Attack on Howard continues…

Posted by Chief Blogger – 12 January, 2009

With the announcement that John Howard is to be awarded the US’s highest civilian honour – the Medal of Freedom – the Australian media has gone into hyper-drive to discredit Howard in any implausible and petty way possible. We are first meant to believe, from The Australian, that Howard is an undeserving recipient of the medal because an obscure son of a now dead recipient thinks so. Now from the SMH we get a txt message from a friend of a father, of a son, of a cousin twice removed, claiming Howard delayed a Qantas flight by 55 minutes on his way to receive the medal:

The passenger’s relative, Steve Samson, said “We were on the observation deck, not knowing what was going on, and a guy said his 17-year-old daughter was on board and he was getting messages saying exactly the same thing,” Mr Samson said.

Qantas denies the txt allegations. So outraged is the Australian main stream media , that we have to go to an American newspaper to give us a fair reading of Howard’s accomplishments, free of pettiness, childishness and blatant bias. From the Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Howard’s singular contribution to upholding peace and prosperity throughout Asia-Pacific, not just in the Middle East — although Australian soldiers, ships and planes have served in the woollier parts of Iraq and Afghanistan. During his 11-year administration, Mr. Howard sent troops to stabilize East Timor, comforted Australia after the Bali bombings, and forged closer relations with Asia’s democratic anchors, India and Japan. The U.S.-Australia relationship has never been closer.

Upon hearing the news of his award, Mr. Howard remarked that it was “a compliment to Australia.” Current Prime Minister Kevin Rudd — whose Labor party defeated Mr. Howard’s Liberals in 2007 — called it “a great honor.” Down Under, leaders on the right and left understand, as Mr. Howard did, that there are some values worth fighting for.

A pity our newspapers don’t agree.

  • steve s.

    The reason I complained was not so much that Little Johnny was on board, but more so the fact that QANTAS couldn’t get it’s act together the first time. Why did passengers have to be checked a second time ? The wording from the SMS was exactly as follows “were having a longer delay bc the prime ministers in my flight! so they’re checking everyones baggages”.

    The domino effect of this is…. family and friends waiting to wave good bye now have to cough up an extra hour parking fee (as if they don’t charge like wounded bulls already), possible penalty charges for QANTAS in not leaving in their designanted take off slot (1hr 3mins late – i.e undue costs to shareholders), bad impression made upon our visiting tourists that Australia can’t get things right the first time.

    I reckon QANTAS is just in damage control mode.

    Is there a cleaner out there willing to take a Polygraph to state he / she was cleaning the plane hence the delay. What about the ‘missing person’…. did they find him? If not, was his/her bags taken off ? Could this have been a terrorist ? Oh my, shriek, shriek !!!!

    People DO NOT MIND WAITING for a legitimate reason. The ‘EX’ PM being on board is not a legitimate reason (neither is the current one for that matter).

    Bottom line is QANTAS should come clean about the whole debacle and apologise for not getting their act together.

    After my comments on air also to Tim Webster on 2UE, I went to the QANTAS ‘Customer Service’ desk to make my complaint in person. There were 21 or so people in front of me. In the space of about 20mins, the queue only moved forward 2 spaces (and this was with 3 people on the desk).

    After another 5 mins I gave up and walked away.

    To set the record straight, I was approached by the journalist by phone AFTER my comments were made on the radio. So I can’t see how the story is created to ‘discredit’ the ‘ex’ PM, he’s doing a good enough job without my help.

    As far as bias goes, how can it be if they are stating PURE FACTS ?????