Andrew Bolt - is he a credible journalist?

[Interceptor]

Bolt continues to plumb new depths, "TRAGEDY USED":

The bodies are still being recovered, and at least one News Ltd columnist is already trying to capitalise politically on the Christmas Island tragedy:

Blood on their hands

Resign, Julia. Your laws, and you were warned. And when you – yes, you – were warned 14 months ago that at least 25 people, by my count, had drowned already…

…the deaths of so many people, lured to their doom by her laws…

Repulsive. Ghoulish.

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/purepoison/2 ... gedy-used/

Are you and/or Crikey going to criticise Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition as well?

'If the Australian government was willing to properly process asylum seekers in Indonesia and resettle successful refugees in Australia, then far fewer people would get on boats to travel to Australia," he said.

http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/27-confirmed-dead-in-christmas-island-disaster-20101215-18xkm.html

[Gozu]

I will that's pretty poor but obviously not as repugnant as the comments of a far-right lunatic like Andrew Bolt.

btw Pure Poison is not "Crikey". They just host their blog (among a lot of others) on their Crikey Blogs website.

[redandblack]

What did Andrew say about SIEV X at the time, then?

[dedja]

What did Andrew say about SIEV X at the time, then?

Whatever little Johnny said ...

[Interceptor]

I will that's pretty poor but obviously not as repugnant as the comments of a far-right lunatic like Andrew Bolt.

btw Pure Poison is not "Crikey". They just host their blog (among a lot of others) on their Crikey Blogs website.

Okay fair response.

[Gozu]

"Letter to the Editor regarding Andrew Bolt":

Dear Editor,

Andrew Bolt has blood on his hands. He stridently insisted on the invasion and killings in Iraq which led to millions fleeing. Some of those millions ended up in the ocean off Christmas Island on Wednesday.

Andrew Bolt’s call, while bodies were still in the ocean, for Julia Gillard’s resignation (but the Labor Party opposed the war in Iraq) lacked human decency. He should resign.

Senator Bob Brown

http://greensmps.org.au/blog/letter-edi ... ndrew-bolt

[dedja]

LOL, that's classic ...

[Gozu]

"Seven lines that don't stand up":

I wouldn’t usually do a point-by-point like this, but Andrew Bolt’s retort to Bob Brown today is absolute rot on pretty much every level.

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/purepoison/2 ... -defences/

[Bat Pad]

I will that's pretty poor but obviously not as repugnant as the comments of a far-right lunatic like Andrew Bolt.

btw Pure Poison is not "Crikey". They just host their blog (among a lot of others) on their Crikey Blogs website.

Whats poor or repugnant about either comment? They may be wrong, but I really fail to see whats repugnant about saying it.

[Gozu]

I will that's pretty poor but obviously not as repugnant as the comments of a far-right lunatic like Andrew Bolt.

btw Pure Poison is not "Crikey". They just host their blog (among a lot of others) on their Crikey Blogs website.

Whats poor or repugnant about either comment? They may be wrong, but I really fail to see whats repugnant about saying it.

The comment from the refugge assoc guy was poor as he would know this all has far more to do with push factors than pull factors and Bolt's comment was odious in the extreme and he's now dealing with the consequences.

[Bat Pad]

I will that's pretty poor but obviously not as repugnant as the comments of a far-right lunatic like Andrew Bolt.

btw Pure Poison is not "Crikey". They just host their blog (among a lot of others) on their Crikey Blogs website.

Whats poor or repugnant about either comment? They may be wrong, but I really fail to see whats repugnant about saying it.

The comment from the refugge assoc guy was poor as he would know this all has far more to do with push factors than pull factors and Bolt's comment was odious in the extreme and he's now dealing with the consequences.

I will give you another chance to answer, I would be surprised if your answer to both questions is ' it's right because I say so' like you just gave.

[Gozu]

"It sticks in his craw":

And the “no, really, we care about the refugees, we really do (but not to the extent of making it easier to process their applications before they get on a boat)” concern trolls over at News Ltd’s blog of shame come up with what they apparently have convinced themselves is A Geniunely Noble Offer:

Oh, aren’t they generous? All we have to do is adopt their nasty, selfish, destructive worldview, and they’ll restrain their sniggering. Like The Australian on the weekend – they’ll happily give the Labor Party a fair go, if it just goes back to aping the Liberals on everything.

Well, thanks for your kind offer, guys, but no thanks. See, the thing is that you haven’t “won” this argument at all. Screaming for people to resign because you’ve decided to blame them for a tragedy doesn’t make it their fault. Comment threads full of your cynically mis-informed and partisan sheep vigorously agreeing with each other about how the people who disagree with them ARE REFUGEE MURDERERS doesn’t make it so, either.

And be honest: it’s obvious from your conduct that you’re not interested in saving refugee lives. You’re interested in making the refugees go away so you don’t have to think about them (and if their lives are lost in some distant hell-hole where you’ll never find out about it, so much the better). That’s why you bash them as “queue jumpers” and pretend that they’re somehow really rich and fortunate and that’s why they’re on leaky boats rather than flying over on planes like the vast majority of applicants, all those with the option, in fact, clearly do.

You’ve discovered a way you can convince yourselves that treating refugees inhumanely is, perversely, the kindest thing for them – but it’s garbage, and the logic of the bully and the thug.

Tell you what: if your noisiest mouthpieces would stop encouraging people to take unnecessary risks at sea by shouting near and far about how “easy” it is to come here under the Labor government – even though it bloody isn’t, and Labor treats the refugees only marginally less badly than the Liberals did – we’ll offer to stop deriding them as spiteful idiots who do this country a huge amount of damage.

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/purepoison/2 ... -his-craw/

[Gozu]

"Hypocrisy-off":

Shorter Bolt: I object to the Greens taking donations, but I don’t support their plan to limit donations. It’s only wrong when they do it.

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/purepoison/2 ... crisy-off/

[LBT]

If Bolt represents the views of more than 20% of the Australian population, then I am gravely concerned. Some of his racist views make my skin crawl.

[The Apostle]

He writes some fluff (like a lot of commentators in the media) but when he hits the nail on the head he really does...

[redandblack]

Never seen him hit the nail on the head.

Just another troglodyte right wing nutter.

[fish]

Just another troglodyte right wing nutter.

I hope he hasn't got a gun!

[Gozu]

"That's a big "if":

Andrew Bolt asks:

If Afghanistan is this safe, then why are they coming?

…If parts of Afghanistan are safe enough to build a new housing project to house rejected asylum seekers, why do we take any Afghan refugees at all?

I don’t think he’s joking.

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/purepoison/2 ... on-begged/

[Gozu]

"Less generous than it looks":

One News Ltd columnist has gone through the donations to the Queensland Flood Appeal to pick out coal companies’ generous voluntary publicly-available donations – or, as he put it, “the donations that Bob Brown would destroy“.

Greens leader Bob Brown, the warming alarmist who wants to stop coal mining and slash oil use to “save” the planet, should ask himself which industries would then step in to provide the jobs and money to make good that loss. To clarify his thinking, here’s some of the big donors to Queensland’s disaster relief appeal…

And it’s true, there’s a lot of money being donated there by that industry.

But then again… these are very rich companies. Where a million dollar donation by you or I would be extraordinary, in that list we’re talking about companies where… well, let’s contrast the amount donated with that company’s recent profits:

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/purepoison/2 ... -it-looks/

[Gozu]

"Andrew Bolt, the Battlers friend":

What’s got the Herald Sun’s public finance expert, Andrew Bolt, hot under the collar about the Federal Government’s flood reconstruction levy?

If we’re all in this together, how come only the rich pay?
…earn well and you’ll be robbed blind by a government that’s less Robin Hood than Al Capone.

Oh no, poor, poor rich people.

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/purepoison/2 ... rs-friend/