With Nick Cater of the Menzies Research Institute.
He does not describe himself as a conservative but he sees that some of the best commentary at present is coming from conservative voices.
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Can’t argue with his cartoon.
Can’t agree with Rafe’s statement.
5 days ago: Palaszczuk warns QLDers Omicron is more dangerous than Delta.
Today: QLD vax rates have jumped amidst fears of Omicron.
Recently: British scientists apologise for using fear to promote compliance, admit it was unethical.
Propaganda works with the sheeple.
In other words he has an open mind.
That’s why he’s regarded as a heretic by the Manichean prog-left.
Just finished listening.
That was a ripper.
Thanks Rafe.
He is probably one of the many people who were driven to the left by the introduction of conscription for military service that was the issue that crippled the non-left forces in the Vietnam debate.
His bio says he was drafted, registered as a conscientious objector but was rejected for service on account of being deaf in one ear. There’s always seemed to me to be a bit of the old anti-authoritarian ’60s ethos about him, so naturally he wouldn’t sit easily amongst today’s authoritarian Left.
The great paradox of Michael Leunig – in fact, the great hypocrisy of Michael Leunig – is that, while declaring allegiance to freedom as he does here, he chooses to keep working for The Age/Fairfax/Nine media, which is one of the foremost sources of political repression, censorship and anti-freedom propaganda.
He could have walked away from it, as his Age colleague John Spooner did about two decades ago, and worked for News Corp, which allows and encourages the freedom of expression he says he craves.
But he hasn’t because, like the rest of the leftard media establishment, he doesn’t have the wit to see through the left’s infantile demonisation of News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch.
Murdoch is so hands-off throughout his global empire he has, for example, allowed the London Times to become of hotbed of loony leftism that was, for example, the foremost global media opponent of President Donald Trump.
With Leunig, I worked for independent weekly Nation Review before we both gravitated to The Age – the broadsheet* in Spencer Street, before it followed political fashion all the way to the fascism it currently champions.
Because he’s an intellectual weakling, Leunig now prefers to see himself as a victim of the fascist media system, while choosing to keep working within it.
*The Age is now a tabloid, but it is politically incorrect to refer to itself as such so it calls its new format “compact”.
Leunig has been seriously red-pilled lately. His notorious cartoon seems to’ve been the catalyst.
I welcome his slow return towards sanity.
“Today: QLD vax rates have jumped amidst fears of Omicron.”
I suspect that has a lot to do with the restrictions on those who haven’t had covid jabs after Dec 17.
Tom is right to describe Leunig as an intellectual weakling. His preference is isolation and outlook seriously unsocial. His occasional divergences into the real world usually end up with some version of whining retreat, often accompanied by claims of some form of oppression.
As for Murdoch, it’s no surprise that The Times would whack Trump because 1) the audience largely despised Trump and 2) Murdoch thought him a joke. Some may recall that Murdoch actually spoke against him and in favour of Democrats early in the piece, only to become his phone a friend guy during his term. Now, I note, he tells his shareholders Trump is poison. On which point I forecast a swing away from Morrison the moment it seems his number is up.
Which is also unethical.
Murdoch took no interest in the Times’ editorial line on US politics at the 2016 or 2020 election. He never instructed Times staff or editors what to write. As I wrote earlier, Murdoch’s ownership is so hands-off that competitors would mistake it for carelessness.
The only time in my life or working for News and Fairfax/Nine titles that I have seen Murdoch take a direct interest in his papers was the standoff with UK print unions at the time he established his Wapping fortress in London — and that had little to do with editorial policies. It was mainly about cutting production costs, which had become bloated as a result of unionisation. I worked at Wapping for a short time as a sub-editor in 1990 and saw it first hand.
,,, The only time in my life of working for News and Fairfax/Nine titles …
“Some may recall that Murdoch actually spoke against him and in favour of Democrats early in the piece, only to become his phone a friend guy during his term. Now, I note, he tells his shareholders Trump is poison. On which point I forecast a swing away from Morrison the moment it seems his number is up.”
Umm, before you continue in your career as a clairvoyant you might want to get some facts right.
As it stands, you’re wrong. I’ve known many journalists in my time and I’m the stepdaughter of a well known journalist and I know for a fact that Rupert Murdoch does not interfere in editorial lines and anyone who thinks he does is a Murdoch conspiracy monger and is no better than Rambling Rudd and Mal the Miserable who seem to want to blame Murdoch for all the world’s woes and particularly for their own failings. As for Murdoch telling his “shareholders that Trump is poison”……I’m not aware of Murdoch saying that and if he did please provide a source. In the meantime I note Murdoch said the following to shareholders a few weeks ago…..
“The current American political debate is profound, whether about education or welfare or economic opportunity.
“It is crucial that conservatives play an active, forceful role in that debate, but that will not happen if President Trump stays focused on the past. The past is the past, and the country is now in a contest to define the future.”
Murdoch also took aim at digital giants Facebook and Google for trying to “silence conservative voices” and manipulating the digital ad market to the detriment of publishers, advertisers and the public.””
Precisely, Ruperdink!
Trump making time for Fox’s Sean Hannity to reminisce about what a great president he was is a pointless waste of time.
Regardless of the 2020 election cheating, Trump currently looks like yesterday’s man.
he still believes in the old left, you know the one that claimed the moral high ground with grand and lofty statements and actually gave a shit about the little guy.
Unfortunately the fake compassion has worn away to reveal the totalitarian core.
Tommy tells it (again).
“Oh no” (holding nose) “That smelly Leunig isn’t one of us. Even if he is right about about it, he’s right for the wrong reasons”.
– Tribalist idiots.
That’s a bit unfair, Arks. The non collectivists among us are more than capable of recognising a direct hit when we see one, FFS.
Good comments on Rupert from Tom and Cassie.
Rupert was a hero at Wapping and he led from the front. Nice story from the print room, he wanted some kind of half page setup and when the troops wondered what to do he jumped up on the machine (must have been a while ago) and pulled down a bar sitting at the top to insert somewhere to adjust the page size.
Not just a pretty face!
Cassie: Murdoch dumped on Trump at his annual shareholder meeting. Try Google (cheaper than clairvoyants).
You don’t know anything as a fact unless you were present. Certainly not by knowing someone who was a journalist somewhere on the planet. However, if you were to talk with people in Government in the US, UK, Australia and elsewhere you’d quickly discover that Murdoch does indeed run agendas in his media to get what he wants. He has done extremely well from it, getting things others cannot (often simply by walking over the law or regulation, as he did when he bought HWT, set up his US TV and launched Sky in the UK).
Tom: I’m afraid sub-editors are often last to know.
“Revsays:
December 6, 2021 at 8:46 am”
LOL. Rev Head knows…he knows….he knows. As for “You don’t know anything as a fact unless you were present.” Were you present Rev Head? No.
As for “Try Google (cheaper than clairvoyants).”. You’re a comedian…just not a very good one.
Cassie: Yes, I was present in the conversations with people in governments I described. I’ve also had conversations with people who worked directly for Murdoch on this subject.
The Google bit wasn’t a joke, it was a suggestion that you check to see what Murdoch said at his shareholder meeting rather than gaslight as you did.