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| Golden Tonsils spits the dummy | |
The masses in all societies need their Soma to take their minds off the
frustrations of everyday life, and Sydney motorists need something to take
their minds off the failure of a socialist road system in the dreary drive to
their government approved (and subsidized) work zones. That must be why there
are so many petty cat-fights on Sydney's radio waves. The latest spat is another flare-up between DJs John (golden tonsils) Laws and
Alan (shock jock) Jones, and has he-said-she-said details not unlike a 16 year
old drama-queen before prom-night.
John (where-oh-where-have-my-ratings-gone) Laws said that Alan (gloating
smugly) Jones told him at a dinner party that he (ie Alan) had told John (yes sir)
Howard to appoint David (I am an Alan Jones Fan) Flint as head of the
Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) or he (ie Alan again) would remove his
support for John (yes-sir) Howard before the next election. John (my memory is usually so good) Howard and Alan (who - me?) Jones both
took a leaf out of Carmen (I-only-lie-when-my-lips-are-moving) Lawrence's book,
and had a lapse of memory. Both of them were absolutely sure that they couldn't
remember having had any such conversation. John (cash-for-comment) Laws admitted that he was doing this because he got
dragged over the coals for selling his opinion of the banks whereas Alan
(clever-bastard) Jones has found a way to sell his opinion of Telstra through
his company, and is therefore immune to the new rules. So John (sour grapes) Laws spat the dummy.
So who cares? It's all a bit on par with watching Days of Our Lives, except
the players are all so much uglier. Well actually it does matter because it all demonstrates the idiocy of
regulation. If there were no government rules about what radio announcers could
say, or who could sponsor their shows, then the ABA would have nothing to do
except enforce spectrum boundaries (ie, stopping people from broadcasting on
someone else's spectrum channel. The entire spectrum could simply be lease-auctioned to the highest bidders.
Telstra could buy an entire radio station and broadcast nothing but
advertisements for Telstra and re-runs of 'We are Australian'. Some die-hard
socialists might even listen to it occasionally (until Telstra were privatized of
course, then it would immediately become evil). It such a system there would be no political appointments (the ABA's job
would be basically a technical one), and there would be no point in a DJ
influencing the outcome of the position. But as soon as there is government
interference on business, we see business interfering with government, and
businesses pushing their own agendas via government coersion. Clearly our government thinks we are too stupid to make our own decisions
about what to believe. That's why they have to control what we see and hear
through the media. And all to protect our right of freedom of speech, and free
choice.
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