Of all the nonsense that’s going on in our political scene at the moment, surely the silliest campaign is the one which is leveled at the PM’s trips overseas. Loudest amongst his critics is our shiny new leader of the Opposition. Fresh from a nice holiday in the Venetian sun, and totally devoid of any ideas (except that he’s desperate to be PM), Malcolm Turnbull has joined the fray.
Naturally the loudest and most irrational of Rudd’s critics, is the talk back herd. A typical example of this mob of air-heads, is Sydney 2GB’s midnight to dawn host, David Oldfield, the ex adviser and friend of Pauline Hansen and ex Member of the NSW Upper House, where he seemed to represent nobody except himself.
As with virtually all 2GB “hosts”, Oldfield seems to be dedicated to getting rid of our present Federal Government by foul means or foul. Amongst his other targets are Moslems, Sudanese and any other races which annoy some of his mob of adoring bigots. He usually opens his remarks with a run down of whatever happens to have been in today’s Daily Telegraph, which seems to be his main source of information, and any dirt from any other source he can lay his mouth on.
What preoccupies me, is why these windbags think that Australia’s Prime Minister shouldn’t travel overseas to meet with other world leaders to discuss these difficult times, and the problems arrising therefrom. Or is it just Labor PMs who are supposed to stay at home. Is the PM supposed to deal with these matter on the phone, or by emails. It appears that our national inferiority is still alive and well on talk-back radio.
Probably the most significant thing about this, is that all these complaints are aimed at a Labor Prime Minister. Nobody complained when the saintly Bob Menzies sat around at Lords watching a test match or two on the Australian tax payer, or when John Howard went to Washington on numerous occasions to brown nose the intellectually challenged Geo W Bush, and agree to send Aussie troops to a war founded on a lie, and which was none of our business, anyway. And, of course, as with Saint Bob of the Pig Iron, John the Man of Steel, had to have the mandatory visit to Lords.
Which brings me to the subject of talk-back radio. This medium wasn’t around when I was a kid. Commercial radio at that time put on some decent programs. They weren’t all highbrow stuff. That was left to the ABC and some on 2GB. The commercial stations put on some serials, both before and after dinner, some classical music – and 2GB and 2UW put on a weekly live, hour long play, which was performed in front of a studio audience. On 2CH, good old Bob Rogers played the kind of music he still plays. At that time the station belonged to the Anglican Church, and 2SM belonged to the Catholic Church. 2KY belonged to the trade unions and, as far as I can remember, broadcast a mix of music and other non offensive, non ear splitting music or 24 hour a day horse races. I particularly remember 2UE because their popular breakfast announcer, Gary O’Callaghan spent time talking to Sammy Sparrow, a character he invented and which the public loved. Gary lived next door to us and every now and then I got a friendly roast from his bird. It was all good fun.The ABC consisted of Stations 2BL, which was the highbrow station broadcasting a great deal of classical music, and 2FC which catered for a more general audience. The ABC didn’t broadcast any advertising material.
2FC had a children’s session with an “Argonaut’s club” to which children contributed items.
It was the ABC which taught me English. Having arrived here in 1939 as refugees from Nazi Germany, we had no radio, so every afternoon I went to a kindly neighbour who encouraged me to participate with contributions.
I know I seem to have digressed, but I wanted to give some idea of what was on offer then, and the commercial loaded crap which is al that’s available on commercial radio now. The most obnoxious of all that is talk-back.
Alan Jones, 2GB’s breakfast announcer is the most influential talk-back host. He is also by far the most intelligent of them. He is, in my view, also the most dangerous since he seems to wield a great deal of political influence which, having had close ties with the Liberal Party, he uses accordingly. However, 2GB appears to have only right wing talk back announcers ranging from Jones to the pathetically transparent Oldfield.
There are several problems with this format.
* Firstly, the announcer controls the content. When one calls, one is usually (but not always) asked what one wants to say. This is put on the announcer’s computer. If the views you express are not favoured by the announcer, he can cut you off, and answer you once you can’t reply. This is particularly undesirable at election time, since anything political put to air by an anonymous caller does not have to authorized by any Party
* Secondly, because the callers only have to give their christian name, they can slander anyone they wish or say what they want about any racial or religious group and any group wishing to reply can only do so if the announcer allows their call to go to air.
All in all, it seems that some sort of Legislative control on talk back radio is long overdue. Most of it lowers discussion to the level of the lowest common denominator of society, and is entirely controlled by the talk-back gatekeeper who has the power to skew any discussion in any direction he wishes.
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