Nothing’s off limits for Bolt’s pompous point-scoring
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In July last year a newborn baby, umbilical cord attached, was found dead in a rubbish bin in regional Victoria. The traumatised local community and a stunned nation felt sadness for the child and concern for the unknown mother. There is an unspoken understanding in the media that such tragic events should not be the catalyst for political or ideological point scoring, but that didn’t stop Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt from callously using this child’s death as an excuse to lay the boot into environmentalists because the body was inside a green shopping bag.
Two weeks ago Victoria suffered through its worst heatwave on record, with the mercury hitting at least 42 degrees each day for three straight days. The state’s infrastructure groaned under the pressure and residents had to cope with public transport meltdown and electricity failures. Over thirty people died due to the heat and Bolt happily used those deaths to beat another of his ideological drums.
And two days ago over one hundred people died and nearly a thousand homes were lost in Australia’s worst ever bushfire tragedy. Andrew Bolt saw red as Greens leader Bob Brown linked the fire to global warming, accusing him of using the tragedy to score political points.
And as if that wasn’t hypocritical enough, without drawing breath Bolt went on to try and score some counter-points of his own by linking to a graph and an article that he believes disprove the theory of global warming. Then only two hours later, Bolt used the devastation of the Victorian fires and the preceding heatwave, along with the Queensland floods, to attack the government’s proposed stimulus package.
Clearly Andrew’s political points are more important that others’ political points, and no death is too tragic to prove them. |
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11 Comments
Well David Sanderson, your suggestion sounds a bit like shutting down debate doesn’t it??? He writes his opinion peices and obviously gets readers….otherwise he would get the arse rather quickly.
Considering how insiders is often stacked with 2 lefties it is only right that at least one conservative gets on there.
The sheer stupidity and tastelessness of the green bag story is astonishing. My regret is that I added to his readership figures by clicking the link.
The ‘green frenzy’ story was yet another reminder that he will believe and say anything he chooses so long as it suits his idiotic prejudices and helps him to gain readers.
It surely must be time that the ABC Insiders program dropped him as a regular panelist. Letting him on only gives him a respectability and prominence that he does not deserve. If “balance” is the issue there must be some conservative journalist they could use instead of him.
What concerns me about Bolt, and most other anti-climate-change commentators, is that they don’t accept the possibility that they are wrong. Of course, they would charge that believers in climate change also don’t accept the possibility that they are wrong. Leaving aside the disparity between the accomplishments of the scientific method versus the heated defence of accepted wisdom, the problem I have with that argument is that Bolt being wrong means the human race is royally stuffed. Conversely, Al Gore et al being wrong would be great news and cause for quite a party. So who is it prudent, safe or indeed not entirely reckless to believe?
I have no problem with a conservative being on the panel and that is clear from my comment. I’d be happy to see Bolt replaced with a respected conservative commentator/journalist. Bolt is a populist ratbag with no integrity and therefore does not qualify.
Scott; by talking about this vacuous dill, you’re giving him the oxygen he & the Herald-Sun management crave.
When media commentators stop talking about him, he’ll fade into obscurity…. I haven’t read anything by him for years…and never will. Same goes for PFS Ackerman et al.
Try it……..it works
I’ve often wondered if anyone else has noticed how much Andrew Bolt sounds like the sort of Muslim preachers he gets into occasionally. His ranting about climate change is about as calm and rational about the attitudes of certain religious folk towards women wearing trousers or speaking for themselves…
Hey Roger, never actually said that I read him….because I don’t……..bit presumptuous eh?
I just remember the calls from our good friend David Marr and his ilk suggesting that “conversation had been shut down” during the Howard administration….and he did this in the SMH about every two weeks for 5 years and at every writers festival.
If you don’t like someone - don’t read them. Simple. As I said earlier, if he gets readers then he will continue to be employed as an opinion writer. Thats generally how it works outside of the sheltered ABC world.
Andrew Bolt is a pathetic cretin.
Nice job, Scott. Won’t change anything though, News Ltd. insists on employing the useless bastard for some strange reason. Maybe they need a columnist who is completely and utterly wrong on every issue in order to balance out their more well-reasoned columnists. Maybe they just feel sorry for the bloke. Either way they’ll keep printing his garbage and he’ll keep cashing his paycheck.
If Andrew Bolt tells you the sky is blue, better check outside because you can be damn sure it’s a deep shade of crimson.
Bolt only attracts uneducated idiots like col and removing him and putting someone with a balanced brain, instead of ruperts little troopers.Just like the old fool dog whistler tuckey and ackerman, they need to be put out to a woody pasture.
Herman Pouwels
Tuesday, 10 February 2009 8:35:01 PM
There has been extreme heat in south east Autralia, extreme rainfall in north east Australia, extreme cold and snow in Europe and UK all as predicted by climate scientists. So what is the Adelaide Advertiser’s answer ? Give an extreme climate change denialist ,Andrew Bolt , a weekly collumn to vent his spleen.
Lord Downer already has a weekly say , carrying on as if he’s still in parliament and as if his opinion is valid, and important (if it ever was). Adding Bolt to this lineup is certainly enough reason for me not to buy those editions. Thankfully I have Crikey.
By the way, sales must be really down as customers who subscribe only to the Saturday edition and Sunday mail ,are being offered the weekday editions FREE for 6 weeks !!!
Bolt regretfully uses the pages of the Herald to prop up his bigotry, supported by an editor who must share his disgusting view of life. To use the death of a baby and the equally tragic bush fires to expound his political agenda is beyond contempt. There is not another columnist in this country who pushes the boundaries of distaste and personal attacks (including Akerman) than Bolt. His lack of professionalism obviously appeals to Barry Cassidy and the ABC Insiders producers, although he is continually made to look the fool he is by other panelists. I doubt even Holland, the land which produced him, would tolerate some of his rantings, even with their liberal outlook. Its doubtful they want him back having got rid of him in his youth, their gain Australias loss. Given the reduction in staff promised by the News Ltd boss, its to be hoped Bolt is sent to out to pasture, a dry barren one at that.