Yes. Journalists can now focus on an incompetent government that has borrowed a billion dollars a week from our grandchildren for cash bribes to improve the leader's polls . They can concentrate on Labor's abortive attempt to silence free speech, a MRRT that failed to raise any money and a carbon tax that failed to change the temperature .They can concentrate on vague unfunded feel-good policies to be implemented sometime beyond the life of this government such as Gonski and NDIS requiring huge amounts of money which we will also have to borrow from our children.

HI Cath ... what are LIBERAL POLICIES??? There are no Liberal Party policies ... or costings. That is why Ms Grattan, is unable to comment on the (mis)Leader of the Opposition without majority in his own party that in turn has no forward policies for all Australians.

Rather, Ms Grattan is being allowed by the TC Editorial Board to abuse her position of power as TC Political Editor ( labelled as such by none other than Fran Kelly on ABC RN this am) to pursue her personal vendetta against our Prime Minister.

It is time for the readership to rebel against this TC plot to destabilise one of the most successful governments since WWII.

Yes, there are plenty of policies that can be discussed Cath, Labor even having a heap that a mess has been made of and then others they have failed to deliver on and still our nation's debt burden is soaring up past an expected $$300B very soon if it is not already there.

I have a newspaper cutting from a couple of years ago when the debt was edging to or had just exceeded $$$100B and it was then estimated it would be taking all of 18 or 19 years to pay off that debt so how long it will take now is anybody's guess, even treasurey indicating that a surplus would not likely occur until 2017 and that must also just be a guess given the spending and waste policies of this Labor government.

There is a very basic principle in live and that is living within one's means for if you do not, you will eventually become unstuck and that is what this government is doing to Australia and Australians.
They are placing an enormpous burden on all future Australians, politicians included and it must seem this is a socialist style agenda to make yourself look good by proposing all wonderful things, not knowing how it can ever be paid for and then when they are finally kicked out of power, someone has to pick up the pieces and yes, that will mean many policy decisions which will be viewed as harsh because they will be because they have to be for just ask yourself what would happen to you or anyone else individually if you were continually borrowing and unable to repay.

Ans meanwhile we have had a Rudd/Gillard policy reversal and indecision and then partial re-reversal that is seeing an increasing load put on our economy to the tune of $$Bs in encouraging more and more asylum seekers to attempt coming here to go on to social security or die in the attempt.

That's a complete fallacy Alfred as far as a longer term venture for records would show you that if an enterprise has higher costs when compared to competitors, it will fail, close up operations and some will be sooner than later.
Mining companies are competing internationally and even without competition, demand will drive commodity prices up and down.
If the rate of return on massive capital expenditures is estimated to not be as good in Australia as it may be elsewhere, projects will be developed elsewhere and all an MRRT does is to raise potential for ROROC to fall.

Hi Jack
" HI Cath ... what are LIBERAL POLICIES??? There are no Liberal Party policies ... or costings. "
No need to read any further is there for you must be ignorant some.
What is it you are a director of?
Number of cornflakes you will have for breakfast!

A billion $ a week for 5 years is 1825 billion or for 3 years is 1095 billion, where on earth do pluck these figures from. The size of the debt is not the point, its your ability to repay it that counts, Australia has a AAA plus rating, only 1 of 7 countries in the world with that. The rest of your rant is equally puerile. Of course Australia alone won’t reduce temperature it will take a far greater effort by the whole world to do that, of which we are a part, it has reduced our emissions by 8%.

RE " Ms Grattan is being allowed by the TC Editorial Board to abuse her position of power as TC Political Editor" You got that right Jack. Gratten is afforded a faux Power far beyond her means. I have had enough of this low-life emotive rhetoric that says NOTHING of Value - doesn't inform anyone - includes no factual information bar the fact that Gratten has an opinion. Big deal - NOT. But I do thank TC for being here overall and least some of the readers comments might eventually get through those the created this venue with good intentions to raise the standards. Then tthey went and hired Gratten - what a JOKE. TC may as well Rupert Murdoch Tweets - worth as much a Gratten artcile.

Thank you Sean for your kind words. Rupert would be pleased and may even be encouraged to become a regular TC contributor with "Notes from New York" or wherever he is staying within the Evil Empire... but only if he agrees to follow the TC Guidelines for Contributors.

(After all, it requires "exalted status" for the Guidelines that are waived for Ms Grattan by the TC Editorial Board).

The Readership Revolt could take the form of refusing to make any financial contribution to The Conversation until the unfortunate Grattan Affair is properly resolved.

Interesting to note that "mining entrepreneur" Robert Friedland apparently told a Hong Kong conference why he would "prefer to mine in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo or South Africa than Australia".

He said that "countries such as the US or Australia were more likely to make a claim on the wealth of mining companies".

Or, to put it another way, countries like ours were more likely to represent the interests of their citizens over multinational corporations. What a pain in the arse that must be!

Perhaps if we had Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald running the joint, Mr Friedland would find a business environment more to his liking?.

Alan
I am glad you are not the treasurer although you could not do worse than the incompetent Swan.
Back to school for you, There are 52 weeks in a year and 260 weeks in 5 years. 260 weeks at 1 billion dollars per week is $260 billion . Australia is approaching $300 million in debt so I was conservative. I can see from your calculations that maybe Gonski would have been appropriate in your case.

Australia's national debt as a % of GDP is tiny by comparison with other equivalent nations. Last I heard, although I'm not a journalist following the issues and may be out on the numbers, it was in the teens. Britain's is around 70% Go Conservatives!

Australia is not a basket case like Europe and the USA but anyone with some graph paper can project where borrowing $50 billion every year will lead. Our grandchildren will not thank us for the bill for the large screen TV we bought with the Gillard cash splash. It took Howard and Costello a decade to repay a debt much smaller that was left by the last Labor government. The UK is borrowing 3 billion every week which per capita is about the same as Australia if you wish to compare countries. The interest on the 300 billion these incompetents have racked up is 10 billion dollars a year at the current historically low rates and could increase dramatically.

Enough of this Labor dropping us in a hole rubbish. Let's get this right, if we had followed the Coalition's approach to the global financial crisis, we would be in much deeper hole and that perfect 21 years of growth would have been scuppered on year one.

The ALP actually had the good sense to listen to the Reserve Bank and their advisers and follow through with exactly the action they prescribed. It also still astonishes me that a myth has surfaced that the schools infrastructure program is seen as a failure when it was one of the more successful programs this country has ever run. The insulation debacle ran into problems because it was a cowboy industry with almost no decent government legislation around it. A widely condemned mistake.

That said, Australia is in a much better position because, on the whole, the ALP did the right thing at the right moment when the rest of the world was going to the wall.

At the same time this hysterical need to get to a surplus by cutting everything in sight will actually have a powerfully negative impact on a recovering economy. Once the rest of the world catches back up and the Aussie dollar settles down, we will see a significant recovery in tax intake and a very dramatic reduction of the deficit. On current form, it looks like the Coalition will waltz into a powerfully performing economy after someone else has done all the hard work.

As for the balls-up of a mining tax, go back and have a close look at who opposed the original tax, which would have been very successful if it had gone through in its original form. Not surprisingly it was the Coalition, climbing into bed with mining magnates to dud every Australian. They did exactly the same thing again for vested interests when they hopped into bed with media magnates, so that now media foxes can keep watching their own hen house.

And as for carbon emissions, do you seriously believe the Coalition have a genuine emissions reduction plan? Absolutely not.

In general, I'm one of those nasty beasts classified as a swinging voter but when you look through the cold hard eyes of policy rather than media beat-up, it is astonishing that the Coalition have this massive lead.

That's why I want to see policy analysis from political journalists. I want to see both sides questioned on their plans, how they intend to pay for them and for the media to sit down, look at the dominoes that will be knocked down when that policy is enacted and work out who will be affected most. Is that too much to ask?

Stick to electronics Neail. Your grasp of public finance seems very limited indeed. How many OECD and other external reports. AAA ratings etc do you need to convince you that the Australian Government has not got us into a debt hole as LNP propaganda would have us believe. They just spout out big numbers because most of us have relatively small debts, but our total personal debt (not to mention the much larger corporate debt) vastly exceeds the government debt Hockey nd and Abbott bang on about. They have to because it is part of their negative narrative designed to get them into power. We will rarely get more than three word slogans from Abbott and Hockey because they want all politics on the back poage after they are elected and the pu blic only able to read three words at a atime.

Perhaps we need more electronics engineers and less public finance experts.
The USA , UK and Europe have all followed their public finance "experts" and are going down the gurgler. We have followed the same path under Labor and you are saying it is alright because we are not as broke yet. There is obviously no prospect of debt reduction or budget surplus under Labor and with 10 to 20 billion dollars of interest every year I don't like our chances. No matter how you look at it Labor is squandering our grandchildren's money to prop up a dishonest and unpopular leader.

We did the oppisite to the UK & USA they bailed out the banks, it didn't work. We spent the money on the ordinary person and on infrastucture creating jobs, it worked. If Howard hadn't wasted money on middle class welfare, tax cuts to the wealthy and having sex bonus, we wouldn't be so far in debt.

Most hilarious comment ever.

The TRILLION dollar Howard era private mortgage debt easily out-trumps the present government debt by about five to one
Something to practice your numeracy on?
If not, don't worry, no-one else is counting.
Might be different when Big Joe engineers a raise in interst rates and the weekly interest bill on the Howard enabled motgage debt orgy will be, what two Billion a week across the entire nation, to be repaid, over how many years?
Howard's private debt time bomb lies buried under the Australian economy.
Abbott and company will set it off, while Labor, demoralised?, continues to try to defuse this local harbinger of the GFC.
Or is it a case of selective numeracy for the Abbotteers?

Hi Sean, I agree that "Yellow Churnalism" is well below the standard required of writing of a website that claims to provide "informed debate".

I also "thank TC for being here overall". Rupert Murdoch would be required to follow the Guidelines for Contributors, that the full TC Editorial Board allows Ms Grattan to ignore with impunity while she pursues what appears to be the personal vendetta of a slighted woman against OUR PRIME MINISTER.

It's the media's job to let us know what's going on. Just because some people don't like what's going on doesn't mean the rest of us don't want to know.

Gillard is not being persecuted, Gillard is just plain useless and we know it.

I despair for the education of my son. Debt is debt. Weasly roundabout wafflings re GDP or whatever doesn't mean we're not billions in debt. We are. There's a rumour saying they want to raise the debt ceiling another 50bil.

If my house is worth 1mil and I've borrowed 2mil in the hope of getting a pay rise within the next year, then I'm in debt bigtime. And this is what Labor has done. Trouble is, they didn't get the payrise they were expecting.

Whatever you fear it's should be your own education not your son's.

Sorry for being personal, but let's get real. In Australia we are not talking about the scenario you describe. We are not borrowing twice the worth of the assets. We are borrowing so little that overseas lenders queue up to lend us their moneyt.

We have a AAA rating which means that around the world we are seen as a most reliable borrower. Your approach would help us into the same kind of recession experienced elsewhere in the world. Cutting investment (i.e. Xstrata) means people are out of work. They cannot pay taxes; they cannot buy goods and services. They are on the dole. So the money "borrowed" helps to keep the economy growing. This is Economics 101.

Your Chicken Little approach is well reflected in the remark "There is a rumour around . . " If you deal in rumours then you cant expect to be taken seriously.

No one needs to study economics Chris. Some folks are just born with an intuitive understanding of global finance and the workings of capitalism... like breathing or walking innit? Just common sense mixed with self-interest, add a dash of mild terror and an ongoing sense of imminent collapse and that's it really. Apparently.

A national economy is just like a newsagency or a corner shop - just bigger with a wider range of products ... simple really. Surplus good, spending bad ... tighten those belts - live within our means.

And just to underline the point - Tony Abbott's Edjerkashun spokesmodel Chissy Pyne can shut down every economix cawse in the country ... put 'em to work as ATMs or thrift monitors. See how the money rolls in.

RE what appears to be the personal vendetta of a slighted woman against OUR PRIME MINISTER.

I try not to take it personally and from what I have read if Julia Gillard went fishing tomorrow for the rest of her, next Friday some other choice target would be in MGs sights. To me it isn;t about our PM per se, its the methodology, the intentional FRAMING which is misleading and the lack of standards I object too. If she was doing this to Abbott I would be equally offended by it and see it as unnecessary which lowers our entire public arena, and it lowers the standards across the board becasue for some strange reason people (other media folks and the Politicians) keep putting her up on a pedestal as some kind of great example of a good politcal journalism that in my opinion is frankly unwarranted. News Corp readers and Fox news viewers might learn something from her, but that's about it imho. If I was the PM I would ban all members from giving her an interview, and she wouldnt be invited to a press conference either. If she was there, I would never accept a question from her if she was the only media rep who turned up. She is probably a lovely woman, I dont know I speak only about what she writes.

Best NOT confuse my *emotive hyperbole* in words with being in any way upset or reacting to what she writes. But if I can give people, a false impressiion by what I write, how much easier is it for a professional writer to be intentionally manipulative and the reader not realise they are being VERY HAD? :-)

Good morning Grumpy John ... go to the front page and look for "Guidelines for Contributors" then have a little read.

Our Gillard government has passed about 300 pieces of legislation regardless of the relentless whingeing by churnalists in the MSM (mindless silly masses) and such well informed, unbiased shock jocks as Alan Jones who prefer Toxic Rabbott, the (mis)Leader of the Opposition without majority in his own party that in turn has no policies or costings to make Australia a better place for all Australian citizens. Shades of Fascist Italy & Germany in the 20s & 30s.

About 2/3rds of Australian voters recognise that TA is unfit to be PM. Check your MSN polling.

Absolutely agree Morgan and Tony Abbott was heckled at the apology ceremony for calling out those women as "birth mothers".

Where's the media scrutiny of that and his long history of clumsy expression?

Do we want such a ill-considered (provocateur) has our PM?

HI Morgan ... and wasn't the NDIS matter significant for all Australians.

I suppose that is why all three matters were ignored by the TC Political Editor for Yellow Churnalism.

You might just find that the legislation passed for the NDIS is for the trials as even Gillard has stated that they do not know what the final scheme may be and of course she claims to know how she will not be paying for it without contribution from the states, a kind of buck passing when there is not many bucks to go around, certainly nowhere near enough to be repaying our national debt anytime soon.

Yellow Churnalism - exactly! For those unfamiliar with the term read this and weep is dispair.
"Yellow journalism, or the yellow press, is a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers.[1] Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism.[1] By extension, the term yellow journalism is used today as a pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism
My understanding of the Raison d'être for TC was instead " The enemy of trusted journalism is spin and PR. Make a donation to help protect our independence and support evidence-based analysis, research and news." quoted from the Home Page. How does giving MG another soap box to preach about her own self-importance match such claims by TC? It does not.

Guess what? The extraordinary orgy of self destruction overshadowed those issues. Blame the ALP, not journalists reporting their ridiculous behaviour.

How is this for an extraordinary orgy of self destruction.
Voters usher in an Abbott administration, Hockey raises interest rates and the interest on the Howard enabled TRILLION dollar mortgage debt goes up to two Billion dollars every week.
This Howard time bomb, which Labor has spent the last five years trying to defuse, blows up in "an extraordinary orgy of self destruction" and the "Mythical" GFC finally comes to Australia.
Thankyou conservatives, thankyou voters, thankyou Fourth Estate.
What will you all be doing in the inevitable Abbott Recession?
(Repeat ad infinitum until all the idiots get the message)

Contrary to what you would believe James or for that matter any politician, we do have a Reserve Bank Board that sets interest rates independently of the government of the day.
Lower interest rates are generally reflective of a quieter economy and our local economy can be greatly affected by many things overseas.

Labor claim the Midas touch re the GFC but we will never know for there were other factors involved such as China still wanting raw material.

The big question still remains though and that is what would be your plan for repaying an enormous ammount of debt.

Let's start by learning to spell it ... amount of debt.

Thank you Sean for your exemplary explanation (bit worried about the source though). We have been despairing since the unfortunate and inappropriate appointment.

Check out the number of posts that are against the Grattan propaganda campaign as a percentage of the total posts and you will find that academic Australia has a greater and better knowledge of most topics covered by this recent unfortunate appointment who has been given carte blanche by the Editorial Board.

Same goes for our PM's hubby - you know the block that makes rascist, sexist jokes about female Asian docors and prostate exams - no cries of 'misogyny' there.'

No, Sean. You've ranted on this page about the author's soapbox and criticised her for her own self-importance. So that qualifies as an ad hom. You're the bunny claiming the high ground - by your criticism of the author without supporting your case at all. So you probably can claim your own 'brilliant' crown. A page full of your whining about 'yellow churnaslism' really is tiresome. Stop hiding behind claims of some sort of 'media conspiracy' and have a look at the disastrous way in which the government has been dealing with its internal politics. For three years we've seen this lot stumble from one poorly implemented policy to another. The reason the leadership issue wont go away is the same reason that we've still got some quarters whining over the dismissal of the Whitlam government in the 70's - right or wrong, they just dont think it was fair.

Mornin' John...

At the risk of contaminating thisd spiriterd discussion with the odd fact - have a read of this... http://www.marketeconomics.com.au/2115-the-size-of-government-in-australia ... a nice potted history of government spending and "size" over the last 40years or so.

The take home message:

" Not once did the Howard or Fraser governments in about 20 years in office achieve a single year where government spending was cut in real terms, while Labor governments have been able to cut real spending in five years since the mid-1980s."
... "Suffice to say, the updated facts on government spending and taxing in the budget papers confirm that Labor delivers smaller government than the Coalition. This is important to recognise because it repudiates the mantra from various opposition spokespeople about this government being “addicted to tax” or not delivering “genuine savings” in terms of cuts in government spending. Nothing could be further from the truth."

The second take-home message: don't believe the rhetoric and the "blood oaths" offered by the coalition - they are just pretend conservatives - agents of the status quo and vested interests. Successive Labor Governments - the best conservative governments you'll get.

Facts - ain't they annoying?

Would that the likes of Ms Grattan ever checked out the odd actual fact.

Thank you for a very perceptive observation Deb. Mitchell is obviously a conservative factor in this matter due to his history of being a major advertiser in all media. Favours for the boys, perhaps??

Deb, I agree. What the use of multi-channels when they run the same "live" action of all options? No use at all. RE: "Australia is not being served by its 'media' at all: let's boycott them all." That is the kind of prophesy I would like to see come true. Gossip Queen Gratten at times leads the pack of the current crop of self-serving sychophants masquerading as News Reporters and Journalists today that keep taking our previously excellent Democracy down the toilet. "Unrepresentative swill" to use a Keating term no better than the opinionated Radio Shock Jocks who like to imagine they are as wise as Solomon. Our nation deserves better from the 4th Estate as much as we need a better quality of Politician on all sides - preferably non-personality disorded people who are capable of withstanding the insideous nature of todays "media and think tank gurus" and can cut thru the excrement.

agree shaun

the media need to have their moment of truth - or their day of reckoning.

easy to say i suppose when the media is practically controlled by just 2 players, and journalists dont have too many employment options.

but the more i watch tv and read newspapers, the more i cant help noticing the self-serving bias and manipulation that goes on. I used to like the 7.30 report, but even leigh sales and chris uhlmann seem to be relentless in pushing a particular barrow, and becoming pork-barrellers par excellence.

when fairfax come at me and want a payment to read their paper online every day, they can whistle dixie.

and while we are at it, the seven news is simply appalling..............no real global news, just regional fodder and mindless sensationalism.

i feel better now.

Yes, the ABC was a disgrace yeserday evening. Dragging out Peter Reith to "comment" on proceedings was the last straw and finally spurred me to lodge a complaint about what they are passing off as "news".

It was interesting to see in the Herald this morning that Tony Wright's analysis of Rudd included a reference to "all the carefully planted stories to destabilise Gillard and her followers". If the press was aware of this, why weren't we told more about that before?

Deb - you have to also look at this from ABC managements perspective with regard to News 24. Their attempt to be CNN 20 years too late has been a huge failure. It has non-existant ratings (less than 1% at its peak), dreadful standards of journalism and no reason to exist except as a vanity project for the executive levels.

It has been a money sink hole and somehow manages to become worse over time in its desperate efforts to achieve some small kind of relevance.

Maybe this explains it's desperate adoption of the views of an extreme right think tank... The ABC has given up journalism, it now only deals in 'narratives'. If they want to do that they should create drama programmes.

"YTD ABC News 24’s consolidated weekly reach averaged 2.1 million or 13.5% of the 5 City population. Across the same period in 2011, ABC News 24’s weekly reach averaged 2 million or 12.9% of the 5 City population.

In 2012 YTD, ABC News 24 achieved a daytime (6am-6pm) share of 1.7%. This is up compared to the same period in 2011 (1.5%).

In 2012 YTD, ABC News 24 achieved an average weekly reach of 1.3 million or 18.1% in the regional markets (Weeks 1-34)."

Chris Ulmann and Leigh have thinly veiled sympathy for Labor, had they not they would not have been appointed to take Kerry's place. They are now facing the reality that the party is in a mess and in all concience cannot continue to pretend it isnt. Concequently they and Michelle Gratton; a former 'fanboy' of Labor are now critical of the shananigans tearing Labor apart.
So stop hiding behind the excuses that it is the media's fault or a result of Tony's negativity. The Labor party is responsible for it's own mess and just because a journalist reports it does not make them your enemy.

Chris Ulmann is Tony Abbotts lapdog. Hardly a Labour supporter except for his marriage, which could well make him lean right to avold charges of bias.

Uhlmann was formerly a seminarian, a security guard, and a journalist with The Canberra Times before joining the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as a radio producer in 1998.[1]

From 1999 to 2004, Uhlmann hosted Local Radio Breakfast on 666 ABC Canberra. In 2005, he was Jon Faine's producer for the Mornings show on 774 ABC Melbourne, and in 2006 was made chief political editor for ABC Radio's current affairs section.[2]

In 2008, Uhlmann switched to television, and was political editor for The 7.30 Report, ABC News, and ABC News 24. In December 2010, he was appointed as co-host of the ABC Television current affairs program, 7.30.[1] In 2012, the show was revamped again, with Uhlmann returning to the political editor role, and Leigh Sales hosting the program.[3]

[edit] Politics

Uhlmann unsuccessfully contested the ACT 1998 general election for the electorate of Molonglo with the Osborne Independent Group.[4] The conservative group was named after Paul Osborne, who was strongly pro-life and advocated blocking both euthanasia legislation and any attempt to decriminalise abortion.[5] Osborne and Uhlmann fell out when Osborne moved to severely restrict abortion in the ACT.[6] Six years earlier, Uhlmann had written in support of establishing an abortion clinic in the territory. [7]

[edit] Personal life

Uhlmann is married to Labor member of the Australian House of Representatives Gai Brodtmann.[8]

Manufactured by the media? Are you insane? The PM and Mr Rudd, created this vortex of stupidity. New lows in intelligence being discovered rapidly.

Very perceptive. The media reporting an event caused by the ALP was manufactured by the media. Can you explain who the imposters were who were able to take the forms of Crean, Gillard and Rudd? If that wasn't Gillard in question time calling for a spill, who was the doppleganger?

Freaks.

Yes David well said: DETAILED POLICY ANALYSIS - let's get some stickers printed for Michelle and the rest of the motley crew: it is they who are 'the shambles'.

And furthermore re your headline:: Demoralised Labor faces bleak future
Sorry wrong target: It should read

Demoralised Media faces Bleak Future

shambles or not. and whoever. gillard is still very unpopular with voters. smoking rudd out this time to a non-challenge hasn't changed that. -a.v.

hi deb

spot on........who's their next target....or will it still be the usual suspects.

the media are just big sooks who have their own self interest at heart - never the ethos of good journalism.

Stephern, from the responses to Michelle's wrtings on this site, it would appear that ALP supporters are the 'big sooks'. Unable to argue against her points, they descend into the shrill cries of 'conspiracy' 'churnalism' etc. and engage in pointless ad homs. Cheers.

Not all of the disappointment stems from Grattan's cassandra prophecies - which are invariably wrong incidentally - but rather the shallow personality squares twitter style of insight she dispenses as if it was serious thought.

The woman is still a "reporter" - of onsourced gossip and scuttlebutt - about what an unnamed who said to an anonymous whom according to insiders.

This is not news. This is not insight or analysis.

We are looking for someone who has sufficient distance and perspective to place the day's trivia into a context, rather than elevating trivia and gossip into the business of politics itself.

Ms Grattan obviously has no idea what journalism actually involves. There is more too it that excellent spelling and words. It's about ideas. And there just ain't none.

Have a read of the Guardian or the Observer or the Huffington Post for some idea od what we are missing and what we resent every time it is slopped onto our plates from the Press Gallery's bain marie of sludgey mashed offerings.

Peter, I read those rags on occasion - good for a laugh if you compare to the Australian. My point is that there are so many serial Michelle bashers here that I cant help wonder why they read her articles. If they know what to expect, then they only read her stuff to have a big sook about it and indulge in some pointed journo bashing.

Rags eh? Obviously a man of very high standards indeed John.

I'm not sure what Ms Grattan does for a living but it isn't journalism - ill-informed opinion, gossip, speculation, prophecy... more astrology than analysis, judgmental and prejudiced... but not journalism.

And it seems to have attracted a new class of commenter across from the Herald Sun and the Telegraph.

Not her fault I guess - just reflecting the market and the scrapings of what is left around the press gallery ... sad really that a profession of skill and understanding has been reduced to this. And to see this elevated to a professorial slot at a university ... like just dumbed down to the max so totally dude.

I look forward to The Conversation's first tabloid edition.

Peter, you are making a lot of assumptions based on what you think my political allegiances are. Do you really think there's much difference between the guardian and the australian? They're just rags ,mate. I like to think of George Monbiot as a green andrew Bolt - same coin different sides. Dont read the HS or the Tele - live in regional Qld. If Grattan upsets you so much, why do you persist in reading her articles? The whining of the usual suspects starts up every Friday - its got me stumped as to why you'd put yourself through it.

Well Grumpy John, some of us read the Ms Garttan rubbish to maintain the balance that the TC Editorial Board appear unwilling or unable to enforce.

A TC call for donations ... did Big Gina offer to buy TC credibility so that Hancock Mining could maintain their 457 job stealing practices? ... or was that a donation from the LIberal Party to ensure no constructive analysis of their "No Policies" position?

Jack, you gotta be an old labor guy, no? I just cant buy into your feeling that its all a media generated nonsense and that the evil forces of rupert and gina have aligned to attack to the freedom of the press etc etc. The instability that is going on within the ALP - our governement - is news worthy and MG has every right to contribute to that discussion. For the reasons, Ive laid out earlier, Labor is struggling to regain the trust of the electorate and is disintegrating in the process. I understand how distressing that can be to a supporter of the party, but it doesnt change the fact that it exists.

errata:

I think that the Kevin Rudd has been released from his promise 'not to challenge' for the leadership. The next time, if there is a challenge, Kevin Rudd is free to step up to the lectern and retain his honour.

Not much "honour" left Edwin ... not after white-anting a Labor government for pure self-interest with leaks to a thirsty and lazy press gallery for years ...even during the last election campaign.

Crean gives a pretty clear idea of how the bulk of caucus now sees him.... a wrecker ... always has been ... long before he got to Canberra. He's got history this bloke. And no future.

Rudd is a shocking media performer ... dull as dishwater ... a grinding bureaucrat ..."fair suck of the sauce bottle" capped it off. Awkward, self-conscious and an utter nerd.

His "opinion polling numbers" collapsed in 2010 to be running at 37%... for a first term "popularly elected" Prime Minister. And his rating in caucus was even lower. Here's a refresher on how Rudd was perceived by his enthusiastic boosters in the Gallery whilehe was still PM http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2010/s2894560.htm

But he is now popular with the press gallery hacks ... he feeds them ... he does what Abbott cannot ... he damages the government and the Labor Party in a way that Abbott can only imagine ... the Opposition Within joining up with the Opposition in Exile in the Gallery.

In the old days he'd be branded a Labour Rat. Crean knows that well.

Peter, pure & simple, and respectfully, this is what i see: rudd was removed to make way for someone who would scuttle the mining super profits tax. that's it. tout court. the rest is seeds of confusion. bullsh!t. 37%, didn't consult caucus, &c, &c. all smokescreen, distraction from the fact that australia was rolled in a crisis & corporations got to keep all the super profit no one anticipated when the contracts were signed. gillard trucked with the devil & sold her country short to further her career.

something like this also happened in canada a few months before rudd's removal in 2010. there the premier of "oil rich" alberta, who was overwhelmingly elected party leader by the grassroots because of his commitment to reform the royalty regime, was removed mid-term by his party room under pressure from big oil. there is a pattern here. resource corporations are no longer prepared to restrict their regime change efforts to third world countries that get in the way of their profits. we had a post-modern coup d'etat in australia & its poisoning our politics. i'll never forgive the screwballs who did this. -a.v.

Hi Alfred ... you mean that multinational corporations do NOT work for the benefit of citizens?

Oh dear, surely these mining corporations are NOT raping the mineral wealth, bribing government MPs and officials and poisoning water supplies just for corporate profit to be spent overseas by their foreign investors?? They are such precious petals, law abiding, honest and good corporate citizens, that such actions would never cross their corporate minds.

you're missing the point, Jack Arnold. i'll be blunt. in 2010 was your present prime minister & her alp right controllers tools in a corporate plot to remove a reformist prime minister who wouldn't buckle to sustained corporate pressures? i think she was and, witting or unwitting tool, i despise people prepared to sell their country short to further their careers. -a.v.

everything (politically) will be interesting after september

as bette davis said in "all about eve" - fasten your seatbelts, its going to be a bumpy night"

The typical lazy smear - loony-left, greenie, bolshie, pinko, commo - it's the weapon of choice for the Murdoch press, Alan Jones, Ray Hadley, Andrew Bolt and all the other corporate shills peddling the big lie over the years.

I can see who the right-wing crank is here.

If you believed everything you heard from the Press, and especially News Corp press, and the Opposition you think our nation was a complete basket case. It is NOT. Interest rates are low, unemployment is low, public debt is low, private debt (mining companies) is high, that's called investment much like buying you own home and taking on debt, Child car under Howard used to cost 13% of average weekly earnings and now it is only 8% a saving of $1700 per year, finally someone took action and stopped some Coal Seam gas mining in this nation, Windsor led an inquiry how Mining Companies are detroying the quality of life on country towns and their own employees, who knew? The GDP is about 10% higher than it was PRIOR ot the GFC in 2008 no other nation on earth bar China (?) can say that. There's been an Education Review, a real one unlike what happened under the Howard Govt, there was an independent Review of the Refugee crisis it failed but at least they tried, when Howard was giving families earning above average weekly earnings tax credits, increasing private health insurance rebates, $ child care, and million sto Kings College, the average house prices in this nation almost tripled and the rents doubled for everyone and when Peter Costello KNEW in the 2007 Election that a major finacial criss was just around the corner all he could do was give one vague subtle hint becasue he was incapable of telling the Australian people the truth becasue no one in that Cabinet would back him. And Michaell Gratten knew nothing about this then, or now. Australia is kicking ass al over the place, it si the BEST it has ever been but you'd think we just got toppled by Fidel castro in a Military coup and were all about to die tomorrow. Meanwhile the % of GDP in the Labour Goivt tax takehas been LOWER than under Howard everry single year they have been in Power .. but who would know that? Certainly not Gossip Queen Grattan nor any other of our talking heads pretending to be REPORTERS of the NEWS.

Of course, Sean. Let's just censor to suit your personal prejudices. It seems that you certainly DO take an interest in the alleged 'pseudo journalism' - why else would you sprout your ad hom bile?

Sean, your last point is the one i agree with. Feel free to take your own advice and ignore the REPLY button.
Your sentence in regards to your " It mirrors the intentionally offensive (and "under the radar") bullying, mobbing, and ad hominem bile that eternally spews from the Gossip Queen's pen." I think, says it all. It's you who is projecting. I'd like you to identify where Michelle has ad hom'd(?) the PM or the ALP.