Monday night on the box
Yep, it's a supreme example of blogging laziness, but here goes. Monday night was compelling viewing on the ABC, well three parts were at least.
There was a great piece on Four Corners (Forkers for those in the know, and F... C... for those who wanna be smartarses) exposing some of the truth behind half of the Australian delegation to Guantanamo Bay, Mamdouh Habib. Apparently, far from being the angelic, innocent no hoper caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, Habib has quite a history of religious extremism and threatening behaviour. 'I'd rather kill my children than change my place of worship' explained Habib in a letter to his local member. Then the former cleaner-cum-coffee-shop-owner headed off to Afghanistan, and boasted of his meeting with Osama. He was looking for an appropriate religious school for his children, you see. Always the family man. Cynicism aside, the man should be charged and tried rather than kept indefinately. To argue that Habib is a Prisonor of War (the War on Terror) and can therefore only be released at the end of that war - the argument put by A-G Phil Ruddock - is a bit, well, pathetic. Ruddock did well to keep a straight face when delivering that line.
Then it was on to Media Watch for a top little expose on all things Channel 9. Eddie rightly copped plenty of heat for all manner of things, but there were a couple of juicy details that David Marr missed out on. Watching The Footy Show last Thursday night, punters were told repeatedly that it was being broadcast from the "Burswood Casino", which is apparently a separate entity from "Perth" given how rarely the city scored a mention. Add the current interest held by 9 owner Kerry Packer in buying Burswood, and the gratuitous references is more than just a series of slips of the tongue. This was a concerted effort in 'branding' Burswood as Kerry's Casino. Also of note is that fact that the Herald Sun are given Eddie a rest from his weekly plugfest, a full page each Saturday dedicated to all things Eddie. Perhaps editor Peter Blunden was sick of Eddie echo chamber.
Finally it was a belter of an interview with Bill Clinton by Andrew Denton on Enough Rope. Denton made it through 30 of the 35 minute interview without mentioning the M-word, and got some great little insights into Clinton on Israel and Palestine, Rwanda and a scary-eyed Slobodan. Top TV.
Unlike Lateline, who finished off the night on a low note. A complete and utter snorefest on the ins and outs of Mark Latham as Mayor of Liverpool from 1991-1994. It would be a real struggle to find an issue of less significance of public interest than this stuff. Why not ask Latham something relevant, about, I dunno, anything he's done in the past 10 years, or even better what he might do in the next 10?? The fine folks of Liverpool probably couldn't give a shit, and god knows why the rest of us should.
There was a great piece on Four Corners (Forkers for those in the know, and F... C... for those who wanna be smartarses) exposing some of the truth behind half of the Australian delegation to Guantanamo Bay, Mamdouh Habib. Apparently, far from being the angelic, innocent no hoper caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, Habib has quite a history of religious extremism and threatening behaviour. 'I'd rather kill my children than change my place of worship' explained Habib in a letter to his local member. Then the former cleaner-cum-coffee-shop-owner headed off to Afghanistan, and boasted of his meeting with Osama. He was looking for an appropriate religious school for his children, you see. Always the family man. Cynicism aside, the man should be charged and tried rather than kept indefinately. To argue that Habib is a Prisonor of War (the War on Terror) and can therefore only be released at the end of that war - the argument put by A-G Phil Ruddock - is a bit, well, pathetic. Ruddock did well to keep a straight face when delivering that line.
Then it was on to Media Watch for a top little expose on all things Channel 9. Eddie rightly copped plenty of heat for all manner of things, but there were a couple of juicy details that David Marr missed out on. Watching The Footy Show last Thursday night, punters were told repeatedly that it was being broadcast from the "Burswood Casino", which is apparently a separate entity from "Perth" given how rarely the city scored a mention. Add the current interest held by 9 owner Kerry Packer in buying Burswood, and the gratuitous references is more than just a series of slips of the tongue. This was a concerted effort in 'branding' Burswood as Kerry's Casino. Also of note is that fact that the Herald Sun are given Eddie a rest from his weekly plugfest, a full page each Saturday dedicated to all things Eddie. Perhaps editor Peter Blunden was sick of Eddie echo chamber.
Finally it was a belter of an interview with Bill Clinton by Andrew Denton on Enough Rope. Denton made it through 30 of the 35 minute interview without mentioning the M-word, and got some great little insights into Clinton on Israel and Palestine, Rwanda and a scary-eyed Slobodan. Top TV.
Unlike Lateline, who finished off the night on a low note. A complete and utter snorefest on the ins and outs of Mark Latham as Mayor of Liverpool from 1991-1994. It would be a real struggle to find an issue of less significance of public interest than this stuff. Why not ask Latham something relevant, about, I dunno, anything he's done in the past 10 years, or even better what he might do in the next 10?? The fine folks of Liverpool probably couldn't give a shit, and god knows why the rest of us should.
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