Glenn Condell says he managed to publish a letter in the Sydney Morning Herald, protesting censorship by the Israel lobby, after much “argy bargy.” It reminded me of the Aussieism, “agro,” for aggressive. I asked him to define argy bargy. Condell did, and then noted the role of Aussie’s public television:
We use ‘argy bargy’ as a
synonym for prolonged argument – here is a short para on the etymology –
http://www.abc.net.au/newsradio/txt/s2001835.htm
I am rather pleased about [the letter] – my strike rate for
publication there is not high, especially with Israel-related issues. Ice is breaking
here too perhaps. Note that the link I provided to the Media Watch story about the
Herald’s editorial cowardice is, like the one above, from the ABC, our
national public broadcaster. Its very existence, on every TV set in the
land, is I think a good prophylactic against corporate media spin, quite apart
from the value of programs like Media Watch. I have always thought if the
US had an analogue of the ABC, they would never
have invaded Iraq
– the populace would have been too informed to allow it.
>From Weiss again (can’t unindent!): Bill Moyers said something very much like this, lately on Public Broadcasting System here. That our media are so corporatized that they could not oppose the Iraq war, and dissidents are sidelined. I feel that PBS did a lousy job overall of braking the Iraq war plans…
