It’s a nonsense, it’s absurd, it’s irrational and ridiculous.
These are the opinions I’ve heard expressed and read today about Murdoch media castigation of Cate Blanchett’s four second appearance in a pro carbon price presentation. It’s a media driven beat-up, pure & simple. Social media decries the tactics and by their opposition to absolutely anything the current government does, simply exposes the Murdoch cabal as nothing more than what we already know it to be. A conservative ideologue’s mouthpiece.
Dick Smith declined to appear in the presentation because he feared having his reputation besmirched by the Murdoch pack in exactly the same manner as they’ve done with Blanchett. Smith declared himself ‘gutless’ and personally I’d agree, wholeheartedly. Rich, poor, black, white or brindle there is no excuse for not standing up for what one believes in. Smith says he accepts the science & advocates a carbon price, then he should be prepared to back himself, as Blanchett, Michael Caton and John Hewson have done.
Malcolm Farnsworth makes his points, and I have to say I agree with most, quite well in this Unleashed piece.
For what it’s worth, I think the television ad will be totally ineffective. I think using Blanchett is a mistake, but not for the reasons I had thrust at me yesterday. Our politics is still susceptible to the drawcard of apparent celebrity and we really need to grow up.
Yes, Malcolm, we do need to grow up, at least a small but vocal minority would seem to need to. I disagree that the ad will prove ineffectual. No-one can say whether it will or it won’t. The important thing to focus upon is that people of note have decided to stand up & be counted. As John Hewson noted on ABC Breakfast radio this morning, he knew he was on the right track when the Murdoch press targeted him. And isn’t that what the ad is all about? Getting noticed and drawing attention to an extremely important issue which a philosophical bunch of narrow-minds wish would go away because it frightens them to think they might just be culpable as human beings.
It goes without saying that the current government couldn’t sell ice at mid-day in Zanzibar. For whatever reason – be it fear of being tapped for touching the public purse, or being accused of pretending to touch the public purse to sell it’s message – the current government has proven utterly inept at telling any narrative the way they want to tell it. Had Kevin Rudd displayed more backbone in the face of drones within his own party when PM, and gone for the double dissolution he’d successfully garnered, his ETS, as flawed as some like to think it may have been, would be in place now. Labor fluffed their lines and are now paying the cost.
Political faux pas aside, what place does media have either promoting, or denying the rights of citizens, be they celebrity or Neville Nobody, an expression of opinion. The performance of Tony Abbott et al in the House today was equally disingenuous, preferring to focus on Cate Blanchett’s expression of opinion as “someone who lives six months of the year in Hollywood, where they don’t have a carbon tax”. Apparently if you don’t live in Oz full time, act in movies or on TV, have a bird-watching pastime, used to front a political party or *GASP* have an opinion and dare to express it, then Tony Abbott doesn’t think very much of you. Well, I have an opinion, love expressing it, revel in distressing those who’d rather I didn’t and welcome the drivel-laden bile which always results when I do because that means my opinion counts. If others would rather I remain quiet while they spout their objection to something I hold important, I’ll simply get louder. It’s what we ALL need to realise, and ALL need to start doing. Get involved!