CRIKEY: In yesterday’s media briefs, the item Jim’s Long Lunch wrongly implied that 3AW drive presenter Derryn Hinch was no stranger to the long lunch and subsequent on-air intoxication. This is a claim entirely without foundation, and one which Crikey unreservedly withdraws and for which we apologise.

Mugabe and Zimbabwe:

Robert Johnson, in Windhoek, Namibia, writes: Re. “Strife looms as Mugabe holds on to power” (yesterday, item 15). Being resident in Namibia, which shares a short border with Zimbabwe, I’m under no illusion as to just how popular is Robert Mugabe. Even the opposition MDC had put his primary Presidential vote at around 43%, largely due to rusted-on support for the man who brought the country to independence despite subsequent chronic failings. Insightful reporting on the unfolding saga is hard to come by, although the Times Online article referenced by Thomas Hunter yesterday is one such article (it also appeared in yesterday’s Namibian daily). This is not because of the excerpt printed, concerning the worthless currency, but the unmentioned vote-counting dilemma (with delays largely due to understandable MDC demands for vote-audits in every seat) and the nature of Thabo Mbeki’s “quiet diplomacy” (especially in trying to deny an MDC victory in favour of a handover to Makoni, the third-placed candidate). “Quiet diplomacy” is indeed an important course of action, much more so than western sabre-rattling and bullying which, from here, make things worse. The problem is that Mbeki seems the wrong person to take on such a role. The suggestion by Tim Hames (also Times Online) of engagement with Jacob Zuma in pursuit of such “quiet diplomacy” seems a potential and pragmatic circuit-breaker. Despite the media creating a negative image of Zuma, he is very popular in this region and just the person to jolt Mbeki into relevant action on behalf of states in this region.

Tony Wheeler, Lonely Planet founder, writes: If Mugabe finally gets the boot I’m waiting with interest to see what happens to one of his guests – Mengistu Haile Mariam. The leader of the attractively named “Derg” in Ethiopia, his rule from 1974 to 1991 included the secession of Eritrea, contributing to the destabilisation of neighbouring Somalia, instigating Ethiopia’s “Red Terror” and overseeing the disastrous famine of 1983-84. He fled to Zimbabwe with 50 of his associates in 1991 and it appears he is still living in some comfort as a guest of Mr Mugabe. Lots of Ethiopians and quite a few Rastafarians (he also bumped off Haile Selassie) would quite like to get their hands on him.

Rudd’s 2020 Summit:

Peter Jackman writes: Re. “Fancy dancers rule in Rudd’s summit of the elites” (yesterday, item 2). Jeff Sparrow’s article was excellent. One partial extract of a sentence touched a nerve with me. “An arrogant tertiary-educated, intellectual elite: a clutch of sneering know-it-alls who wanted to overrun the country with immigrants, make everyone guilty about Aborigines and brainwash the youth with Parisian post-modernist mumbo-jumbo.” I believe this to be a succinct comment relevant to the “silent majority” of Australians since 1975. Where have the real Australians gone that believe in a fair go, or do not think greed is good? I sincerely wish we could be treated as citizens, not as mere consumers.

Alan Green writes: I’m puzzled at Sparrow’s complaint that the 2020 summit is “undemocratic.” The 2020 summit is about gathering ideas from a particular cross-section of Australian society, not about replacing any part of the governance process. It is entirely up to our democratically elected representatives to decide which — if any — ideas from the summit will be implemented. Brendan Nelson’s listening tour is a similar, though cheaper and less ambitious, exercise, and no one is labeling it undemocratic. As for the “waste of money” sideswipe, it only takes one great idea — like how to train and retain an extra 10,000 doctors over ten years — and Australia will be well ahead.

Niall Clugston writes: Both Jeff Sparrow and Greg Barns (“A marketplace for meretricious mendicancy” yesterday, item 9) make comments on Rudd’s Summit pointing to its distance from the mass of the population. There is obviously a need for a politics that connects with this — reasonably quiet — majority without consigning it to the phoney, scapegoating populism of Howard, Hanson, or the Daily Telegraph (“Is this the most useless editor in Australia?” yesterday, item 3). But there are more reports about the desperately poor (“Australia Divided: Rich v Poor” yesterday, item 5) than about the majority of the population. Can anyone in journalism, politics etc deal with this? Does anyone care? Well, they should – because it’s the keystone issue confronting Australia (and similar countries). Whether they like it or not.

John Bowyer writes: Tony Kevin’s letter on the 2020 summit (yesterday, comments) makes him sound like he was suffering from the same ailment as Jim Wilson of the Herald Sun. What is he on about? He didn’t even know if he had applied to join them? As for suggesting Helen Caldicott is he mad? As for all the others he noted, well I cannot wait to turn off the TV radio whatever when this bunch of legends give us what we do not want, which will not work and that no one will understand anyway. On a brighter note, I truly believe all the participants will deserve each other!

Patricia Weston writes: Re. “2020 Summit: Will there be getting-to-know-you games?” (Yesterday, item 8). Regarding Bernard Keane’s item. Why not stop wasting time and space with this sort of idiotic speculation until the conference actually takes place?

Peter Costello:

John Goldbaum writes: Re. “The science of Costellogy” (yesterday, item 1). Hold the press! I have found just the right job for Peter Costello. It’s located near Melbourne, remuneration is not excessive and he’ll still be someone’s deputy. It’s as close to being a cushy public service type of job as you can find in the private sector and he might even get to do some more union busting. The job is Deputy Regional Manager of the Geelong branch of the Australian Industry Group. Send us your CV Sweetie.

Jenny Morris writes: How about we all pitch in and try to find Peter Costello a new job? Heaven knows Jobs Network won’t be able to do much for him — his party has seen to that. How about I open the batting: a Call Centre Operator for World Vision. You know what they say; your best chance of getting a job is through connections. Pete will be a shoo-in there. He can practise talking without smirking.

Victoria Collins writes: One would assume that Bernard Keane was being post-modernist and ironic in his piece yesterday when he said about the art of divining meaning from the inscrutable, post-election mien of the former Treasurer: “…it doesn’t require the slightest action on the part of the subject to keep this pseudo-science going… it apparently doesn’t require much from anyone to keep it going.” This as he proceeded to do exactly the same thing himself and failed to enlighten us beyond what we could Google up ourselves.

The Daily Telegraph and the RBA:

John Homem writes: Re. “Is this the most useless editor in Australia?” (Yesterday, item 3). Possum Comitatus, you are a foolish goose. I’ve got to say that I’m no fan of David Penberthy, but am I the only one who thinks that this time at least The Daily Telegraph got it absolutely spot on? Glenn Stevens is a useless Governor of the RBA! What he said may have merit, economically speaking but there are people hurting out there, and I’m one of them. If Mr Stevens cannot do the job, and needs the banks to help him implement monetary policy than he should step aside right now. There are an awful lot of people with talent in this country that can do the job. I (as someone who did an economics degree) think that the RBA may have overdone it this time. Personally I think the last rise was unnecessary and he should right now reduce rates thus allowing the banks to either not pass them or just pass a portion of it to cushion their margins. Not agreeing with The Daily Telegraph is one thing, but you cannot fault their assessment just due to blind ideology.

Rudd’s salute:

Jackie French writes: Re. Rudd’s salute at NATO (yesterday, comments). Look you city coots: that wasn’t a salute. It is the old fashioned country tip to the hat, mostly practiced these days without a hat. Gave it to passers by three times on the road yesterday morning.

John Kotsopoulos writes: Geoff Medley’s mean-spirited attack on Kevin Rudd (yesterday, comments) essentially amounts to an assertion that he should be home fixing problems instead of taking the earliest opportunity to meet with his overseas peers. Those problems have an international dimension in case you haven’t noticed Mr. Medley and insofar as they have a domestic component they can fairly be laid at the feet of your heroes Howard and Costello. Maybe you should be asking Mr. Costello to start earning his parliamentary salary and come up with some answers.

Obama’s got game:

Peter Shaw writes: Re. “US08: Obama’s the chick in the Democrats race” (yesterday, item 4). Guy Rundle wrote: “The question has been, a la Hillary, can a chick make it to the White House, and here’s an obsessively thin, foodophobic type with smooth skin who’s bad at sports… Jaysus. Obama is the chick. He’s Bridget frikkin Jones.” I am not an Obama fan, but Guy should know and I’d say most Americans do know that Barack Obama was (and is) a very good basketballer… (watch his high school basketball days here)

ABC complaints:

Gerard Henderson writes: Re. “Henderson lost on ABC complaints process” (Friday, item 15). In his light-weight comment in Crikey on 4 April 2008, Bernard Keane throws the switch to mockery by labelling me as “The Pressclipper” and referring to me as having “crawled out from beneath his piles of yellowing newspapers”. Well, at least I do some research. Unlike the somewhat lazy Mr Keane who contributed a critique of me to Crikey based on a report in The Australian – without seeking a copy of the article on which the report was based or seeking my views on the matter. At least Bernard Keane’s April Fool’s Day effort in Crikey did not require any work. The fact is that I was a constant critic of the Howard Government’s approach to the ABC. In my Sydney Morning Herald column on 22 June 2004, I did argue that the ABC should have given John Howard his way by ensuring a greater plurality of views among ABC presenters and should have conceded to Richard Alston’s request about the complaints procedure. Both these comments were made in the context of a critique of both the ABC and the Coalition’s policy on the ABC. If Mr Keane had sought my views, I would have told him that I have always advocated that the ABC’s managing director should act as a real editor-in-chief and that, ideally, serious complaints should be handled at the editorial level. It is for this reason that I have never made a formal complaint within the ABC’s complaints procedure. It is a matter of fact, however, that the Media Watch program placed my correspondence with it in 2006 in the ABC’s Audience and Consumer Affairs bureaucracy without my approval and contrary to my wishes. I understand that (then) executive producer Peter McEvoy and (then) presenter Monica Attard threw my correspondence into the ABC bureaucracy because they did not want to deal with me direct and because they were fully aware that the resultant delay would diminish the impact of my criticisms of the program. For Crikey readers who are interested in facts, the article to which Bernard Keane referred can be found in Issue Number 32 of The Sydney Institute Quarterly titled “Kirstin McLiesh – 96 Per Cent For the ABC”. For the record, I did criticise the way the ABC handled Richard Alston’s complaints about AM’s reporting of the invasion of Iraq. However, if Richard Alston had sought my advice prior to the event, I would have advised him to avoid the ABC’s formal complaints process.

Bernard Keane writes: Not sure I understand what you’re getting at, Gerard. You’ve agreed you argued that the ABC should have given Alston the complaints procedure he wanted (which it did). And that you think that very complaints procedure is badly flawed. So… that’s pretty much what I said last week. I can’t see what “context” magically resolves this contradiction. And for months you’ve been whingeing about the way Media Watch referred your criticisms to the ABC’s complaints process, and attacking ABC staff like Ms McLiesh for having the temerity to comply with their employer’s Editorial Policies. If you think this complaints process is a waste of time, why are you so obsessed with it? You even had a go at fellow reactionary Janet Albrechtsen for presiding over it. Bizarre. Oh, and as for my “mockery”, you poor bloke. You really DON’T have a sense of humour, do you?

Kerrie Byrne writes: Labelling the Sydney Institute “Australia’s least nepotistic thinktank” has to be tongue-in-cheek, given its founder’s one-eyed praise for the sacked Howard regime. But ‘Henderson lost on ABC complaints process’ provides an opportunity for this 774 listener to comment on ABC Radio Melbourne’s flaky (read non-existent) complaints procedure. Waking up on Thursday January 24 I heard Red Symons refer to the female, former Eastern-bloc tennis players as “bitches”. Yes, it was hard to believe that even he would be that crude, and when I rang the program to complain, I was told he actually said “vitches”. An ingenious play on their surnames it may have been but at 5.30am it came across as a degrading sting to which the young women in question would have had no right of reply. The producer put me through to program manager Steve Kyte’s voicemail on which I left my concern and contact details. It’s been 10 weeks and still no response from Steve. If Steve ever gets back to me I will also ask him about the photo of a 774 personality spotted last week in the window of a local hardware shop, advertising that very hardware chain! Have staff’s conflict of interest guidelines become another casualty of the ratings chase? Then there’s the censorship of the online guestbook. Unless you’re gushing with praise, don’t bother posting as informed critique won’t get published. That’s been my experience – Steve, I’m still waiting to have a chat.

Goodvibes lives!

Ralph Brading writes: The suggestion from Michael Cox (yesterday, comments) that Captain Goodvibes should be a pig industry lobbyist, is brillant. The good Captain is alive, well and available as this later picture shows. Anyone interested in trying to broker the deal can contact him here.

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