Comments on: “Gotcha”

By: Judith M. Melville

Judith M. Melville — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:36:03 +0000

Roger Migently, think you are spot on about Russert’s low level of journalistic expertise.
Saw him interview a few times myself and never thought it was something out of the box.

By: Pappinbarra Fox

Pappinbarra Fox — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:55:16 +0000

the half nelson gags have already been done to death. A pun is only good the first time. After that it is drollery at its thinest. I think partickg doesn’t “get” the crabster. As Sir Humphery would say “Very Droll Annabelle”

By: Roger Migently

Roger Migently — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 11:40:29 +0000

From what I saw, Russert wasn’t nearly as good a journalist (if that is what he actually was) as the post-mortem legend suggests. He may not have been a particularly bad one but imho he wasn’t extraordinary. Obama said, “There wasnt a better interviewer in TV” and Dan Rather claimed, “Tim Russert was a beacon of quality journalism…a leader for what is best in American journalism.” If that’s true, American journalism is stuffed.

By: Michael Kalecki

Michael Kalecki — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 06:55:12 +0000

Tony knows 24Kev is a republican.

Proclaiming himself Emperor would mean getting the Bone apart for elbe

By: Ken Parish

Ken Parish — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 06:39:23 +0000

You leave those to Homer now, or we’ll have a demarcation dispute.

By: Tony T

Tony T — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 06:37:22 +0000

When Rudd proclaims himself Emperor Kev we will have to call him Reign Man.

Or maybe Rein Man.

By: Niall

Niall — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 04:25:24 +0000

all so much speculation on behalf of a bunch of ‘usual suspects’. If today were 12 months after the election and installation of a new government, I’d be concerned, but it’s not.

By: Jacques Chester

Jacques Chester — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:05:45 +0000

On the other hand, The Daily Show in the USA have raised the gotcha to a high and entertaining art form. And perform a pretty decent public service into the bargain.

I think there’s a fair difference between the “gotcha” of honest mistake and the “gotcha” of rank hypocrisy. The problem is that most journalists can’t be bothered to make the distinction if they can write a quick dozen paras and head off down the pub.

By: Geoff Honnor

Geoff Honnor — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 02:49:25 +0000

“Aannabel Crabbe seems to have garnered a reputation as one of the more intelligent and interesting political commentators. I have no idea why.”

She’s employed as a political sketchwriter, not as a forensic political analyst. The sketchwriter’s stock-in-trade is humour/whimsy etc and she’s pretty good at it.

My take on the Press Gallery glee at Rudd’s slip-up wasn’t that it was so much about the slip-up per se as it was about the torturous linguistic lengths that Rudd went to in ducking ownership of it – thereby, prolonging the agony.

By: Ken Parish

Ken Parish — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:25:12 +0000

About time. I was wondering when we’d get some vintage Homer puns again.

By: Pavlov's Cat

Pavlov's Cat — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:24:39 +0000

The press uses question-begging as a main tool in the Gotcha game, as in a recent question to SA’s shadow health minister Vicki Chapman about the emergency doctors’ blackmail tactics: “Should the Government cave in to the union [she meant the AMA] and give them the pay rise they’re asking for?”

Chapman did what they all do and simply ignored the question, in this instance rightly so. The baby journalist was simply trying to corner a conservative politician into either (a) supporting a “cave in to the union”, or (b) saying on the record that doctors shouldn’t get what they want.

This is distantly related to another favourite press ploy, of describing even the smallest and most sensible change of direction by anyone in the public eye as “an embarrassing backflip”.

By: Michael Kalecki

Michael Kalecki — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:16:43 +0000

given that Nelson has been married three times it follows he must have some half Nelsons

By: Michael Kalecki

Michael Kalecki — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:10:52 +0000

We oust a micro-manager obsessed with controlling the news cycle and get another.

I suspect we are merely experiencing the teething problems of a new administration.

Sometimes people forget just how bad the New government was in 1996 but it got better

By: patrickg

patrickg — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:09:39 +0000

Aannabel Crabbe seems to have garnered a reputation as one of the more intelligent and interesting political commentators. I have no idea why.

Focussing on minutiae like this is banal and so trite it blows my mind. Newsflash, Annabel: politicians are expected to be across a hundred and fifty billion different things, do I give a shit if they need some notes to articulate how many angels are dancing on the head of a particular pin? No.

Complex problems engender complex answers; when you start seeing simple answers, simplistic solutions are not too far away.

Watching Nelson’s dismal performance on the floor, re the gusty little aussie battlers in western sydney, with a wheelchair in the back of a tarago, etc. Should be enough to persuade anyone that being able to quote