The blogosphere prides itself on beating print pundits to the punch. But in today’s Age, Gerard Henderson has a piece bagging the Howard government’s proposed appointment of John Carroll to vet the National Museum. A few blog-eons (months) ago we were treated to a full-length fisking of this guy from Tim Blair for his bizarre book about September 11. I thought about blogging on this a week or so ago, but couldn’t really be bothered. Irony alert on: I’m surprised, though, that Tim missed a chance to put the boot into the government for such a crazy appointment. Irony alert off

While we’re on the subject of the National Museum, I’m surprised by the hostility it’s aroused. Having produced a fair bit of it, I think my antennae are pretty well-tuned to detect material that will infuriate the average Quadrant reader and I found very little of it at the Museum. In its general feel, it reminded me of nothing so much as the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics – celebrating ordinary Australians of all kinds. While not ignoring conflict, I don’t think the Museum plays it up, either. The fact that it’s always packed with apparently ordinary Australians supports my view. Of course, most of the hostile reviews had been written before opening day and the Quadrant crew, like the Bourbons, forgets nothing and learns nothing.