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ABC1 Seven Network Videos: Chaser's War

Anna does what Naomi never did.

Update: Check out the Chaser’s lastest run in with Today Tonight here.

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The lesson in this weeks ‘What have we learnt from current affairs’ may have been the “desperate angles” journalists go to to make a story out of nothing, but the real lesson was; How to not act like Naomi Robson… by Anna Coren.

Coren welcomed Chas and Andrew into the Today Tonight studio, made fun of cheque book journalism, and took with good humor the jabs they made about the show. And while this doesn’t make Today Tonight any less a waste of prime time television, it makes Anna Coren look a little more human. Download the whole episode here.

Update: Chas clarifies some stuff in the comments.

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ABC1 Videos: Chaser's War

The ALP’s of the ABC.

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With former Lateline host Maxine McKew and former weatherman Mike Bailey both leaving the ABC to run in Labor party seats against the government, the Chaser took it upon themselves to see who else they could recruit from the national broadcaster to run for government.

Starring Kerry O’Brien, Monica Attard, the cast of Play School, Antony Green, Myf Warhurst, Adam Spencer and Tony Jones, its a cavalcade of that left wing, liberal media destroying our country. Download the whole episode here.

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Videos: Chaser's War

The Simpson’s War on Everything.

the chaser's war on everything as the simpsons style

> Download the full size JPEG (7.8mb) or the wallpaper size JPEG (1.1MB)

I’ve been reading Watching with the Simpsons by Jonathan Gray over the past few days, and its helped me further appreciate The Chaser’s War on Everything. Gray talks about “parody’s potential to mock, make us laugh, and teach us all at once”, and I think that sums up the incredible power of good television, and good media in general.

Parody, whether it be on The Chaser, The Office, or Arrested Development, uses our cultural literacy, or asks us to expand our cultural literacy to “get” the joke.

I may have gone to university, but it was Triple J, the ABC, a bunch of downloaded television and Wikipedia that made me the person I am today, which is kind of scary, but also why I think a smart and challenging media, from television to the internet, is for a lot of people a really accessible way to make us all a little smarter.

Update #1: I was at the taping of last nights episode, the Chaser guys displayed The Simpson’s image on the monitors in the studio for everyone to see. Chris was concerned he was portrayed with a bit more of a stomach than he deserved and Chas was grateful to be the tallest one in the group for once. They knew I was in the audience, and got me to explain the picture, everyone seemed to get a laugh out of it, it was a very cool night.

Update #2: The Sydney Morning Herald picked up on it too, if you have the print edition check out page 22.

Update #3: Turns out it got a mention on Triple J too. Download the MP3 here.

Update #4: The Herald Sun wrote something on it today too, if you have the print edition check out page 25.

I commissioned Nattalia Alonso to create the image for me, thanks Natt!

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ABC1 Videos: Chaser's War Videos: Idents

This Week in Current Affairs: 9th May

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This week’s lesson: Useful advice

Anzac Day sensitivities, taking up Pauline Hanson’s offer, loud sex and another Anna Coren segue. Apart from Chris Taylor sitting in for a “detained” Andrew Hansen it was your usual WHWLFCATW.

Download tonight’s episode from the official podcast, or get it right here off me.

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ABC1 Videos: Chaser's War

The World According to Fox News, Part II.

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Another jab at Fox News, with a look at questionable maths, attempts at being hip, yelling matches, and an incredibly sensitive Bill O’Reilly talking about Shawn Hornbeck.

Tonights episode is available for legit download here, and not not so legit, but uncut/higher quality download off me here.

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ABC1 Videos: Chaser's War

The World According to Fox News

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The Chaser no doubt still have years of parody to get out of Today Tonight and A Current Affair, but I guess there is no time like the present to go after the mother ship of questionable journalism… Fox News Channel (and by association; Chuck Norris).

With cameos from Kerry O’Brien and Monica Attard, its enough to make any ABC geek giddy, and probably explains further why the show is such a hit with those snobby, wealthy, educated or employed OG1 + 2 demographics (ie. you and me, the definition is pretty broad).

Tonights episode is already available for legit download here.

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Web Misc

iPodpalooza 2.0: Who wants my iPod nano?

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A few weeks ago I was a runnner up in the BBC’s reboot competition to redesign their home page. My prize was an iPod nano which I recieved from White City last week. But I’m happy with my shuffle, and since I recently celebrated my new found employment by buying my friends 30gb iPods, I thought one of you might like it. Not to devalue the prize the BBC gave me, its frieken awesome, I just thought someone would probably get better use out of it then me.

So, if a brand new 4gb iPod nano sounds good, leave a comment on this post and I’ll randomly pick someone on **Tuesday the 15th**.

One comment per person, and make sure you use a real email address. Anyone in the world can enter, and just realise your comment may need moderation before it appears.

Update: Lilian from Sydney won! Thanks to everyone who entered and should I find anything else cool to give away you’ll all be the first to know.

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ABC1 Videos: Chaser's War

At least my sexual fetish isn’t hate.

godhatesfagsapparently

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> RealPlayer Media
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The Chaser this week took a look at the folks behind godhatesfags.com, the Westboro Baptist Church and sent Firth along to say hi.

The head of the church, Fred Phelps is almost too extreme to warrant arguing with, some even suggest he’s such a caricature of the anti-gay movement that maybe the whole things a hoax. His bio on Wikipedia is a very interesting read, and among other things it would appear he pretty much killed his sons wife in order to crush him.

The most logical explanation for his insanity though seems to be that “Westboro serves to enable a paraphilia of Phelps, wherein he is literally addicted to hatred”. He pretty much gets off on hating.

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ABC1 Videos: Chaser's War

The Chaser’s War on iPod

chaserswar

Triple J’s Hack current affairs program did a story this week about how Australian’s are now the biggest downloaders of TV in the world. And who can blame us?

With Ten, Nine and Seven too busy protecting their ad revenue to offer downloads I think ABC has the perfect opportunity to step up and offer video downloads. I wouldn’t mind them charging us for it through iTunes, or just video podcasting them for free. Either way, to get the ball rolling.. last nights entire episode of The Chaser’s War on Everything.

> iPod Download 128mb (right click + save)

(You don’t need a video iPod to watch, but you will need iTunes, Quicktime or VLC)