Archive for September 9th, 2009

2QN/Classic Rock Regional News Headlines September 9

10 school children and a bus driver have been taken to Deniliquin Hospital following a collision between a school bus and a four wheel drive at about 8:40 this morning, at the corner of Blackett and Ochetyre Streets.

Police, seven ambulance crews and the fire brigade attended the scene and treated 11 people for relatively minor injuries. The ambulance service says one patient had a head injury, they’ve taken spinal precautions with another, and treated nine patients for minor injuries including abrasions, lacerations and bruising.
They are all in a stable condition.
The occupants of the four-wheel drive, believed to be a woman and four young children, were not injured or taken to hospital.

Police have seized a large amount of drugs, weapons and illegal fireworks in a series of raids in Cobram and Numurkah yesterday, putting a serious dent in the illegal drug supply in the region.

More than 150 delegates are converging on Deniliquin today for the start of the three-day Local Government and Shires Association of New South Wales Water Management Conference.

Hundreds of school kids across the region got a chance to meet their AFL heroes, and heckle their AFL opponents, when over half a dozen AFL players came through the area yesterday for footy clinics as part of the Toyota Aurion V6 All Star Tour Bus program.

Cattle graziers who formerly grazed their cattle in the Barmah Forest are being offered financial assistance and free professional advice by the Victorian government, now that grazing in the forest has been banned.

Organisers of the Deni Ute Muster are trying to set two world records this year.

And the Port of Echuca have announced that the annual Celebration Of Steam, showcasing 100 years of steam-powered transport, will be held on the weekend of the 3rd and 4th of October.

The lineup for this weekend’s Murray Football and Netball finals has been announced. It all takes place in Finley on Saturday from 9am.
In the footy, Barooga Verse Tongala in the reserves, and Barooga Verse Moama in the Seniors, whilst in the Netball, Numurkah verse Tocumwal in A Grade and Congupna verse Numurkah in B grade.

And finally, in last week’s golfing action at the Tocumwal Golf Club, Marg Lemsing, Edna Lloyd, Anne Brown and Gwenda Walsh won the ladies drop-out ambrose. Phil Dungan was the A grade men’s winner, and Pam Brierly was the ladies winner in the Legacy Charity Day stableford. And in Saturday’s medley stableford, Edna Lloyd was the ladies A grade winner, while Geo Martin took out A grade for the men.

Samuel

Note: Before anybody has a go at me for contradicting the police press release about the bus/car crash, the ambulance press release is the one I’m using for numbers as it is much more detailed and was issued locally, not through the Sydney Media Centre…and nobody in the local police is authorised to speak about the issue.

1 comment September 9th, 2009 at 11:36am

The US TV networks’ liberal bias

The Culture and Media Institute has a very interesting piece on the liberal bias of the big three TV networks in the US, and how they appear to be deliberately avoiding interviews with conservative authors unless the author can be easily antagonised.

There are plenty of examples of such bias in the book, but the one which I find most stunning (but least surprising) is the complete lack of coverage for Mark Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto.

But no matter how commercially successful conservative books and authors have been, they were slighted by the three broadcast networks. The most glaring evidence of bias against conservative books was the networks’ complete neglect of the single most successful book on the list, radio host Mark Levin’s “Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto.” Levin’s book spent 12 weeks at No.1, and as of this writing had yet to fall out of the top 10.
[..]
Reaching No. 1 on the Nonfiction Hardcover List is a notable achievement. To maintain that spot for more than a single week is truly impressive.

Two liberal authors reached the No.1 spot on the List in 2009. Elizabeth Edwards’ “Resilience” was No.1 for just one week and Thomas Friedman’s “Hot, Flat, and Crowded” held that spot for two weeks.

They received media coverage befitting No.1 best-sellers, garnering nine instances of coverage on the networks between the two.

But there was another book that hit No.1. In fact, it held the No.1 spot for 12 of 18 weeks, and has yet to fall under the No. 4 spot. (Also, at this writing, it ranked No. 24 on Amazon.com, and has enjoyed 186 days in Amazon’s Top 100.)

That book, “Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto,” by conservative political commentator and nationally syndicated radio-host Mark Levin, was by far the most successful book on the list – nothing even came close.

What makes the success of Levin’s book more impressive is its subject. It’s a work of political philosophy, a serious, scholarly exploration of conservative first principles. As CNSNews.com recently reported, “‘Liberty and Tyranny’ draws on thinking, and points to the influence, of the 17th century English philosopher John Locke, the 18th century Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith, and the 18th century Irish-English statesman and writer Edmund Burke.”

And as Levin himself wrote on the first page of “Liberty and Tyranny,” “… what follows are my own opinions and conclusions of fundamental truths, based on decades of observation, exploration, and experience, about conservatism and, conversely, non-conservatism – that is, liberty and tyranny in modern America.”

So “Liberty and Tyranny” is an improbable best-seller. And that makes it all the more newsworthy.

Yet Levin’s book received zero coverage from any of the networks since its release on March 29. Nor did his name appear on any of the news programs since the release.

Contrast that with Edwards’ and Friedman’s nine instances of coverage for books that spent one and two weeks respectively at the top of the list. Equivalent coverage for Levin would require 36 mentions on the networks.

And the media blackout of “Liberty and Tyranny” extended beyond the networks and has been nearly complete.

Levin confirmed to CMI that “we have not heard from any of the major networks, and the only major newspaper that has interviewed me is Philadelphia Enquirer, and that’s because I’m from Philadelphia.”

The lack of mainstream media attention made “Liberty and Tyranny’s” success the more stunning. “The book is selling by word of mouth,” Levin said. “I’ve done very little media, and its chugging along.”

And the author, whose radio show just celebrated its sixth anniversary, said he wasn’t “stressed about” being ignored. “I don’t need Matt Lauer’s imprimatur to believe what I believe and to speak to my audience,” Levin told CMI.

But he did have thoughts about why Lauer and the networks withheld coverage.

“Maybe the book’s too darned complicated for these people,” Levin said. “It’s not your typical book – not even your typical conservative book, with a laundry list of what’s wrong. It’s a deeper look at the roots of conservatism, of our God-given liberties, of society and civil order and at why conservatism is humane. It’s also a look at the roots of statism and why it’s a threat.”

The morning shows, which Levin said have their talking points and hosts with a clear political bias may have other conservatives on. But they do so if they believe they can marginalize those guests. “But in my case, I think they fear I would marginalize them. They fear me, they fear the message of the book.”

It’s a quite extraordinary analysis of the way liberal and conservative authors are treated by the so-called mainstream media. It’s well worth a read when you have a spare ten or fifteen minutes.

Samuel

September 9th, 2009 at 08:18am

I thought it was a Prime TV ID

The first story on A Current Affair last night, which was about the damage speed humps can do to your car, featured the song “Streets Of Your Town” by The Go-Betweens quite prominently. I haven’t heard this song in yonks, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard the full version…and it was driving me nuts…”I know this song, but why?”. I had the vague notion that it may have been from one of the old Prime TV IDs, but I couldn’t place it, as I recall the “this is where we live”, “millennium television” and “bringing it home to me” campaigns, each of which had their own song, so I dismissed the idea.

Anyway, I found the song, and listened to the whole thing, and the visuals started flooding back…it was a Prime ID…but I still had no idea where in the line-up it fitted. YouTube to the rescue. It looks like the song was used in the early stages of the “bringing it home to me” campaign, before they found somebody to sing “bringing it home to me…bring-ing it home to meeeeee”.

And just for fun, here’s the song.

Prime also had an instrumental-only version which used the bridge of the song up around the 2:10 mark. It’s the last one in this compilation of Prime IDs.

I suppose I should thank A Current Affair for bringing back memories of music I loved hearing between shows, and never realised was a real song until now.

Samuel

September 9th, 2009 at 03:42am


Calendar

September 2009
S M T W T F S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930  

Posts by Month

Posts by Category

Login/Logout


Blix Theme by Sebastian Schmieg and modified for Samuel's Blog by Samuel Gordon-Stewart.
Printing CSS with the help of Martin Pot's guide to Web Page Printability With CSS.
Icons by Kevin Potts.
Powered by WordPress.
Log in