Like father like son.
Gina Hancock has proudly filled the place of the son Lang Hancock never had.
With an ongoing argument with the Government level of society the Hancocks know one way to fight back.
Get some media on your side!
And the best way to do that is to OWN some of that media. Lang opened the Sunday Independent in Perth. Gina is wheeling and dealing to take over the Fairfax Newspaper Empire desert island.
All the current talk around the Gina takeover is on whether she will be able to bully her way into seats on the board and whether she will allow the traditional Fairfax editorial independence. All that talk will disappear once she fails to gain those seats and, in a fit of pique, buys the whole damn lot! Full ownership will give her full control!
Stuff editorial independence.
“What will Gina do with that control?” is the question exercising many minds.
Own a Newspaper! In Lang’s case, he did as he had done with the West’s Iron Ore industry. He built it from scratch. On Sunday Apr 27th, 1969 he launched, in partnership with his mining buddy, Peter Wright, the Independent. A Sunday only publication and its founding editor was Maxwell Newton.
The front page was highlighted by stories by Peter Ellery, on suburban land prices, not minerals, and Peter Kelly on B.A. Santamaria of National Civic Council fame. There is also the photo story of a part of the near-city Swan River being pegged for mining. Lloyd Marshall was the reporter on this one.
Not a bad line up for the first page of a new media platform for an aggrieved anti-Governmental control mining magnate.
On page two was this wonderfully partisan cartoon by Cedric Baxter who had won a Walkley Award the year before for his work at the “West”.
In his editorial on page 3 of the first issue of The Independent on Apr 27, 1969.
Noted Socialist, Mr. John Gorton was the Prime Minister at the time.
Like Father like – – –
Lang wrote a book in 1979, “Wake Up Australia”. Gina wrote a poem in 2012!
There is one difference between the generations. Lang created. Gina buys! She took over a mining enterprise from her father and she will take over a media enterprise.
So what can we expect from Gina, Wonder Media Woman?
Inspired by “Lord” Monkton, moving into the media for a personal agenda seems a good idea. Much the same as moving into nautical navigation because you like to look at the stars.
Should the past be any example, employees of Fairfax would be advised to look for newer, more stable employment. With no media experience, the Fairfax organisation, under Gina, will have the momentum to run for another decade but by then the signs of decomposition will be apparent to all. Not only has Gina no media savvy, she is going into a dying print industry. One wonders how many of her billions she is willing to waste in propping up a flogged dead donkey.
She will push her anti-tax, anti-socialist, ME ME ME agenda to an increasingly small audience.
The effect of a Gina Media-Monster.
Venomous and of a size to consume small politicians – – – oops. Sorry. That is a Gila Monster! Ignore this paragraph.
The damage a Gina Media-Monster could do to the present Government is probably not huge. With the current Main Stream Media Group-think being so anti-government, any additional Gina-damage will be small.
As shown by her father’s railings, she could easily turn on a Parliament run by any political party. The Hancock view seems to be that ANY Government is Socialist!
Still. It will be all over by 2025. By then the heat will be too great and Gina will have to find a way out of the kitchen. The pity is that it will be too late to avoid the catastrophic Climate Change she is determined to ignore. And too late for the Fairfax brand.
I do hope the staff of Fairfax will have had the sense to flee to higher ground by then!
MMMmmm … yeah, not bad. You didn’t really emphasise the nasty bits of the “lady” in question, but not bad.
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Gina Rinehart isn’t all evil, she gave that poor mentally retarded man his own political talk show on Channel Ten
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Was it Turnbull I heard the other day pointing out that if Gina pushes her own barrow too hard in her newspaper, the punters will detect the bias, stop buying the rag and drive the value of Gina’s investment down?
I’d like to think that process could work rather quickly with the rise of alternative blogosphere news sources (like your good self, Archie.)
I must, however, admit that process hasn’t happened to the Murdoch empire – yet.
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The Murdoch mediocrity works because it does not over-estimate the intelligence of the Aussie Bogan or underestimate its interest in tits’nbums!
Gina is not a natural media person and will spend too much time preaching.
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The Heffalump advances like a Terminator, she will annihilate all dangerous Leftist tendencies by brute force of editorial enslavement.
But, then again, it just won:t work. The SMH as a corny regionalist rag?
Can someone tell The Heffalump that it just won:t work.
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Now I have an indelible image in my mind! Brain-bleach required! 🙂
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I prefer “Vogon.” After all, she does write egregious poetry…
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Gina is going about it all wrong! She just has to form a trust with Phoney Tony and the NO Coalition and act as sole trustee. Once Phoney and the NC are in Government she can run the whole bloody country and do as she likes. Poor stratetic planning Gina!
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Do you truly believe ANYONE could trust Gina? I’m writing on the third sentence atm – – –
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I propose a slogan; “To Hell with the Heffalump”.
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Ewwwww – that’s a bit heavy, isn’t it?
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Gina Rinehart shows us she’s a joke
With that latest drivel she spoke
This hypocritical prig
And grasping rich pig
Who grows richer using all Aussie folk.
Gina Rinehart acts like a twit
And continues to dribble her shit
Forgetting that she
Owes the public a fee
This rich bitch who thinks she’s just it.
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