A Note on Down Under
In Carmel yesterday evening, I joined Rob Long and my Hoover Institution colleagues John Raisian, John Taylor and Shelby Steele in speaking to a retreat for the editors of Australian newspapers
including the Australian, the Herald and Weekly Times, the Courier, the Sunday Times, and the Sunday Telegraph. During our panel discussion, I need hardly tell you, Rob and my Hoover colleagues said all kinds of brilliant and insightful things, but what I most enjoyed was dinner with our Australian hosts afterwards.
I’m predisposed to enjoy journalists anyway, I suppose. But the Aussies? Open, fun, frank, warm—and patriotic. These were people who love their country—and have a particular talent for describing it. The sense of openness. The big, empty distances. And the beaches.
Every week during the summer, Emma Chalmers, the young editor of the Courier Mail who was seated to my
right, told me, she finds time to surf. Whereupon that man on my left, Paul Kelly, a commentator for the Australian, piped up. “All Australians are surfers.”
“Oh?” I said. “And when was the last time you went surfing, Paul?” I thought was I was being funny. An author, columnist, and former editor-in-chief of the Australian, Paul, in his sixties, is one of the grand old men of Australian journalism.
Paul thought for a moment. Then he said, “Three months ago.”
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May '10
Re: A Note on Down Under
They are our closest cultural relatives. So, this means Tim Blair's on next week's podcast, finally.
Aug '10
Re: A Note on Down Under
"Think of your children, they'll be outcasts! Forced to move from city to city looking for the perfect wave"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjXVELPIq5k
May '10
Re: A Note on Down Under
More and more, I feel like if I want to spend my last years in America, I'll have to move to Australia.
Jul '10
Re: A Note on Down Under
Did you know they have compulsory voting? It is illegal to not to exercise your franchise. As with most anglophone countries, Australia has a knack for little touches that stand American Whiggery on its head.
Nov '10
Re: A Note on Down Under
Just as a reminder Mr. Robinson, we'd sure like to hear from Shelby Steele... a post, a podcast appearance, a comment, anything? :)
Feb '11
Re: A Note on Down Under
anon_academic: "Think of your children, they'll be outcasts! Forced to move from city to city looking for the perfect wave"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjXVELPIq5k · May 7 at 1:21pm
You just made my day!
Mar '11
Re: A Note on Down Under
The only reason to read an Australian newspaper is to find out what the establishment thinks it's necessary to lie about that particular week.
Re: A Note on Down Under
Sorry, but I can't agree--I can't even begin to agree. The Australian press is competitive, bumptious, and perpetually eager to stick its thumb in the eye of any powerful figure, whether prime minister, judge, or titan. And Australia has far more really good newspapers per capita that this country.
Re: A Note on Down Under
Hi Elizabeth,
Shelby has actually been on the podcast a couple of times (here and here). We expect to have him on again in the near future.
Mar '11
Re: A Note on Down Under
Paul Kelly is wrong, yet again. He was wrong in his book 'November 1975' in which he failed to give the former Governor General due credence for thoughtfulness in dismissing the then government. He was wrong when he accused the then Opposition leader Andrew Peacock of 'racism' when, going to election the Opposition decided, lightly, to oppose the government's proposed 'Multi Function Polis'. Something which has since gone nowhere.
Finally, and most importantly, he is wrong in saying 'All Australians are surfers.' I am Australian. I am not a surfer.
Sep '10
Re: A Note on Down Under
When I was younger, I was a romantic about Australia. I thought of them as a frontier country similar to ours, where rugged individualism ruled. When I was 24 I wanted to move there in search of my dreams. Over the years my impression of them has changed. I slowly discovered that they are basically a socialist country akin to Canada and probably worse. Their dracronian restrictions on their law abiding citizens to own firearms and the subsequent rise in crime, with no apparent outpouring of protest, suggests to me a people that have lost their spirit for freedom.
I now see them in the same light as I see Europe and California. Nice places to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. New Zealand seems to be at present, the only place to go in case Obama wins in 2012. Last I checked, there's not much room on that island for all of us.
Mar '11
Re: A Note on Down Under
This gathering, judging from the titles, was clearly a News Limited one. Those papers are about as conservative as the media gets in Australia, and in some respects are thoroughly conservative. For example, the Opinion Page editor of The Daily Telegraph is Tim Blair, while a major columnist for The Herald Sun (Australia's biggest selling paper) is Andrew Bolt.
Even Paul Kelly, who I criticised in the previous post, is more a centrist than a leftie, which is rare by Australian journalistic standards.
Mar '11
Re: A Note on Down Under
Peter Robinson
... The Australian press is competitive, bumptious, and perpetually eager to stick its thumb in the eye of any powerful figure, whether prime minister, judge, or titan. And Australia has far more really good newspapers per capita that this country. · May 7 at 4:12pm
Perhaps there is an issue of perspective here. They probably cover international affairs a lot better than they cover local news.
How can you say they are competitive when newspapers are published almost exclusively by just two companies: The Faifax Group and News Corp (Murdoch)?
I no longer keep track of them but two examples of what turned me off them were the media assassination of John Brogden and the Orkopolous affair.
I will explain further.
Mar '11
Re: A Note on Down Under
Following the resignation of NSW Premier Bob Carr, the leader of the opposition, John Brogden, commented that Carr would no longer need his mail-order bride. This was a reference to persistent rumors that Carr's marriage was one of convenience because voters prefer married leaders and the bride appeared out of nowhere just when Carr was challenging for the leadership.
The media ignored the comment for weeks before accusing Brogden of racism during the run up to an election, based on the fact the bride happened to be Malasian.
They threw in a couple of make-weight charges: that Brogden had "inappropriately touched" a woman journalist and propositioned another. I thought at the time, 'I hope he had a condom.'
I don't grieve for Brogden, he wasn't up to the job. He resigned, attempted suicide, and left the opposition leaderless in the middle of an election campaign.
This manufactured scandal allowed the Labor government to win despite the numerous very real scandals that caused Carr and at least five of his ministers to resign.
May '10
Re: A Note on Down Under
Moral of the story (if I may): Don't just read about the nation you're writing to serve. Make time to experience it.
In other words, spend more time around non-writers.
Nov '10
Re: A Note on Down Under
Blue Yeti
Hi Elizabeth,
Shelby has actually been on the podcast a couple of times (here and here). We expect to have him on again in the near future. · May 7 at 4:34pm
Thank you!
Mar '11
Re: A Note on Down Under
What journalist could resist a story about a government minister who had sex with a number of under aged boys, paid the boys for their complaisance with drugs, and did all this in his taxpayer funded electorate office.
Australian journalists managed to keep this story, about NSW Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Milton Orkopoulos, quiet from November 2006 until after a state election in March of 2007.
They reported the fact that a minister had been sacked by the Premier for 'misconduct' and that he had subsequently been arrested by the police, (Note the order of these events, the media did not.) but no lurid details emerged until the trial.
The matter was, of course, sub judice but that never stopped them before.
Mar '11
Re: A Note on Down Under
I sadly agree with Conservative Episcopalian, about what my country has become and I blame our monolithic media in large part for the deterioration.
I can assure C.E. that Australian firearms owners protested as loudly as they could but were libelled by the whole media and were not allowed to put their case to the public while the politicians rammed through ridiculous firearms laws, in indecent haste and without any debate; which they were able to do because of hysteria whipped up by the media.
Like the U.S., we had a big fight about abortion and had it forced on us by judicial fiat. The difference came at that point because our monolithic media just ruled a line under it and opponents of abortion have been invisible ever since.
The right of self defence has been abolished by administrative and judicial fiat and it's just fine with the media.
I suspect C.E. is wrong about New Zealand. The Kiwis seem to oscillate between self righteousness and self-loathing, which, I think, makes them liberals.
May '10
Re: A Note on Down Under
Born and bred in Perth (once home to the America's Cup), I used to take the bus to the beach before I was old enough for a drivers license. Once I had a car, it was filled with sand. Left for the UK then returned ten years later to Sydney - living five minutes from the beach. Beachgoing is ingrained in our culture - our population is 99% coastal.
I've had many a debate with a mate living in England - which country is more libertarian? Suffice it to say neither comes close to the US. But we do have a inherent distrust in government and authority - the Eureka Stockade being a historic case.
As for media - it is polarised between Fairfax (centre-left) and Murdoch's News Corp (centre-right). Maybe it's me, but News Corp seems to do a better job at "keeping the b*st*rds honest" no matter which party is in power. Fairfax tends to pull its punches with Labor (left) governments.
Oh, and we all have barbecues. We may be the only country that enjoys eating the animals that appear on its coat of arms.
May '10
Re: A Note on Down Under
Are you referring to Australia's only national newspaper The Australian? I disagree with this being generalised to all the press in Australia, as it is a gross simplification.
If you are referring to the political hacks in our Capital Canberra, I agree with you. Most of them have been captured (like the White House Press Corps) by those they are to report upon.
How many fellow reporters/journalists took Helen Thomas to task over the past 20 years as she became more hateful and bigoted?
Canberra is a government town with little underclass (unlike D.C.) Wealthy government employees who make up the majority of the union members in Australia; never held to account for their waste/incompetence, as long as they keep their Minister safe.
Australia does have a concentration of media ownership which many find unacceptable here, but our population is only 22M. Think of taking the population of NY State and spread it across 2/3 the size of the USA, this brings great cost challenges in distribution.
Also, I don't surf the ocean as the waves (50degreesF) here in Melbourne are slight at best.
Edited on May 8, 2011 at 6:09am