Had his heart muscle not had a fatal disagreement with a mean spirited, flu virus, my father would have been 100 this year.
My father taught me all I know about cynicism.
Dad had a number of plans for implementation when he achieved the dictatorship of Australia. Of this we were all spared.
But up there with his favourite ideas was the public machine gunning of the worst journalist of the month – every month. This, he posited, would quickly improve the standard of journalism in Australia.
With the media screaming, “FINANCIAL DISASTER”, “FUNDS FROZEN”, etc. I’ve been wondering whether those editors would have found themselves in Dad’s sights.
Did the media cause the government to bring in the bank fund guarantee to quickly cut off the chance of a run on the banks? Would there have been the danger of such a run had not the media put the frighteners on everybody?
The saying goes that we get the government we deserve and I suppose we likewise get the media we deserve.
If it’s shock and awe that we watch and read then it’s shock and awe that we’ll get.
Or Brad and Angelina.
A pity, really.
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Undoubtedly there is a financial crisis, but moreover there is a crisis of confidence. Today’s front page news shows battlers with the headline “Struggle Street”. Overnight the US stock market gained 11%. No prizes for guessing which creates the more sensationalist headline and which undermines confidence more.