
Ricky Pannowitz
Ricky Pannowitz writes a lefty blog called Political Jelly and after one of its posts was approvingly cited over at Cafe Whispers I left a one line comment pointing out that I did not rate the piece very highly the author then gave me a dismissive retort in return, Fair enough I suppose that is to be expected so I now find myself looking more closely at the piece in question and it really cries out to me for the Fiskorama treatment
The cost of free speech, It ain’t cheap mate!!
Tony Abbott is warning the creation of a “media watchdog” as being a “political correctness police”. This is indeed interesting rhetoric from a man who calls himself a former journalist.
Abbott’s misinformation, character assassination, obstructionist political divide and concur(sic) strategy defines his leadership.
The opposition is the beneficiary of a tide of lies and propaganda never seen before in Australian politics in what can only be described as unchecked commentary masquerading as journalism.
Everything from the economy to social reform, infrastructure to the NDIS is blatantly misrepresented in an orchestrated assault on anything that differs from neo-conservatism.
Its a non stop political opportunistic football match that forgets the rules and fair play. Its win at any cost playing the man not the game.
This mis-information war, fuelling every conceivable prejudice furthers his political agenda by the consistent use of one word “NO”.
All the hallmarks of Edward Bernays 1928 book “Propaganda” are at play here. Spruik the lie enough times so as to create doubt and even the smallest amount of traction sets the wheels spinning and mud flying. . Insecurity, doubt fear, hatred and mis-information all followed to the letter, but how much sticks?
In a progressive multicultural society, social dialogue has plummeted to the lowest ebb in Australian political history. Fuelled by Abbott’s election promise to repeal legal recourse under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, which prohibits statements that offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of people on grounds of race or ethnicity you have effectively eroded the last line of defence.
Additional regulation is one current threat to free speech in Australia. Another is the operation of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, which prohibits statements that “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” another person or a group of people on grounds of race or ethnicity.At the time of its introduction, oblivious to its Orwellian overtones, the then-minister, Nick Bolkus, said that it was designed to prohibit “speechcrime” over and above the traditional tort of defamation. Making the likelihood of causing offence to a group the test of acceptable behaviour goes way beyond the time-honoured remedy when a particular victim has been brought into hatred, ridicule or contempt.Let’s be clear: insulting, humiliating or intimidating others on any grounds, racial or otherwise, is deplorable. It should be everyone’s goal to elevate the standards of public debate, not lower them, and to demonstrate respect rather than disdain for the various components of our community. Still, a “hurt feelings” test is impossible to comply with while maintaining the fearless pursuit of truth which should be the hallmark of a society such as ours.
Abbott is far from sorry and so obviously out of touch with the people such legislation is designed to protect. This is a dangerously regressive act that is more at home in a totalitarian power rather than in Australia’s multicultural egalitarian society.
As we have seen dating back to the 1800’s the media has become a law unto itself, incapable of and uninterested in self-regulation.
I am not in favour of more regulation of anything, however as with guns there needs to be rules, responsibility and accountability for ones actions.
The requirement for news outlets to embrace technological change has seen democratisation of media with archaic legislation out of step with the new models of media consumption.
Currently media is cheap so agenda based political, social and commercial campaigns have blurred the line between opinion and fact, opinion and reporting and my favourite, journalism and entertainment.
The standard modus operandi in media outlets is to weigh up commercial gain over litigation.
That is, how much advertising revenue do they make over how much they may or may not have to pay if they are sued or fined.
This gamble has proved lucrative and commercially successful for Australian media generally as the current systems of complaint recourse is virtually non-responsive to any concerns “average” people have.
In short, self-regulation provides a firewall between the media organisation and the regulator as the complaint has to go through the organisation first. “We believe we are compliant with the act” responses are the norm and 90% of frustrated people take the matter no further. So if you get no joy, then you complain to the toothless tiger ACMA who “may” rarely impose an infringement that is a ridiculously disproportionate monetary fine compared to the advertising revenue earned. Subsequently, why wouldn’t media outlets take this gamble? They have a better than 90% chance of getting away with it outright and if they do get fined, the talent is still making a fortune with little or no consequence other than a by-line or retraction.
So how does this work you may well ask? Good examples are carefully constructed inflammatory comments to create a “rise” amongst less informed audiences, cash for comment and stating erroneous facts to push an agenda. The term “Shock Jock” defines a very murky area of media debate around the world. Alan Jones, Andrew Bolt, Ray Hadley and Steve Price have all predicated a format based upon their outspoken views on a range of topics designed to fuel outrage in public opinion.
This strategy is lucrative in selling advertising as former advertising executive and owner of Radio station 2GB John Singleton can attest. Jones has constantly come under criticism for his defamatory, inflammatory and inaccurate comments on a range of issues and has maintained when the subject of legal action, he is an “entertainer” not a reporter or commentator. “I’m not a journalist” people listen to me for entertainment he proclaims.
This illusion of a “Man for the people” providing a “spleen vent” for the less educated and uninformed is a format formulated to maximise income not social discourse. Jones breaking “Stories” that were no more than press releases for advertising clients erased the line between advertising and reporting until it was indistinguishable, forcing ACMA to make disclosure mandatory law.
Jones and Bolt are the Australian poster boys for the marketing arm of the neo-con movement “The Tea Party”.
Jones has unsuccessfully tried to get up a Bill ORiley type program till he was unmercifully dumped for bad ratings. Bolt has succeeded with the help of Mining Magnate Gina Reinhardt thanks to her financial interest in network 10. Bolt does not need to rate, just parrot the message and collect the cash.
Gina is on a media buying mission and has very deep pockets convinced that its her say on the information super highway.
Interestingly after her foray to own Fairfax without agreeing to sign up for editorial independence, she has since suggested that Fairfax sell its radio assets and the most likely bidder is Singleton.
Well surprise, surprise what a coincidence. What a sweet deal, she still gets the net result as Singleton will run the same Shock Jock formula for success and Singleton (that great Aussie bloke so in touch with the common man) makes more money.
Abbott and traditional media vendors have much to lose from reform. The main stakes are money, power and influence. Disproportionate representation of the perception of fact in social debate is a dangerous situation.
Lies; masquerading as qualified fact to further political traction and generate revenue is immoral and at odds with Australian ethos of “Fair Dinkum”. When discredited, scientifically unqualified, self-promoting charlatans like Christopher Monkton are paraded on equal footing in the media as Professors of Science; public debate is well and truly broken.
At what point did people just give up in ambivalent acceptance that an auctioneer turned entertainer like Hadley (He is by far the worst sports commentator in Australia) had any credibility to inform political debate in Australia? When did the “opposing everything to get a rise” opinion of Bolt (a base level educated, company indoctrinated journalist) hold weight over a Professor of physics, climatology or the head of the CSIRO?
These people are the good guys who have dedicated there life to furthering scientific advancement of the human race. So when did society stoop so low as to attack them because it’s inconvenient?
I’ll tell you when, when despite being presented with factual truth that the Australian economy is one of the best in the world, people believe lying talking heads we are broke. I’ll tell you when, when money and the egocentric lust for power in a cult of personality within an attention deficit news cycle holds greater currency than the factual truth itself.
What is offensive and ridiculous is the assertion that when people like Bolt and Jones are subject to account under the due process of law they assert that their “Free Speech” is being stifled. Stifled they proclaim; whilst being syndicated nationally in print, radio and television.
Their speech is far from free; it’s big business generating millions of advertising dollars. Is that the same “Free speech” a disenfranchised public would enjoy if they ever rang up these authoritarian egomaniacs to debate or question todays “designed topic” and are don’t get past the switchboard? I think not.
I once met Stan Zemanic. He was a surprisingly gentle, attentive intelligent man. I asked him “do you believe half of that stuff you say because you sound like the world’s greatest stirrer to me”. Stan looked me in the eye with a cheeky grin and said, “it’s all show business”. Unfortunately, show business is affecting the real business of social debate, freedom and equality in Australia.
Here in his conclusion Ricky clearly demonstrates his profound misunderstanding of the Media. while his anecdote contains an essential truth that its all about entertainment being a member of the “chattering classes” he projects upon the entire country his belief that the media should be focused upon “social debate” which he considers the “real business” he clearly believes that everyone else should be as interested in politics as he is. A realist would accept that most people are simply not engaged to that extent in the business of politics. Certainly most people will have an opinion but mostly its a second order issue behind making a living and raising their families.
As I have pointed out the body of this critique Ricky makes repeated assertions about the motives and reasons that various media players say and do various things. He provides no convincing reasoning for these assertions, clearly expecting his readers to just accept them because he himself believes these things to be true. But if you put all of his unfounded assertions together and consider them as a whole what you are considering is indistinguishable from your standard or garden variety leftist conspiracy theory about the way that “the evil right” uses the mass media as their propaganda instrument to further their business interests and social agenda.
Personally I don’t buy such an argument at all and I think that much of the angst felt by minions of the left like Ricky Pannowitz at the nature of the media is all about the fact that our current government is copping a great deal of flack over its poor performance and down right maladministration. Instead of looking to the mistakes of the governemnt Ricky Pannowitz seeks to blame the messengers who point out its nakedness. Add this this his clear lack of proof reading or editing skills and what you get is a rather sloppy argument that fails utterly to make its case.
Cheers Comrades
So let me get this? You troll the blog get a sentence and make a comment that disagrees with no fact and mark it like a school teacher and that’s you forensic analysis? No examples, no counter argument? “Ricky Pannowitz seeks to blame the messengers who point out its nakedness. “Add this this his clear lack of proof reading or editing skills and what you get is a rather sloppy argument that fails utterly to make its case.”…Oh the Hypocrisy. Iain a true indication of your ability to construct critical thinking is to resort to calling me a communist. A true indication of how out of touch with reality you are is Australia is ( thanks to this government) one of the strongest economies in the world. A simple truth supported by every credible economist in the world. Yet Abbott, an economic incompetent and his commentator fanboy club still pushes the lie that we are broke. A member of the “chattering classes” ? No Iain a highly educated (my qualifications are in media) intellectual, who actually works in the media, unlike yourself. I love the lowbrow denialist, truth is just a cut and paste keystroke away. So; seeing you have aspirations of acting like Alan Jones (Alan’s formal qualification) I will mark your work….. (4/10…you seem to not construct a factually based argument, rather comment on each phrase. Your analysis is no more than loose comment and sights no clear examples). If you don’t understand ironic metaphors and the tone of language you should research their use, its fundamental to basic understand………. “Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.” Mark Twain.
Sorry posted the wrong Comment…not that matters. So let me get this “right”? You troll the blog, get a sentence and make a comment that disagrees with no fact. Then mark it like a school teacher and that’s you forensic analysis? No examples, no counter argument? “Ricky Pannowitz seeks to blame the messengers who point out its nakedness” “Add this this his clear lack of proof reading or editing skills and what you get is a rather sloppy argument that fails utterly to make its case.” Oh the Hypocrisy. Iain a true indication of your ability to construct critical thinking is to resort to calling me a communist. A true measure of how out stupefied by lies and out of touch with reality you are is Australia ( thanks to this government) remains one of the strongest economies in the world. A simple truth supported by every credible economist in the world. Yet Abbott, an economic incompetent and his commentator fanboy club still disseminates the lie that we are broke. A member of the “chattering classes” ? Is that another insult? Sounds more like a broad supposition. No Iain, a highly educated (my qualifications are in media) intellectual, who actually works in the media, unlike yourself. Oh Iain, I love the lowbrow denialist, truth is just a cut and paste keystroke away. So; seeing you have aspirations of acting like Alan Jones a common School teacher (Alan’s formal qualification) I will mark your work….. (4/10…you seem to not construct a factually based argument, rather comment on each phrase. Your analysis is no more than loose comment and sights no clear examples). If you don’t understand ironic metaphors and the tone of language you should research their use, its fundamental to basic understand………. “Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.” Mark Twain.
Ricky
Firstly welcome to My Sandpit
If I deduce your meaning correctly you are now objecting to me making good with my promise to look at your argument more closely?
I’m certain that I did not call you a communist at all Ricky and boy is your sentence construction clunky.
🙄 another bad sentence but ignoring that its hard to substantiate the claim that current government deserves much credit for our strong economy
I like to invoke Mr Macawber:
So to apply that aphorism to the Australian government it is reasonable to point out that their propensity to profligate spending and waste mean that they are more in the misery class than they are in to happiness.
You construct sentences terribly Ricky so how you manage to work in the media is a damn miracle if you ask me. That said I too have a degree in the media so please don’t try to suggest that you are better than me because of your education.From looking at your picture I’d guess that you are in your twenties well guess I have thirty years life experience more than you.
A forensic analysis looks at the details, where the devil dwells, so I went to the basics do you construct clear and cogent sentences? sadly you don’t do that and some of them don’t even make sense at all.
Do you have a central thesis that you explore in your essay? Apparently you don’t apart from the usual “Oh Tony Abbott is a dupe of big business” and you fail to substantiate that in your argument. You talk about Tony Abbott’s speech at the beginning and then you fail to even consider its actual content
Then you go from talking about freedom of speech into a pro AGW rant. Mate you may be a “a highly educated (my qualifications are in media) intellectual” but you need to do more work on the way that you present your arguments, Otherwise the good ideas that you may have will fail to be communicated to your audience. I suggest that you pay particular attention to the importance of your sentences making sense, the value of breaking your rants up into separate paragraphs and making a point of taking the time to re-read what you write before you hit the publish button
Another incoherent leftard. Perhaps Richard can understand him… I certainly can’t 😦
rofl.
forensic analysis…..you poor deluded soul.
and fancy telling somebody else to take better notice of their sentences.
hahaha
really i should feel sorry for you, but us commos must lack empathy…..hahaha
did you get a pension raise lately to compensate for the effects of the carbon tax?
and gd, what shrink wouldn’t be in paradise with the chance to look inside that head?
Gee I thought that you were done with my blog Alan.
That said even with my typos my sentence structure leaves Ricky’s for dead.
Again Obstinate comment rather than and semblance of factual detail…A rhetorical self-important ramble is not a rebuttal. 1: Gina Reinhardt recently suggested after acquiring media assets to gain public influence that Fairfax “sell its radio assets” and Singleton a likely buyer. 2: Alan jones is a member and patron of the Liberal party. 3: Bolt is a well-known Liberal and advisor to that flat earth right wing organisation, The Galileo movement.
Does this preclude them from debate? No. Do they lie to further public opinion and their own ends? Yes that has been proven in court. Do they collaborate, collude? Of course they do. Are media outlets prepared to test media law and litigation to maximise revenue while they are self-regulatory? “Controlled Risk” is standard practice in media outlets throughout the world, that’s why they retain lawyers and what has bought Newscorp undone. But you have a media degree and would know that…”Right” (Sarcasm just in case you missed it). Is repealing the Racial-discrimination act regressively dangerous? Of course, that’s obvious. Is this Stalinist Russia? When networked commentators with powerful sway on public opinion start influencing politicians as favour to remove the legal recourse of ordinary citizens, real free speech is dead and propaganda thrives. With great power comes great responsibility, more importantly accountability.
So if you have nothing but ill-informed obstinate comment to offer, I will now treat your obstinacy with the contempt a troll like yourself deserves and duly ignore you. You’re better off to play in your own idealistic sandpit with the rest of the childish minds, slinging mud at the adults in tantrums of tenacious renunciation.
Again Obstinate(sic) comment rather than and semblance of factual detail…A rhetorical self-important ramble is not a rebuttal.
Hmm I don’t think that you have used the word “obstinate” in the right context here. Its meaning according to google is this:
so you open with a clear mistake of using an inappropriate adjective in your opening sentence. that does not bode well for the rest of your comment.
So what? Why does it matter?
So what? Why does it matter?
3: Bolt is a well-known Liberal and advisor to that flat earth right wing organisation, The Galileo movement.
can you back up this claim? because as far as I know Andrew Bolt is not a member of ANY political party and nor he an advisor to the “The Galileo movement” so please prove these claims
Citations need for these claims
on what basis do you make this claim? Can you prove it? Or is it just something that you assert is the case without any actual evidence.
As far as I understand it the revelations in the UK are showing that News corp are not alone in indulging in some dodgey practices to get their stories I can’t help wondering if you are a supporter of Wikileaks when I read your high and mighty rancour about a bit of hacking of the trivial voice mail of celebrities (which I deplore by the way)
:roll:Ricky, Maatee get over yourself you are clearly not as “intellectual” as you think you are.
The thing about ideas like the racial discrimination act is that they are usually created with the very best of intentions but the nearly always end up being used to strangle free speech. None the less why don’t you try and explain why you think its “regressively dangerous” to repeal that part of teh act invoked against Andrew Bolt.
If any individual is actaully defamed by any commentator they would still have recourse to the courts but what they would not be able to do is bring a case because they have had their personal vanity offended. That is a win of common sense in my book.
Ricky I’m probably better informed and better read than you are but what you can’t seem to comprehend is that I don’t have the same sort of political viewpoint as you do. I also suspect that this is the first time anything that you have written has been so comprehensibly dismissed and denounced.
Look I can appreciate the passion and the strength of your belief but you really need to work on your rhetorical style and the structure of your arguments
You see this is a perfect example of just where you are going wrong I have really focused on what you are saying and tried hard to avoid making personal insults part of my critique that you resort to the personal just undermines any valid points that you may actually make in your argument. Besides which I am entirely immune to such nonsense.
Yes it is a great title. Pity the rest is a mish-mash of self-indulgent left wing whingeing.
I agree totally, Iain. And you have done a great job of deconstructing this rambling, incoherent diatribe.
All I have to add is that for a self-professed ‘media professional’ and ‘intellectual’, this bozo could at least learn where to place apostrophes. More importantly he could learn how to construct sentences, especially sentences that lead to the next point logically.
Apparently logic is a skill lacking with leftard opinionistas, apologists and government-funded loonies. I’m not sure, Ricky, which one of these you are. But whichever it is, you should certainly hand back your ‘prized Communications Degree’, because frankly your writing here wouldn’t pass a Grade 10 essay exam.
I leave readers with this hair-raising example:
Ouch. Don’t give up your day job, Ricky.
Andrew Bolt is in the”Lucky Country” in some other country with less tolerance to his constant smear and racist code wink-wink, his bullet ridden carcass would be strung up as a warning to others.
GEE this Ricky has ruffled your feathers—–he must be saying something “right”—snigger-snigger.
GD—Has now become a critics critic——-
I can relate to Ricky, he speaks my language—–Shalom, Richard Ryan.
Well that would be gibberish then Richard 😉
Oh dear, you stepped in that one, RR 🙂
What is it with lefties and incoherence?
Gillard : ‘We are us’
Rudd: ‘detailed programmatic specificity’
Bob Brown: ‘fellow earthians’
Penny Wong: ‘you wouldn’t say that to a woman’
Melbourne Uni wanker intern at the Sun Herald:
‘heteronormativity’
and best of all….
Richard Ryan: ‘mumble…snigger….snuffle…snert’
John Howard is a war criminal—–hope he meets the same fate as bin Laden, snigger-snigger.
Howard voted out of office by his own party, giggle-giggle, snigger, snigger, lost the job at the ICC, because he wanted to bring in “work choices” for cricket players——more giggle giggle, gloat-gloat, and snigger-snigger.
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