Our cocked-up and loaded leadership
Piers Akerman
News.com.au
Monday, May 25, 2009 at 10:44pm
THE chk-chk BOOM phenomenon has made Clare Werbeloff a household name, courtesy of the internet.
Grabbing at the brass ring of instant celebrity a week ago, the 19-year-old Werbeloff volunteered a colourful commentary on a Kings Cross shooting when she saw a news cameraman on the scene.
With a gift for dialogue that should make her a candidate for NIDA, the Northern Beaches girl composed a thrilling tale of sex, betrayal and deceit, culminating in violence. As Werbeloff put it: “And then they pulled out a gun and went ‘Chk-chk BOOM.”
After enjoying recognition for nearly a full week, however, she recanted in the face of authority. Werbeloff told police she had not actually seen the shooting.
She is now famous for being a phoney. Werbeloff’s reputation? Chk-chk BOOM.
Media students will study this incident for years and argue whether Werbeloff exploited the media in her desire for fame, or whether the media exploited her in its desire to bring as many eyeballs as possible to a particular website.
The finer point of her telling a major untruth will be permitted to slip away because fame for fame’s sake fascinates.
That the chk-chk BOOM phenomenon has played out on the national political scene here and in America and is continuing to affect the political direction of both nations seems to have escaped most media commentators, possibly because they support the aims of these left-leaning leaders.
Yet Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and US President Barack Obama are as much creations of the connected world as Werbeloff - and their agendas are far more destructive than a teenager’s desire for fame.
Rudd and Obama used activists behind the political agencies GetUp and MoveOn to sign up supporters and publicise their propaganda before their elections. Having snowed their audiences, it is now chk-chk BOOM time.
Like Werbeloff a week ago, Rudd and Obama were busily saying anything and everything to get their heads on TV and their words into the blogosphere before their respective elections. That their claims were often as false as Werbeloff’s shooting account is only now becoming apparent to many. Chk-chk BOOM.
Remember the computers for schoolchildren? Chk-chk BOOM.
Rudd’s claim that “I am not a socialist. I have never been a socialist and I never will be a socialist?” Chk-chk BOOM.
His claims not to know he was to attend a fundraiser with disgraced former WA premier Brian Burke? Chk-chk BOOM.
His lies about knowing nothing about the staged Kokoda Anzac Day Dawn Service? Chk-chk BOOM.
His statement denying plans to roll back the NT intervention? Chk-chk BOOM.
Lies about his mid-air meltdown when he couldn’t get the meal he demanded? Chk-chk BOOM.
The 75,000 jobs his cash splash would create? Chk-chk BOOM.
Denials his soft policy on boat arrivals has driven a new wave of people smuggling? Chk-chk BOOM.
Australia’s emissions trading system will save the Great Barrier Reef? Chk-chk BOOM.
After the travesty of a Budget was delivered a fortnight ago even Rudd supporters like The Sydney Morning Herald’s Ross Gittins were joining more seasoned political reporters like The Australian’s veteran Paul Kelly in noting that the Rudd Government’s spin (a bowdlerised version of the barnyard expletive) was overdone. Chk-chk BOOM.
It would probably be possible to fill these pages with more examples of Rudd’s untruths, fairytales, spin, call it what you will, but as he has not delivered the transparency in Government he promised in Opposition, the above should be sufficient to demonstrate his embrace of Werbeloff’s chk-chk BOOM principle.
It’s worth remembering as he continues his hard-hat odyssey around the nation, reannouncing old schemes for the second or third time, as he tries to bluff his audience into believing that his Government is now spending more than the $1.2 billion it announced for new projects in the current Budget, as opposed to the more than $42 billion it tossed away in its ridiculous cash splash. Chk-chk BOOM.
If Werbeloff’s publicity campaign had not imploded so demonstratively, she would have provided an ideal candidate for one of Rudd’s “look at moi, look at moi” moments. This would have been a couple made in heaven.
While YouTubers have now driven more than 800,000 viewings of the Kings Cross fibber and variations of her narrative, they will unfortunately have to wait for the ultimate duet, Clare Werbeloff and Kevin Rudd rapping together.
Chk-chk BOOM.
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