Just perfect for the ABC

Unlike so many of his Fairfax Media colleagues, SMH columnist Tim Dick would appear to be at least moderately intelligent. He has a law degree, his plural and singular subjects boast the appropriate verbs, and he generally states his premise early in the piece and then develops it, coherently, until the conclusion. Unlike editor Darren Goodsir he does not seem the sort who could append the headline “Treasurer for Sale” to a front-page story and then inform a libel plaintiff’s barrister, and with a straight face no less, that while those three words mean Treasurer Can Be Bought, that does not assert an openness to bribery or corruption.

A further testament to Tim Dick’s smarts can be found in today’s paper – and found very easily, as the SMH is now moving only 112,000 weekday papers large stacks of unsold copies are available pretty much everywhere except Newtown and Balmain.

“The three finest political broadcast interviewers in the country all are on the ABC: Leigh Sales, Fran Kelly and Mark Colvin,” writes Dick, who sets himself to lamenting “the death of the political interview”. What ink-stained SMH comrades Mark Kenny and Peter Hartcher make of Kenny’s denigration by omission of their own interviewing skills is anyone’s guess. But sharp, at least by Fairfax standards, there can be no denying Dick is that and much more.

Abandoned by advertisers, spurned by its former (non-Newtown) readers and infested with UTS journalism-school graduates, who can doubt that the SMH is not long for this world? When it does go under, imagine the rush to secure a pay cheque from the ABC! Jobs at the national broadcaster will be so scarce that SMH men will be relieved that they have renounced holding the door for women, which Fairfax’s Daily Life harpies are certain to identify, sooner or later, as yet another symptom of the West’s patriarchal rape culture (or somesuch).

Now, thanks to some timely name-dropping, lawyer Dick’s  application to be quoted more regularly on the ABC might just have a better chance of being noticed by Mark Scott’s minions — especially  Leigh Sales, Fran Kelly and Mark Colvin. Indeed, better than a fair chance, as he also lavishes praise on Mark Brissenden’s ABC post-budget interview with Prime Minister Abbott, who he believes came off as shifty, dishonest and evasive. That appraisal won’t hurt Dick’s ABC prospects either.

“Journalists must try to ‘illuminate’ the monumental decisions facing governments,” he writes,  further  indicting Abbott  for having the temerity to observe that Brissenden was “determined to be critical.”

Well, here is the transcript of that interview. Read it and see which of the participants seems, as Dick puts it, “embarrassing”. Here’s a hint:

ABBOTT: Michael, I know you are determined to be critical. I know you want to be as critical as you possibly can be…

BRISSENDEN: I’m putting, no, no, I’m putting… (laughs)

Tim Dick’s job application can be read in full via the link below.

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