Fair Facts?

Fair and unbiased? Not on issues of the environment and climate change. The Fairfax media empire owns 1/3 of Earth Hour along with the World Wildlife Fund.

Excellent old school journalism by blogger Boy On A Bike.

-- Nora

Not Ashamed

Author and columnist hits another one right out of the park:

That’s right. When Brees talks about faith, he is talking about faith in Jesus Christ. J for J, esus for esus, Jesus. Was that so hard for Layden to say out loud? The answer, apparently, is yes. He reminds me of no one so much as the reporter anti-hero of my novel True Crime, who says, “Whenever someone… says Jesus as if they really mean it… it makes my skin crawl, as if they’d said squid or intestine…”

--Nora

To Know, Know, Know Him...

Kevin Rudd flips the bird and drops F-word

Well that comes as no surprise to anyone who has had any connection with Queensland Government over the past 20 years. Rudd's foul temper and disgusting language is well known.

The only surprise is every time it happens the media appears 'shocked'. What's up with that?

-- Nora

Wolf?

The media is filled with implicit praise today as yet another school child proudly reports escaping the clutches of yet another slavering predator.

I'm sorry to be the one to ask the question - did this event actually occur?

This is the latest in a long line of child abduction alerts on the Gold Coast over the past few months, not uncoincidentally occurring in the aftermath of the discovery of the remains of Daniel Morcombe and the subsequent arrest of a suspect in his abduction and killing.

There is no doubt that the Daniel Morcombe case is true and tragic and his parents' attempts to bring something positive from the event through a child safety foundation in their son's name is very commendable indeed.

However I believe there is a link in the recent rise in reporting incidents and the statewide school tour by the Morcombes.

Children, as we know, are susceptible to suggestion. They are also keen to impress their peers and their adults and will either embellish stories or make them up from whole cloth which is why it is important to deal with lying at a very young age.

Could it be that the reports of attempted abductions could very well be a form of mass hysteria unwittingly encouraged by parents and the media?

I don't believe these children are lying for any malicious reason, I believe that at heart they want to demonstrate to their teachers and parents that they understand the 'stranger danger' message and what better way to do that than by giving the adults from whom they want approval, a real life scenario that demonstrates the their ability to look after themselves?

This is why educators who encounter claims of sexual abuse are counselled by psychologists to be very careful in evaluating those claims and give clues to look out for.

Also of concern is that an innocent enquiry by an adult to a child for directions, for example, can result in a witch hunt that ruins the lives and reputations of innocent people as in this example:

One incident in Livonia involved a tow-truck driver who assaulted a man he had seen asking two boys on the street for directions. He turned out to be a tire salesman on a business trip from Akron, Ohio, who had gotten lost with no knowledge of the slayings.

The fact of the matter is, children are more likely to be abused by people they know - whether they be someone online who has cultivated a relationship with your child, a teacher, sports coach or a family friend.

Child welfare is a serious issue and adults have a responsibility to address with issue soberly and seriously, making sure that we allow children to not only be safe, but to feel safe.

Children rely on the adults in their lives to keep their world safe which in turn gives them confidence to grow, learn and explore. If adults and the media are hysterical, fear-filled reactionaries, then what hope do our children have?

-- Nora

UPDATE: Girl's abduction report 'invented'. Told you so.

Ripper Yarn A Media Lie

Some things never change:

Some popular literature records there having been more killings, but this may have been courtesy of the tabloid press at the time inciting fear and reporting fiction as fact.

The letter signed with the name Jack the Ripper, the first to give a name to the murderer and sent to the central news agency at the time, was potentially a fake written by a journalist. (Emphasis added.)

-- Nick

A Little Agro For Jamie

Queensland morning radio jock and one-time TV puppeteer Jamie Dunn has retired to the Sunshine Coast these days where he's working out his golden years in a less frenetic environment than back in Brisbane.

And he's singing a familiar song:

Jamie Dunn, who was synonymous with on-air humour on Brisbane radio in the 1980s and '90s, said the standard of some radio pranks recently had pulled the entertainment genre into the gutter.

The former B105 breakfast personality said many of the stunts were "distasteful", "lacked integrity" and took radio to a new low. "You read some of them and you think, 'Where the hell is the comedy in that?'," he said.

"Over the years people just go harder, and harder, and harder to get attention, and I don't think that's the key to comedy."

Dunn, who now works on Sunshine Coast radio, said he was embarrassed for the industry that some stations thought they had to be rude and crude to get ratings.

Like a lot of older folk who whine about the kids of today, Dunn misses a vital point - it was the 'envelope-pushing' he himself did in his younger times that got us where we are today.

When B105's content director says Dunn's view are 'out of touch', Dunn is 'just people getting old' and the station simply 'gave audiences what they wanted', one can imagine it's an echo across the years of exactly what some station hack said in defense of Dunn in the '80s.

-- Nick

More Trouble For Tate

A few weeks ago we mentioned Gold Coast mayoral candidate Tom Tate and questioned the wisdom of the Queensland Liberals in selecting such a character to head their attempt to grab power in Australia's sixth largest city.

Now they must be questioning their wisdom themselves. Tate is in the news again, and not because he runs girlie bars and bikini contests:

A $1 MILLION push by the Liberal Party to seize control of Gold Coast City Council is set to be rocked by revelations that properties owned by its mayoral candidate are included in secret plans to build a casino in the heart of Surfers Paradise.

Beaten to the heart of the story, the Gold Coast Bulletin is reduced to reporting on the news that breaks right in front of them:

But before hopping on the bus the Liberal team was involved in a fracas with a photographer from The Australian newspaper. Mr Tate said he was being 'set up' and refused to be in a photo.

Several of his team including Division 7 candidate Jim MacAnally attempted to intimidate photographer Patrick Hamilton. "Look we just want to focus on getting the job done. There are people trying to set me up," said Mr Tate. "They want to pin me on secret deals with developers and getting money from developers.

... and burying the story in the middle of a silly report on a silly stunt:

Libs plan to end gridlock

LIBERAL mayoral candidate Tom Tate will today unveil his grand plan to fix the Gold Coast's crippled transport system... The Liberal team yesterday caught a Surfside bus from Griffith University to Mudgeeraba to illustrate the extent of gridlock.

If the full story is not front or page 3 news tomorrow, the Gold Coast Bulletin can cease any pretensions it still has to being a 'news' paper.

-- Nick

Journalist Dismayed

Journalist Tory Maguire asks:

Who's teaching young women that the way to handle an encounter with police is to get violent?

Tory's confused, can't figure out a reason why:

It can't just be alcohol - Generation Y hardly invented binge drinking. And demographics seems to have little to do with it either.

The answer to the question is that when feminists pushed the 'girls can do anything' mantra, the unspoken bit was 'anything boys can do' and they neglected to add 'but you should't do everything'.

Water finds its own level and that level is usually down.

-- Nick

Update: Girls can do anything - except simple arithmetic, it seems, so it's somebody else's fault that even grown women is responsible managerial jobs get drunk:

Women tricked into binge drinking
By Ellen Connolly

...Professor Allsop said research had also shown that women's increased independence, both financially and socially, had led to females becoming heavy drinkers. Women in higher-paid jobs, particularly those in managerial positions, were especially vulnerable, research had found.

It's because they can't figure out how much they're drinking:

Lisa Chu, 28, said she found it difficult to keep track. "I never know how much I'm drinking," she said. "My wine glasses at home are large. How do you know?"

Here's a clue, Einstein - look on the back of the average 750ml wine bottle. If it says 7.5 standard drinks, then 100ml is a standard drink. If you can't visualise it, get a measuring cup from the kitchen.

The government response is legislation, of course, which they are 'forced' to do for the good of idiots:

The federal Government has been forced to respond to the problem and will introduce new standard-drink logos on wine bottles to better educate people. A Department of Health spokeswoman said the labels would more clearly identify the number of standard drinks within a product.

Because, of course, the above method is too complex even for executives.

Coming soon to wine labels - 'Alcohol Damages Your Health' and colour photos of rancid livers.

A Graphic Illustration

Once upon a time newspapers at least only romanticised criminals who could be passed off as big-time, such as gangsters like Squizzy Taylor who gave the appearance of being 'big men' (metaphorically speaking, of course).

But these days the tarts of the media just can't help themselves. They'll romanticise any bottom of the barrel crim, especially if there are tits under 30 involved:

HER passion for street art sent her halfway around the world on a year-long sojourn to learn all the tricks of graffiti from London's secretive underground community... to express her flair with a spray can... (in) laneways in the industrial area at nearby Marrickville.

Yesterday, friends of the vibrant graphic artist made an emotional pilgrimage to the Eastern Suburbs drain where she lost her life to farewell the St Peters student.

It's a grave pity she's dead. As they say, it's a waste. But if she wanted to be a graphic artist as she claimed, she could have become one without graffiti.

The fact is:

...she loved the thrill of edgy street work in a risky location...

And she was a criminal, a member of the widespread and loosely associated gangs of graffiti vandals who are a blight on our communities. As the story notes, Legge was even able to go on a virtual study exchange program to London!

Recently, in one Gold Coast location, a brand new wall of attractive feature stone beside a park was tagged by some useless drone before it was even finished. Who know is he or she is among those garffiti vandals increasingly used by other criminal gangs such as bikies to run and sell drugs.

Additionally, it is not uncommon in the hardcore graffiti community to use rape of girlfriends as a weapon to warn each other out of claimed territories.

So to turn a blind eye to a vandal's tag is to close ones eyes to a creeping criminality which can destroy everyone's lives.

The Daily Telegraph's eulogy seeks to raise a tear for this person and indeed her story does deserve one for her parents' loss and her own wilful waste.

But the media needs to stop romanticising criminals and also realise that, as the saying goes, the difference between art and vandalism is permission.

-- Nick

Conflicting Reports

News Limited headline and pointer:

Bhutto died 'bumping her head'

AN aide to slain Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has called the government's claim she died bumping her head on her car's sun roof a "pack of lies."

Description in the Agence France Presse story subbed and published by News Limited:

Interior ministry spokesman Javed Cheema said earlier that the post-mortem on the populist opposition leader found her mortal wound came when she tried to duck after the bomber attacked. He said the bomber fired at her but missed, and that her critical injury came when she hit the lever of the sunroof of the car she was in, as she waved to supporters after a campaign rally on Thursday. "The lever struck near her right ear and fractured her skull,'' Cheema said.

UK Telegraph headline and description:

Row breaks out over Benazir Bhutto's death

...the country's Interior Ministry claimed she had died from hitting her vehicle's sunroof when she tried to duck after a suicide attack... Brigadier Javed Cheema, a ministry spokesman, said Miss Bhutto had died from a head wound she sustained when she smashed against the sunroof's lever as she tried to shelter inside the car. "The lever struck near her right ear and fractured her skull," Mr Cheema said.

Despite the News Limited headline's use of single quotes, an actual quotation saying Bhutto 'bumped' her head is not to be found. Just supposing for a second that Brigadier Cheema is correct, the Telegraph's use of 'smashed against' is the appropriate description of the force needed to inflict a fatal wound.

The question is what News Limited and AFP hopes to achieve by ridiculing Cheeva's statement with their choice of words and use of misleading quotation marks, even if later evidence proves this, as other conflicting descriptions of the event, incorrect?

-- Nick

Question Time In Parliament

Now the truth can no longer harm Kevin Rudd's political ambition to become Prime Minister, perhaps the media would like to ask some hard questions of him.

Let's start, perhaps, with his role in covering up child abuse:

Former Opposition leader Simon Crean said: "You cannot have people in authority who have covered up for child sex abuse. It is as simple as that''.

And it is. But what can be said about an Opposition Leader (Rudd) who may have been complicit in the illegal shredding of evidence?

-- Nick

No Encouragement Necessary

A company with the Australian rights to trashy porn series Girls Gone Wild intends to run a booze cruise for 18 and 19 year old Schoolies to 'a secret island north of Surfers Paradise' and 'maybe' film 'a bit of nudity'.

Asked what they thought of the company's plans to charge adults $70 each for a half-day outing at which alcohol is served then film those who have no self-control, three female Schoolies, solicited by The Daily Telegraph to pose for photographs in their bikinis, described it as 'scary', 'disturbing', 'sick' and 'a bit like paedophilia'.

They then went back to pouring vodka down each others throats with funnels and flashing their tits from high rise balconies.

-- Nick

End Justifies Means

Labor's media cronies are - incredibly - still trying to sell a vicious con job as the truth. The Herald-Sun's Peter Jean and Ellen Whinnett:

PRIME Minister John Howard has been forced to come to the defence of Tony Abbott after the Health Minister appeared to publicly acknowledge that the Government's WorkChoices laws had stripped protections from workers. Excerpts from an amateur video taken at a community function early this week featured comments from Mr Abbott, a former workplace relations minister, on the effects of the controversial laws.

What Labor did to the footage has already been revealed as nothing short of a dirty little fit-up:

This video, which Labor gave to the ABC, was doctored, removing some qualifications Abbott gave and splicing two quotes together...

Here's what Abbott was seen on the ABC saying:

I accept that certain protections, in inverted commas, are not what they were. I accept that that has largely gone. I accept that.

Here's what he actually said:

I accept that certain “protections” - in inverted commas - are not what they were. That whole raft of regulation expressed in awards that sometimes ran into hundreds, even thousands of pages, I accept that that has largely gone. I accept that. I accept that the Industrial Relations Commission doesn’t have the same power to reach into the nook and cranny of every business that it used to have. I accept that.

But in the end, the best protection for the worker who feels he or she might be under pressure at his job is the chance of another job, the chance of a better job. That is the best protection. Not going off to some judge or Industrial Commission that might order your employer, who you don’t like and he doesn’t like you, to keep you in an unhappy partnership forever.

So that is the best protection that we can give people, the protection of an abundance of jobs, the protection of an economy which is crying out for more workers. That is the best protection and I think that has been delivered in spades locally and nationally.

-- Nick

A Punishing Point Of View

Buried in the middle of a pitch for Kevin Rudd on a completely different topic, journalist Samantha Maiden quotes Cardinal George Pell making an astute, if politically incorrect observation (not to mention against Roman Catholic policy):

"I think that this, capital punishment, is one of those issues ... where public opinion is quite at variance with elite opinion. I suspect, and I might be wrong, that there is clear majority approval in Australia for capital punishment in certain circumstances."

Zing!

Pell is no stranger to calling a spade a spade:

... told an American audience the Koran is punctuated with "invocations to violence"... In a speech to leading Catholic businesses in the United States, Dr Pell said the September 11 terrorist attacks had been his wake-up call to understand Islam better. He said there were inconsistencies in claims that Islam was a faith of peace with those that suggested the Koran legitimised the killings of non-Muslims... "In my own reading of the Koran, I began to note down invocations to violence. There are so many of them, however, that I abandoned this exercise after 50 or 60 or 70 pages," he said.

-- Nick

But It Must Be True...

101 reasons why you shouldn't believe anything you read/hear/see in the news, including the classic:

9. Associated Press (AP) (2005). Fell for hoax and phony photo. The AP ran a story, with a photo, about a soldier held hostage in Iraq. The photo turned out to be that of an action figure doll (emphasis added); there was no such soldier.

Click on the link, scroll down a bit and enjoy!

-- Nick

An Indecent Obsession

Paedophile rapes child, walks on a suspended sentence.

Newspaper reports sympathetically:

Pleading guilty to six counts of indecent treatment of a boy under the age of 14, plus 20 counts of indecent treatment of a boy under the age of 17, King then had to sit in the court dock on tenterhooks for almost three hours as her lawyer Tony Kimmins argued why she should not go to jail.

And why not?

Judge Trafford-Walker stressed the reprieve was only because of so many "exceptional circumstances" including King's early admission of guilt, her remorse and otherwise good character, her "emotional immaturity" at the time of the offences, her current advanced age and physical disabilities.

And perhaps the fact that the perpetrator is female, an attribute that elicits beneficially unequal treatment by the judiciary and a nudge, nudge, wink, wink attitude of 'lucky lad' from the media.

Her victim suffered depression, altered moods and a tendency to self-harm. His abuser - credited for 'an early admission of guilt' - hid her crime for 30 years until her victim finally outed her.

-- Nick

Exposed: How TV Current Affairs Shows Are Ripping YOU Off

On Nick and Nora's passionate affair, we expose the hypocrisy of one of Australia's leading television networks with an insider's view of how news and controversy are manufactured - all in the name of ratings.

Hello, I'm Nora Charles.

Tonight, an exclusive look at how an industry's integrity is for sale by journalists whose own code of ethics state that no commercial consideration should influence their work.

This show, Today Tonight and others like it, fleece advertisers of hundreds of thousands of dollars each night by holding you, the television viewer, hostage with stories on snake-oil weight loss cures, hysterical panic stories and, at times, downright lies.

And all for the lucrative ratings that determine the price paid by advertisers.

"Shows like Today Tonight are particularly notorious in using these tricks," says Nick Charles, one time journalist and now media commentator.

"They deliberately play on people's mistrust, fears and greed to maximise profits. In fact, it would be fair to say that current affairs shows have deliberately ruined lives in the quest for sensationalism and money."

When Australian rock legend Angry Anderson wanted to raise awareness of a fund raising rock concert tonight, he faked the ambush of members of bands The Choir Boys, The Angels and The Party Boys.

"Oh look - you can see here that all of this has been pre-arranged," says Nick. "What are the chances of all the members of The Angels just casually walking down the street?

"It might seem like a little bit of harmless fun but, once again, it shows how Today Tonight deliberately misleads the public."

And it gets worse.

Companies regularly approach Today Tonight for publicity and receive air time worth tens of thousands of dollars for free, for goods and services which may or may not work.

"Many journalists will do this kind of advertorial type of story and claim that it has news value, but in reality the news value of the free publicity is spurious," says Nick.

"News value is often limited to how well the company's publicist has pitched the story to the presenter or the researchers. They don't do any of their own independent research for stories."

In fact a Today Tonight journalist was 'bought' today by publicists for the company Etech Group who are targeting one of the most vulnerable groups in society - middle class parents with teenage children.

"That was an out and out plug for a company product," said Nick, "I'm not saying the reporter, in this case, was offered, say, free software for running the story, but in many cases journalists receive what's known as payola, bribes in effect, to promote and publicise a product or event. The payola takes the form of free product, free tickets to events, stuff like that.

"These people wield significant influence."

And what happens if companies don't play by Today Tonight's rules?

"Some of these reporters - personally I think it's a misnomer to call them 'journalists' - will go as far as to demand payola in exchange for favourable coverage," says Nick.

"If the organisation doesn't come across, then they don't get the coverage."

But it's not always personal gain which motivates these parasites.

"One of the worst things you can do, from a public perception point of view, is not play ball with these people," says Nick.

"If you refuse an interview, no matter how rude the reporter or inconvenient the timing, they will quite happily spread lies and deliberate misinformation.

"The worst thing of all is there is no real remediation or redress if a show like Today Tonight has it in for you. Network lawyers are held on retainer and these organisations will quite happily spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

"If you're an ordinary Aussie there is very little you can do to stop them."

When Today Tonight made the claim on Wednesday night that Sydney church Hillsong was 'stacking' Australian Idol, they offered no evidence except that up to half of the contestants go to church - not to Hillsong specifically but to any number of churches around the country.

Surely not surprising when, according to the latest census, 64% of Australians call themselves Christian and that Christians sing at church on a regular basis.

"It's very interesting that Today Tonight tends pick on Hillsong," says Nick. "It's not the first time they've done it.

"What they failed to point out in their story was that other Australian Idol contestants benefit from the support of their communities and social groups to generate interest and votes on the show.

"Last year an Australian Idol contestant from Albury-Wodonga had the local pub raising money to pay for phone votes. Today Tonight didn't do an expose on that."

But the show's producers, including host Anna Corin, were stung by the response of Hillsong that issued a one-line statement saying the church didn't endorse any singers and wished all the contestants the best.

They also endured the derision of Australian Idol fans:

"I think they should stick to uncovering the dangers of old microwaves, food additives and the latest plastic surgery bungles instead."

"LOL Grape, they just keep re-hashing the same pathetic stories over and over."

"Yea i saw the last bit of this add today...ITS SO FREAKING LAME sirsly Today Tonight have nothing better to do with there lives =.=*"

And rehash they do, finding two disaffected former members of the church to back their claim.

But our media insider smells a rat.

"The couple said that Hillsong kept asking them to 'do things', but they didn't specify what. Surely as a real journalist that's the question to be asking, but they don't. It's likely that the answer doesn't meet their agenda, which is to knock the church," Nick says.

"It's also quite possible that the couple are little more than volunteer 'cast members' - you only have to look at these shows' web sites to see how they advertise for people with an axe to grind to come and tell their story on air or pretend they're ordinary members of the public reacting to events or talking about their experiences with some of the payola products we mentioned earlier.

"Anyway, as I said before, so what if Hillsong ends every service by saying 'don't forget to vote for so and so'? That's what everyone else does, Today Tonight included whenever it runs a thinly veiled promo for network shows like Dancing With The Stars.

"The real question is why Today Tonight and A Current Affair too, are against a church the young congregation of which is more likely than the average population to be happy, not on drugs, not getting drunk every weekend, not sexually promiscuous and more likely to be caring, socially active people.

"These powerful, multi-million dollar media outlets are trying to portray Hillsong as a cult, when it is nothing of the sort - it's just a large, active Christian church."

Speaking of questions to be asking, maybe someone needs to ask these reporters and producers what their interest is in steering young people away from positive behaviour.

Perhaps they're after a 'good' story.

Or perhaps their interest is a little more unnatural.

-- Nora Charles reporting

UPDATE: Hillsong toys with Today Tonight, hinting that it could take legal action against the show.

God Bless 'Em, Marge, They're Not That Bright

al-Reuters and a pack of 'staff writers' at News Ltd expose a 'bizarre' George Bush gaffe, claiming he suddenly said at a White House press conference that Nelson Mandela was dead.

What they say he said:

"I heard somebody say, 'Where's Mandela?'," he said. "Well, Mandela's dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas."

What he actually said:

Part of the reason why there is not this instant democracy in Iraq is because people are still recovering from Saddam Hussein’s brutal rule. I thought an interesting comment was made when somebody said to me, I heard somebody say, where’s Mandela? Well, Mandela is dead, because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas. He was a brutal tyrant that divided people up and split families, and people are recovering from this.

So Bush was saying there are no inspirational leaders of the type of Nelson Mandela rising up to lead the Iraqi people because Saddam killed all the 'Mandelas'.

And the media - and quite a few subtlety-challenged Lefties - are thinking he either literally meant 'Nelson Mandela's dead' or they're deliberately going: 'Look, look... isn't George Bush stoopid!!'

Either way, it looks bad for the media - they're either stupid or mean or both. Probably the latter.

And News Ltd's sub-editors further expose their own lack of mental faculty and the juvenile manner with which they routinely conduct business with this sub-head:

Saddam killed all the Mandelas, says Bush
Um, what? asks pretty much everyone else

Perhaps it should read:

Saddam killed all the Mandelas, says Bush
I glued my head to my shoulder, says journalist

Apologies to Ralph Wiggum.

-- Nick

(via Tim Blair)

UPDATE:
The London Daily Mail's David Gardner realises he's been caught and tries to save face by criticising Bush's analogy. However the only thing 'tortuous' about the report is Gardner's squirming.

UPDATE 2:
The Nine Network's Robert Penfold ended the day on the 6pm News spinning the story for all he was worth with a report the awkward editing of which recalled perfectly Judge And Jury, an episode Frontline, the ABC's savage 1990s satire on TV current affairs shows.

In that episode, fictional journalist Brooke Vandenberg realises a priest accused of rape sounds too convincing when he protests his innocence during an interview and she has the video editor insert a pause and cutaway shot that suggests hesitation and a guilty conscience. (The priest's reputation is ruined though it transpires he is innocent and his accuser is mentally unbalanced.)

On National Nine News, real journalist Robert Penfold's report similarly appears to distort the timeline at the White House conference by interrupting Bush's comment after 'I heard somebody say, where’s Mandela? Well, Mandela is dead...' to insert a cutaway shot of two men in the audience looking incredulous, accompanied by Penfold's voiceover suggesting 'even the President's aides couldn't believe their ears'.

Penfold then continued (and I paraphrase) that Bush was later forced to backtrack to clarify himself and the video dropped back in on Bush speaking with the 'Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas' portion of what, in reality, was two short sentences spoken one immediately after the other but which had been dismantled and reconstructed to look like the 'gaffe' the media wanted it to be and an awkward attempt by Bush to explain himself.

It would be interesting to see the raw footage containing Penfold's 'incredulous aides' cutaway. Odds are the men's reaction is not even to that portion of the conference.

Postscript: Interesting to see that episodes of Frontline are studied for the NSW HSC.

A Little Bit Of Pixie Dust

Oh poor little 'Peta' Pan, 26 years old and not a grown up yet.

It's a little sad and pathetic don't you think?

Sadly Lucy Carne's self-indulgent twaddle is another reason why the voting and drinking age should be raised to 30. Perhaps then we might get some adult writing.

-- Nora

Journalist Attends Different March

News.com.au journalist Lincoln Archer sees 'A victory for the protesters' at Saturday's anti-everything APEC march:

The situation could have gotten ugly. The massively overwhelming police presence on the day could have been interpreted as intimidation and a red rag to a bull if people had been looking for trouble. But essentially there was no trouble. It was a peaceful protest.

Indeed - in the face of massive police provocation, it was a peaceful protest. No one went looking for trouble.

Must have been a different march to the one attended by NSW Chief Inspector Mark Death and Constable Michael Nolan:

A 40-year-old man threw a dart that lodged in a policeman's skull and swung wildly at other officers with a metal pole, striking one of them in the head, a Sydney court has heard. Gavin Begbie, of Pimlico in northern NSW, is facing a total of 13 charges arising out of demonstrations yesterday in Sydney against the APEC leaders' summit. He was one of 18 people arrested during the protests organised by the Stop Bush Coalition... The court was told both Insp Death and Const Nolan were taken to hospital. Const Nolan... required four stitches.

-- Nick