Another reflection from our man from the northwest Frontier.
In this-un he tends to suggest that most mainstream media have got it wrong.
We agree, that’s why we choose to read only the Catholic Boy’s Daily, (the Australian) and watch Fox News for factual alternate facts. It keeps us on the ball and we hope that all this nonsense about Rupert being behind the stolen election bias will just go away. If only people would mind their own business and let reputable news agencies get on with the job the world would be a safer place. And it’s a source of real comfort to know that Angus Taylor will be hosting our next big event. ‘The Ethical Journalism Awards’, co-hosted by Stuart Robert at the Crown Palladium Ballroom. Bring your own sachet of white powder.
Frank writes….
Ave
Shortly after a policeman had been charged with murder for shooting a young man in Yuendumu, the judge issued a comprehensive court injunction. The matter was sub judice and not to be aired in the media. For instance, the defendant’s military record was not to be discussed, nor any other aspects of his stint with the NT Police. Up until the not guilty verdict more than two years later, the Yuendumu community and the family of the victim maintained a dignified silence and adhered to the injunction.
Despite this, a journalist and a photographer turned up in Yuendumu and started filming and interviewing grieving members of the victim’s family. The duo from the Fourth Estate were approached and politely told that they should have waited and could they please refrain. They took no heed and released a biased video on mainstream media which portrayed the victim as a dangerous criminal and the accused as a heroic figure who’d had no choice but to do his job. This was followed by a relentless campaign on Facebook and by certain sectors of the media, aided and abetted by the NT Police association and the accused’s family.
This culminated in defense counsel Edwardson declaring after the not guilty verdict had been announced that the victim had been the author of his own misfortune. Sadly, their campaign succeeded to the extent that there are still large numbers of people who believe this to be the case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltPN8QSZk84&t=2s
Ain’t Right to Blame the Victim- Steve Harrison
In 1898 H. G. Wells wrote War of the Worlds which 40 years later was adapted by Orson Welles for radio. The radio broadcast included news bulletins reporting on an invasion of earth by Martians. The newspapers reported on the widespread panic the invasion had caused. The invasion was fiction, the panic was fake news. Orson Welles’ broadcast has entered the realm of myth.
George Orwell was a prolific writer on matters of lies and truth. Googling Orwell’s sayings to find a relevant quote to decorate an essay or Dispatch is like choosing a breakfast cereal in a modern well stocked supermarket.
I’ve chosen this one:
“The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.”
The problem with this is that the Fourth Estate does not make it easy to discern the truth and hence to speak it.
The Australian media (with notable exceptions) tends to behave like a dog with a bone and latches on to one bone after another.
Recently we have had the balloon threat, the threat to our economy by the potential phasing out of the hydrocarbon industry, the Alice Springs crime wave and what have I left out?
Some of our main newspapers did a four day fear and loathing feature with chicken little headlines. A war with China over Taiwan within three years was a real possibility according to the newspaper articles. Coincidentally soon thereafter the Australian government announced its largest commitment to military expenditure ever. It is purchasing submersible white elephants.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoax54olIUM
Steve Van-Deller- The Sky is Falling In
A tweet from Tony Windsor encapsulates Australia’s Fourth Estate.
A man I met in a Canberra shop told me he was an acquaintance of Phil Coorey’s cousin’s vet who apparently heard from someone else with a security background that he had it on good authority that the martians could invade in the next 500 years. Hard to believe, but thems the facts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvKjG8elLA4
Aretha Franklin- Dr. Feelgood,
This kind of music, yet another good reason to save the planet.
Donec iterum
Frank