Of drones, dingbats and drivel … a single story in The Daily Astonisher aka the Bulletin encapsulates the city’s underlying problem – lying being the operative part …
The American Great Divide continues in the US ….
How a much-loved charity mascot in Britain made a right dick of himself …
… and The Astonisher unwittingly ‘fesses up to failure – The Magpie examines the mirror maze effect of failing to sell your own product in which you hope others will sell theirs.
And this week, The ‘Pie is pleased to announce that the quality of the comments is now such that he has included several of the week’s offerings in this edition of the Nest. And he will continue to do so in future if the standards remain suitably literate . The ‘Pie’s noble recognition of his readers? No, he’s just lazy.
But first …
Just for the record, from the Townsville Bulletin
NATIONWIDE News Pty Ltd, publisher of The Australian, has been ordered to pay a Townsville man $100,000 for defamation. A Supreme Court jury ruled in April that The Australian had defamed former Townsville Bulletin journalist Malcolm Weatherup in an article about a neighbourhood dispute in its Media section in 2014. The jury ruled the article would lead a reasonable reader to believe Mr Weatherup was a habitual drunk who had incurred the “wrath of judges” while working as the Bulletin’s court reporter. The jury found that those allegations were not true. Justice David North SC delivered the finding in Mackay on November 16.
This matter, which received national attention during the week, is not finalized, Nationwide News is yet to decide if they will appeal the jury’s verdict.
Onward
It is said that clichés should be avoided like the plague but then,m they have stood the test of time. Proof then that a single picture is worth a thousand words. A brilliant Bentley has nailed Townsville’s deepening dilemma with his unblinking brush.
Bentley’s not the only one doubting the mayor’s motives and performance. There is a general realization that when comes to vision, the Mullet has always been Mullet Magoo.
Typical of the growing unease is this summation from one Nest reader during the week, who wrote:
The front page stories in the Astonisher just get better. Only recently the biggest story of the week in the Saturday paper was the Mayor suggesting the city heart traders have a siesta from lunch time missing their busiest trading period of the day when the people who work in the city are on lunch only to reopen when the only people in Flinders Street are the itinerants. What a f–king brainstorm.
Yesterday she was hammering the people of this city for using the water they paid for. The Mullet has been on council for more than twenty years, sadly some of that as mayor. She knows full well that this city should not be in this situation with water.
We have one of the biggest and the most reliable dams in the world at the Burdekin.
It’s full.
It was built in part to supply this growing city.
All the advice Jenny Hill has received over the last five years has been telling her we must build the second pipeline because this city has outgrown the capacity available from the old pipeline.
The drought is a factor but we should be drought proof when so much water is only a couple of hundred kms away. The cost of pumping can be offset by solar power so the cost can be dealt with by using some lateral thinking. Hells Gate is being talked about but even if it is built in my lifetime you will still need to build a pipeline to run water to this city.
This is not just about drought, it’s more about the growth of this city. The Mayor has been parading about in news stories about land developments but is still doing nothing to secure our water supply.
Right now we cannot supply water to these new developments.
Right now even in the good times we are struggling to treat and supply sufficient water.
The Mayor knows this now. We are currently getting more reports on water by state and federal governments. These reports are unnecessary and a waste of taxpayers money because they already know the answers to the questions. The only thing we’re awash with is a wave of delaying tactics because they don’t want to spend the money in the north.
Why are we being told we must come down to 100 mega litres per day? Because that is all she can pump from the old pipeline. With a second pipeline we would have 200 mega litres a day available to us and this city would not be in this disgraceful state.
And remember, m’dears, we wouldn’t vote for water security advocate Jayne Arlett and demonized Townsville First. As ye sow, so shall ye reap. folks.
And The Bulletin Again Shows It Is Part Of The Problem, Not The Solution
At first glance, The ‘Pie thought there had been an outbreak of brains down in Flinders Street West when he spied this front page on Thursday.
A story about drones? Ahh, at last, the paper was about to expose the pathetic performance of our three state members, drones of the first water, one and all.
But the old bird’s pleasure soon turned to poo, when the case turned out to be exactly the opposite.
It was in fact, our chief drone and dingbat Townsville MP Scott Stewart wittering on amusingly about the use of aerial drones to ‘help combat’ the aarming wave of kiddy car thefts in Townsville. It was solely just another risible thought-fart to avoid actually tackling the real issues of penalties and courts. This stupidity was not worthy of a front bar pundit let alone a front page, but was nevertheless jumped on with glee by a paper more interested in puns than punishment.
This had the entire police force of the town in a fit of the giggles suited to the woman’s high heels they were all wearing for charity last week … they all know this is unworkable flapdoodle that just won’t happen. Besides, they’re doing a pretty good job, they aren’t the weak link, as you will see.
The ‘Pie will let another reader who commented during the week, to ram the point home
Cracker November 24, 2016 at 9:56 am (Edit)Back to the front page of the bulletin today. I laughed so hard I cried. Why is this idiot editor even entertaining this rubbish about drones fixing youth crime. This is nothing more than a desperate attempt by Scott Stewart who along with Harper and O’Rourke have failed this city completely.
Lets not forget the thirty extra police officers who were brought to Townsville a couple of months ago for no change in the crime rates.
Now the drones are going to replace the helicopter that was going to track stolen cars. There are twenty to thirty cars stolen every night. Initially I was wondering who decided which stolen car out the thirty per night the helicopter was going to follow. Now Scott Stewart says we can have a fleet of drones to track them. Who is going to fly the drones? How do they determine which car they are watching from the heavens is stolen? Will there be a squad car assigned to each drone? Will the drones need clearance from the RAAF base to fly over the city particularly in the flight path to the airport? We will all know what a drone looks like when the car thieves take photos of the drones while they are driving their latest stolen car and post it on face book while flipping the bird at the drone. Amazingly the sheer stupidity of this idea is lost on that fool Ben English in his attempts to save Stewart, O’Rourke and Harper and back any crazy idea the Labor party puts forward before the next state election.
Here is the kicker. Catching these little shits is not the problem. The police are already doing a pretty good job in that area now. The real problem is the revolving door at the court house. Steal a car tonight get arrested go to court tomorrow and be out stealing another car the following night that is the cycle.
This is where Stewart, O’Rourke and Harper need to do their jobs and dish out the penalties the community is crying out for. When is this paper going to wake up? When are these incompetent state members going to do their job? I don’t often agree with Bob Katter but he is absolutely right when he says open the boot camps and take these little turds out of circulation and while they’re there, show them what a days hard work looks like. No kid gloves, this approach is clearly not working. But that is clear to everyone except the Bulletin and the Labor Party State Government.
The ‘Pie posts this comment because he could not have said it better, but would add there is the danger of the Unintended Consequence inherent is this idea, and that is that it would provide target practice for the little snots … and that would have the unwelcome encouragement of introducing guns in to the equation.
But the drone idea was was backed up by a weird and juvenile iditorial by Ben ‘Bogan’ English, endorsing the idea, an iditorial which contained this piece of sophistry:
‘ … there is no silver bullet to Townsville’s problems and we must continue to bring new ideas into the conversation’.
No, mate, not new ideas, just the glaringly obvious solution already out there that the kiddy crim problem won’t be solved in the wide blue yonder but in the narrow confines of the magistrates court – and the confining of these lawless little turds. if the paper mounted one of self-congratulatory campaigns along these lines, it would bring the paper more respect than this lazy drivel that abdicates the Bulletin’s community responsibility.
The Paywall That’s Putting paid To The Bulletin’s Already Battered Sales Credibility
Noticed these full-on pleas from the Astonisher for digital readers?
This desperate campaign started more than six months ago, and the latest figures show that the Townsville Bulletin can’t sell itself, let alone the products it wants people to pay it to advertise.
Here it is by the numbers.
Since the ‘please-buy-me’ campaign started, there have been at least 150 full or part page ads across various publications urging people to sign up. The Bulletin used to charge as much as $5000 for a full page ad, and even although that’s apparently been dropped dramatically to around $3000, it still means that the paper has placed ads that would cost others well in excess of half a million dollars.
And for what result? Here are the circulation figures including digital take-up.
Since there were about 400 digital subscribers before this drive began, the half-a-million dollar campaign has attracted just 800 or so punters. OK , we know that News Corpse isn’t down that amount because, well, it’s their paper, but no matter what the cost, the massive outlay of space for such a paltry result will have the business community heading for the hills … or cyber space. That’s a bit of a hard to sell to prospective advertisers – in fact, a similar result for a genuine advertiser … 800 sales for half a mill … and you’d be demanding your money back. A catastrophic strike rate, even if you were selling Ferraris. And then you’d be advertising in Duo Magazine anyway. Bogans don’t buy Ferraris.
Rabieh Redux: The More Things Change, the More The Gilded Few Couldn’t Give A Toss …
The more things change, the more they stay the same, as The Magpie has been led to believe by a couple of readers during the week. This is of historic interest.
- Mango Madness
November 25, 2016 at 5:56 pm (Edit)
Once upon a time, our dearly beloved Mayor, Cr. Mooney, made an election promise. He would cut the numbers of lazy, good-for-nothing staffers at the Council. Which he did – but how? Easy peasy. He turfed non-permanent TCC staff onto the books of IPA Recruitment Services. Who ran IPA? Rabieh Krayem. And who got a commission for every hour of every staff member’s work? You guessed it. I was one of those staffers but was only on the IPA books for around 9 months before I obtained a permanent role at Council. After 10 years at TCC, I moved on. But where was my 10 year long service payment? Oops…you don’t get one. You don’t even get an invite to the gold paper clip ceremony for long-term staffers (no loss there). You broke your service record by going to IPA. All the years you worked at TCC before that interlude have been wiped from the slate. I doubt Tony or Rabieh would miss a few grand, but it sure would have made a difference to me and the other people this happened to.
And that attracted this reply.
LSL
November 26, 2016 at 9:12 am (Edit)
Some of us are still there that have experienced the same problem. Though not all were forced from TCC temp to IPA. Those that survived that cull must have been Mooney Munchers. Would not be surprised if something similar happens in the near future.
To The Lighter Side
The post-election sniping continues apace, even to worries that there may be some actual sniping before it’s all finished. One trusts not.
Some, like The ‘Pie are content in one way with the situation … that contendedness summed up in the single word ‘curosity’. ‘What next?’ is the continual thought at the top of mind.
The Trumpet’s unwelcome advice to Downing Street that Nigel Farage would make a good ambassador to the US was a real bummer for the Guardian’s Steve Bell. …
… while ‘bitchin’ about the bitch’ , as the uncharitable refer to The Clint, continues apace.
Meanwhile Back In Oz
Recent revelations about the possible dereliction of duty and blatant discrimination by the current Australian of the Year, former Army boss David Morrison was too much for the razor-sharp Paul Zanetti. Like many, including The Magpie, he ain’t too happy with the current selection process for the honorary post of Oz Du Jour .
Finally, Paedophile Panto
Was it a case of a cunning Pudsey the Paedophile hiding in plain sight? Or maybe a ‘wardrobe malfunction’ when the much-loved BBC charity mascot turned up at a shopping mall in England to hug the kids.
If the costume isn’t on back-to-front (and the appendage turns out not to be a tail), there must be one dreamingly smiling Mrs Bear out there somewhere.
Til next week … or … If you have enjoyed this rant, feel free to join in on the comments during the week. And if you’re feeling extra generous, you might help out with the Nest’s running repairs with a donation. The how to donate button is below.
