Neil Mitchell and Prince Charles

There's is no doubt about it, 3AW's Neil Mitchell is a past master at expressing the media's two favourite bigotries. He can take pride of place in the front row of the group snapshot of the media's gallery of bigots when comes to religion and the British Royal family. One gets the impression, though, that threats to the ratings have recently tempered his outbursts somewhat with regard to the Catholic Church. But the coward behind the microphone swings into near delirium when the discussion of Prince Charles comes up. And it has been so these last few ratings days.

Anything that Mitchell has to say about Prince Charles and the royal family I would have answered in my book The Media and the Republic. I would not expect Mitchell to have either the concentration or inclination to read sustained arguments against his sneering comments. This has more to do with Mitchell's psychopathology than it has with reasoned argument. But there is one element in his demented Prince Charles rant that epitomises the nastiness and hypocrisy of the media like nothing else. It is those so-called Camillagate tapes. This is hypocrisy to bring one to vomit.

Imagine if anyone taped Neil Mitchell's most private phone calls between him and his past girlfriends and then continually broadcast them. Well, there would such a sizzling rush to the courts that the bitumen along the way would be smoking.

Through the years in male conversations not only have I heard similar comments but many far more intimate and stupid (re. the tampon comments). Really, it is beyond belief that Mitchell would dare to claim that he has never been guilty of saying such stupid things. And what about Mitchell's own behaviour. What are we to believe - that he has never been guilty of any sexual impropriety? He would never give anyone the opportunity to look into his private actions. Sanctimony, bigotry and hypocrisy are the special virtues of the media. And they are top-shelf in the studios of 3AW.