The fact that the MSM – especially the ABC – has been piling it on Abbott since becoming leader is testament to his Howard like qualities of being able to speak directly to the people and ignore the media’s self-appointed role as information censors for the people. In this case the MSM wants to stifle any debate about the merits of carbon taxation and trade (CTT) in reducing carbon emissions. Not too mention the science. Greg Sheridan notes:
…on Melbourne’s ABC 774 radio, stand-in host Beverly O’Connor labelled Abbott someone who had always been a wrecker and that was why so many voters found him unacceptable. She then gushed all over Mungo McCallum, of all people, as a great cultural icon and political guru.
This trivial bit of typical ABC nonsense is important only because it demonstrates how acutely Abbott annoys a certain ABC-style zeitgeist.
Sheridan also dismissed any suggestion that Abbott is an ‘extremist’, as the ABC would have us believe. He is just a normal run of the mill conservative that respects freedom and liberty.
The main reason the MSM have gone into hysterics over Abbott is because there is no grand and holy consensus that a CTT system is the best way to reduce carbon emissions. Which means it is more difficult for the MSM to use ad hominem attacks at conservatives that are convincing, especially when one considers the opportunity cost of global CTT schemes – estimated by the Copenhagen Consensus to $40 trillion for a 2 degree Celsius reduction in temperature. The same price tag could eliminate nearly all global hunger, malnutrition and a range of other preventable diseases currently effecting the developing world, plus have money left over to adapt food technology and infrastructure to any possible temperature increase. Also, if one accepts Lord Monckton’s calculations, assuming we could switch off the carbon economy tomorrow it would take around 130 years to take enough carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere to achieve a 2 degree reduction.
The whole CTT propostion looks even more absurd and unlikely.