the local lives global matters conference organisers dobbed me in to the morning show on abc bendigo — i got a phone call one afternoon asking if i’d do a live radio interview the next morning.

as it was the abc (australian broadcasting company), a public service broadcaster (not one of the for-profit media companies i refuse to talk to), i said okay.

here it is:

 

i was actually shitting myself at the start of the interview, heart pounding, forgetting to breath — but the phone line was so distorted that my distress is not so readily apparent, so i have to tell you here.

i got a copy of the interview sent to me via email, but then i followed up asking if there was any “ratbag vandal”/”legitimate anti-advertising crusader” feedback, then i was sent this section including the feedback of “jim from the mallee”:

 

this interview and response, while extremely hilarious, shows pretty clearly that the problem of for-profit bias is that it is now, after many generations of for-profit domination, embedded in the minds of many — to such a point that even public service broadcasters do not see the dominance of for-profit media as an issue for democracy (or are too scared to say if they do — “LEFT-WING BIAS!!!”) and characterise anyone seeking to peacefully raise this important issue as “making a stink”.

i love the way fiona kindly excuses the conference as not only being about such crazy people as myself and my issues with the for-profit dominance of our media, it’s also about “economics, ecology, some of the world issues” — seemingly completely unaware that “economics, ecology and some of the world issues” is exactly what i’m concerned with, and what a democratic media system could enable us to properly address.

i also love jim from the mallee — dutifully protecting the rights of for-profit companies from dumb-shit delusional attention-seeking hippies like myself.

loosely related story: my great grandfather, after immigrating to australia from ireland, was handed a section of stolen land in the mallee — he cleared it himself, began raising a family and toiled for many failed seasons on the australian land (especially unsuitable for european-style agriculture) until the banks took it off him — he then moved to shepparton, where i grew up, to see out his years in dispirited alcoholism.

i don’t know anything about jim personally, but assuming he is not a super-rich capitalist who happens to live on a sprawling private estate in the mallee, i know how much this system is not for him, and how much of a shame it is that he wants to protect it.

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