Fair Dinkum
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This cartoon depicts a horrified Scott Morrison gazing at the wonderful NZ leader Jacinda Ardern, who stands for true political values, humanity and descency – i.e. the kind of values Scott Morrison and the far right detest.
It explains why the Murdoch media, including the load of baloney that passes for news in our national newspaper called The Australian, has become the propaganda Cheerleader for the Australian Government.
MURDOCH, his media Mafia and Scott Morrison are clearly disturbed by the massive landslide win by a left of centre parry in NZ –– the biggest in 50 years. They don’t want the same thing to happen in Australia.
As a result, the stream of anti-Ardern articles published in The Australian, written by Greg Sheridan and a Golf Puppy from the Institute of Public Affairs, are designed to create tremendous fear, to serve as a warning that such good leadership should never occur in Australia — to maintain power for far right extremists who are trying to depict themselves as moderates.
New Zealand has chosen a good path in a world that continues to lurch to populism and the extreme right. We saw an example of that extremism when a right-wing White Australian murdered over 50 peace loving Muslims in Christchurch NZ in 2019.
A follow up to my piece above.
The Murdoch media continues to push a right-wing ideology. But they don’t like the truth about their ideology being exposed and are starting to go on the defensive and attack in the latest piece of disinformation from Janet Albrechtsen in “The Australian” in a piece titled “Daniel Andrews detractors are being critical, not political.” She begins with a misleading statement: “Let’s debunk a rather silly idea gaining traction in some surprising circles. Criticism of the Andrews government is not a left-right thing.”
Why is this misleading? Firstly, it is a not “a silly idea” but a self-evident truth. Secondly, rather than debunking a “silly idea’, Albrechtsen is in fact creating a silly idea. What must be debunked are right-wing ideas projected by Albrechtsen and other likeminded commentators in the Murdoch media. Curiously, all of the “detractors” criticizing Premier Andrews, such as Andrew Bolt and Peta Credlin from “Sky News” and “The Herald Sun” or Greg Sheridan and Janet Albrechtsen from “The Australian,” have for many years advocated right-wing ideological causes and relentlessly criticised any person or government that is even remotely left. Journalists from the Murdoch media have become scalp-hunters, not detractors, who have repeatedly produced silly stories every day of this terrible pandemic demanding the Victorian premier and all of his ministers resign. The Murdoch media has hijacked the current hotel inquiry for political purposes by making unfair and unreasonable judgements and calling for resignations before the hotel inquiry has submitted its final report. We have seen a public trial by the Murdoch media. Is it fair and reasonable to ask: Is Australian democracy controlled by the Murdoch media?
Albrechtsen is entitled to express her opinion, just as we are entitled to call her out and other similar opinion pieces for what they really are — not balanced, critical, or informed opinions, but propaganda commentaries driven by right-wing ideology. That ideology is disseminated through the Murdoch media and is picked up by radical groups across Australia and empowers and legitimizes their own extreme versions of right-wing ideology, and that is why the serious issue of the Murdoch media matters today and why Australians who genuinely care about our democracy must call it out.
Another silly headline that typifies the extent to which right-wing ideology has taken over the Australian media is Andrew Bolt’s opinion piece in The Herald Sun titled “Daniel Andrews shows the fish rots from the head.” Compare this with the more balanced and fair-minded view from Lindsay Fox, a true Australian, who is neither left or right politically. Fox has come out to praise Victorian Premier Dan Andrews. He says, “He’s [Dan Andrews] had the balls to make decisions and stay with them, when 99 out of 100 people would have conceded a month ago. And when you compare our situation, even at 700-odd cases, to figures around the world, who’s right, and who’s wrong?”
Fox goes on to say, “Business leaders are entitled to their opinions, but many detractors are playing the man, not the ball.” Fox laments the failure of Australians to come together to fight a common enemy. He says, “The way the politicians are playing at the moment, I think it’s disrespectful and they’re not playing to win for the Australian people.“
What we have seen is the Victorian Liberal Party in tandem with the Murdoch media have recklessly used this pandemic throughout 2020 to sow hate and division across Australia in the same way Trump has in the US. They do not genuine care about the health of people in this crisis, but are interested to use the pandemic to sabotage the Victorian government’s efforts to protect lives by destroying the Victorian government and to replace it with their own ideological group.
Bolt is free to say “Daniel Andrews shows the fish rots from the head,” just as I am free to assert: “Bolt shows the fish rots from the head of the Murdoch media.” The time has come to call out this right-wing baloney for what it is, to debunk the myth that is fair critical commentary, and to expose it for what it truly is – right wing-ideological baloney.
If the Murdoch media in Australia is non-political then why have none of their newspapers reported on the following,
– James Murdoch’s criticisms of the Murdoch media and the reasons why he walked from it. As reported in The New York Times, James Murdoch said, “I reached the conclusion that you can venerate a contest of ideas, if you will, and we will all do and that’s important. But it shouldn’t be in a way that hides agendas. A contest of ideas shouldn’t be used to legitimize disinformation. And I think it’s often taken advantage of. And I think at great news organizations, the mission really should be to introduce fact to disperse doubt – not to sow doubt, to obscure fact, if you will.” Not a single word has been reported about this in any Murdoch newspaper. James Murdoch suggests the Murdoch media legitimizes disinformation, obscure facts and sows doubt, the very thing we can see in the opinion pieces by Sheridan, Albrechtsen, Bolt and Credlin. They are the people legitimatizing disinformation, obscuring facts and sowing doubt in the Australian community.
– As Prime Minister, Tony Abbott wasted $135,000 on medals for knights and dames in 2014, which are now worthless. Not one Murdoch newspaper has reported this story. The only story they have reported on Tony Abbot is about how a hacker managed to find Tony Abbott’s passport number through an Instagram post of his boarding pass. The bias and right-wing ideology of the Murdoch media is transparency obvious, not just in their disinformation, but in the news stories they fail to report.
– There has been no mention whatsoever of the petition in the Australian parliament calling for an inquiry into the Murdoch media. Why?
A few more examples documenting how far to the extreme right the Murdoch media has lurched.
Shame on the Institute of Public Affairs as Dr. Jennifer Marohasy, a senior fellow of this extreme right-wing think, writes a climate change denial report in extreme right-wing “The Weekend Australian” newspaper (24-25/10). In his documentary Blue Planet II, viewed as of 2017 by 14 million people, the well-respected environment filmmaker David Attenborough has warned the Great Barrier Reef will be totally destroyed within 80 years due to maltreatment of the oceans. See https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/great-barrier-reef-will-be-dead-by-2100-says-david-attenboroughs-blue-planet-ii-20171211-h026zv.html The Institute of Public Affairs is not a scholarly institute in pursuit of knowledge, but an extreme right-wing bunch of clowns producing far-right ideological nonsense for Murdoch’s media. David Attenborough is much more credible and reliable source, but no the dirty Institute of Public Affairs and the Murdoch media will try to discredit and neutralize him.
By contrast, a NSW parliamentary inquiry has heard that Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s office shredded documents used by the Premier to approve millions of dollars in grants to Liberal party run local councils, but not a single word mention about this scandal in the Murdoch media. If not for the ABC, we would never hear about it. See https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-23/gladys-berejiklian-approval-of-council-grants-shredded/12806962
Moreover, why has NewsCorp failed to report on the corruption scandal Peter Dutton’s preventing Australian Border Force officers from answering questions to the inquiry into the Ruby Princess debacle? Murdoch’s media and Scott Morrison focus on the Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry blaming the Victorian government, but the original sin occurred with the Ruby Princess.
Back in May, Peter Dutton failed to declare one of his million dollar properties in Townsville, a serious breach of the strict rules, but the Murdoch media defended him claiming he simply “forgot” to declare the property Other politicians have be compelled to resign for much less, including NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell who resigned after he “forgot” to declare a single bottle of wine valued at $3,000. See https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-16/nsw-premier-barry-ofarrell-to-resign-over-icac-grange-wine/5393478
Dutton memory loss was defended by Murdoch and then they quickly buried the story. Astonishing!
Every day the Murdoch media produces ranting right-wing garbage.
We live in strange times.