Oh for ____’s sake! Well the Liberal Party of Australia is really focused in on the important issues.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been accused of swearing on purpose on national television to increase his appeal to voters.

Last night on Channel 7 Mr Rudd dropped the word “shit” as he spoke to sacked Pacific Brands workers about the Government’s decision to spend billions stimulating the economy.

“People have to understand that, because there’s going to be the usual political shit storm, sorry, political storm, over that,” he said.

His comments were applauded by the audience.

But this morning Melbourne’s Liberal Mayor Robert Doyle and Opposition frontbencher Peter Dutton both accused Mr Rudd of scripting the moment

via Rudd flies into swearing storm – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

What a bunch of tossers. With all there is to criticise Kevin Rudd over this is the one? Or is it payback for the equally moronic carry-on about the Labor Party’s horror that Malcolm Turnbull mentioned the name of the Prime Minister’s wife and wealth in the same sentence.

Can someone inform both parties there’s an economic meltdown, bushfires and industrial relations legislation to discuss in rational and mature ways – WEE guess that’s hoping for too much.

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WorkChoices ad row ‘politically motivated’ – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

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WEE have very much been enjoying the election episodes of the West Wing over the last few weeks. WEE have to admit that after the beginning of the second season WEE lost a little bit of interest in the West Wing.

Part of it was to do with the plot and part of it was to do with the fact that the Nine Network kept you up to almost midnight to get a fix of West Wing. WEE are pleased that the series has moved across to the ABC and that you can watch the series ad free and over two episodes per evening. That is all very civilised.

Even better, WEE are finding the episodes surrounding the presidential election most interesting and compelling. The series really does feel back to form and next week’s bombshell of Leo dying should be one not to miss. [more]

The cast is performing well, despite the sad loss of John Spencer (Leo McGarry), whose character makes a posthumous exit (WEE think) next week.

WEE wait in anticipation of the outcome of the ‘presidential election’ and suspect that Santo will win, although perhaps the writers would enjoy the challenge of writing a republican white house? Although we suspect they wouldn’t be able to top the antics of the actual current incumbent!

Yes, WEE know we could get on the web and find out what happens but WEE like suspense, so no comments on the outcome of the election please!

So, if you haven’t had a look at the West Wing for a while, have a look again next week.

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Well the story of the building of the longest water pipeline in the world was thankfully Gerard Henderson free this week. In fact there were no obvious blunders on the ‘balance’ front. This only makes last week episode even worse, because it is really obvious why Henderson was there. Because the story involved a Labor Premier.

The state of executives at the ABC is to be condemned, as they are clearly afraid of criticism from Howard and his ilk that they have compromised editorial independence and so now ruin programs with this inane solution to ‘balance’ to protect them from the next barrage of Coalition criticism.

WEE stand by our view that it really is a sad state of affairs and reflects poorly on the ABC and their Australian documentary programming. Perhaps the first episode is better described as “deconstructing Australia”… or at the very least, “deconstructing the ABC”.

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Anyone watching the ABC’s homage to the Sydney Harbour Bridge last Sunday night would have been amazed at two moments of the program. Two moments that absolutely ruined the narrative and drive of the documentary. And it was clearly obvious that both of these moments had to do with Mark Scott’s ridiculous editorial policy about ‘balance’ or whatever right-wing commentators are calling it these days.

All of a sudden, directly after a comment by PJ Keating on Jack Lang, the NSW Premier at the time of the Bridge’s construction, there was Gerard Henderson of the Sydney Institute reminding us that some people didn’t like Jack Lang. What the hell was he doing on our screens? What the hell did he contribute to the story? It was pretty clear from many of the other historical clips and interviews that Jack Lang wasn’t universally loved.

WEE’ll tell you what he was doing there.

It’s this crap they call ‘editorial balance’. So kowtowed and scared is the ABC of the Coalition at the moment, they have to have a token ‘right-wing’ face in a documentary to demonstrate ‘balance’.

What a crock, and what a distasteful insert into an otherwise admirable documentary. “Oh no”, thought the gutless executives at the ABC, “they want to interview PJ Keating for the Harbour Bridge documentary. Shit, we better ask them to interview Henderson… for balance.”

That’s it. That’s the level of sophistication and independence that the ABC has after 10 years of being brow beaten by the paranoid army of Coalition foot soldiers (the former Senator Santo Santoro being among those who have led the charge – never had any trouble remembering the detail of ABC bias, by the way).

It’s a ridiculous look and will taint ABC documentaries if it continues. It was so obvious and blatant and sadly, is in the film forever. If this is what is has come to then they ABC can just forget making documentaries altogether. They will not be useful as interesting films, just reminders of the propaganda of the government of the day.

Let’s hope that we see the back of the Coalition at the next election and that a new government tries at least to restore some independence, good taste and common sense to the executives at the ABC. Oh, and a bit of funding wouldn’t hurt too.

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