November 10, 2004
Crikey Now Weigh In On Pandagate
We all suspected this dramarama might make Crikey. Well, here it is.
Blogger brawl in Pandagate putsch
Andrew Bolt and the granddaughter of one of Australia’s most unrepentant old Coms battling it out online? Sounds speccie. Welcome to Pandagate.
Federal politics is in a lacunae, but a spectacular brawl has erupted in the Australian blogosphere, mainly among the new political blogs that flourished like Mao’s hundred flowers in the lead up to the election.
It’s been dubbed Pandagate - and started with a somewhat sophomoric article in the Age by Misha Schubert that mentioned Young Lib Miranda Airey-Branson’s blog. (Airey-Branson is sometimes known as Miranda Panda, hence the tag.)
Soon other bloggers pounced - and things got very messy very quickly. Threats against employment were made, more dirt was excavated than in the heyday of the Whitehouse Plumbers and an interesting range of accusations against Labor MP for Melbourne Ports, Michael Danby - along with photos of his partner - appeared online.
Eventually, they conscripted Andrew Bolt to their cause, who wrote this column about it.
Bolt was later asked about where the idea for his column came from, and he denied knowing the Liberals concerned. However, he was called on that one because he was interviewed by Miranda Airey-Branson for the Melbourne University newspaper, Farrago. After that, he stopped answering emails about the column.
But some of his emails turned up. It seems that the Liberals had been sourcing their information from two fictional characters - one of whom Bolt had an email conversation with before writing his column.
A Labor blogger has put the trail up here. Leftie Fitzroy bore Marieke Hardy, granddaughter of Stalin fan and Power Without Glory author Frank Hardy, scriptwriter and proprietor of the rather bemusing “Joan Kirner is the new Betty Page” Polichicks fashion label www.polichicks.org has got in on the fun, too.
Readers can follow the whole saga by starting at the bottom of this page and working your way up. Still, it’s very odd that Bolt saw fit to involve himself in such a spat. Isn’t it below him?
Andrew Bolt and the granddaughter of one of Australia’s most unrepentant old Coms battling it out online? Sounds speccie. Welcome to Pandagate.
Federal politics is in a lacunae, but a spectacular brawl has erupted in the Australian blogosphere, mainly among the new political blogs that flourished like Mao’s hundred flowers in the lead up to the election.
It’s been dubbed Pandagate - and started with a somewhat sophomoric article in the Age by Misha Schubert that mentioned Young Lib Miranda Airey-Branson’s blog. (Airey-Branson is sometimes known as Miranda Panda, hence the tag.)
Soon other bloggers pounced - and things got very messy very quickly. Threats against employment were made, more dirt was excavated than in the heyday of the Whitehouse Plumbers and an interesting range of accusations against Labor MP for Melbourne Ports, Michael Danby - along with photos of his partner - appeared online.
Eventually, they conscripted Andrew Bolt to their cause, who wrote this column about it.
Bolt was later asked about where the idea for his column came from, and he denied knowing the Liberals concerned. However, he was called on that one because he was interviewed by Miranda Airey-Branson for the Melbourne University newspaper, Farrago. After that, he stopped answering emails about the column.
But some of his emails turned up. It seems that the Liberals had been sourcing their information from two fictional characters - one of whom Bolt had an email conversation with before writing his column.
A Labor blogger has put the trail up here. Leftie Fitzroy bore Marieke Hardy, granddaughter of Stalin fan and Power Without Glory author Frank Hardy, scriptwriter and proprietor of the rather bemusing “Joan Kirner is the new Betty Page” Polichicks fashion label www.polichicks.org has got in on the fun, too.
Readers can follow the whole saga by starting at the bottom of this page and working your way up. Still, it’s very odd that Bolt saw fit to involve himself in such a spat. Isn’t it below him?
As my dear friend Will so eloquently put it - “I note that Ms Fits is far from a ‘bore’”.
Also - I love how they say Ms Fits “got in on the fun” as though she jumped on the bandwagon as it began tumbling down Pandagate Hill. For Christ’s sake, it was her original post that kicked off the entire Blog War!
Posted by Jess at November 10, 2004 12:56 PM— Filed under Common
I hate to be all negative and stuff, especially considering how ausculture.com is clearly central to this whole topic but… Isn’t the whole thing getting boring at an Australian-Idol-esque rate? Yes, of course it is. I guess it’s only natural for Crikey to finally pick up on the whole thing now huh?
Pandagate, like panda sex is little more than masturbation.
Call me a heathen.
Funnily enough, I’m mid-post regarding that.
Check the drafts folder if you don’t believe me :)
Well yes, I do know that you get bored as easily as I do. We do have a habit of posting the same thing simultaneously here too so I’m not at all surprised you were writing that.
On another note, apparently Three-quarters of ADHD diagnoses are wrong… Now, where’s my Ritalin?