[csaa-forum] the 'left leaning' Bolt

[langley timmy]

dear Louise,
i am interested in where you read that andrew bolt
worked as an adviser for bob hawke. i have read a
number of interviews with bolt (by right wing think
tanks) and he has never said he has worked for hawke
or anything associated with the left (although he did
have an aboriginal friend when he was a schoolboy, and
his parents are dutch immigrants: so he can't be a
racist, and he knows what it's like to assimilate).
this lack of any left wing association in bolt's
interviews may not be surprising, at first, as it
could be seen as an embarrassment. however, as a
spectacle of right as you rightly point out, he would,
like all the other right wing media personae, use that
left wing past to support his position. for example,
keith windschuttle constantly proclaims he use to be a
communist until he 'grew up' (his words) and found the
truth (that white settlers in tasmania were victims of
murderous aborigines; aboriginal culure was
disfunctional and doomed to failure); the statistician
turned 'sceptical environmentalist' Bjorn Lomborg
constantly proclaims his greenie past until he found
the truth (or a market outside statistics).
the left wing past of these commentators is an
important element of their image.
could you please direct me to the reference to bolt's
left wing past, as bolt (and other press commentators
like him) is 'phenomena' i'm researching.
cheers tim

--- Louise North <northlouise at hotmail.com> wrote: 
> I have been watching the flow of emails that the
> Bolt story has generated on 
> this list and of course, it has become 'talk' in
> both industry and academic 
> circles.. and having a foot in both camps, I have to
> wonder if we (the CSSA 
> community) is missing the point about one aspect of
> the Andrew Bolt 
> phenomena. I am told that Bolt worked as an advisor
> to Bob Hawke and so 
> perhaps his current right wing diatribe is more
> about finding a high profile 
> niche in News Ltd, than actually believeing what he
> writes: ie. he is 
> prostituting himself for the sake of notoriety and
> career progression.
> I'd say that Bolt is/has surveyed the columnist
> scene and has become the 
> John Laws of print....
> Just some thoughts, perhaps the list already knows
> of Bolt's 'left' leaning 
> past.
> Louise North
> 
> >From: Dr Laurie DUGGAN <l.duggan1 at uq.edu.au>
> >Reply-To: CSAA discussion list
> <csaa-forum at lists.cdu.edu.au>
> >To: csaa-forum at lists.cdu.edu.au
> >Subject: [csaa-forum] the Bolt issue cont'd
> >Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 13:13:04 +1000
> >
> >Some pretty good points from Christian McCrea.
> Oddly enough I've used the 
> >opposite self-defensive tactic. As soon as I had a
> tenuous connection with 
> >a university I introduced myself as a 'student' or
> an 'academic' rather 
> >than as a 'writer'.
> >
> >Laurie
> >
> >_______________________________________
> >
> >csaa-forum
> >discussion list of the cultural studies association
> of australasia
> >
> >www.csaa.asn.au
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Louise C North
> PhD Candidate
> Gender Studies
> School of Philosophy
> Private Bag 41
> University of Tasmania
> Hobart, Tasmania, 7001
> 
> mob: 0438 541 200
> fax (03) 6226 7847
> 
> and Journalist, The Mercury Newspaper, Hobart,
> Tasmania
> 
> 
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