It is fair to say the Right has been feeling the ideological pinch lately. While the fussing and feuding has been going on, the Hard Left in Australia continues its moral decay at an impressive clip with hardly a mention.
Take the animal liberationist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Usually PETA spends the bulk of its energy and time routinely supplying the ABC’s Four Corners with free footage, allowing the current affairs program to work within its budget. It’s a win-win, provided you’re a card-carrying member of PETA or a journo with an insatiable thirst for a gold Walkley.
Yesterday it surfaced PETA had written to the management of Hunters and Collectors urging the band to change its name to something less violent and antagonistic. The thought being the band, first formed in 1981, might now be inadvertently encouraging young kiddies to load up the shotties, the pig dogs and several cartons of Emu Bitter and go out blasting away at ecosystems various in a frivolous manner.
Full column here.
hmmmm?
http://reneweconomy.com.au/the-nem-is-a-mess-so-who-will-clean-it-up-81726/
JTI,
Late to the wake as busy but I, too, shall miss Bill Leak’s contributions.
Political cartoonists may be funny (some of their best work is LOL) but it is really about encapsulating in a pithy way a complex idea. Nine times out of ten Bill Leak hit that mark for me regardless of the politics or target.
As for his recent experiences with both the crazies and the HRC (PC crazies?), it is a terrible condmenation of our society that it has fallen so low.
Normally I decry the media writing paeans of praise in support of their own, but on this occasion it appears to ahve been justified.
It was worthwhile just to see some of thhose wonderful cartoons reproduced, jogging our collective memory.
Unlike many artists – and some cartoonists – Leak was clearly articulate and his submissions, articles and letters truly depict a man of letters.
Over and above that you lost a friend and have my sympathies.
Dwight, thanks for the musical link. I suppose in the case of so many also ran (composers) it serves to remind us just why we value and revere the true icons – and the gap between them and the rest!
I do hope that the Oz and the nation remember Leak as both the obviously irreverent larrikin but also for his tremendous battle for freedom of speech uninhibited byPC or racial overtones….
cheers to all who have lost a penpal at the least,
Jack away fishing in some pretty remote country for a week. When we were driving back yesterday the first thing on the radio we picked up was Richard Fidler and his 2009 interview with Bill Leak. After awhile it went to a break and Richard explained Bill had passed on Friday. I know he was a good mate of yours and you in fact got a mention in the interview. I know what it’s like to lose a good mate. Can’t really give you any advice as I didn’t handle it too well. My thoughts are with you and his many friends and loved ones.
As a side note in that interview he claimed Leigh Sales as a good friend. That must have caused some consternation to those that pidgeon hole Leigh as a raving lefty!
You can be a raving lefty and still a nice human being. Not often, but…
I often go into the Betoota Advocate and have a browse around.
After Turnbull had been interviewed by them, I went in to have a look.
My virus checker will not let me anywhere near it as the site it is now infected with a virus.
Up until then, I was unaware that virus checkers could pass critical and accurate judgement on political interviewees!
In the Australian No less. JTI I thought you have the exclusive rights to provide satire at the Australian.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/alan-kohler/hello-elon-its-malcolm/news-story/306b74d642a59e3da2b9636829bdc8f5
For goodness sakes, on top of Bill Leak’s passing, another of my great favourites, Murray Ball has gone:
http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/footrot-flats-creator-murray-ball-dies/ar-AAo9O3c?li=AAgfYrC&ocid=mailsignout
What a rotten weekend.
Bill Leak, now Murray Ball.
Jollife
Just got around to reading Jack’s tribute to his friend, Bill Leak. A fine piece on a bloke who would have been a mighty friend.
That should have been a mighty fine friend.
But whilst here i’ll add this; got the idea from possibly Jack’s twitter.
It is incredibly funny (our host also gets a mention) and is a wonderful insight into a lovely and lucid mind:
http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/conversations-bill-leak-rpt/8330160
Oh and this great quote from old Henry Ergas:
“Little wonder then that caricature is subject to fierce attack: if there is one thing on which autocrats and fanatics have always agreed, it is that being laughed at is far more dangerous than being hated.”
By God, it’s like i’m friending myself! but I’ve been catching up and reading the many sad and lovely and generous, informative tributes to their personal friend, Bill Leak. And the many more comments, just as warm and heartfelt, and grateful for his preternatural talents with the cartoon, the oils and the pen, from people, like me, who have never met the man. From those that knew (jeez that sounds wrong) him, I, like many others appreciate and enjoy the many anecdotes into an humane, urbane, bolt of lightning that coincided with my (mid) morning coffee.
Whilst some may argue on the irrelevant and pointless matter of Leak being either left or right, his work, for mine, has never indicated one or the other. If observed dispassionately it has been informed by intelligence, keen observation, pragmatism, a sense of decency and fair play, wrapped up in high humour and artistic facility. Neither of our supposed ideological divide have been immune to a cartoon pointing out their shortcomings.
As an aside, from all the stuff I’ve read from Leak’s inner circle, I get the feeling that regardless of Leak’s remarkable talents, connections and standing, if anyone of us happened to bump into him in a beer garden or party or street, he’d be (to steal from Jack) quick with a joke and a light up your smoke. An (un)common man.
Go well Jack.
Murray Ball, creator of the iconic cartoon strip Footrot Flats, has passed away after years of battling Altzheimers.
He had a great sense of humour, and even with a scarcity of words often reflected the issues of the day. A Kiwi legend.
Piers Ackerman of the Daily Tele puts the slipper hard into PM Turnbull, Mr Insider. I hear ya Piers but sadly Turnbull is “tone deaf’.
http://tinyurl.com/zxzdb5e
As I said….when blokes like Kelly, Shanahan, Murdoch’s leading journalists decide Turnbull’s time is up….TIME IS UP BALD.
I see the creator of Footrot Flats has gone to join Bill across the big divide.
Loved Footrot Flats. Vale Murray Ball