It's starting to become a pattern.
1. Logies nominees are announced.
2. Media, Tweeps and Facebookers scrutinise the list for diversity.
3. They find it to be lacking. Everyone gets cross.
4. Nevertheless, Waleed Aly gets attacked. Competing for his second Gold Logie - how very dare he! - The Daily Telegraph interprets this as a sign of a broken system. "Perhaps the awards could be renamed," the paper suggests. "They could call it The Waleeds - or better yet, the Wallies." (Funny how no one said that after Ray Martin and Graham Kennedy won five Gold statues. Each.)
5. "What does this mean?" people ask. "What does this say about us?"
6. Answer: we are racist. We are sexist. And we watch too much bad TV.
The existence of all three problems is indisputable. Unfortunately, too many believe that fixing the latter can solve the first two issues. (I'll get to that in a minute.)
But first, let's talk about the Gold Logies nominees: Grant Denyer, Jessica Marais, Peter Helliar, Rodger Corser, Samuel Johnson and Waleed Aly.
Nearly all Anglo, and all male. Except this ain't #OscarsSoWhite.
Logies nominees are not chosen by a mysterious cabal of Hollywood insiders. Voting isn't even restricted to readers of TV Week magazine.
Anyone can cast a vote online. I repeat: anyone.
Before you scold the plebs for their bad choices, ask yourself: did you vote?
If not, how do you interpret this as anything other than an un-weighted poll of enthusiastic TV addicts? (Of course, networks plugging their stars has some influence, and readers of TV Week remain disproportionately represented.)
Reacting to the latest backlash, TV Week editor Emma Nolan pointed out that 11 of the 20 most recent Gold Logie winners are women.
Marais was not the sole female Gold nominee available to voters. She was the only woman to make the Gold shortlist.
Of course, this is dismaying.
But here's the thing. Whenever people complain to me about it, I ask who they voted for. Cue awkward silence. Or the insistence they don't read TV Week. (You don't have to.) Or a pivot to a different argument, which is that the Logies are a crock, and they don't really care. (Then why were you yelling at me?)
I get that Logies-bashing is Australia's national sport. Many tune in for the thrill of bad outfits, terrible jokes, and rambling winners being played off by the band.
But it's the genuinely angry non-voters who baffle me. You realise no one is stopping you having your say?
Anyone longlisted for Best Actor, Best Actress or Best Presenter is automatically in the running for Gold. (Voting is supervised by Roy Morgan Research, and assessed by EY, formerly known as Ernst & Young.)
The candidates are chosen by their networks, streaming services or pay TV operator. These lists are huge. In the Best Presenter category alone, ABC submitted 25 names.
Indeed, Aunty provides a good example. If you're a fan of our national broadcaster, you could have helped Cleverman's Deborah Mailman go for Gold. You could have rewarded Celia Pacquola's excellent work in Rosehaven. Rachel Griffiths in Barracuda. Claudia Carvan, Robyn Nevin, Sigrid Thornton - the list goes on.
Or perhaps you liked Matt Nable's turn as Coach Frank Torma in Barracuda. Ryan Corr in Cleverman. Josh Thomas in Please Like Me.
Kumi Taguchi and Jeremy Fernandez, for their excellent work on ABC News. Virginia Trioli and Michael Rowland on ABC News Breakfast. Leigh Sales. Julia Baird. Anh Do (if you haven't seen Brush With Fame, rectify this immediately). Barrie Cassidy. Jennifer Byrne.
And how great would it be to see Sarah Ferguson grab Gold at the end of the night?
Of course, this requires organisation. Starting in November, when voting opens. It might be tricky to get an emerging actor over the line. But Aly and Lee Lin Chin were selected last year not because they dominate the ratings, but with network support - and strong viewer loyalty. Surely this strategy could put Mailman or Sales in the running for the top prize?
Consider Boaty McBoatface, which grew from internet joke to an actual research vessel. Or the Facebook campaign that made Rage Against The Machine's Killing in the Name Of the UK's No. 1 Christmas song in 2009, selling half a million downloads.
Not that I'm urging you to vote for unusual suspects as a gag. Merely that there are a lot of people airing their Logies complaints online. And it only takes one person to start a "Vote for Deborah/Leigh/Sarah" campaign.
Or we could just sit back and admonish others for their mediocre, politically incorrect choices. (Unless they choose Aly, at which point we declare that political correctness has gone mad.)
But for the love of Daryl Somers, please don't think I want the Logies inflated to a political battleground.
Yes, television can be powerful. And diversity on our screens is always worth pursuing. Yet as Fredrik deBoer writes, "The left has almost no political power, but it has cultural power, so it obsesses over cultural spaces."
Which is how Moonlight's Oscars triumph became so much more more than the acknowledgement of an excellent film. According to some reports, it was a "vote for inclusivity" and even a "referendum against the current political regime".
I know; it's satisfying to rail against TV industry bigots who are threatened by change.
But it might be more effective to do this instead. Come November, cast your vote. Done! Then channel the energy you'd have spent on #LogiesSoBad into real political action.
