Completely Unnecessary

The Age really stuffed up the other day. See, a new GG’s been appointed in Australia - Queen’s rep, we’re not a republic, it’s a thing - and, get this, she’s a lady.

Yet the Age’s initial article really only managed to gender-tag her in two sentences:

Prominent lawyer, academic and women’s activist Quentin Bryce will replace Major General Michael Jeffery as the Queen’s representative in September.
…
Ms Bryce and her husband, Adjunct Professor Michael Bryce AM AE, have two daughters, three sons and five grandchildren.

The first one isn’t that bad, and they saved the child-tagging for the last sentence. They do manage to give her husband’s honours (AM AE) without noting hers (AC, which is higher), but, overall, a poor showing.

Let’s see if the Herald Sun can do better. (The HS actually ran two articles, both of which are timestamped at 12am, so we’ll look at both):

Article One: First Lady takes G-G reins

KEVIN Rudd has broken with 107 years of tradition by announcing the appointment of Australia’s first female Governor-General.
…
Ms Bryce, 65, is a married mother of five with five grandchildren.

She is a former federal sex discrimination commissioner, law lecturer and a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

Ms Bryce’s husband, Adjunct Prof Michael Bryce, is an architect and design expert.

I was unaware that we were referring to a historical pattern of sex discrimination as tradition, so good to know.

The HS also did a much better job of getting the crucial info that she has grown children (and therefore won’t be abandoning them to do this ‘job’ thing) higher up in the story. Description of husband’s profession, check.

That’s pretty good. What else does the HS have to offer?

Woman of substance (and I swear to god this is the lede and opening sentence):

QUENTIN Bryce is a trailblazer in a twinset. Australia’s first female Governor-General has a long record of public service and personal achievement.

Feminist, lawyer, community activist and grandmother, the Governor of Queensland is also a monarchist who believes Australia is well served by its system of government.
…
Ms Bryce was recently recognised by Harper’s Bazaar as one of Australia’s best-dressed women.

She is married to architect and designer Michael Bryce, and the couple have three sons, two daughters and five grandchildren.

Bam! That is some awesome gender-checking. That’s going to be hard to top. But I bet the 2003 Age and HS can do it! I’m sure they described then-appointee GG Michael Jeffery’s appearance, marital status, number of children, position on feminism (or other -isms), and the profession of his wife.

What? They didn’t mention any of those things [the HS article is only available on LexisNexis, so you're going to have to trust me; they mention his wife in an attached Biography]. That’s odd. I wonder why that kind of information wasn’t relevant to his appointment?

You’ll be glad to know, though, that the Canberra Times [also LN] carried an article about Marlena Jeffery the day after the announcement. She had done her husband’s dry cleaning in anticipation, has a ‘terrific smile’ and was looking forward to decorating the family house.

[Note: All articles have reduced Bryce's title - she is currently the Governor of Queensland - from 'Her Excellency' or 'Governor' to 'Ms'. This however, is a consistent Australian convention for both sexes (e.g., Mr Rudd), so I'm not counting it.]

If you feel like reading more, the Daily Telegraph (Sydney’s Murdoch sister to the HS) had comments about Bryce’s breeding and praise from fashionistas.

Links:
Australia to get first female GG [the Age]
First Lady take GG reins [Herald Sun]
Woman of Substance [Herald Sun]
PM names Michael Jeffrey as next GG [the Age]
Why Quentin Bryce is not just your Everage Governor-General [Daily Telegraph]

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Well, thank god.

Yesterday [10 April, 2008] 235 Age journalists voted unanimously for a motion accusing their editor in chief, Andrew Jaspan, of degrading their ability to produce independent journalism.
…
These journalists have grown increasingly angry and desperate over recent months at what they see as an unprecedented erosion of the ideals that have guided the newspaper in the past.

The meeting included open displays of anger with the editor. In one particularly telling exchange the night news editor, Patrick Smithers effectively accused Jaspan of telling an untruth.

The meeting was in response to the Age’s coverage of Earth Hour, the content of which appears to have been driven by… promoters of Earth Hour. Journalists reportedly watched in horror and then malaise as their content was replaced by boosterism pap.

MediaWatch also ran a segment about emails from an EarthHour rep to Jaspan on Monday, 7 April.

The journalists have pledged to meet again and to protect and encourage independent journalism at the paper.

To Age journalists I say: Amen. Your writing - when I can find it beneath the gay-pedophile-hussy-teacher-child-torso-murder-shock stories these days - is still top quality. Fight Jaspan, and the readers will be behind you.

It’s behind their pay wall, but Crikey also has audio of Jaspan being told off. Zing!

The moral of the story is: beware the wrath of angry journalists; they will tell you what an ass you’re being, record it, and then pass the tapes onto a site that will play them over and over and over.

Man, I sure hope none of them have seen the website… they’re gonna be pissed.

Andrew Jaspan? 235 Age journalists can’t be wrong [Crikey via Ramon]

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This is what it’s come to at the Age:

The story, inanely, is about a Kiwi who got drunk and called police saying he’d been raped by a wombat.

Clearly, clearly newsworthy.

Also clearly necessary was the picture of the randy-looking wombat. Originally I thought the story was about a man raping a wombat, which made the picture and the story a whole lot less amusing.

As pathetic as this appearing on the front page of theage.com.au is, the story itself even better:

[Police prosecutor Sergeant Chris] Stringer said alcohol had played a big part in [callmaker] Cradock’s life. However, defence lawyer Michael Vesty said alcohol was not a problem that day.

Well put.

For his part, Cradock called back to withdraw the complaint, noting that his only ill-effect was ’speaking Australian now.’

Sometimes I wish the Internet had less space.

[By the way, theage.com.au linked that through stuff.co.nz who got it from the Nelson Mail. No one took the time to edit that story at all - just slap it on up there with a funny picture...]

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As told by the Age and the NYT.

I’m too tired to deconstruct these girls, but thought a side by side comparison of the first two pars would be interesting.

The Age:

Israeli forces killed 61 Palestinians in a land and air blitz in the Hamas-held Gaza Strip today, medics said, amid warnings that the violence had “buried” the peace process.

It was the deadliest day since Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in September 2005 and one of the most lethal Israeli operations since the Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000.

The NYT:

Israeli aircraft and troops attacked Palestinian positions in northern Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 54 people and wounding more than 100 in the deadliest day of fighting in more than a year. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and seven wounded, the military said.

The Israeli attacks, mostly from the air on a clear, bright day, were aimed at stopping rocket fire from Gaza into Israel, the Israelis said, especially after Ashkelon, a large city 10 miles from Gaza, came under fire from more advanced, Katyusha-style rockets of Iranian design.

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From the Age:

Australians are gaining weight even faster than people in the US, a notoriously fat nation.

Why, you vegemite-eating, koala-coddling bastards…

Alright, fair enough. Proceed.

ps - aside from a couple edits - I’m done with school until March! Would it be entirely out of line for me to do a PhD on Transformers? That’s what I’ve been thinking about all day.

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This morning,  in one photo and accompanying caption, the Age neatly summed up why I have not, as of yet, married an Australian bloke:

Just everything about this picture makes me cringe.

And is it just me, or does the guy on the far right look like he has his ass on backwards?

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The front page of theage.com is all abuzz at the moment because Ben Cousins (addict footballer back in LA for rehab, now missing!) made it to the front page of PerezHilton.com.

Whoo hoo! Australia and the footy have arrived! The US has finally recognized Australia’s significance through horseman of the apocalypse, Perez Hilton!

Except, the comments on Perez’s website reveal a certain… lack of familiarity with the topic and young Master Cousins.

Commenters #34-36 had this to say:

Another article on someone of absolutely no significance.

Im first who the fuck is ben cousins

First!
who the hell is ben cousins?
probably effing britney!!
snort it suck it lick it fuck it!

“Franz” added my favorite comment (though I should say I stopped at 41 of over 160, so it’s a small sample size):

Dude, he’s a rugby player. They are called ‘Ruggers’ Footballers are ’soccer players’

That did not go over well with Perez’s apparently AFL-loving commenters/people who were directed there from The Age.

In other news, there’s an election on, Burma’s forcing children into the military, and the AU$ climbed above US93c today.

Perez Hilton ROCKS!

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I love my local newspaper. It has great local and national reporting, as well as a good international bureau. And it’s also lefty-leaning, which is a nice change from the Chicago Tribune. Also, in a story about whether or not Costello’s going to try to wrest power from Howard, it runs quotes like this:

“That’s just bullshit,” he said. “We had our chance on Monday and Peter decided not to take it. Howard’s not going to go, and Peter’s made it very clear he’s not going to force him out.”

Couldn’t you have just started with the second part of the quote? Front page, Sunday morning - though below the fold. Very larrikin.

Then again, this is the newspaper that had a full half page article on sexual kinks in Australia a few Sundays ago. I was eating my breakfast, and there was an enormous picture of a highheeled leg with a handcuff around it. I was like, “What?” and, as you do, looked at the little graphic box embedded in the text before starting the article. Which is why the first thing I learned that morning was that 44% of Aussies have anal sex.

Now, I’m not exactly shy, but I also wasn’t expecting to read about bondage clubs over my muesli. The Sunday Age is not afraid to push your boundaries.

Speculation Won’t Peter Out [Age]

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Somehow, the story about NT legislation, which can only be described as a completely ineffective (unless you’re trying to grab land), has already made it off the front page of the Age.

Nice work, guys.

The actual story is here - there’s a lot to read between the lines, but I’m a big fan of this sentence:

The laws - which are discriminatory, by the government’s own admission - were passed on an unusual Friday sitting of the Senate after a marathon 27 hours of debate.

Other notable items:

The laws only provide for indigenous people to be offered “a reasonable amount” of compensation.

…

The government says the temporary seizure of indigenous land is needed to ensure open access to previously closed settlements so that houses and community facilities can be built and repaired.

As I understand it (and I’d be happy to be corrected on this), as soon as the Government begins to build things with government money, the land automatically becomes theirs and does not revert to indigenous control after this temporary ‘process’.

Election in 3…2…1…

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