Nine News has plummeted to lower depths by attempting to lie to its audience and offering a safe haven for conservative politicians and the Right-wing media. Darren Crawford reports.
Source: Fake boobs and fake polls: Nine News’ L-NP protection racket
That these aspirations seem to be naive simply serves to illustrate how low our common expectations have sunk. But unless we begin to look at the coverage of news and current events as being a core and important issue, and take steps to stop our current slide into partisan nonsense, then our Australian media environment may very soon become as hopelessly gridlocked and fractured as in the US.
This is why the current discussions regarding curbing the instances of misinformation and disinformation in our media are both necessary and should be applauded by all Aussies, regardless of their political bent. But these regulatory measures can only be viewed as a starting point. There is a need to move to decentralise our media and unwind the massive monopolies that currently exist. The good health of our democracy depends on cultivating a healthy press environment.
The stakes are high. Big Brother is not just a scary tale. Nineteen-eighty-four is not in our rear-view mirror. Just as in America, very soon parts of our media may also become so utterly detached from reality, that half our population will begin agitating for renovations to our law, in accord with a brand new and improved his
The Age and SMH haven’t apologized for the misinformation they published in the article by Lisa Visentin 4 days ago which started the shitstorm about whether or not John Farnham was paid or not. Instead, they have come back with a poorly attempted deflection of “It’s Complicated” by Michael Dwyer.
It isn’t complicated Vinsentin maintained ” Farnham has allowed his 1986 hit to be used in a commercial, having agreed to license it for an undisclosed sum to Yes campaign outfit Uluru Dialogue.” That’s fake and Farnham and his management have denied it. So what was published by Visentin wasn’t verified and it was made up pure and simple. However, to date, neither she, Dwyer, or anyone at Ch9 has actually said sorry John or sorry Tim. Rather, they have tried to duck the issue and thrown a dead moggie on the table in the true political style of “never say sorry” just deflecting and distracting and trying to move on in hope that the 24/7 media cycle will make it disappear. Will they get away with it? John Farnham and his management have clearly stated that they have gifted their rights to the Voice gratis and like Aboriginal Australians deserve to be listened to. Their Voice matters.
If we’re talking about the words and notes on the page, You’re The Voice doesn’t in fact belong to Farnham. So was it entirely a gift?
Source: Voice to parliament: Did John Farnham gift ‘You’re The Voice’ to Yes campaign?
Ch9 and it’s stable of journalists have been sorted OUT
Yet from Nine Entertainment’s chairman down to senior editors though this is an organisation of yes-men and yes-women. The likes of yours truly, Michael Pascoe, Mike Carleton, John Hewson – just to name a few – have been weeded out for failing to cower sufficiently to Nine’s advertisers and assorted corporate and political agendas.
Descending the greasy pole all the way down from Liberal Party heavyweight and fundraiser Peter Costello, we have Editorial Director James Chessell (who is an ex-Liberal staffer for Joe Hockey), his 2IC Tory Maguire (whose husband is a Liberal Party linked lobbyist), Editor in Chief of the AFR Michael Stutchbury, a true believer in the virtue of big business whose ideology is to the right of the Liberal Party.
On the radio front, it’s no accident that Nine owns 2GB and 3AW. On the TV front, it’s no accident Nine Network is now framing The Voice as “The Divisive Voice to Parliament“. This is unambiguous Coalition messaging.
Source: On captured media: we respond to Nine Entertainment and the AFR’s tepid hit-job – Michael West
Nine Entertainment-owned papers have been talking up the prospects of Australia going to war with China while failing to declare that Nine chairman Peter Costello has made $millions in recent years lobbying on behalf of defence companies.
Red Alert brings together five experts including Peter Jennings, former head of ASPI. None of the five is a China scholar or expert.
Source: The defence establishment and Fairfax take on China – Pearls and Irritations
Why is it that The Age once a Newspaper has segued into being a model of what Murdoch Media is? A valueless corporate profit system. It too now presents fiction as fact and competes for attention and money from the wealthy only! It’s not begging for the money of ordinary Australians but only the self-interested wealthy among us. That Murdochian change has become noticeable since Peter Costello took over.
Sneaky? It’s one way to claim the ALP are being sneaky and keep Robodebt in the background. Forward Estimates have never been right and The Age is doing little more than presenting fiction as fact
Albanese and Chalmers have found a way to propose change without a breach of faith: announce it early, legislate it this term but make sure it takes effect after the next election. They are attempting reform with the permission of the Australian people.
And they have a chance to ask permission to go further.
Peter Costello’s Ch9 and The Age are currently celebrating the demise of Murdoch’s Fox News. They nevertheless apply the very same business model themselves and have adopted and accelerated it since Peter Costello became CEO. They are celebrating like Rumpelstiltskin once did only they too will crash. We can be assured Ch9 won’t, any day soon, return to a fair, balanced and ethical standard of news reporting. We only need to look at their reporting on the minor adjustment to Super the ALP proposes to evaluate their true colours. It has begun with calling it “a raid” on all super accounts despite the fact that no legislation has been passed. It’s as if the first domino has already fallen which it hasn’t. According to the media, ALP are now coming after everything and everyone’s savings not just the over-rewarded wealthy’s welfare benefits that protects them from feeling the pain of inflation.
As revealed in the hearings and motions filed to date, Fox personalities such as Tucker Carlson can be seen fretting about the stock price going down. He and other stars targeted fellow staffers who did present the truth. When a Fox reporter posted a Tweet fact-checking – and dismissing – the claims against Dominion, Carlson texted another Fox host, Sean Hannity, “Please get her fired.” The offending tweet disappeared.
This article entitled the “Housing Crisis” is in Costello’s and the CH9 Age yesterday. The Statistic above is what Ardern achieved for NZ in housing and if you note an all-time high. Amazing how Ch9 is so intent on preferring bullshit to the facts in order to run Jacinda Ardern down. If this had been the past 5 years of an Australian or NZ Conservative government The Age opinionators would be all praises.
Here’s another statistic that The Age “OPINIONISTS” seemed to have missed or avoided telling Australia and why they are more Murdoch today than they are news and information..
Despite her celebrity status, outgoing New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern failed to resolve the country’s housing crisis.
He’s taken the words out of Murdochs mouth and applied them to Ch9 and what was once the Fairfax press
However, what we are witnessing is Matthew Guy in opposition being given more time than any other opposition leader on Peter Costello’s Ch9 presented as News. When will this free time be declared a political donation because his fake promises are certainly not news or information?
At the time of writing, with only a few weeks to go, there is still no agreement between the parties for even one leaders’ debate on radio, TV or at a community forum. Senior ministers and their shadows ought similarly to be committing to open public contests where voters have an opportunity to speak directly to those who seek to govern our lives.
Source: Are we witnessing an election campaign without proper debate?
Amazing how a ” positive, progressive action” conducted in 2018 can
1) Make it to the Front Page of CH9’s The AGE in 2022 and be declared “corrupt”.
2) How a Good progressive action can be twisted and turned on its head as if it were the equivalent of a LNP regressive vote-buying rort. Remind ourselves what the Sikh community has done for Victoria during Covid, the bush fires, and other emergencies and they have done it for nothing
3) The Age CH9 however is giving wind to a disgruntled female politician who happens to be Indian and is now claiming “bullying” by her party for having been dropped by the ALP. In a case of push back she has teamed with Adam Somyarek a proved to be corrupt politician also sanctioned by the ALP and facing legal action.
4) The Age is acting as a PR agency maintaing an equivalence exists with LNP rorts and that the ALP are acting as thugs in a State regarded as the most progressive in the country. Their bias is obvious.
Meanwhile, there’s a War going on in Europe, Covid is out of control yet Peter Costello’s Ch9 is running a point guard defensive distraction against Daniel Andrews why? Because Matthew Guy’s Liberals are falling apart at the seams in front of us. This is a flagrant example of a pathetic attempt at damage control. It’s not news but Mainstream private media acting as agents for the LNP in view of an advertising return come November and it’s another example of why we need to SAVE THE ABC.
Source: How the Premier’s local bottle shop owner claimed he won $30 million of projects
Despite the polls, we mustn’t forget Morrison is used to getting sacked. He’s never really been understood and has angered and pissed off people, no, countries before.It seems he was born to get things wrong.
Voters have cut their support for Prime Minister Scott Morrison during a fierce political argument over leadership and national security, with 56 per cent saying he is doing a poor job compared to 50 per cent one month ago.
Source: Scott Morrison support dwindles following national security, leadership debates: RPM data
Peter Costello’s Ch9 seemed to have selected a poll that reports differently to others why is that? Because Resolve show a softer verion of the results and less damning of the LNP and therefore a less seemingly negative image of Morrison’s actual CV.
In the first national poll of the new year, a Resolve survey for the Nine newspapers, Labor had 35% of the primary vote (up three percentage points since November), the Coalition 34% (down five), the Greens 11% (steady), One Nation 3% (steady) and independents 11% (up two). This is the first time since Resolve began doing its monthly surveys last April that Labor has been ahead of the Coalition on primary votes. In late 2021, Resolve showed better results for the Coalition than other polls conducted at about the same time.
Source: Coalition slumps in first poll of 2022 as voters lose confidence in Morrison’s handling of pandemic
Andrews’ Government leads the world No other nation or state copped more than 700 COVID deaths in 2020 and then got that tally down to below 70 in 2021. Andrews’ Government alone has managed that. These eight states have comparable populations, demographics and health care systems — all highly advanced. All of them had surges in COVID deaths in mid-2020. Lives lost in the four months from June to September 2020 were: Ireland: 161 Switzerland: 112 Bulgaria: 685 British Columbia (Canada): 70 Massachusetts (USA): 2,610 Indiana (USA): 1,720 Tennessee (USA): 1,948 Victoria (Australia): 778 Scott Morrison to blame for latest Victorian lockdown Scott Morrison to blame for latest Victorian lockdown Victoria is entering yet another lockdown, but Victorians shouldn’t be blaming contact tracers or the State Government. All of them implemented recovery programs, with quite different outcomes. Their COVID deaths over the twelve months from October 2020 to September 2021 were: Ireland: 3,448 Switzerland: 9,199 Bulgaria: 20,057 British Columbia: 1,719 Massachusetts: 9,171 Indiana: 11,488 Tennessee: 12,737 Victoria: 63
Source: Mainstream media ignore mental health data to denigrate Dan Andrews
The Minerals Council of Australia, a foreign-controlled mining lobby, has duped Australia’s major media in an $80bn PR scam by falsely claiming more than $72 billion of GST payments to exaggerate the contribution of the minerals industry to Australia. Callum Foote reports.
It’s a convenient falsehood that Victoria could have avoided a lockdown if it weren’t for the mistakes of other jurisdictions. Again we are told to believe that this was a crisis inflicted on Victoria, not inflamed or aggravated by it.
The lockdown purpose isn’t to stop the virus but its “spread”. The spread can’t be stopped without effective vaccinations and quarantine. Morrison failed on both counts and continues to do so. However, this Ch9 writer says Victoria has to share the blame. Vaccination reduced the spread in the UK from 60k a day to 2000 similar massive reductions have been seen in the US. Yet Smethhurst says Vic should “share the blame”. Morrison’s 2% vaccination success certainly doesn’t cut it yet Hunt and Morrison keep chest banging. They refuse sole responsibility for quarantine on our borders because if they make a mistake they then can’t “avoid the blame”. Politics is their priority for Morrison is the first to deny any blame and first to share the state’s success. The virus well it’s a political opportunity as long as he can seem to be doing something while doing nothing and control the narrative with Ch9’s help.
Source: Victoria lockdown: Victoria needs to accept that mistakes were made
In return for this disclosure to the public, in our interests, the whistle blower has today been doxxed by Chip le Grand, who has described his disclosures as a “hit job” against the government. Le Grand also does a good job of maligning the whistle blower in an attempt to discredit him. It is not a huge stretch to speculate that le Grand and the Sydney Morning Herald under the chairmanship of former Liberal treasurer, Peter Costello, are acting in the interests of a besieged LNP government, and not the public. Regardless of your personal opinion of the man, there can be no doubt that he acted in the public interest in taking his story, with videos and texts as proof, to van Onselen. Whatever his other motives are, and is there one among us without complex motives for much of what we do, he acted in the public interest, which is all that need concern us as citizens struggling to deal with the outrages visited upon us by a government entirely bereft of all morality.
Doxxing the Whistle Blower – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The media skews towards affording pro-Israel voices a substantial amount of exposure, largely excluding Palestinian perspectives, Dr Evan Jones contends.
Nine Entertainment is not merely cowardly with respect to the pro-Israel lobby, it (with the Murdoch media) is an integral part of that lobby, debasing its privileged and crucial medium and sacrificing its integrity — this in tolerating the systematic attempted buying off of its journalists and in opening its pages readily to racist apologists. In short, it’s an ongoing obscenity.
No, it is not illegal.
The LNP Piss UP sponsored by CH9 needs to be taken off the front pages (ODT)
It’s not easy being a politician. Every day there are challenges that the average punter doesn’t have to face.
Just take the dilemma that Stuart Robert, Dan Tehan and Simon Birmingham had to face last year when deciding whether to go from Canberra to Sydney for a Liberal Party piss up. They had booked their flights and had their staffers book them into an upmarket Sydney hotel when some pesky intern in the minister’s office had the temerity to ask “but who’s going to pay?”
via Heads they win, Tails you lose! – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The worst remain. So while shrinking they have greater control of non-news and persuasion while the LNP has spent 7 years cutting the ABC budget after Abbott promising NO CUTS TO THE ABC (ODT)
Channel 9, when not hosting Liberal fundraisers, are one of the nation’s top investigative units. Take “A Current Affair”. More than twenty years after they found the Paxton family and managed to portray them to the nation as work-shy bludgers, they’ve found another candidate for the public pillory.
The promo for tomorrow’s episode tells us: “HE’S UNEMPLOYED, 30, ON WELFARE AND HE SPENDS IT ON DRUGS!”
via The Wonderfully Compliant Druggie Dole Bludger! – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Looks as if they intend challenging Murdoch in Australia with his own business model. We need to save the ABC (ODT)
Key points
Nine’s newspaper journalists were outraged TV bosses held the fundraiser for the Liberals
CEO Hugh Marks admits it was a mistake
Newspaper executive James Chessell argues there has never been any influence on editorial decisions
Uhlmann’s arguments hardly do justice to the Age as it’s senior political editor reminding me of the 60’s cry of ” All the Way with LBJ”.
Yes, we might have politically different systems the CPA of China recognises that. However, it has nevertheless raised the tide in China for everyone so much, so poverty and starvation for 1.3 billion people is something relegated to the past. Kids from rural China can be educated and are today’s Teachers Doctors and Lawyers in Shanghai, sending money home. These kids have never seen anything less than a 6% GDP in their life, so why shouldn’t they love and be proud of their country. Nationalist demand we all be here. The tiny population of Hong Kong and Uyghurs are they worse off than Indigenous Australians or people in detention on Manus and Nauru? We stole children and never sent them back to their families. China isn’t doing that. Does Uhlmann a political editor really believe that in the current world atmosphere nobody hasn’t an interest to keep the HK demonstrations ongoing? They started over a single law about extradition, which was stopped. Who has the most to gain by making China look bad?
Uhlmann’s talks of China’s aggression it has one military post outside the country we have more than they do and our closest ally the US has 8oo in some 160 countries. Australia and China really have a defence system. America has a business a military-industrial complex which is central to its economy. If that business of war grinds to a halt, so does America. So to talk of China’s aggressive interests seems stupid and hardly thought out to me. Is Uhlmann a paid propagandist for Murdoch and Trump?
As for 400,000 Chinese students and the mass of Chinese tourists flooding the world today does that really look like the moves of an increasingly totalitarian government or a decreasing one. It seems to me Peter Dutton is fast removing freedoms of Australians and becoming more paranoid than China. The CPA knows what it has done that freedom is dangerous and they know they are an anachronism, but they are still providing their people increasing freedom and allowing their citizens to do business across the world without an army to back them as the Americans do. Meanwhile, poverty is growing here as is debt and savings are falling we, in fact, seem to be heading in the opposite direction handing the country to the control of our corporate mandarins.
Universities had the funding cut and were told shape up or ship out to raise their own funds and maintain affordable education for Australians. They didn’t volunteer to do it so yes the Chinese are revenue forced on them by largely the Howard government. How mismanaged is our tertiary education system? It’s as mismanaged as the Australian governments have forced them to be? Are these Foreign students expected to stay on as graduates Uhlmann seems to think so? No, they are meant to go home yet he expects their standard of English is meant to be as good as his. When Australian University staff can’t be guaranteed tenure, how can the teaching at any level be regarded as first class?
What we hear today is the drum that was beaten back in the 50’s ban the Communist Party, the dominoes are falling, They are stealing our ideas is the anything new Uhlmann, and Ch9 it seems is taking us backwards (ODT)
“Australia is at an inflection point. For the first time our major trading partner is not a liberal democracy and it is a strategic rival of our key ally. We need to have a serious debate and have a right to expect more of those who lead our academic institutions.”
The Coalition lacks policies. It also lacks charisma. It has no other option but fear, writes Ben Eltham.
Labor has spent years honing and sandbagging its policy platform, which on any sensible judgment is moderate and achievable. In contrast, the Coalition has spent the last three years consumed by its own internal hatreds. Now that the crisis has arrived, the Coalition finds itself without a coherent assault plan to break down Labor’s platform. Time is running out.
via Nothing To Fear But Fear Itself… And A Coalition Campaign Built On It – New Matilda
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