Chaser outrage: some of the response

Gerard Henderson writes: “Last Wednesday’s [Chaser] stunt – in St Vincent’s Private Hospital in Sydney – caused outrage. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has declared that The Boys should “hang their heads in shame”. And ABC managing director Mark Scott has decided to set up an inquiry as to how it all came to this.

… Nancy is aware that the best long term solution to The Chaser “issue” is not to limit their scope but, rather, to encourage The Boys to be braver. If appointed to Mr Scott’s committee of enquiry, Nancy would put up the following proposal: “Let’s send the Chaser Boys to Mecca and encourage them to make a joke about the Prophet, senior Islamic imams and young Saudi Arabian cancer victims at the Masjid al-Haram.”

Mr Simpson should be willing to give “The Tick” to such a proposal. And there would be certain advantages for Mr Dalton and the public broadcaster’s budget – since only one-way air tickets would be necessary.

All donations go to “Nancy’s Send The Boys to Mecca” fund-raiser should be sent to Nancy at The Kennel, 41 Phillip Street, Sydney.

Read Gerard Henderson’s blog comment here.

The former editor of the IPA Review Andrew McIntyre was on 774 ABC Melbourne’s “Weekly Wrap” segment Friday morning. Up against the ABC’s Jon Faine and Labor lawyer Liberty Sanger, McIntyre, a regular in the slot, is often on the back foot. Today, however, when Faine asserted that the Chaser boys were all about slaying sacred cows, and Sanger seemed to understand the Chaser’s realistic wish thesis, McIntyre asked a question that the two lefties were unable to answer.

On Thursday Jon Faine and Age TV writer Debi Enker tried to decide whether the Chaser “realistic wish” sketch had “crossed the line”. This proved to be a difficult task, especally when, after 30 minutes of thrashing around, Enker said that she had never been able to figure out where the line was. Caller “Jerry” thought he knew where it was.

However, being on the ABC, you probably will not be surprised to hear this comment from “Andrea of South Yarra” …

UPDATE:

ABC suspends Chaser for two weeks
The ABC has withdrawn The Chaser’s War on Everything from television for two weeks in the fallout from their skit about dying children this week. SMH