[csaa-forum] Bolt and the Ideologues

[Danny Butt]

On 12/15/04 7:37 PM, "stephen crofts" <crofts5 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> I strongly agree with Christian McCrea about the importance of challenging
> Andrew Bolt, about his specious logic, and that we do best not to just
> demonise him.  For that is to play his anti-intellectual game.  \


I also think Graeme's piece is excellent, and a most appropriate response
from the Academy. However, I also think that neither Bolt nor his audience
will care about it, and I wonder whether, when we say "we won't stoop to
Bolt's level", we're actually saying, I would rather remain in the logic of
reasoned argument (that we in the academy invented :7) than the logic of
mediated populist politics that operates more or less independently of
anything Cultural Studies might do (I think for Bolt, Elspeth's work or CS
in general is just an example that is regularly substituted for some other
complaint in his columns).

I don't think my suggestions about questioning Bolt's credibility within the
language of the tabloid press are designed to make the academy look good.
Obviously Bolt's sex life (BTW, I don't think it matters whether Bolt is
*actually* any good in bed, any more than whether the Labor party could
*actually* run the economy), rich friends, or random acts of real or
invented hate do not contribute to a discussion about the role of the
academy. They are simply wedge issues that I think have the potential to
split his constituency and expose his contradictions *within the logic of
tabloid politics*, which is where this game is being played out.

So I'm suggesting a US Republican party style strategy where there are the
official responses from our esteemed CS figureheads (Graeme, Elspeth,
Catharine, etc.) that operate in what passes for public culture in the
press, and are appropriately above Bolt's rhetoric. This could be
supplemented by a collaborative and psuedonymous campaign (Australians
Against Dickheads, perhaps? Or the more think-tanky Centre for Truth in
Journalism?), one that recognises that there's no arguing with Bolt, he's
not going to meet us on our turf of rational debate, so we may as well use
our media skills to make him sorry he ever messed with a few hundred smart
and well-connected people who care more than he does. It's a perfect student
project for an informal graduate journalism class.

Or we can hope he goes away by himself.

x.d

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