Today, mixed messages at Waymouth Street, flattery gets us nowhere, the Ombudsmen we have to have, and a proposal for flying squads to check the competency of state politicians.
Naughty or nice?
It’s getting a touch raunchy – and a little confusing – at News Corp’s Adelaide office in the lead up to Christmas.
After a tough year of redundancies, staff at The Advertiser and Sunday Mail have been invited to a “naughty or nice” knees up on the roof garden of Keith Murdoch House with the promise of a couple of free drinks, a bbq and a band.
With a few hours of “naughty or nice” under their belt, the post-8pm proceedings at the Union Hotel across the road should be interesting.
Meanwhile, senior staff are still scratching their heads over the fallout from a flying visit to Adelaide by Rupert Murdoch’s New York-based editorial guru Col Allen.
The rambunctious Allen has been New York Post editor since 2001 and is a former editor of the Daily Telegraph in Sydney.
He was in Australia during the federal election campaign and stayed on to have a good look at how the company’s Australian newspapers were doing – and it seems he wasn’t happy with what he saw.
Col told Adelaide staff to forget the fashionable “digital first” approach that pushes breaking stories through the sausage machine and onto each newspaper’s website, leaving the printed editions with little that is still news.
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The old hands enjoyed the chat with the 60-year-old Col – but they were mystified by the email that followed shortly after his departure.
Mel Mansell, former Tiser editor and Murdoch’s state editorial director for SA, NT and WA, reminded staff that “digital first” remained the editorial strategy.
Mixed messages? More like a clash of editorial cultures.
Flattered much?
Weeks after The Outsider made the call, FIVEaa has revealed that its breakfast line-up for next year will be Mark Aiston, Sunday Mail editor David “Penbo” Penberthy and Jane Reilly.
News Corp honcho Campbell Reid has informed journos that Penbo will be staying on as a weekly columnist and “contributing editor”. Reid said Penbo would edit the Sunday Mail until January, with a new guiding hand for the paper to be announced soon.
It must have been satisfying for parties to eventually announce what everyone in the media has known for weeks.
However, the cherry on the cupcake was the media release from FIVEaa.
In it, FIVEaa program director Dave Shearer said the station was “flattered by the interest and speculation surrounding our on-air lineup”.
Indeed, they were so “flattered” by InDaily’s attention that they axed our own Kevin Naughton from his regular weekly spot on the Leon Byner show, and cancelled his fill-in stint for Byner over the summer break.
We wonder what happens when they’re insulted.
Stay informed, daily
An Ombudsman Ombudsman?
“Motorists” are calling for a Speed Camera Ombudsman, according to The Advertiser.
But why stop there? With the right government investment, South Australia could enjoy an Ombudsman-led recovery.
The whole thing has got us thinking: what other Ombudspeople does Adelaide need?
Here is our top three:
What school did you go to Ombudsman
As everyone knows, this is Adelaide’s most important social question. An accurate and timely response is crucial otherwise social chaos could ensue. The “What school did you go to Ombudsman” will keep accurate records for every SA-educated person, and mediate disputes about school-of-origin and relative social status of high schools.
Icon Ombudsman
The Icon Ombudsman will be the go-to place for the many South Australians aggrieved by over-use and misuse of the English language. He or she will be empowered to rule on the appropriate use of terms such as “icon”, “world class”, “disinterested”, “schizophrenic” and “fantastic”.
The Ombudsman Ombudsman
The booming Ombudsman industry will, of course, require proper oversight, lest standards of Ombudsmanning declines. Depending on the size of the Ombudsman industry, we may also need an Ombudsman Ombudsman Ombudsman.
Here’s a thought
According to a South Australian Parliamentary committee, mothers are to blame if their children become criminals.
Expectant mothers, they say, should be subjected to spot checks to make sure they’re competent, and not about to bring up a new generation of Chopper Reads (we kid you not, dear reader).
Apart from the impracticality and self-evident stupidity of such an idea, it is also bizarrely sexist, apparently discounting completely the role of fathers in the upbringing of children.
Here’s a thought for our state politicians – what about a flying squad of citizens to make random checks on what you are doing on the taxpayers’ time (apart from producing silly reports)?
Now that would be an eye-opener.
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