There’s something about Kerry (O’Brien)

Wayne Fehlhaber says:

09:55am | 09/12/10

Well i respect your view of O.Brien but i don’t share your sentiments.
His disrespect for the office of Prime Minister , of any party , is a national disgrace.
Arrogance in many instances , was blatant ,  and unfortunately he was never able to disguise his bias.
Credit where it is due , O’Brien was able to cut through the political facade of those he interviewed to get to the real issues that viewers wanted addressed .  His manner was far from impeccable and bordered on open contempt for the individual being interviewed .

I firmly believe it is possible to get to the nitty gritty without the disrespect and intimidatory contempt used for so long by Kerry O’Brien.
Hopefully , Chris Uhlmann , will interview just as incisively but observe respect and restraint .

Scot says:

10:14am | 09/12/10

I stopped watching this guy years ago as it clashed with 2-1/2 Men. Kerry lost me when eh nearly cried on national TV during the election when the Labor party lost to John Howard. I do not like his left wing Labor politics on the ABC and this also goes for Jones and many of the other fools employed at the ABC. They could sleep straight in bed to produce a factual balanced view. I prefer to watch China TV news.

Robert Smissen, rural SA, God's own country says:

07:50pm | 09/12/10

A great Australian? ? ? Don’t make me puke ! ! ! He always put his loony left slant on every story, whenever he interviewed a Labor polly he sucked up big time. Not a journalist’s boot-lace

Reg says:

08:39am | 10/12/10

Allen, Diana you put it perfectly and the dissenters here should be totally and utterly discounted as political partials who would not be happy unless Margaret Thatcher herself was doing the interviewing. 

Mr Fehlhaber should take into account the fact that politicians are essentially slippery characters and formality is a weapon they use to great effect.

But then he strangely admits that “O’Brien was able to cut through the political facade of those he interviewed to get to the real issues that viewers wanted addressed ”  So how do you think he managed that oh worthy one, certainly not by being over-awed by their status as you apparently would have it.  Your firm beliefs about what is disrespect or intimidation are skewed by your political mendacity.

acotrel says:

02:13am | 10/12/10

‘His disrespect for the office of Prime Minister , of any party , is a national disgrace.’

Wayne in this democratic world, you have t o EARN respect!

David Johnson says:

12:05pm | 09/12/10

Couldn’t have put it better myself.

acotrel says:

06:48am | 09/12/10

Brad, I heard a rumour that the ABC will employ Julian Assange to host the new 7.30 programme!

The Badger says:

09:37am | 09/12/10

Better yet, let’s put Piers Akerman in the role, or turn it into a comedy spot and get Bolt to host it.

Tedd says:

09:39am | 09/12/10

They’re going to do the 7.30 Report from Gitmo ???

acotrel says:

06:43am | 12/12/10

There is a matter of semantics in this thread.  If I wanted to describe what the word ‘biassed’ means, I’d use Piers Akerman, Laurie Oakes, Andrew Bolt, John Laws, and Alan Jones as examples.  Poor old Kerry O’Brien is tame stuff - he leaves out the poison typically used by the others!

Reg says:

09:50am | 10/12/10

Luke, your preference for commercial television is revealing of standards of the lower echelon. But that is as it may be.

Now that Diana mentions it, it is my recollection that 60 Minutes never- ever -ever- ever attracted the authoritative status of Four Corners if only for the commercial weakening.  Now had they shown 60 Minutes commercial free, they would have gained considerable respect as genuine representatives of the public . I look forward to the continued application of the hot iron to political toes rather than the Uncle Ray efforts to inveigle his way into the good offices of some political idiot from the city or the bush.

Well done Kerry.

Dash says:

08:07am | 09/12/10

Chonggy - Yeah but we got the say anything, do nothing ALP instead!

Grocery choice (oops)
fuelwatch (oops)
200 childcare centres (oops)
cheaper better childcare (more expensive)
more affordable housing (still waiting)
there will be no Carbon Tax (lie)
We wont touch the private health tax rebate (lie)
we’ll abolish uni union fees (lie)
East Timor (never existed - fraud)
the non negotiable profits tax (lie)
root and branch tax reform (ha ha ha ha)
I’m a fiscal conservative (ah no you’re the biggest spender in our history)
I full support PM Rudd (lie)
I was only a member of the socialist forum in my 20s (bullshit!)
Epping Parrammatta railway (ha ha ha ha)
We’ll honor all the promises we’ve made to the Australian people (lie)
We’ll reduce consultancies (oops)
We’ll stop Japanese whaling (oops)
there will be no onshore detention centres (lie)
We’ll establish a coast guard (still waiting)
intecepted vessels will be turned around (ha ha ha)
insulation fiasco
green loans fiasco
school hall rorts
NSW ALP and trade unions pulling the strings!

Would you like to revisit your comment about “say anything”?

Tombowler says:

09:30am | 09/12/10

What-up Dash.

Comprehensive and humorous…

I’d just like to add
“I’ll be playing for the Western Bulldogs before I am Prime Minister”

(Lie in both the intended hyperbolic implication and literal sense)

Fantastic because it so represents Gillard in every way.

Nasally, poorly expressed, colloquial laden, lowest-common-denominator aimed bullshit ICBM

The Badger says:

09:39am | 09/12/10

Interesting take on events dash

read the Australian much?

NicoleG says:

12:25pm | 09/12/10

Love it Dash. Hahaha. Hey Badger, The Australian’s a much better read than the Labor Handbook.

lil annie says:

01:30pm | 09/12/10

ha ha Dash excellent a concise history of the zombies. spot on

Roger says:

03:23pm | 09/12/10

Enough said, for Chong to approve of O’Brien just proves how blatantly biased in favour of Labor he always was.

Dash says:

04:40pm | 09/12/10

Badger, I never read the Australian. After the last federal election when the editors of both News and Fairfax openly backed the ALP on the day of the election, I’ve decided to read a good book on my way to work instead.

iansand says:

05:53pm | 09/12/10

Quite right, Dash.  The Australian is a left wing rag.

Murphy says:

10:14pm | 09/12/10

Dash, you must have been reading a different Australian newspaper from the one everyone else did. All the News Ltd editorials backed Abbott. Either your memory or your eyesight needs to be checked, bro.

acotrel says:

06:49am | 12/12/10

Chonggy, when you’re right, you’re right! I simply cannot beieve that conservative voters cannot recognise the risk in Tony Abbott! That ideology they’re smoking must be really strong stuff?

stephen says:

09:07pm | 09/12/10

You have to trust a good Journalist to know more about their specialty than anyone else.
If Kerry was biased, then he’s not only a thinking man’s intermediary but also one with a heart.

When Politicians say the electorate are smart and will get it right, they mean that in relation to Journalists : A good man or woman can always tell when a journo. is feigning non-partisanship.

TChong says:

08:50am | 09/12/10

Rosie, if your daughter doesnt follow “politics”, then what was she waiting, wanting to hear?
A message about her occupation ? The industry she works in?
If your daughter “only wants to know what her job entails, and the company she works for"she might need to broaden her interests.
Maybe you could show her that there is more to life than just work.

Rosie says:

09:17am | 09/12/10

TChongy is this a “trick question” and are you trying to play “Wikileaks” ???????

I am surprised that you didn’t know that somethings are confidential when it comes to ones job and the company they work for.

Oh yes, my daughter has a life after work, thus the reason she isn’t interested in politics like her mother, who became obsessed as some of you may like to think fighting the good fight to get rid of a bad Govt in the next Federal Elections!

PS Mark Arbib scary man, now it seems they all wanted to be PM’s and were seeking US understanding and acceptance of what they were plotting. Good one, now everything this bad Govt does, has to get the OK from the US.

TChong says:

09:41am | 09/12/10

Sorry Rosie, I didnt know your daughter is involved in some type of “hush, hush, wink, wink,” secret organisation.
Dont worry , the secret is safe between us, OK?
Your daughter has other interests, great, maybe it was just the way you wrote.
Agree , Labor represents little of Labor ideals anymore, and that some, like Arbib, are just as willing to be US state dept stooges, just like any Liberal !
Would you believe it!
Pox on both their houses.

Davida says:

09:58am | 09/12/10

@Rosie,
You have mentioned once or twice your dislike of our “unmarried, childless, atheist, female PM” and the shame she brings on Australia internationally.  Arbib is a married, parent, of the Roman Catholic persuasion, a former beach inspector (thus an embracer of outdoorsy, iconically Australian activities) and a scrapper…........just your cup of tea I would have thought?

Di Peartob says:

12:46pm | 09/12/10

LIKE!! If only the ABC were biassed against the commercial/conservatives! I think Kerry has always given them a fair go.

Richard says:

04:51pm | 09/12/10

bah! it’s the uneducated bogan labor voters who watch tacky commercial networks. Handsome moderates like myself on the other hand look forward to the new 7:30 lineup.

P.S. Leigh Sales is a spunk :-p

Zander says:

09:16am | 09/12/10

That would mean he would have to move to England. In australia there is no “u” in the Labor Party.

If you’re going to make a comment about politics then at least try to show you actually know something by getting the names of the parties correct.

Anthony of WA says:

11:48pm | 09/12/10

Yes Zander, you also spell Australia with a capital A, you bright spark

Troy says:

10:25am | 09/12/10

No, you are just another sad member of our country who thinks that the definition of “bias” is any instance where someone or something doesn’t support your particular point of view.  Take a look in a mirror if you want to know about “spruiking for one side of politics” whilst you pretend to have some sort of objective opinion about the merits of a journalist of the calibre of Kerry O’Brien.  Better yet, why don’t you just watch Fox News and be done with it?  You can carve yourself a little uber right-wing existance for yourself right in your very own living room.

Richard says:

11:52am | 09/12/10

Sorry Troy, but from where I stand in the laissez-faire centre, Red Kerry certainly did seem to have a left-wing bias to me.

Huonian says:

02:08pm | 09/12/10

You are wrong, Troy.  Many times quality journos write stuff I don’t agree with, that’s not bias.  It’s merely a difference of a opinion on a particular issue or event - and I might well learn something from that alternative viewpoint.  Viewers gain from that sort of thing. I don’t regard most ABC political journos as biassed for that very reason and hold many of them in very high regard.

Bias is when someone who pretends to be objective and analytical constantly takes the same side.  Not only Kerry O’Brien, but also some of the journos at Fox and elsewhere.  They are spruikers for their chosen side of politics, left or right as the case may be, not quality journalists.  As such, they contribute nothing to debate other than noise.  The 7:30 Report will get a whole lot better now he’s gone.

James1 says:

02:08pm | 09/12/10

Second that Richard.  I am right-of-centre, and in most cases O’Brien seemed pretty fair and impartial.  I have seen him tear strips of many Labor politicians.  Can any of the bashers here think of a better journalist?

Ryan says:

03:01pm | 09/12/10

You haven’t watched too much Kerry then.. we know his political persuasion just like Tony Jones’ through his interviews.

hot tub political machine says:

10:42am | 09/12/10

Its confirmed it will be Sales/Ulhman hosting now

notSue says:

11:02am | 09/12/10

and a very cute bloke.. for a ranga! LOL Bye Kerry, I’ll miss ya.

TOMMY says:

06:19pm | 09/12/10

HEATHER       as a liberal voter you must love the courier mail.    it would be the most unashamed biased newspaper around.    why didnt you mention that. YOU ARE FULL OF IT.

Ross says:

12:23pm | 09/12/10

Could not agree more Rick . KOB is australias most important interveiwer in my opinion as he allways managed to ask the question of politician that they didn’t want asked . You people who he displayed bias tell us who you think doesn’t. They do have a right to an opinion just listen to Alan Jones on radio if you want only one side of an issue

AussieJazzman says:

02:35pm | 09/12/10

If you choose to deride an academic article, please provide some analysis of what was wrong with the methodologies or conclusions made by the report.  As I read it, it was a reasonable selection of a dataset and analysis of results.

Stating over and over again that the ABC is biased, just because it doesn’t ask the questions that Bolt/Akerman/Devine asks during its current affairs programmes, doesn’t make it so.

Chewy says:

03:11pm | 09/12/10

If a conclusion is foregone the most appropriate methodology to arrive at that conclusion can then be selected.
Oh and Bolt/Akerman/Devine (no mention of Albrechtsen?) write opinion pieces which by nature is supposed to be a certain viewpoint, unlike reporting which is supposed to be both sides of the story evenly and balanced. Last time I checked they were not funded by the state either.

Bruce says:

07:44pm | 09/12/10

Saskia: You are so correct. He through bricks at the Coalition and mashmallows at the ALP and greens. If those that claim that KOB did such a good job, maybe he could have investigated harder into the incompetence and waste of tax payers money in Rudd years. Obviously NOT !!

Chewy says:

03:32pm | 09/12/10

To be fair I always found Maxine to be balanced.

Ryan says:

10:25am | 10/12/10

@Ben: yes we know of many of these so-called conservative voters!
Who do you rate second? Tony Jones?