What’s in a name?
Major weather events like the cyclone that pummeled Queensland and northern NSW last week are disruptive, often traumatic events that cause long-lasting damage to the communities affected. They tend to be busy times for first responders, government coordinators and volunteers — and for the media too, particularly the ABC, which has a special role in keeping people informed during emergency events.
Staff were acknowledged for their hard work in a mass email sent last week by news standards editor Matt Brown, who thanked news employees for “getting those warnings out so accurately and quickly” and for “telling some great stories about how people are coping and being affected”.
But the email also came with a language warning. Brown wrote he was “conscious that everyone is juggling a lot” but wanted to bring up a “minor thing” to make sure everyone’s terminology was consistent.
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“Tropical Cyclone Alfred has a name, but it is not a person, so please don’t refer to it as a ‘he’,” Brown wrote. Alfred might not have achieved personhood, but at The Daily Telegraph, reporters appear to be on very familiar terms with the storm. In the subject line of a breaking news email sent on Saturday, the Tele referred to the storm as “cyclone Alf”. One wonders what Brown would think about that.
Speaking of storm nomenclature, the Bureau of Meteorology last week confirmed Alfred was originally going to be called Anthony. That name was next in line in the alphabetical naming list maintained for cyclones, but it wasn’t deemed appropriate because it is also the first name of the prime minister.
“When a name matches a prominent person of the time, we reorder to the next name starting with that same letter to avoid any confusion,” a Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson told AAP. You’ll notice we went with the full name of the Bureau of Meteorology throughout this story, rather than calling it BOM — because we all know how “the Bureau” feels about that acronym.
Up in the Airservices
Senate estimates may be somewhat broken as a transparency measure, but in its less theatrical moments, it can still winnow out important and overlooked details about government agencies. In particular, it’s always worth keeping an eye on the questions on notice, which are submitted to the government during estimates or at the end of question time.
For example, there is rightly a lot of focus on the proportion of our governing class accepting gifts and lounge memberships from the big, widely despised airlines. But what about the agencies that regulate them?
When Airservices Australia (AA) — a “government-owned organisation responsible for safely and efficiently managing air traffic in 11% of the world’s airspace, as well as the provision of aviation rescue fire fighting services at Australia’s busiest airports” — was in front of estimates last November, independent Senator David Pocock asked who on the AA board had lounge memberships with Qantas and Virgin.
Late last month, the answer dropped that six of the seven board members (and their spouses) had a membership of one or both — John Weber, Eileen Doyle, Melvin Hupfeld and Nicolle Connelly have access to the Qantas Chairmans Lounge, while Weber, Doyle, Lawrie Turner and Anne Brown can grace the Virgin Beyond Lounge at their leisure.
Headline of the week
George Orwell, in his seminal Politics and the English Language, notes that “incompatible metaphors are frequently mixed, a sure sign that the writer is not interested in what he is saying”. The Trump era, with its frequent assaults on shared reality, will need thorough, crisp, sharp writing.
Anyway, here’s The New York Times:
Safe Spaces
Is it offensive to call teenage boys misogynists? Some University of Technology Sydney students certainly seem to think so.
Last week, an event thrown by the university’s socialist club ahead of International Women’s Day caused some controversy on campus. The event was promoted with posters picturing a man in a MAGA hat and a Trump t-shirt with the rubric: “Why are teenage boys so misogynistic?” Soon after the posters went up on campus message boards, UTS began receiving complaints.
“The university encourages and supports all groups to discuss important topics,” a uni spokesperson said. “We did have some complaints about the poster stereotyping a whole cohort of people and discussed it with Activate UTS — which oversees the student clubs and societies — as our equity, inclusion and respect policy is very clear about our values and [we] aim to be an inclusive institution.”
By the time those discussions were complete, the event had already finished and the posters were then removed, the spokesperson said.
Event organiser and socialist club president Yasmine Johnson said the fury over the posters was “ridiculous”.
“To say we should not be able to promote this event about the rise in misogyny is an indication UTS is not taking sexism seriously and an attack on free speech,” Johnson told Crikey.
Legalise comedy!
Well, they’re not fucking about in London. One of our international tipsters sent us a pic of the following billboard going up in Tottenham, apparently near the local Tesla showroom:
The mock-up of The Fast and The Fuhrer promotes an X account called @OverthrowMusk — so far modestly followed and with only one post noting the billboard going up. We’ve seen speculation online that this is the work of The Centre for Political Beauty, which would track with its general vibe.