The power and the stink

Lurid assertions today in The Australian...

Journalism academic Margaret Simons has failed to meet her own high standards by not disclosing her dealings with the Finkelstein media inquiry, while the links between the inquiry and some academics looks “clubby”, media professionals and ethicists say.

Funny that... “clubby” might be a reasonable description of the behaviour of various News £td hacks who’ve closed ranks to attempt to discredit certain journalism academics.

Presumably they all believe that the Finkelstein proceedings would have benefited from much more representation on the part of News £td journalists — not withstanding that they are employees of an organisation whose parent company has spectacularly been exposed for egregious and fundamental breaches of ethics, and probably even criminal conduct.

Whether they like it or not, and fair or not, they’re all tarred with that brush, and the way the media review here has progressed has in large part to be understood in the context of the proceedings in London.

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Ultimate "Challitaring"

In what must the ultimate form of "Challitaring", former Geelong Grammar School student, Rose Ashton-Weir, is suing the selective school because she failed to qualify for her preferred university course. Ashton-Weir not only claims that the school failed to give her adequate "academic support, particularly in maths" but also failed to provide her "the support I needed to really excel".

It is one thing to rail for endless years about not making a selective school but quite another to actually win a place and then claim your failure to to gain acceptance to the the course of your choice at the university of your choice is the school's. This is Challitaring of the boldest and highest order.

Not one to be out-Challitered mum, Elizabeth Weir, is also suing the school:

She said she gave up her chocolate fortune cookie business - which she had expected to make $450,000 over three years - because her daughter moved from Geelong to live with her in New South Wales. She is also seeking compensation for $39,000 in rent paid when they moved to another house in Sydney.

Now, it might be wondered why the move to Sydney. It transpires, according to Mr Darren Ferrari (least he has the name for the school if not the car) that the apprentice Challitarer, Ms Ashton-Weir, did not do so well at Geelong Grammar for reasons other than lack of support:

Darren Ferrari, representing Geelong Grammar, said Ms Ashton-Weir could have studied law at several other universities. ''You could have done law at Deakin University by correspondence,'' he said.

He said Ms Ashton-Weir had been placed on ''internal suspension'' a number of times while at the school. She was also poorly organised and had been absent from class many times.

And so, after a glandular fever attack, Ms Weir completed her HSC at a TAFE in Sydney. But, as we all know, when one goes a-Challitaring the facts are to be resolutely ignored in favour of vast, Education Department-wide conspiracies. Or, in this case, not quite so vast, school-wide conspiracies.

Readers unaware of the practice of Challitaring need only refer to this blog.

School 'failed to get me into law'.

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