_8462 SIQ 42 Vol 21:qxd8 17/09/13 11:04 AM Page 1 ISSUE 42 AUGUST 2013 ANNE HENDERSON – Learning from Calvin Coolidge STEPHEN MATCHETT on Lincoln’s White House, democracy and power at play ROSS FITZGERALD reviews books on Bill Woodfull, Old Xaverians Football Club, Footy Town and Madeleine St John Jim Griffin, Daniel Mannix & the ABD ANONYMOUS, a study on the American firearm Asylum Seekers and the Confusion of DAVID MARR & JULIAN BURNSIDE LINDA MOTTRAM & EMMA ALBERICI in the Conservative-Free-Zone MEDIA WATCH’S Sandalista Watch with the ABC’s “Whitlam: the Lyrical” Published by The Sydney Institute 41 Phillip St. with Gerard Henderson’s Sydney 2000 Ph: (02) 9252 3366 MEDIA WATCH Fax: (02) 9252 3360 _8462 SIQ 42 Vol 21:qxd8 17/09/13 11:04 AM Page 2 The Sydney Institute Quarterly Issue 42, August 2013 l CONTENTS LINDA MOTTRAM & EMMA ALBERICI REFLECT Editorial 2 ABC CONSENSUS ABC managing director and editor-in-chief Mark Scott Why the 1920s “Roared” - likes to present himself as a vibrant media manager with Calvin Coolidge and Debt a business plan that works. This glosses over the reality a that the ABC’s business plan involves travelling to - Anne Henderson 3 Canberra with an empty case and having it loaded up with taxpayers’ funds by an obliging government. A Study on the American Firearm Despite the current financial constraints, Mark Scott - Anonymous 7 managed to receive an extra $90 million for the ABC in this year’s budget. Some funds will be spent on a Fact i Checking Unit, which will ignore errors in ABC Book Reviews programs but will focus on the alleged errors made by - Ross Fitzgerald 11 business, political parties and other organisations. Needless to say, the ABC chose the left-wing Russell Political Power & The White House - Skelton – who has criticised conservatives in general and Tony Abbott in particular – as head of the new unit. The West Wing , Boss , Lincol n, The culture of the ABC is such that it does not lead to an rHouse of Cards understanding of either criticism or the private sector media. A few examples illustrate the point. On 22 May - Stephen Matchett 17 2013, following some criticism of the ABC by the Liberal Party, Sydney Metropolitan Radio 702 presenter Linda The Asylum Seeker Debate - Mottram used the occasion of an interview with former ABC general manager David Hill to ask her guest about and the Historical Confusion of the ABC. Ms Mottram presented a “Dorothy Dixer” – David Marr and Julian Burnside 21 namely “is it time to rethink whether public broadcasters should be put into private hands” and raised the issue of Archbishop Daniel Mannix, bias. Not surprisingly, Mr Hill defended the public o broadcaster and dismissed all criticism of bias against the Jim Griffin and The Australian ABC by either the Coalition or Labor. It is a matter of fact Dictionary of BIography 27 that the Greens never criticise the ABC – since the ABC tends to criticise both the Coalition and Labor from the left. Gerard Henderson’s On the ABC 702 Drive program on 6 June 2013, discussion turned on the media. ABC Lateline presenter Emma Media Watch 31 Alberici was one of the guests. She simply declared that, at t the ABC, “we’re not concerned by the dollar”. Ms Alberici Cover Design and production by D T Graphics added that she “didn’t see a future where commercial newspapers and television are going to make any kind of The Sydney Institute Quarterly is edited by money of significance online”. She pointed out that The Anne Henderson and Gerard Henderson. Guardian (which loses around £30 million a year) and The Conversation (which is subsidised by the taxpayer) along i Editorial Office: 41 Phillip Street, Sydney 2000 with so many online sites (including the ABC) provide news for free. So, according to Emma Alberici, taxpayer Tel: (02) 9252 3366 Fax: (02) 9252 3360 funded news has a future and private sector funded news Email: [email protected] is dying or dead. The point here is that the Lateline presenter did not seem to believe that such a situation Website: www.thesydneyinstitute.com.au raised problems – and she criticised News Corporation executive James Murdoch for suggesting otherwise. Layout and typesetting by DT Graphics Pty Ltd, Suite 8/2B Edward Street Kingsgrove NSW 2208. That’s the ABC’s world. The public broadcaster is a Conservative-Free-Zone which denies this reality and Tel: (02) 9150 9466 Fax: (02) 9150 6663 d dismisses any criticism that it lacks balance and plurality. Website: www.dtgraphics.com.au Also, ABC types believe it is proper that the media should The views expressed in The Sydney Institute Quarterly are be fully government funded. Little wonder that a survey conducted in early 2012 by academic Folker Hanusch those of the designated authors. They do not necessarily found that, of ABC journalists who declared a voting reflect the views of The Sydney Institute or of its governors. intention, 41 per cent supported Labor, 32 per cent the Registered Print Post No : PP255003/02934 Greens and a mere 15 per cent the Coalition. Enough said. The voting intentions of ABC journalists reflect the For a complete list of our forthcoming functions, ABC’s culture which is sympathetic to government visit our Website: www.thesydneyinstitute.com.au funding and regulation. E 2 _8462 SIQ 42 Vol 21:qxd8 17/09/13 11:04 AM Page 3 The Sydney Institute Quarterly Issue 42, August 2013 America’s most unassuming president, sworn in by his notary public father by kerosene lamplight in the WHY THE small town of Plymouth Notch where he was visiting his family’s farm. 1920S This avoidance of self-promotion, coupled with his presidency years lacking the high drama of either “ROARED” – war or financial disaster, until now has rendered the Calvin Coolidge presidency all but forgotten. CALVIN Moreover, mistakenly, detractors have held the Coolidge period of economic upturn as somehow responsible for the stock market crash of 1929, as if COOLIDGE the 1920s in the US were nothing more than Great Gatsby-style excess. Nothing could be further from AND DEBT the truth. New books on Coolidge, in the past year, have revived Coolidge’s memory. Why Coolidge Matters: Anne Henderson Leadership Lessons from America’s Most Underrated President by Charles C Johnson and Amity Shlaes’ osted as Australia’s first head of mission in Coolidge give the lie to Coolidge’s detractors. In very P Washington in 1940, Richard Casey communicated timely reminders and non-equivocal terms, Shlaes his early impressions to his prime minister, Robert and Johnson argue that today’s Western world should Menzies, in a letter dated 14 March. In it, Casey gave turn its focus backwards and learn from Coolidge – it updates on the usual formalities of establishing an is not too late. Their case is a sound one. embassy, but ended with an assessment of how he found the United States, generally. As Amity Shlaes points out, the world of Coolidge used a different language when speaking of the At the time the USA, like Australia, was slowly economy. Certainly Coolidge did: emerging from an era of financial downturn and high unemployment, following the Wall Street crash in He did not say “the federal government”; 1929, its immediate aftermath of credit squeeze and he said “the national government”. He did subsequent years of depression. Yet, what Casey not say “the private sector”; he said found suggested that, in the US, money was not the “commerce”. He did not say “savings”; he problem – “This country,” he wrote to Menzies, “is so said “thrift” or “economy”. Indeed he lush with unused idle money that it makes one cry.” especially cherished the word “economy” because it came from the Greek for With the shock of national indebtedness in the first “household”, and to her displeasure he decades of the twenty-first century – from Europe monitored the White House housekeeper to the USA - the American president the world with the same vigilance he monitored the forgot has come back into focus. US President departments of the federal government. Calvin Coolidge (August 1923-January 1929) was the president so obsessed with conquering America’s With this mindset, and in a complete reversal of record debt, following World War I, that by 1927 he policymakers’ thoughts today, Coolidge and his had delivered for the United States its highest ever administration took the US from a post world war standard of living. trough of debt to boom years after raising interest rates by 300 basis points, cutting tax rates and halving The surpluses Coolidge and his Secretary of the the costs and involvement of the federal government. Treasury, Andrew Mellon, achieved were handed back as tax cuts. Over a few years, in spite of As Shlaes argues, this recipe for growth is one we can substantially lowering the rates of taxation, the all revisit, and hope to find answers from. But the increased economic activity that eventuated had, in Coolidge philosophy was also strongly centred on a turn, handed the US government a healthy budget. determined belief in the individual and, as Shlaes notes, from the 1930s on, “collectives and not Calvin Coolidge was the outsider from Vermont who individuals became fashionable”. accepted the Republican nomination for Vice- President in 1922. When President Warren Harding As Charles C Johnson sees it, President Obama’s died suddenly during a trip to California, on 2 August attempt to force “the rich” to pay a fairer share has 1923, “Silent Cal” – as he was nicknamed – became seen US taxes rise despite the US economy’s 3 _8462 SIQ 42 Vol 21:qxd8 17/09/13 11:04 AM Page 4 The Sydney Institute Quarterly Issue 42, August 2013 contracting.