And is Townsville Bulletin iditor Lachlan Pinocchio Heywood in deep shit with his southern bosses? He should be, because they now face a very costly payout for a disgraceful and unforgiveable blunder by the Astonisher. Which is a bit rough for a paper they are now giving away … literally.
Labor’s left-wing luvvie Cathy Curlytop O’Toole gets the nod … comfortably … to take on Ewen Jones in the federal seat of Herbert in the national poll next year … this year? … next month??? Whenever …
And Bentley takes his lead from Voltaire, to neatly skewer all and sundry in the debate caused by set-up that backfired on the tiresome Q&A program on the ABC. Indeed, we’ll look at whole issue a little later but for those who hang out for your weekly Bentley boost, and since the multi-faceted saga is so well known, our man has as usual nailed yet again, spotting an unlikey alliance between two of the main characters.
Another look at that issue in a sec.
Here is the ‘Ville, it hasn’t been a good week for the Townsville Bulletin … or for some of its readers.
The Magpie has thought long and hard about writing the following, not wishing to further distress a grieving – and very angry – family. But this pretentious, sloppy newspaper with nil standards of maintaining sensitivity, responsibility or, it would seem decency, must be held to account for this appallingly slipshod report. The ‘Pie will give only details that are necessary.
On Thursday, the paper ran a prominent page 2 story (for obvious reasons, no link will be provided) about the death of a young local footballer, prominently stating that he had taken his own life. The story, by reporter Victoria Nugent, then linked his death to a string suicides by other young North Queensland footballers.
This was published on THURSDAY, the day of the 23-year-old’s funeral.
But there was no information or evidence, from the police or anyone else – certainly none that could be relied on to print – that this young man had committed suicide.
Several people who contacted The ‘Pie were adamant self-harm was not the case. The ‘Pie knows nothing of the truth of this or otherwise, and police have passed the matter on to the coroner to determine the cause of death. It matters not a jot what are the eventual findings, but now the question must be put – and may very will be put officially – to Ms Nugent as to how she came to make this terrible blunder. Guesswork? A wink and a nod? Surely not.
The family lost no time in letting the Bulletin know what the paper had done and how the family felt about it, so on FRIDAY, this appeared on page 3. I
In fairness, it is an unequivocal mea culpa, deservedly prominent and swift.
But the trouble for the Bulletin is magnified tenfold, because the editors at the Australian in Sydney or Brisbane picked up the original story and re-printed it pretty much as it appeared in the Bulletin. There will be legal argument whether The Australian will be a party to any possible action (with that apology, it will never get to court, it will almost be a quite non-disclosed settlement): The ‘Pie has been unable to ascertain if the Australian also printed an apology but you can bet that southern scribes will have a healthy distrust of anything emanating from the Townsville Bulletin from now on. Good one, you champions of Townsville, you.
The ‘Pie doesn’t know the family involved, and they have his deepest sympathy, for both the passing and the paper’s blunder, but he urges anyone who does know them to urge them not be soft-soaped into thinking an apology is a ‘fair’ outcome and that is the end of the matter. The only way the Bulletin can be made to address its generally appalling standards of journalism so greatly caused by commercial greed, is to make them pay for such blunders. Six figures is not out of the question, get yourselves a good lawyer, and don’t be uncomfortable about getting such a payout – think of the sporting foundation you could establish bearing the name of your lost loved one, for instance.
You’d be doing the whole community a great favour as well in keeping this dog’s dinner of a publication to account.
The Bulletin could well have done without this (but it’s their own bloody fault) at this time, when it appears that they are now literally giving the paper away in some quarters.
And if they’re doing here, one wonders where else you might get a Bulletin the purchase of other more worthwhile goods (fairy floss, marshmallows?)
The pix were accompanied by a sad note from the snapper.
It appears that they have given up on selling papers through quality news reporting and marketing.
The new policy is “if they won’t buy it, we’ll just give it away”.
The journos are all under instructions to raise more revenue. Lewis Ramsay (commerial boss) isn’t interested in journalism, just revenue. Sad days indeed.
A good example of the coverage-for-cash policy they have adopted to try and maintain the huge profits of the good old days appears in today’s Astonisher.
On pages 6 & 7 of a Lifestyle liftout/feature entitled “Celebrating the rich history of professional services in Townsville” we have 2 stories – and 2 matching ads.
One features a story about Austin Tax Accounting, which has been in existence since 2014 !!!!! Lot of history there.
The other focuses on Clarity Hearing Solutions – a very successful business, no doubt, but part of Townsville’s “rich history of professional services”?????
The story reveals that the founder of the business grew up in Charleville, started the business in Rockhampton, then opened in Emerald, Roma, Charleville, Mackay and Bowen – then at long last, Townsville.
They make dills of themselves at every turn.
And this was in a week when the Bulletin decided that henceforth the popular weekly Sun paper will now be a Tuesday insert in the paper itself, although it’s understood for the time being, there will be free copies available but apparently at newsagents only.
This is itself flies in the face of industry trends. The latest survey shows that weekly community newspaper are actually growing in circulation and popularity, some with spectacular increases. One has increased by more than 25%. The papers in this survey appear to be APN and others BUT NOT News Corpse throw-overs.
And a final note for this panicked bunch of Rupert’s headless chooks.
A ‘rumour’ wafted into the Crikey.com Tips and Rumours site this week (which generally has early info on matters that turn out to be substantially correct). Could this be the future for the Townsville Bulletin?
One rumour doing the rounds involves a curious way to beef up the audiences of two of News Corp’s struggling regional papers.
The Gold Coast Bulletin and The Geelong Advertiser, a tipster says, could soon be replaced with local versions of The Courier-Mail and Herald Sun respectively. Both regional papers have had rapidly declining circulations recently, though not more than is common in other regional titles (of which News Corp has just eight). The most recent audit data shows the Monday-to-Friday Gold Coast Bulletin was down 15.5% year-on-year, while the Geelong Advertiser is down 8.7% in circulations. Rolling their audiences into the metros through regional editions could boost their web reach and buy them more time to turn things around, or so the thinking goes.
During the latest round of budget meetings News Corp’s regional papers copped a bit of heat from the company’s “desperate Sydney hierarchy”, the tipster added, so anything to reverse the falls is likely to at least get a look-in.
Admittedly, both the Goldy and Geelong are in close proximity to a major metropolitan centre, while any such move here in the ‘Ville would be fraught with the possibility of a back-lash against the dreaded ‘southerners’. Bit late for that folks.
Now to that matter of A Game of Tones, and the hoopla surrounding this bloke.
Zaky Mallah
Here’s a brief summary from those who’ve just returned from holidaying on the Planet Zog.
This bloke, who looks like he wandered in from an SBS sitcom about pizza delivery– and is about as funny as same i.e. not at all – is Zaky Mallah, who was tried and acquitted of terrorism charges in the early 2000s, but did two years for threatening to kill the odd bod about the place.
He was planted in the Q&A audience last Tuesday, and asked panel member, Liberal Steve Ciobo, what would’ve happened to his citizenship if proposed new laws stripping citizenship existed when he was charged? Mr. Ciobo was straightforward in telling Mallah replied that he would’ve been happy to see no trial and him kicked out of the country. Mallah’s replied that that was the sort of ministerial statement that is sending young Aussie Muslims over to fight for IS, and that is when the fun really started.
And so on.
But perhaps even more extraordinary was PM Wingnut’s populist blanket attack on the ABC, asking idiotically ‘Whose side is the ABC on?’ and then going all IS-speak in his zinger ‘Heads should roll over this’. (What if some fancy-dress fringe dweller decides to take this as a literal direction from this prime minister and oblige with some independently audited noggin lopping of his own? Now that would be an interesting court case).
Steve Ciobo
The Magpie is completely mystified with PM Wingnut’s approach to what was an exchange out of which his government came smelling of roses. He couldn’t have asked for a better positioning and publicity of his policy (if not the entire government’s) offered by the unflinching Ciobo, the Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs. He verbally clobbered Mallah’s response by saying what a fine bunch Muslims were generally (applause) and they would be appalled by such a statement. (A bit more somewhat muted applause, but hey, look who was in the audience with you.)
Hey, Wingnut, wake up, dozey, a little gratitude would more appropriate – seems it really is ‘your’ ABC.
The tabloid media went predictably ape-shit, particularly News Corpse, who conveniently forgot that two or so years ago they PAID Mallah for an feature interview that appeared in the Australian and at least also in the Courier Mail. The H Word beats the N Word any day of the week. (A digression: President Obama did NOT say the the N…… he said nigger, you bunch of insipid nighty grippers and PC self-censorers!)
Anyway, for The ‘Pie’s at least, ABC boss Mark Scott put the whole thing sensibly to bed when he first invoked Voltaire’s oft-quoted dictum ‘I am disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it’, and then the clincher that the ABC was a ‘public’ broadcaster, not a ‘state’ (i.e. government) broadcaster.
Charlie Pickering
But we’ll give comedian/commentator Charlie Pickering have the final word. On his (ABC) TV show on Wednesday night, he said:
‘Whose e side is the ABC on? Well, if their doing their job (in a democracy), no ones’.
Quite so.
Cathy O’Toole has easily won pre-selection to be Labor’s champion for the seat of Herbert. She got about 60% overall of the local vote combined with the heavily weighted Electoral College ballots (courtesy of Left wing loyalty). Some Labor insiders are surprised by the unusually strong challenge of political newcomer to Townsville Patricia Schluter.
Cathy O’Toole
Curlytop now faces an interesting situation, because as of this moment, the federal election is likely to be decided on national issues … and right now, despite PM Wingnuts mercurial off-the-cuff, bugger-the-backbench antics, Bill Short Un’s travails seem to only just beginning, starting this week with his highly political dangerous move of using the L Word … as in ‘lied’. That of course raises it’s own questions.
But the inquiry into union corruption looks like it could blow up in his face, and there is a back-channel rumour that there is some heavy persuasion to reincarnate the rape allegations. With all that, we might be stuck with Abbott, which means the electors of Herbert face the unhappy choice of more Jumbo Dumbo, or a lame duck Labor MP.
And The ‘Pie is looking into the interesting possibility that O’Toole’s pre-selection could have some back-room ramifications on the make-up of Townsville’s next council. Will be looking at that and relaying what turns up next week.
All too heavy so far, so to the fun end of the missive, with various bits and pieces gathered around the place since last Saturday. This one got The ‘Pie thinking, and he can only conclude it could be an office romance gone wrong … nothing like a parking waloper scorned.
Pickering was his puckish best, with Anna Alphabet annoying overseas folks about our alternative energy possibilities. Larry says don’t dismiss it, she can do wonders, our gal.
And if you have some problem with the US now allowing gay marriage in all states, that’s nothing to what the Dutch have just done. sadly, this is going to be the precursor of a lot of wasted time and money, but hey, yachting barristers will have new spinnakers galore and get those helipads upgraded.
Christ, now what?
And the Short Un can’t a trick lately, what with those unfaithful Greenies doing deals with the Government. (Note where the door knob is.) Zanetti is brilliant.
Front page of the Month goes to the mordant wit who provided the Sydney Terrorgraph with this ripperabout the reported death of our two most demented IS psychopaths.
