How real are the commentators?

I was thinking about something whilst looking at Andrew Bolts blog today - How many of those people are REAL people with real desire to know more and debate the issues Bolt puts forth, and how many are news corp stooges and cronies?

Likewise with the AdelaideNOW blog, which is full of praise for the new layout?

I don't like the new page because the stories are different from the Advertiser, meaning if I want to read the front page I have to go buy the paper, which I refuse to do. I'm not paying for one or maybe two stories. Also, you used to be able to read the paper and stories from up to a week previously, but I can no longer find that functionality on the website.

Sure, I can go online and read other sites, but when Adelaide only has one news source, it kind of makes it a little hard to find stuff about us from an Adelaide perspective. But that's besides the point.

Anyway, on Sunday there was a story by Amanda Blair, an ex Adelaide radio jock, about how DJs and radio hosts are aware that most callers to the station are fake.

And it got me thinking... how do we know these blog commentators aren't fake?

The posts are moderated anonymously, and there's nothing to tie people to their posts like other sites like Kotaku or even a web forum.

I added a comment to the AdelaideNow website, and hopefully Rod, the editor, can answer...

Hey Rod,

Just like to get your opinion on something...

Given that the fake radio caller thing has been blown wide open by the Sunday Mail (well, for those listeners too stupid to realise the truth beforehand anyway), I'd like to know what guarantees do we have that people responding to these blogs aren't just newspaper people posing as 'concerned readers'.

Because the posts are moderated before we see them, I feel that this is very open to abuse, much like the Radio calls.

Surely a registered user database would be better than anonymous posting coupled with anonymous moderating.

Adelaide Now Sucks Even More

Can Adelaide's newspaper get any worse?

Top story on "Adelaide Now", the web portal for our newspaper, The Advertiser, is Top tipster admits it's all for Show, the story of six year old Henry Stevens being the top of not his class, not his sport, but of the footy tips.

The fucking footy tips!!!

He's a headline for you. FOOTY TIPS ARE BULLSHIT!

Sorry to burst little Henry's bubble, but there is absolutely no skill involved in being on top.

How do I know this? How can I make such a bold claim?

Because in both my footy tipping competitions I'm (on or near) top and I THOROUGHLY DISLIKE footy! Click HERE to see the ladder if you don't believe me...

I don't watch it. I don't follow it. I don't support a team. I don't know any players' names and every week I have to try and remember which team is on top and what colours they are.

I'm all for feel good stories, but come on Advertiser... there's so much else which is newsworthy in this state that the story of a six year old kid who wins footy tips should NEVER be the leading story.

Another day, another wanker... This time it's Piers Ackerman

What is it with these so-called journalists? When I can do a quick two minute google search that basically tears their stories and opinion to shreds, it really makes you question how the fuck they got employed in the first place...

I DO like the fact that they are willing to have their albeit idiotic thoughts opened up to people to comment on, and wish more would partake in the fun.

Piers Ackerman has yet another jab at the ABC over of all things Playschool. Maybe they should have a Playschool for fat, old journalists.

Here's my reply to him... a bit more vehement than my response to Bolt, so less likely to be published.

It says on your blog page that you're one of Australia's best journalists. If this is the case then God help the media!

You're simply an idiot. This has got nothing to do with the ABC and everything to do with your pathetic and on going ABC bashing. When will you stop beating a dead horse?

This change has been happening in ALL children's programs, and isn't just a leftist change. Take a look at how Sesame Street has changed.

A simple search on google will find that it's being used to spread pro-American propaganda through Muslim countries (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3200699.stm) to the changing of cookie monster to promote healthier eating by singing "Cookies is a sometimes food" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4432415.stm)

But then a simple google search is probably beyond your capabilities.

Andrew Bolt's brilliant journalistic mind...

Andrew Bolt on the Herald Sun is bashing the 'left wing bias' in today's media.

Very admirable, but he totally misses the point.

On his second post about the Lebanese taxi apparently bombed by Isreal being a hoax (and talk about beating a dead horse) He says "Well, we know now beyond doubt, thanks to Zombietime, that the story was completely false".

I had to post a comment, and I'll be interested to see if it's published. Here's what I wrote:

Um, no we don't.

Here, ladies and gentlemen, is the real truth. Mr Bolt is a lazy, inept journalist.

Here we see his absolutely brilliant journalistic mind at work: Take one source and treat it gospel truth.

The Zombietime people just look at photos and surmise the outcome. It is hardly irrefutable proof that what occurred is a hoax.

To really tell if this occurred, you'd need to travel to Lebanon and interview people from both sides of the conflict, interview observers and witnesses, analyse the metal around the hole looking for burn residue.

But if you are happy to report a biased, unfounded and quite possibly false piece of photographic comparative analysis as truth and demand an apology from other sources who report a different truth, then that's your problem, not mine.

However, you're the one being paid as a 'journalist'.

Then again, you're not really a journalist, are you Mr Bolt?

Just like owning a guitar is not enough to make you a rockstar, you're just being paid by a newspaper to put your words on a page...

Why is there no Australian religion?

I was listening to my last.fm reggae station and whilst reading about some of the artists, I decided to look up more on the rasta movement.

This got me to thinking about religion in general, and to why there is no Australian founded 'religion' as such.

The Rasta movement began amongst the poor slaves in Jamaica and is their expression of religion against that of the white man.

Similarily Kwaanza, was set up by a Black person in America to celebrate black diversity in the holiday period.

Even Scientology and the Church of Latter Day Saints can be seen as being created to address flaws in previous religions that do not address the specific actuality of being American.

And the different sects of the Christian faith such as the Lutherans evolved to address different interpretations of the bible.

So, why is there no Australian religion?

Sure, there's the Dream Time of the Aboriginals, but as a nation we don't respect them or their culture, so it's understandable that no one really takes any serious notice of that.

But why, when our nation was founded by convicts, many of whom where politically and religiously persecuted, has no real religion developed that is distinctly Australian?

Sure, our constitution states that "The Commonwealth of Australia shall not make any law establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth", but that hardly dissuades people to make up a religion.

If I was, say, an Irish Catholic (and apparently my ancestors were) and I was shipped here because I stole of loaf of bread, I would reject both the State and the Religion of that state.

The Christian God didn't help me, a poor Irish person just trying to provide for his family, from being caught and then being shipped to a strange land where the seasons are backwards, the sky is different, it doesn't snow, and the animals all look fucking weird.




I mean look at the Platypus... if that thing isn't enough to make you reject God if you're an 18th Century convict with no education then I don't know what else could!

With a mess of cultures and religions and backgrounds all in the one place, I'm surprised that, unlike America which has a ridiculous number of stupid religions popping up all the time, a distinctly Australian religion hasn't emerged.

So I was talking to God the other day...

So I was talking to God online the other day...


Me:
Hi God, Wassup?
God:
Hi there . I am a Christian.
Me:
you're a cunt
God:
Thanks and you are a delightful person too. Am I a cunt? Maybe.



And later in the conversation:

Me:
fuck you
God:
Why are you so mean?
Me:
coz you're a cunt
God:
Good reason. Thanks and you are a delightful person too. Am I a cunt? Yes.

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