have got - and for why - she's leaving!!!!How long to give the highlights (Obama's speech was only 14 minutes long and we had to go to America to get it!)

I'm embarrased to be Australian when our media men cringe in cynicsm at raw emotion. Why don't they do their job TOO and stay out of the picture!

I spent an hour waiting to hear the key bits of an emotional speech of a brave man
attempting to lead the most powerful country in the world and all I heard was the word "emotional"( several times infact) . Simkin said the obvious and Kerry , while choosing a competent commentator ) takes time to talk to the treasurer - as always riveting reworking of very little ! Kerry couldn't find a less convincing conversationalist than Smith and he does it tonight - Kerry-- how out of touch !

Mark Scott - Sack/ sideline the ABCnews producers/ editors before they make the ABC totally irrelevant in the new age of .......( why would we tell you what the answer is, till you recognise the need . )

I do not want to hear others telling anothers story .Esp this one !
In future I will tune in to SBS and find something else to watch between 6:30 and 8pm .There must be heaps wanting to AVOID THE OVERLY CYNICAL AND UMOVABLE CONTROLLERS WHO PUT THEIR OWN SPIN ON EVERYONE ELSE'S STORY - people who talk up reporting BUT DO NOT tell us what the newsmakers SAY and waste our time telling us what they think. We already know what you think -tis not news and its certainly not worth 90 -120 minutes of our evenings !

"Out of time" - in real time -this time ---our time ?

The Naked Vicars show

QANDA High priests: Bob Carr and Germaine Greer 14th August

When is a visit to ABCchurch good for the soul? When you, despite all the fun of lampooning some other person or idea , go away thinking; "I need something more substantial ". I am sure I wasn't alone after qanda last thursday. Pontification, while funny to watch,..is dangerous pedantry.

ABC's splashing around in a sea of predjudice and self justification based on animal behavior maybe nothing new to the spectre of thursday night TV , but its no adventure beyond child's play and the birdbath. Lets hope the ABC build on it .
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Everyone gets to tell us what they think . With all that attention to shallow noisy and distracting stuff , you gotta go away wanting , thinking.... there has to be ...something more.
When the preacher throws the baby out with the bathwater - and nobody notices (inc Arts man)--you are clearly in church .Clue SBS has got the lead on the ABC...5 billion stories and growing .

Preachy and predictable By ditching the narrative,the chameleon showed how out of synch she is with real truth telling tensions.

Hypocritical The fanatical Greer rails against the dangers of idealism, but labours to defend the silly simplistic and failed idealism of complete self determination; Tell us... donna quixote - Is government interference in our/ their lives a sin or something?
With her, we are never quite sure which part of the revolutionary cycle she's travelling on - the ideal or the real? She said realism comes first, but where does that leave us? I thought linearity was essential to the survival of secularism ? Maybe marcus 's mirror too would work a bit better if he stood back from the revolving doors and the windpower deniers.

If only Germaine could be both a consistent realist and idealist; we could agree that nothings perfect ( reality therapy ) without going overboard with rage about everything;
Its right to be concerned at the power of the wind, but denying us our use of it is dumb. Waving her arms in the air is not as effective as using the air rationally.Her faith is not very practical because she targets the medium and forgets the message !

How doctrinally devious dead and simplistic can religion get? Was quite a good meeting as far as such meetings go.


What's also hard to work out is: Why does a man with a growing respect for narrative ( history) , and the intellect and experience of a Bob Carr and not recognise the worn out clothing of an old reactionary like Germaine : and why haven't The Age found anyone better to idolize .in their quest for someone with ideas ( bit of an "idealistic" anomaly there --- don't you think? ). The problem ---Stuck as Keating said " with no overarching narrative ???? " ...that's what we old orthodoxy ones think .

Greg thankfully put the big picture. Yes ....... ideas and ideals are dangerous , but beware : one day you may have to live with your own .
So after all that hot air I went to the narrative business ..
Give me an Esther , a Ruth, a Hannah or an Elizabeth , even a Jane (A) over a Germaine G anyday .
Clearly some patterns for liberated women have yet to be seen by those who are too blind to see. copyright EA

Worst debate in ABC history

But it was good for a laugh! While qanda is a great idea, Tony Jones needs to take his own rhetoric seriously if he really wants to make QANDA a vehicle for conviction ; to make it more than entertainment, a good laugh at the compliant choir, and great free publicity for aspiring prime ministers .
Turnbull did well because Flannery was all over the place as a scientist. Surely you can find a scientist who doesn't use use the word " pretty" to describe his convictions , can't stick to the scientific points on sensitive population predjudices , and who , when desperate, causes us to fall to the floor laughing by suggesting we watch a film written by a politician -esp one who won't (MLy) be paying a carbon tax......Convince whom, eh ?

To convince the public you need to be convincing - stand back ; have mostly scientists on the panel and let them go . Directing traffic to your old mates and away from the person responsible, was irresponsible . Where has Tony been intellectually all these years . Why would we be inspired to act by simply listening to poly talk ?
Instead of some highly paid scientist from Wongs treasury of green paper verse we have - , you guessed it, my old mate " the aUSSIE of the year" mr flannery -- the token scientist .

Qanda has been good initiative of the ABC, but its clear Tony Jones won't be able to look back on his repeat reintroduction of " the gag" to TV , without thinking of his compliance in wannabe incontrol at its worst.!

Forgive me for breathing

Penny Wong was totally unconvincing on Lateline . Virginia was on the ball with her simple question about cost -
The answer ? There was none - there are huge costs and the greens think a tax on everyone is fair - Like a pox on everything ? ? Perhaps its a bit like - when you can't see the target shoot the messenger or just anyone in the direction that upsets you ?
Got news for the gun lobbyers. Shoot straight or you'll hit the innocent .you are hitting the innocent . You will lose your licence and go to jail . Whatever happened to targeting the polluter, the rich and careless? The dummies don't know how to balance incentive with admonition . The fine line between pleasure and pain is also a mystery to them .

How long do you think the chicken run circus of hot air on hot air is going to last you dummies? No use finding an even bigger reason to scare people into action . Coercion has a way of backfiring on the public -esp when many of us scientists too have had it up to here with the politicization of science .Funding your own fancies - thats what you get !.

Nelson has finally nailed the heavenly minded harries who try to put wheels on a car they haven't got an engine for . Nooone who is seriuos about a problem as costly as carbon controls would talk to the problem when they haven't got a clue about the solutions. This is the sort of stuff of nightmares . predictable ones.

The carbon trading idea is no more than an idea. One that we have said before was born in kindergarten where the advisers don't know carrot from stick cause they have never worked in ecomia . We have told you before, but no you say "scientists say " when you listen to only those who say what you want them to say .Penny Wong is unconvincing . King kevin hasty visit to the sea can't be compared to Canutes - Canute did not go to learn, but to educate the ignorant advisors . I wonder who is leading who and where ?
Canute knew the limits of economics and science, and was a great leader. Centuries later, we ought to be advancing the revolution in ecomia but are we? --- goverenmnets in their haste in the last few years have thrown out many economic ecologists--- thinking perhaps they were mad to show their leaders the very size of the sea and its power ?
Luckily I am not threatened - if there is a problem with C02 . There are big eco challenges. However, I am not swayed by all the unproductive noise in the henhouse . If anything they are giving the threats , and the real threats -----a bad name.
The greatest evil is done in the name of the best intention . Why ? often because illinformed intention distracts attention from the true targets for resistance . Conservationists- get serious, not sentimental and shallow-- like so many you see on TV .

How long do you think they can continue to make us feel bad - just for breathing?

Infoentertainment - Is it facts or fighting we're hanging out for?

QUANDA and THE FOOTY SHOW have much in common (Thursday nights ). They are about exposing prominent people and their ideas ; really exposing them. Its all good, cause there is just so much political correctness out there .
Sam Newman, for all his faults, is not afraid to call out in church and call a spade a spade . How refreshing.
The dumb questions also have away of exposing the participants more than they realise .
Joe Hockey, like The Libs leader, needs to realise that the future of the Liberal party ( if it has one ) has to be more than "good bloke talk" and pathetic kindergarten repetition of "a safety net for stopping greed" . Dear boys, the people can see through the big holes you are leaving - why can't you? Its called prevention and is small and beautiful . Your net is not small enough!

Let me give you a clue: I too want smaller government, more liberty and less lecturing from the left. We all do , so what's wrong here? Perhaps, like the members of the hastily convened quanda board , they don't really know HOW but are afraid to say so - pity they all, to a man,( sorry Nicola) think intelligence resides now permanently outside the public service . How stupid is that when you claim to be trying to run a efficient and effective house full of cats . A consultant run ecomomy is not one any party can afford . Is Joe no more that an advocate for the big cats?
The cringe mentality is clearly the biggest handicap Canberra and the wannbes have got at the moment . If COAG doesn't work maybe GORE can switch ON a few lights to expose some more of the inconvenient truths we all seek to know about .NOT . NO THE HOW ( for big issues) is not wisely the focus of infotainment. We all want a big splash , but not while we are trying to solve problems ( something we do during the day - if we are rational)

Most important for anyone listening or wannabes who think the ship is sailing well (with little noise ) , is this fact : when the wannbes are too out of touch , nobody is game to tell em so .It often very quiet before a storm .

The lady who spoke so well about the practicalities of what works in rural and remote Australia summed it up . It s not big, its small .COAG can't do everything and its madness to think it can . Much money is being wasted in propping up regional centres when a focus on the small and not so noisy is what's needed .

Libs could win a election if they worked out THAT they too have given up on an intervention policy that works . Both parties ( They not all "going to the right " - they have both lost to will to fight - you heard it first on blogger ) All parties need to find a clever way back to a good stouch and making the most out the scrapyard . Small is beautiful and more rigourously responsible .
Neil leweellyn too, cut to the heart of the crap, by hammering away ( laptops and childcare) at the wannabes failure to recognise their achiles heel - their woosiness. The children are indeed in charge of the household because the noisy ones still get the good oil .
Giving kids new computers and childcare must come after support for the quiet care of the small, and not so noisy . In our town, the targeting of something so obvious( we already have the best computers) means the wannabes throw us a bomb, when we just need some bullets.

On the whole, The ABC should be congratulated for finally doing more to take the set piece off the stage like SBS's jennie and australian story has been doing for years.
Compass is an example one sided reporting that's lasted 20 years - nothing good's been happening in churches - why do you send your kids to church schools then?
How many old lefties have gone "right", but just can't admit it ! Copyright Emperors Academy

A wanna throw up

The trouble with Jones church (Qanda )is, its oh so boring and predictable,( even the audience react in a predictable way say to charlies outrage )
The younger chasers war is even about the same old , same old: aid to church schools . Me thinks he protestith too much.....maybe he is indeed a protestant by nature ?

Thankfully Prue was there this time to put the record straight , but if it takes a lot of her energy to get past first base on the subject of "where education should be going",and where the real enemy is , where is the rest of my evening going ? .

Wouldn't it be good if the club had got past the old hypocritical point of moral indignation ( and apparent threat- ) to what might have been Jones main thrust of the night " why don't thinking people want to send their kids to secular schools - and what the hell do we do about it " . Wouldn't be church meeting though, would it.
Loved the swipe at Rudds touting at windmils and the evidence that even next to her there is something festering. --about what meat to eat .

Whose really serious about petrol

Virginia TONIGHT on LATELINE. She's seriuos -its a powerplay that's as big as ben hur . Will the public vote for higher taxes on fuel or not?

The government are up to the challenge - they think its seriuos too (and so does bob brown).
So the govt send in the Minister for childrens services to put the story...........

Don't think so Miss . Maybe you/we would have a better idea of whose serious if we could have the cabinet view Try here for starters !
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When will ABC presenters let competency rule

When they see everyone laughing at the Emperor with no clothes on as they did on TV tonight . Who started the laughing ? Who were the magicians who told him to talk trading schemes ? mr garnaut and the very idea of carbon trading schemes goes happily out the window .

Cool little club that

Thankfully the atmosphere is not always cool -FIRST TUESDAY BOOK CLUB
You see there is nothing like dissent to spice up the predictable old ABC .
You are getting a bit too keen on comfy conversation mate - save that for home - your home?

Well done Peter Fitzimmons . Got me really interested in listening for more - but only with the proviso that you keep the strirrers on . I bet there is more on the cutting floor on many HOSTAGE HOST SHOWS that would make better television than what they put to air .I learnt lots about the books ( i trust )and to respect the skills of those who truly seek to help us write well and with some punch .
So much fun to hear all those adjectives being thrown round too - Thats where we all need those armchairs and our very own book club .
Trouble with the TV version is that: We expect clones and friends of the ABC to turn up - I mean these comfortzone conversationists might just not want to tell you , or the hungry for more, out there, what they want to hear? @Your books@ dear jennifer - not as big a risk taker as you make out?

Full marks to peter for playing the game hard - it was as it always is goodTV- open and it provided a great way to give us insight into Hardy , Featherstone and Steger's consderable skills as well . Good night out .

What makes the ABC think we wanna listen to them

The dreamy ,but very flat , world of media wannabes.
QANDA is So dull and predictable that even Jones wanders off into "when will you become PM" speculation .
QANDA - Don't the abc CA producers realise how dumb and otherworldy the very idea of QANDA is ? What real world question would ever get very far with a tired old format that will so predictably generate nothing but angst amongst the indianna jones types who turn up, let alone those welded on ABC hopefuls who still cling on in hope of something better. - watch the ratings tumble .

When will the ABC realise that the future of the medium is in competency , not collective drivel .


Let's assume they got the idea of QANDA from CWHyou -----which works
Ok so We're Here To Help (Can we help you) works - the reason it works is not because some ABCTV producers know what they are doing, but because the show actually ask people who know .
Collectors too . Tasmania may only have a few people down there but clearly being behind the times isn't all bad.
Can't be too hard can it ? To do things the way you were taught ? Looks can be decieving . Skin deep ---thats what so much ABC current affairs is.
Elli Moore does look good-- its true and so do Alan Kohlers's graphs -He smiles though while the average punter waits for the good oil -if they should be so lucky .

Respect for what really works in real caring and precision decisions.

ABCTV CA desperately needs some new producer blood - who else would be dumb enough to run a Q and A session with polys and a token time slot commitment to do everything but nothing .

Why doesn't ABCTV employ producers who know what really get's the mind working - Surely the current crop are not in control of the ageing presenters who clearly need a rest . Give us something that actually works, and doesn't impose or direct like dying ABC current affiars has been doing for decades .
The tied old half baked plagerized and uncreative formats come no where near the sponteniety and drive that keeps SBS way out in front in current affairs.

Walking in their shoes

FOUR CORNERS
Another great report on some Australians who are doing far far more than their fair share of genuinely mind and body breaking caring. Surely in this day and age Governements can provide relief ( if not the sort of devotion that was evident there)
RUDD, ROXON and MACKLIN - put in place the mechanisms that should be there to give relief – and make sure they are effective and build into a sense of confidence for carers ---that its not just ”dumping their loved ones ”. Clearly the carers have a good idea of what caring for them entails ....and its not just a bucket or a recipe .


Maybe the loudest "give give me's" , haven't always been the most needy either- how elese do you explain their isolation from effective help .

Humor-- a funny way to get to the stuff of science

Berner does great job of making the ridiculous sound good . The INVENTORS boasts a funny man too to sell what appears to be the stuff of new knowledge . What's really going on here? Is straight science too serious? The shows are good entertainment but not if you are a scientist and like to see scientists embarrassed. Its a party and we are all invited?
Berner can be so funny and reedeming, especially when the whole idea of presenting sound science on EINSTEIN FACTOR or ABCTV is still locked into some time warp of an often silly ( what was the name of a very very obsure fictional man known only to you and a few others ?) a pedantic trivia game show. ITs relaxing yes, but why do the panel of experts even show up ? CATALYST for all the expense sells the same quick fix story of science .
Does science need a lift, or are we just not presenting it in its own best light ?
The panel get so many answers wrong- thats to be expected. Yet they don't question the ridulous framework for this knowledge talk itself - presenting in line withy the myth that the show is about science by talking - their achievements in gene science ,biographies etc etc The experts seem blissfully unaware they are falling for the modern media myth ( that we KNOW it - THAT we create what we know about the world and all that is in it ? Bit over clever---- all of you?
Not to say the scientists aren't intelligent . Perhaps not wise to the bigger picture.
What these game show and the unresolved talk of "science", seems to say is that we don't really love science but something it brings us. Ellul was of course right; that the western world is always in danger of worshiping not science but the thrill of presumed knowledge and advantage.

Point is on the eve after 20-20 SUMMIT it is not good for the clever country to be so confused about the big picture road to progress with science - it NEEDS no quick fix its needs a world view of patience - the many mishaps and unproductive research before a winner arrives .

The last word on trying to make science popular? ---stop trying to make it popular.
( you heard it first on blogger)

New ideas are ALSO not in what the audience can see Mr Rudd , but in what the audience ( and therfore possibly most politicians and other wannabes) cannot see.
Let the debate continue -has it started or is there any tension and therefore any intension ? To really move on from old ideas like einstein factors and old inventions , we need tension, not just good intention

Intervene and give someone other than Jones a go

Tony Jones is not one to shirk a tough question - or so it seems? . The trouble with the ABc is celaerly that they ( unlike Brockie ) think that real discussion ( is a luxury - something to only do when the sitauation is really bad .Their ecozone credentails shown to be suspect .
Like a nicer version of 60 minutes, the ABC probe the very private lives of others with persoanl with the "how does it feel" questions that probably make the participants throw up when they realise they might have all done it for the satisfaction of some audience ---out there.
Yes tony you are right - just as 60 minye and ACA are - "the audience want some answers". Some conveninet answers? I hope you heard the clear ones within the noise and confusion- that is if you believe ther can be direction - afte all thats what these kids need - boundaries ad direction .

Just in case you didn't notice ( no more supergroup models was ) the answers given in the program were pretty clear - reduce the politicall predicatable wastage of the system and grant the money to the people acting like parents and teachers in the world beyond home. The case workers on the street.
A problem properly described is a problem half solved.
Its not homelessness thats the issue --its kids finding a home.

Give the money to those who even now go out of their way to put in the tough boundaries that are not able to be put by all the dogooders and project dreamers who talk about these things from the comfort of their own offices . There has been progress over the last 20years. Every home has individual people in it and casework and care solution they devise-- must be the key .

NEW LOGO

Comeon fellas, The new ABC 1 is intrusive and unsubtle - a logo it is not. The winding symbol is excellent and irreplacable.
So why not use it . My version is not finished add some shadow and see through pin holes and you have a least 3 easy adaptions that can be very easily used for identification . ABC 1 2,and 3
. Send any commissions to Empire awardees. Copyright Emperors Academy February 17th 2008.

East Timorese people on Compass

First class reporting – give them another assignment . They certainly know how to take the job seriously --by reporting people------ not reporters.

Life On Mars

What a welcome surprise from the BBC ( only ever seen tonights edition on the "it must be football related" scenario ). Someone over there in Wales can still write sound drama without getting lost in the soup of personal ( The -new- Bill) and the drab of
dissection( so much other stuff) .

Where are the australian writers who can report the stuff of dilemma and paradox in our own worlds? ABC ads " Time for change" you bet - yes someone who reports !

As for switching on Auntie TV again regularly like we used to
--
---Yes if they find more of The Monarchs and
-- never waste our time with the pedantic predictability of trying to make ladies - --I mean whoever commissioned that stuff should not get another chance - its cuts nowhere and goes nowhere - let alone the sloppy plagerism in structural terms.