It's the End of the World as we Know it (but I Feel Fine)...
For most of my working life I’ve subsisted within the boundaries of ye olde Fairfax Media, writing on a broad range of topics on a weekly basis. It was never well paid, but a rewarding and stimulating journey nonetheless. I worked with great editors and got to know a lot of excellent journalists. Being essentially preoccupied with what I’m writing next rather than the future, I would probably have stuck with it for a long time to come. That complacent option was abruptly curtailed by a Sydney Morning Herald editor – whom we shall refer to from now on exclusively as BS (as I can’t think of a more appropriate set of initials).
I thought last week was the end of this saga, and I’d be able to move on, (trooly rooly), shifting my weekly art column to The Nightly, and writing my regular film reviews for the Australian Financial Review. That was before Thursday, when I received a short note from the AFR editor, saying “…we've decided to look at different options, so won't be able to continue running your reviews.”
The timing seems rather last minute and emotional, because my piece on Yayoi Kusama, How a recluse became the world’s most popular contemporary artist, is the cover story of this week’s AFR Magazine, which is out today. I’m credited as “film reviewer”.
As I’ve always had very good relations with this editor, and everyone else at the AFR, I accept that he was acting under instructions from on-high. There were no gratuitous insults, as found in the BS letter of termination.
Naturally, it’s purely coincidental that the AFR discontinues the movie column in the same week I’ve resurrected myself online. I’m also sure that the torrent of angry letters the SMH has received, following the cancellation of the art column, has not been a factor. Surely a massive organisation such as NINE Media wouldn’t be so petty as to try and snuff out one lonely writer who was merely doing his job? Don’t forget that SMH banner: “Independent Always”.
The old Fairfax made a much better fist of being independent. Today, it’s depressing to see the way the SMH panders to power, serving up a sugary diet of “pop culture” in place of actual journalism.
Tell the truth, I’m a little shocked – although I shouldn’t be – by this latest display of corporate spite. I’m dumb enough to believe one should live or die by the quality of one’s work, not by dutifully conforming to an unspoken editorial line when everything tells you that line is wrong.
I know it would have been more diplomatic to say nothing about various hot-button issues which the SMH steadfastly refused to acknowledge, and even celebrated. Nevertheless, whenever I’ve had to choose between diplomacy and the truth, I’ve always gone with the latter option. It’s not because of a Robin Hood complex, but through sheer stubbornness. When there are things that are transparently good or bad, right or wrong, it's cowardly to take the bad/wrong side because it might advance your career, or merely ensure your survival. My basic predilections may be left-liberal, but I’ve always tried to avoid ideological and party political stances, believing that stuff-ups and bad behaviour are not confined to any one group.
Adorno says somewhere that one cannot be a success in a society that is a failure, or more succinctly “wrong life cannot be lived rightly.” This is apparently not the view of NINE Media, which seems very willing to turn a blind eye to a whole range of iniquities.
Since I relaunched last week it’s been amazing to discover the level of disgust that exists for the mainstream media, mainly for its tendency to trivialise important subjects. Although I’m looking at this blandscape through the lens of art and culture, it's just as obvious in the political sphere, especially in the United States, where every second story seems to be about the failure of major newspapers and TV networks to hold Donald Trump accountable for his lies and hate speech. Indeed, the fiction of “balance” has never looked more threadbare as the big networks strive to show how impartial they are, not wanting to admit that one candidate has no intention of playing by the rules.
The surprise is to find so many big media players whining about Kamala Harris doing “softball” interviews on “mostly friendly” specialised platforms, such as the Call Me Daddy podcast, or Howard Stern. But this seems a barren critique when Trump has dropped out of a 60 Minutes interview, refused a second debate, and has a tantrum when anybody fact checks him. Clearly, one candidate is talking and the other is hiding.
Meanwhile a new film by Errol Morris called Separated, which looks at the way children of asylum seekers have been removed from their parents, is being held over by NBC until after the election. Morris, one of the most important documentarians of our time, is not pleased, as he thinks the film needs to be seen by potential voters.
Separated was screened in Cannes at the end of August, but is not scheduled to go to air until 7 December. The accusation is that NBC management doesn’t want to offend Donald Trump and is hoping he might agree to another debate.
In the absence of a good excuse, it appears that NBC is being pusillanimous in deferring to Trump, or venal in putting profit over political justice. It’s a fatal combination one finds everywhere today in the mainstream media. Why is it that the SMH, the Age, the Guardian and the ABC, for starters, have been so unwilling to take a hard look at the evidence relating to the APY Artists Collective, or the billion dollar debacle of the Powerhouse Museum?
Let’s not forget “The Herald’s View”, of 9 February this year, written by that stable genius, BS, titled: “Let’s all get behind the Powerhouse Museum renovation.” This piece was a masterclass in how to drink the Kool-aid from a bucket, taking all management’s claims at face value, and getting the history completely wrong. It’s an excellent example of leading from the top.
I’m not giving up on the mainstream press, as The Nightly has agreed to host my weekly art columns. They are the new team on the block, eager to capitalise on the growing disenchantment with other outlets. This week I’ve reviewed the exhibition, Laozi’s Furnace at the White Rabbit Gallery.
Joker: Folie à Deux will almost certainly be my final movie column for the AFR. The official excuse for dropping the column seems to be that some reviews were more popular – ie. received more clicks – than others. As a friendly editor would send me these stats from time to time, I can reveal that my most clicked film review, probably of all time, was for Maverick: Top Gun 2. The least clicked was a Japanese arthouse film. But judging by clicks is no better guarantee of quality than judging by success at the box office. If we adopted this criteria, Avatar and Avengers: Endgame would be the two greatest films ever made.
One wonders if the AFR will employ a new film critic or merely dispense with the column altogether. (Maybe Richard Wilkins needs another gig). As it’s the same question people are asking of the SMH, it seems critics are an endangered species at NINE. In the meantime I’ll keep writing film columns and posting them on Substack. I’m not going to ask you to repeat the letter-writing marathon that saw a torrent of angry emails going to NINE management following my SMH sacking. If you know anybody who needs a film critic, tell ‘em I’m open to offers.