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_7581 SIQ 37 Vol 16.qxd_DON:7 29/7/10 11:50 AM Page 1 ISSUE 37 JULY 2010 Memoirs and memory – GERARD HENDERSON on historical errors in the Simons- Fraser tome Helen Garner’s problem with fiction – PETER HAYES What’s happening to English - SHELLEY GARE on style and language STEPHEN MATCHETT and the Barack Obama (literary) industry ANNE HENDERSON searches for meaning from Christopher/Chris Hitchens ROSS FITZGERALD & STEPHEN HOLT – Doc Evatt revived JOHN MCCONNELL reviews the lives of Alan Reid and Nikki Savva PETE(R) STEEDMAN corresponds Vale JIM GRIFFIN MEDIA WATCH on leftist inner-city sandal wearers versus the people – Jon Faine, Brian Costar, Judith Brett, Catherine Deveny, Jill Singer, among others Published by The Sydney Institute 41 Phillip St. with Gerard Henderson’s Sydney 2000 Ph: (02) 9252 3366 MEDIA WATCH Fax: (02) 9252 3360 _7581 SIQ 37 Vol 16.qxd_DON:7 29/7/10 11:50 AM Page 2 The Sydney Institute Quarterly Issue 37, July 2010 CONTENTS MARK SCOTT - M.I.A. Soon after he was appointed managing director of the ABC in 2006, Mark Scott made a number of specific Editorial 2 commitments. He said he would ensure that the ABC presented a greater diversity of views on social and political Malcolm Fraser’s Memoirs - issues. He declared that the ABC TV Media Watch program The Fallibility of Memory would make it possible for those whom it criticised to have their views heard on the program itself. And he indicated - Gerard Henderson 3 that he would act in his position as ABC editor-in-chief in Adventures on the Road to Clarity addition to his role as ABC managing director. Mark Scott is a distinct improvement on his predecessor, - Shelley Gare 11 Russell Balding. However, he has not fulfilled any of the commitments which he made four years ago. The ABC Denying Chris(t) - Hitched to the still does not have one conservative presenter on any of its Glittering Prizes main television or radio programs – even the editor of its - Anne Henderson 16 recently created The Drum website, Jonathan Green, is a left-of-centre type with a journalistic background with The The Incredible Helen Garner Age and Crikey. Jonathan Holmes, another ABC in-house leftie, does not allow for any of his targets to appear on the - Peter Hayes 20 Media Watch program which he presents. Moreover, Mr Scott rarely acts as the public broadcaster’s editor-in-chief New Light on Dr Evatt and prefers to pass responsibility for editorial decisions - Ross Fitzgerald & Stephen Holt 25 down through the ABC’s extensive bureaucracy. The Sydney Institute Quarterly has been covering the Book Reviews controversy which followed the decision in August 2007 of - John McConnel 27 the 7.30 Report’s (then) political editor Michael Brissenden – with the support of 7.30 Report presenter The Irresistible Rise of Kerry O’Brien – to reveal Mr Brissenden’s interpretation of Barack Santos Obama an off-the-record discussion which he and two others had over dinner with the (then) treasurer Peter Costello in - Stephen Matchett 31 2006. See Issues 34 and 35. This was unprofessional journalism at its worst. Not only did Michael Brissenden Correspondence 39 breach journalist ethics by welching on an off-the-record commitment. He also got the date of the dinner hopelessly Vale James Griffin wrong and provided misleading advice on camera about his 18 October 1929 - 9 May 2010 41 (alleged) record of the discussion. Also, he was allowed to present his own story on the 7.30 Report. Gerard Henderson’s Senator Eric Abetz quizzed Mark Scott about the Media Watch 45 Brissenden/Costello matter at the Senate Estimates on 19 October 2009. In response, the ABC managing director Cover Design by D T Graphics took a few matters on notice. It took the ABC bureaucracy Cover illustration by Don Ticchio & John Horvath some three months to get back to Senator Abetz. In response to the question of whether the ABC investigated The Sydney Institute Quarterly is edited by the errors in Mr Brissenden’s original story, the ABC Anne Henderson and Gerard Henderson. referred Senator Abetz to a statement placed on the 7.30 Editorial Office: 41 Phillip Street, Sydney 2000 Report website by Alan Sunderland (Head of National Tel: (02) 9252 3366 Fax: (02) 9252 3360 Programs, ABC News) which skirted around the issue and ended by asking viewers for their opinions. In response to Email: [email protected] the question of what action has been taken on this issue, Website: www.thesydneyinstitute.com.au the ABC effectively supported Michael Brissenden’s decision to reveal an off-the-record discussion, refused to Layout and typesetting by DT Graphics Pty Ltd, provide a copy of his (alleged) note on the occasion and Suite 8/2B Edward Street Kingsgrove NSW 2208. glossed over the fact that he had never told 7.30 Report Tel: (02) 9150 9466 Fax: (02) 9150 6663 viewers when the dinner took place. Website: www.dtgraphics.com.au Mark Scott did not even sign off on any of the ABC’s The views expressed in The Sydney Institute Quarterly are those of the designated authors. They do not necessarily responses to Senator Abetz. Rather the ABC bureaucracy reflect the views of The Sydney Institute or of its governors. dismissed his concerns by pointing out comments made by others on the ABC in the past. Mark Scott did not involve Registered Print Post No : PP255003/02934 himself in this matter as the ABC’s editor-in-chief. In this For a complete list of our forthcoming functions, capacity, he has been missing in action virtually since he visit our Website: www.thesydneyinstitute.com.au promised to fulfil this role. Editorial 2 _7581 SIQ 37 Vol 16.qxd_DON:7 29/7/10 11:50 AM Page 3 The Sydney Institute Quarterly Issue 37, July 2010 authors – Malcolm Fraser (the subject of the book) and MALCOLM Margaret Simons (who is described as the narrator). In “A Note from the Narrator” at the front of the book, Simons depicts her roles as “being the curator FRASER’S of this account of Fraser’s life and work” and “to intercede between the ‘I’ and the reader”. MEMOIRS – Throughout the book Fraser is described in the third person. The end of Malcolm Fraser: The Political Memoirs contains a section titled “Additional Note by THE Malcolm Fraser” – which reads as follows: While I join with Margaret Simons in FALLIBILITY thanking all of those mentioned in the acknowledgements for their time, effort and support, Margaret Simons herself deserves OF MEMORY a special mention. I was always reluctant to write, or to be involved in writing a book of Gerard Henderson this kind because it would have meant many hours and days, even weeks, trawling through archives of the life that I had led. So n the lead up to the 2004 election, Margaret Simons many contemporary histories are written I wrote a monograph on the then Labor leader Mark too much from memory and without Latham. Titled Latham’s World: The New Politics of the sufficient reference to the raw facts of what Outsiders (Quarterly Essay, Issue 15, 2004), the short occurred at the time. Memories can be, as I biography indicated that its author was very much a know of [sic] myself, notoriously fallible. supporter of Mark Latham and very much an opponent of the then prime minister John Howard. She Apart from being an author whom both described herself as belonging to the “middle-class Tamie and I believe has brought the pages Left” and wrote that “if Latham ascends to power, then of this book alive, Margaret has done not it will be a signal of succession to our generation”. She only the writing but also the assiduous added: “We will be in our prime. It will be our turn to research that the book required. She has run the place, and I’m sure things will be different.” done this with unfailing care to make sure the facts are right. This regard for detail is Ms Simons’ only disagreement with the then especially important since the book turns Opposition leader turned on the fact that he had some current myths about my public life refused her many requests for an interview. Simons on their head. The collaboration with seemed to think that she had an entitlement to Margaret has been enjoyable and I thank interview Latham and that he had a duty to respond her for the way in which she has devoted to her queries. herself to bringing the book to finality. Some years ago Melbourne University Press came Malcolm Fraser up with the idea that the former Liberal Party 12 October 2009 prime minister Malcolm Fraser should write his autobiography. There had been two earlier Malcolm Fraser’s note reads like a disclaimer. He substantial works on Fraser and the Fraser describes memory, including his own memory, as Government. Namely, Philip Ayers’ Malcolm Fraser: “notoriously fallible”. And then he implies that it was A Biography (William Heinemann, 1987) and Patrick his co-author’s responsibility “to make sure the facts Weller’s Malcolm Fraser PM: A Study In Prime are right”. Ministerial Power (Penguin, 1989). At Page 753 the authors write that “Professor Brian Fraser supported the Ayers’ biography – he gave Costar read the entire manuscript”. Dr Costar is a numerous interviews and provided access to his professor at Swinburne University and is a published papers and the book was very sympathetic to him. writer on Australian politics. Certainly Professor Fraser also provided access to his Cabinet and Costar should have been able to correct errors in the personal papers to Weller and put the author up at Fraser/Simons manuscript.