Will-he-or-won’t-he Liberal backbencher Peter Costello has spent much of his political career sulking petulantly about not being handed glory on a silver platter. Since his party moved to the opposition benches in late 2007, Costello has turned up “petulant whinging” to 11, finding a reason in every situation to sook. This time he’s sooking about the Australia 2020 summit.

It is now 12 months since 1000 people gathered in Parliament House for the Australia 2020 Summit. The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, selected them as “1000 of Australia’s best and brightest people … to help shape the nation’s future”.

[...]

As one not among Rudd’s 1000 “best and brightest”…

Boo fucking hoo. Why didn’t rude Kevvie invite me to be in his cool group? Doesn’t he know that I was the person who set in place the foundations of economic policy in 1997 that made the Australia 2020 summit possible.

Whether or not you think the Australia 2020 summit was an awesome idea or a pile of steaming turd (listen to this week’s GrodsThink — broadcast on Tuesday — for the GrodsTeam’s take on the summit and its outcomes) you’d have to agree that the media’s coverage was rather selective. If you read a newspaper this morning you would’ve been confronted with an image on the front page of either Cate Blanchett or Hugh Jackman. Or both.

By the way, did you know that Cate had a baby a few days ago?

Bridgit’s touched on the fact that ordinary punters felt they couldn’t get a word in edgeways…

Sorry to interrupt, but I just wanted to make sure that you knew that Cate Blanchett had a baby last week and took him along the summit.

Anyway, where was I? Oh that’s right. Here’s a snapshot of the media coverage given to summit participants using Australian newspaper journalists’ favourite research tool (Google):

* There are 713 mentions of Cate Blanchett (did you know she had a baby?) and the 2020 summit on Google News.
* There are 409 of Hugh Jackman and the summit.
* There are…

(Cate Blanchett’s baby, that she had a few days ago and took to the summit, is named Ignatius.)

…386 mentions of Cate Blanchett and Hugh Jackman at the summit.
* There are 267 mentions of Cate Blanchett and Ignatius (that’s her son that she took to the summit).
* There are 176 mentions of Lachlan Murdoch at the summit and he even owns one of the largest media organisations in the country.
* There are 59 mentions of Julia Gillard at the summit and she’s the deputy Prime Minister.

(Just so you know, Cate Blanchett’s new baby is only a few days old and she was still able to go to the summit. And she took the baby.)

* There are 4 mentions of Kate Hands at the summit.

GrodsCorp fun fact: Cate Blanchett — whose job it is to memorise lines of dialogue and recite them while pretending to be another person — gave birth to a son last week and, like, totally stole the show at a giant policy development forum where there were hundred of other people (whose names may not be instantly recognisable) with actual knowledge about things that matter thrashing out the future direction of the country! By the way, did you know that Cate managed to co-chair a working group and take breastfeeding breaks?

The Editor, John Surname, Ant Rogenous, Jeremy Sear and Craig discuss:

* Australia 2020 summit
* Wealth distribution
* The War On Drinking
* Beijing Olympics
* Andrew Bolt vs. Robert Manne in the naked GrodsThink cagefight to the death

** Because there’s still a blockage in the (inter)tubes use only the “Play in popup” link or the “Download” link. **

[display_podcast]

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I’m not a huge fan of the government’s planned Australia 2020 summit, but Andrew Bolt’s hatred of the idea makes me look like a fanatical supporter. I think it’s an idea with merit but the way it’s been setup and will be run will ultimately lead to very little useful discussion and no real generation of ideas. But Bolta thinks it’s a pernicious lefty groupthinking love-in, and perniciously twists The Sunday Age’s words to make his point.

Kevin Rudd announces more delegates to his 2020 summit love in. As predicted, the latest confirm that most invitations are going to people who share the Left’s agenda

Here’s a list of summit delegates on The Sunday Age’s website.

And here’s the layout Bolt used in his blog post.

See how he’s placed The Sunday Age’s list in a blockquote, suggesting that it’s a — you know — quote? But he’s also added names to the list that were in the paper’s story text but not in the list. And see how he’s selectively added his own extra notes to delegates’ bios to emphasise the evil leftiness?

The Sunday Age:

Rodney Dillon, former ATSIC commissioner.

Bolta:

Rodney Dillon, former ATSIC commissioner, stolen generations activist and campaigner for the return of Aboriginal remains.

Campaigner for the return of Aboriginial remains? Evil man!

The Sunday Age:

Waleed Aly, a member of the Islamic Council of Victoria executive and a lecturer in the global terrorism research centre at Monash University who will join the committee dealing with Australia’s future security.

Bolta:

Waleed Aly, Islamic Council of Victoria executive member and a lecturer in the global terrorism research centre at Monash University and “war on terror” critic (to go on group discussing security)

“War on verbs” critic and Muslim? He must be a terrorist who wants to bring down Western civilisation!

The Sunday Age:

Rosemary Stanton, nutritionist.

Bolta:

Rosemary Stanton, nutritionist and anti GM food campaigner.

Anti-GM food? Hippy.

But here’s my favourite. The Sunday Age:

Ana Kikkinos (sic), best known for the TV series The Secret Life of Us and Young Lions and the film Head On

Bolta:

Ana Kokkinos, director of TV series The Secret Life of Us and Young Lions and the gay cult film Head On

Gay? Cult? Gay cult? Aaargh! Sound the moral alarm! Teh gays are in a cult and they’re attacking! They’re going to make our kids join the cult and give them teh gay and make them vote Green!

Bolta also inserted some delegates into the list who weren’t in The Sunday Age’s story.

Andrew Denton, Left-wing TV presenter

Evil, evil lefties!

Fiona Stanley, paediatrician and fierce Bush hater

Evil, evil Bush haterers!

Michael Tate, former Keating justice minister.

Paul Keating? Evil!

Christine Nixon, Victorian chief commissioner who’s project has been to feminise the force and make it “non-authoritarian”

Evil, evil women. Get back in the kitchen.

Sara Haghdoosti, member of the International Women’s Day organising committee and a former women’s officer for the Sydney University Student Representative Council

Women organising? Evil!

But the most telling part is the way that Bolta hasn’t added any information to the following delegates.

Bolta:

Professor Joshua Gans, Melbourne economist.

GrodsCorp:

Professor Joshua Gans, right-wing Melbourne economist.

Bolta:

Lachlan Murdoch, media investor.

GrodsCorp:

Lachlan Murdoch, media investor and son of the owner of the largest and most right-wing media conglomerate in the world. Oh, and also the son of the man who pays Bolta’s wages.

Just another sly and dishonest effort from Australia’s shrillest journalist (sic).

UPDATE (11:50am): Blogger Gummo Trotsky pointed out to Bolta in the comments of his blog his dodgy use of a blockquote and italics…

Nice use of italics to suggest that the list, with descriptions, is quoted verbatim from one of your two sources when in fact the editorialising is all your own work.

…and got a terse response from a clearly rattled Bolta.

There is no intention to mislead, Mr Troll, and a quick click on the links I provided would make clear the facts. But if it makes you feel happier, I’ll take the words out of italics.

That’ll make it much clearer, Mr Journalist (sic).

UPDATE II (12:00pm): My response to the removal of italics.

UPDATE III (2:00pm): An angry commenter threw down a challenge to the above comment…

Oh for heaven’s sake. Grow up and make a comment on the actual content of the post or go away.

…so I replied that I had made comment on the substance of the article and provided a link to this post. Unfortunately it seems at this point that I’ve been SNIPPED.

UPDATE IV (2:40pm): Bolta has responded to my comment about the blockquote and copied bullet points. I believe he has perfected the skill of shriek-typing.

Oh, and my comment with a link to this post is still SNIPPED.

Lordy lord, I’ve never before laughed so hard on a Sunday morning. First Piers Akerman goes close to picking up the Insiders prop coffee plunger and chucking it at Lenore Taylor because he’s so angry about WorkChoices, Labor’s community cabinets and the “sad” Sorry business; I mean, this guy had spittle on his lips and had turned redder than a beetroot. Then a couple of minutes later he goes on to accuse Cathy Harris, the former head of Affirmative Action, of having “anger management issues” because she suggested there weren’t enough women chairing the Australia 2020 summit.

Laugh? I nearly spewed with mirth.

And that was only one of the ways that Piers made a flying cockhead of himself. He also accused Lenore of arguing that women should be selected to the Australia 2020 summit purely on the basis of gender when she had actually argued the exact opposite, and he said that almost 50% of Australians didn’t agree with the government’s apology and was slapped down by George Megalogenis quoting actual Newspoll statistics (69% really agreed). That’s just what I remember off the top of my head. Anybody else see this brilliant Sunday morning comedy routine?

Say what you like about Kevin Rudd’s Australia 2020 summit but it’s great that Australia’s children will have a chance to participate in the discussion about this country’s future.

Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard has invited all schools to participate in the proposed 2020 summit involving 1000 of Australia’s best and brightest minds in April.

[...]

“Today’s school students are the adults of 2020, and it’s vital that we harness their energy, ideas and vision in any discussion about this nation’s future,” Ms Gillard said.

“They will be the parents, the business owners, the farmers, the educators and the leaders of 2020, and it’s crucial that we hear their views about the kind of Australia they want to live in.”

Children have strong and valid views about current affairs and the world in which they live, yet we all too often ignore them or patronisingly nod our heads and smile. Giving students a structured environment in their schools with teacher facilitation to get a conversation going, along with the knowledge that their voices will be heard by the government, validates kids’ opinions and is also an excellent educational opportunity. But according to Andrew Bolt this is just another way that “Chairman” Rudd is indoctrinating our yoof with leftist ideology. Bolta lists a couple of other events that he incorrectly attributes to Kevin Rudd (the NSW and Victorian governments’ “order” for schools to force students to watch Rudd’s Stolen Generation apology; and a call by Australia’s chief scientist for school kids to plant trees, despite the fact that Julia Gillard has openly resisted mandating as such) and asks a question.

This is as bizarre as it is utterly offensive. Had John Howard tried this…

…I might have liked him a bit more.