Lindsay Tanner:

Peter Lloyd writes: Re. “Richard Farmer’s chunky bits” (yesterday, item 12). Richard Farmer wasted no time in joining a bevy of outraged ABC journalists clearly smarting from Lindsay Tanner’s use of his retirement freedom to point out the bleeding obvious: that the media are playing a key role, and perhaps the leading role, in dumbing down and generally handicapping policymakers by reflexively distorting debates and seeking “controversy” in trifling throwaway lines.

Mr Farmer’s petulance precisely reflects that of Leigh Sales on 7:30 last Thursday, who obviously did not relish facing accusations that can only be made on the rarest of occasions. She underlined Tanner’s point by using half the interview fishing for quotes about the removal of Kevin Rudd.

To leave aside the idiocy and vacuousness of the tabloid press, whose stupidity is only part of a darker political agenda on the part of its owner, and commercial television, those who consider themselves part of the quality media are prime offenders. They exhibit boldly their dumbness, using the pretence that irrelevance is newsworthy because it affects polls.

Tony Jones every week hijacks “the show where you ask the questions” to harangue the guests about his own topic of the week, either related to the passing headline of the day, or in yet another tedious attempt to “expose” disloyalty to the leader and party line. Viewers’ questions tend to show an interest in bigger picture matters, but Jones keeps the debate where he wants it. Insiders is barely worth watching, as a tired Barry Cassidy lets some of Australia’s most odious pundits peddle their tripe, like an arthritic old cat sleeping on the rug while rats empty the kitchen. Chris Uhlmann, like Julia Gillard herself, is proud to show his “understanding” of those whose beliefs are grounded in ignorance.

As a corollary, the input of interest groups and shrills is rarely subjected to a truth test, and those shrills are seldom examined but rather allowed to say only what they want to say. Political leaders are limited in what they can say and in how forthright they can be, as Tanner asserts, by the need to appear humble, understanding, sensitive etc.

Tanner’s argument does not require going easy on the politicians, but rather going harder on all the others in the game to, and questioning the system and not just its products. We have only to look at Sarah Palin’s America, and reflect on the removal of all intellectualism from Australia’s debates, to see where we are heading.

Mr Farmer’s sarcastic little response was notably completely free of any kind of reasoned retort.

The Aussie Dollar:

Richard Davoren writes: Re. “Don’t cheer the dollar — cheap holidays will come at a cost” (28 April, item 17). I subscribe to Crikey because I want to be informed, not misled.

I have commented previously about the misleading articles by Adam Schwab, the latest following his arguing that renting a home was financially better than buying. In that article he ignored the value of rent the owner gained from the home and ignored the tax to be paid by alternative investments. He then supported his article by an anecdote about some wealthy Americans who rent and not buy.

Well he is at it again. He argues in his article, “Don’t cheer the dollar — cheap holidays will come at a cost”, that Australia’s exchange rate improvements are largely based on the failure of the American Dollar and the economic crisis in Europe. He then cherry picks some dates to “prove” that even Russia and also Sweden have surpassed the Australian Dollar’s value.

He says, “The reason the Australian dollar appears strong is largely due to US dollar weakness. Since September last year, when the AUD started its ascent, it has increased by about 19% compared with the USD. During that time, the euro has increased by 16% and the Canadian dollar by 13% — even the Russian ruble (sic) has risen by 12.5%.”

His cherry picking is a bit like some climate change denialists who say the world is getting colder because this summer was colder than last years’.

Of course our dollar started its ascent well before September last year as the following graphs show. So I have looked at our currency since Labor won the 2007 election. If I argued like Adam, I would probably say that Labor was the cause of our improving financial status, but I won’t. It is the strength of our resource prices that is the major cause of our improving dollar.

The Australian dollar has appreciated against the Rouble by 135.77%, the Swedish Krona by 116.15% and the Euro by 123.58% since Rudd won the election. But pick any time on the time line, the trend is up. Where does Schwab get his statistics?

Below are graphical representations of the value of the currencies mentioned, plus the Singapore and Hong Kong and UK currencies (which have little to do with USA debt) since November 2007.

Source: oanda.com

Shame Crikey shame:

Niall Clugston writes: Re. Friday’s Editorial. Sorry, but I must protest Crikey‘s priorities yet again. Friday’s email starts by decrying the focus on the royal wedding at the expense of world crises, but then gives the story first place in the bulletin.

The important story about some reviewer revealing the ending of some movie in some Melbourne newspaper is relegated to fourth place.

Practise what you preach!

Back to the future:

Lucas James writes: Re. “Tips and rumours” (Friday, item 7). Crikey published: “I know of two people in the 1960s and 70s in Melbourne who had very bad reactions to their annual flu vaccinations in the past month…”

One question, are these people in the 1960s/70s or are these people in their 60s/70s, and got sick in the past month?