I have this entrenched pattern of behaviour at the end of the day that goes: drive home through peak hour Sydney traffic for an hour or so, arrive home and pour some kind of liquid relief, assemble something resembling food for First Mate, Tim the Cabin Boy and for me, and flop in front of the ABC news.
But as the ABC’s decline into mediocrity or worse, as the cliché du jour says, as the ABC “races the commercials to the bottom” and incredibly, as they stretch out this bit of linguini to “cover” 24 hours of News, they have unwittingly set me free from the chains of habit.
I don’t know whether you’ve listened to ABC News radio, or as an antidote to insomnia watched the interestingly arrayed Virginia Trioli on ABC2 in the morning, but the modus operandi is well-established here and here.
OK, it’s not just that they run a tightly-repetitive cycle that’s so off-putting, it’s the bloody content. Who’s responsible for throwing together this dog’s breakfast of thin, gruelling, regurgitated tripe?
Let me illustrate.
Take a look at the news items that show up on the increasingly not worth the trouble web site. A quick scan this morning reveals the cheerful parade:
- Liquid bomb plotters jailed
- Oil spill, oil spill oil spill
- Gangster’s girlfriend charged over murder plot
- Men ‘possibly’ shot in mass brawl – let’s hope so, otherwise this item loses its punch
- Child sex scandal
- Drunk attacked after attempting to wrestle croc
- Death toll in Uganda
- Scary economic news
- Outrageous medical fraud / misinformation
- Endless speculation about political power / malfeasance, skulduggery and incompetence.
There was more folderol, but I’m sure you get the drift.
Today is clearly a pretty upbeat day – after last week’s headlines with photographs of one deceased digger coming back from Afghanistan and another being buried by his family and all the political heavies – 2 out of the 5 headline articles – only broken by an apparently important game of soccer going on in South Africa.
I used to think that the ABC was the last refuge for staying in touch without having to sit through or listen to unremitting trivia, gloom and despair. I used to think that it was important to stay informed and keep in touch. But when I stopped perving on Juanita Phillips and actually listened to her speak her lines I fell into a rather deep disappointment.
We were given a warning when Kerry O’Brien mistook insolence for investigative reporting and Tony Jones confused his guests’ shameless self-promoting buffoonery with “public debate”. We should have heeded the warning sooner.
But now, I can comfortably set those silly notions aside, comfortable in the knowledge that there’s nothing left to miss and sink into a post-work stupor, blissfully numbed, reminisce about the days when the ABC was more than just a recycler of BBC comedy and take a long pull on an exquisitely dry martini.
…. also showing off over at the Daily Bludge
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
News, Emmjay? How much of it is ever actually ‘new’…? I’ve kinda gone off the ABC ever since JWH installed it’s last board; I suppose now Julia will do the same and install her own board of ABC executives and prove that the ABC is no longer the ‘Australia’s’ channel but merely an instrument of government propaganda.
😉
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I tend to agree with Emmjay – not happy.
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Forgot to tell that Pigs looks better after Emm’s and HOO’s renovations. Well done!
(Soccer was the highlight of my ABC news watching of late, never fancied Juanita 🙂 )
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After all those years of not able to receive ABC or SBS without a complicated extra decoder and a forest of bristling electronics on the farm roof together with a battery of remotes to try harness a few flickering images, we now let the sheer luxury of all those pictures, digitally as well, wash over us in the morning.
We saunter around in our morning coats, croissants crumbling and are still rapturous about our modern inner city ‘villa ,’ town house here, at Moss Vale.
We have internet and phone all in one, no more re-booting or having to wait for neighbours to finish their phone conversations before we get our turn.
Of course, as we kept on flickering the remote upwards to even newer discoveries, we found there are just music channels without pictures at all.
Ah, it never stops, does it!
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I watched QandA last night, and wondered what was John Elliot doing there, telling the charming judge not to touch him…as if anyone would.
Tony let the irritating poodle bark forever, even Milo had to walk away.
Still Hawke and Blanche on Kerry’s Show were a sight to remember !
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At least John Elliot was interesting. The poodle was his usual obnoxious little shit self, I though. Couldn’t answer a question without vomiting the party line.
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Yes Algie, vomiting the party line is just about the right expression, last week it was that horrid Brandis doing the same thing. I have to say the Labor side behaves better each time in my opinion.
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The volumptuous windbag Hockey was barely any different to the poodle or the rat caller last night on Lateline
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…they never talk about what they are going to do if elected, they are just itching for a fight and bullying.
I got really shitty with Ellis today, does he really think that Abbott is an option.
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I dunno he lives in Warringah and they’re funny people on the peninsula. He thinks Maxine is going to lose her seat, personally I think she is going to increase her majority. Then many of those who live outside Bennelong thought Howard wouldn’t lose his seat last time and laughed at any suggestion.
When the election is called Abbott will be the issue and the tories will be shown up for the vacuous lot they are.
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Algernon, Hockey isn’t ‘volumptuous’ (‘voluptuous’?) he’s just fat!
😉
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Mind you, I agree he’s a windbag!
😉
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“I have this entrenched pattern of behaviour at the end of the day that goes: drive home through peak hour Sydney traffic for an hour or so …”
Why? Isn’t half the point of living in the inner city so you don’t have to do that? Isn’t most of the Inner West near a train station? Or on a decent bus route? The planes don’t count.
Agree 1000% with the news bit.
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Yes, living in the Inner West IS about what you said. Unfortunately some of those darned clients choose to not live anywhere near public transport and I choose to travel swine-flu-free 🙂
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