Piers Akerman sheds his blogging scepticism; Herald Sun to publish corrections over Bolt's columns; Alan Jones to speak at the National Press Club... Here we reveal what Australia's most powerful Megaphones have been up to over the last week.
Piers Akerman
The Daily Telegraph is getting more bang for their buck from Piers Akerman. The Labor baiter is now posting daily blog entries at the crack of dawn. It's quite a change of heart for the rotund right-winger, whose blog (until Monday) consisted only of republished newspaper columns. Akerman told The Power Index earlier this year that, unlike Andrew Bolt, he was no fan of blogging.
"No, I think it's a joke," he told us. "It presents readers with the opportunity of an online letters to the editor page. It allows them to vent. Whether it's useful in developing public policy I have my doubts."
Andrew Bolt
As Crikey will report today, The Herald Sun will run two corrective notices next to Andrew Bolt's regular column within the next fortnight. Bolt was found guilty of breaching the Racial Discrimination Act last month over two 2009 articles in which he took aim at pale-skinned Aborigines.
The conservative crusader hasn't backed away from the topic of race, despite the finding. His column today tackles the issue of "white flight" from selective state schools to the public system.
Alan Jones
Lunches at the National Press Club are usually pretty sedate – some would say soporific – affairs but not today. Talkback king Alan Jones will take to the stage at 12.30pm to pontificate on the topic: "Food security and the protection of the Australian regional way of life". Here at The Power Index, we'll be more interested in how Jones handles questions from the journalists in the crowd, rather than the speech itself (though it's sure to be entertaining).
The more sensitive hacks in the press pack are advised to stay at home. During his last public appearance in Canberra, at the August Convoy of no Confidence rally, Jones verbally attacked Sydney Morning Herald sketch writer Jacqueline Maley and encouraged the crowd to heckle a Sky News reporter as he did a live cross.
Ray Hadley
Meanwhile, Jones' 2GB colleague Ray Hadley has returned from New Zealand, where he flew on short notice to call Sunday night's rugby union World Cup semi final between Australia and New Zealand. Channel Nine had used Kiwi commentators for the Wallabies' previous games, but figured rugby fans deserved an Aussie caller for such an important match.
Some union diehards were unimpressed by the decision given Hadley's strident political views and the fact he hadn't called a rugby union game since 2003. They won't have to worry about hearing him during the final: in case you've just awoken from a coma, the Aussies went down 20-6.
Janet Albrechtsen
Believe it or not, The Australian's economic rationalista Janet Albrechtsen is no fan of the Occupy Wall Street protest movement. The protesters, according to Albrechtsen, are the "young people who feel they've missed out on the protests of the 1960s, ageing hippies wanting to relive those halcyon years, unhappy college kids, the unemployed and a range of loitering performance art protesters who don't want to miss out on a free feed".
But just because the feisty free-marketeer thinks the movement "inane" doesn't mean she isn't worried about it. "While it's tempting to see the occupiers as a harmless and humorous last gasp of the Left, the risk is that their grapeshot grievances will be pocketed for political purposes by those wielding power. If that happens, the present economic pain will only grow worse and last longer."
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
What have Bolt, Jones, Akerman + Hadley been up to this week? | #Ausmedia
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