24 Comments
May 9, 2022Liked by John Birmingham

Yeah nah. I didn't watch it. To be honest, I have avoided as much coverage of the campaign as I can. Haven't watched any TV news for weeks. Only read the occasional piece online. I don't need convincing that Scotty Too Hotty (for the old WWE fans out there) needs to go. Nigh on 10 years of lunatics running the asylum is more than enough. If people haven't made their minds up by now, they possibly don't have one.

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May 9, 2022Liked by John Birmingham

Can't stomach commercial TV and have gone off the insiders because of the interjectionist. I saw the aftermath this morning on the ABC though, that was unedifying enough for me. Not sure these"debates" serve any useful purpose, just a pale copy of US bullshit.

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May 9, 2022Liked by John Birmingham

I gave it a miss, & watched something about ancient Mayans on SBS instead. Less human sacrifice & better urban planning policy than Smirko.

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May 9, 2022Liked by John Birmingham

I watched every minute of this rubbish mainly because I couldn't believe how bad it was - setup, staging, inane questions, know nothing so called reporter/"moderator" Sarah Abo (never heard of her) and radio host Deb O'Neill (never heard of her), with lashings of incompetence, sloppiness and dopiness to the fore. The latter really took the cake when she asked the pugilists to define what a woman is. I mean!!! That was (almost) the stupidest, lowest moment of the sad mess. Surely David Crowe must be cringing in embarrassment today, though nothing could have saved this. Even though I have the lowest expectations of D Wick and 60 Minutes, this descended several kilometres lower. My especial scorn however is for C Uhlmann. In my opinion, a self important overblown excuse for a "political editor", he is so anti china that he is a danger to himself and to proper research and scholarship. And to top it all off, the technology was hopeless, and several times the hapless Abo announced results that were 100% opposite to the numbers that appeared on the screen. A total debacle.

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I saw Ulmann's name on the prom and gave it a miss. Why both parties agree to such old media's last gasp clickbait thuggery I don't know. Thanks for the confirmation John ;-)

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May 9, 2022Liked by John Birmingham

I looked down the list of commenters here, and noted that some of them are nominally sane human beings that I know and respect. And... they watched this thing?

I didn't. You'd have to pay me -- quite a lot, thanks! -- to subject myself to that kind of abuse. And frankly, after the last seven years even if Albanese manifested horns and a tail right there on-screen, I'd still be putting the LNP below the ALP on my vote. I mean -- at least there's a chance that Lucifer might be halfway competent, right?

But that does lead me to ask why various folks watched this. Birmo gets a pass: he's paid to be a political tragic, and paid to write scurrilously amusing screeds in response. I wince in sympathy for him, but I expect the next gold-plated hovercraft will cheer him up.

The rest of you... what, exactly, were you hoping to see?

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Thanks for taking one for the team, JB. Be interesting to see how many did watch it. No surprise that the online voting was biased in Morrison's favour but even then he didn't win (despite Spreadsheet's comment on ABC Breakfast this morning implying that he did.) I like AusMossy's comment about people not having made up their minds brings into question whether they actually have one. Which brings to the question of braindead journalists like Ms Bechwati & Mr Kearsley and their inane questions. What will it take to stop the haranguing, bullying, braindead questions, harassing, fluffy airhead commentary from the likes of Norman, Jennet & Probyn? What will put a cracker up their respective arses and remind them that they belong to the Fourth Estate. Their job is to speak truth to power. When will they have the guts to remember they belong to a Union, and go on strike against the bosses that force them to lie?

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Juda Bacon - thanking you, JB for taking one for the team - totally endorse that - and many of the responses below. There were four people including my wife and me in the cinema for Leah Purcell's "The Drover's Wife" - finishing at 8.30 last night. It was a Sunday night! I would hate to think the place was so quiet because people had stayed in to watch the subject of this post - what has obviously only loosely been called a debate!

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I can't / wont watch them. Thanks for distilling it into its true farce for me.

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Thinking about going into hybernation for the next 12 days.....

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guess the best thing I can do in response is go to a pre-polling centre after work today and put the LNP below ALP on my completed ballot.

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I read Freezing Order instead. Winning choice.

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Glad I missed it.

The election campaign's been going since June 2019. I want it to end.

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I ended up watching Moonknight instead as it was closer to reality than the 💩show with shouty “journalists”

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