When anti-trans activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull visited Australia recently, most media outlets refused to give her hate speech a platform, writes Dr Victoria Fielding.
Meanwhile the demented idiots on Sky News Kenny and Dean were spruiking that the Conflict Islands, privately owned, are up for sale. “where’s Penny Wong where’s Wong” both screamed. In fact the islands aren’t up for sale and never were according to their owner. It seems Kenny and Dean were demanding Australia buy them and some 800 other islands between us and NG.
These claiming to be balanced news jocks just fall over and over every night for the amusement of the same audience of less than 30k half of which are probably their opposition and the other half sitting with their food trays in their laps with the TV on for their amusement.
In the wake of Scott Morrison and Marise Payne’s disastrous foreign affairs stewardship, Penny Wong jets to Timor-Leste today in what may be another rescue mission to save a Pacific neighbour from China’s expansion in the region. Rex Patrick has long warned the young nation might spurn Australia in favour of Chinese investment.
Is News Corp America taking note of their massive fail in Australia to heart? Are they focusing away from Trump in order to save the same embarassment in the November Midterms they experienced here if they focus on Trump in ther un up. The Democrats would dearly love to see Trump the Nth Korean Russian, Saudi despot loving crime boss center stage supporting his crew of crony GOP sycophants leading up to November. His White Nationalist evangelical camp followers would turn their backs as would the party moderates jump ship.
1% of the attention Murdoch gave to Hilary is being given to Trump’s multiple on multiple crimes currently being revealed by the investigations federal congress and states are presently running. Where and when will Murdoch find another Trump the gift that once kept giving and giving and now isn’t?
The rise of community independents is the standout story of the weekend elections. But it has been accompanied by another major story: the failure of News Corp’s national and capital city outlets to keep the Morrison government in power.
I am not a fan of Rupert Murdoch’s subscription TV service, Sky News Australia. It is a low-budget, down-market clone of the reactionary Sky News in the UK, which was the major media booster of the Brexit calamity courtesy of regular promotion of windbag Nigel Farage.
Sky Australia takes some inspiration from the UK but more from its other toxic sibling, Fox News in the US, infamous for enabling Donald Trump’s appalling regime and his attempted coup.
I had my share of venomous exchanges with the Sky crew and their self-important ranters, the bottom feeders of the Australian media. Imagine my surprise when they asked me to participate in a documentary.
The new leader of the wedge and slogan party said the crisis has occurred because the power industry has been “spooked” by the ALP’s plans to promote renewables “too quickly”.
The new leader of the climate change denying party suggested nuclear power was the answer. It is the most expensive form of power. It would take 15 years to build. It is not renewable and it produces toxic waste.
It is obvious where the views of the alternate prime minister and his deputy come from and it isn’t any of the energy regulators, suppliers or academics in the field.
Oh no. If you want to know how to run the country, turn to Sky non-News.
By cruel editors, I was tasked with watching Sky After Dark’s election coverage. All of it. As if this election wasn’t painful enough on its own. After a four-week long mental breakdown we decided I had seen more than enough horror.
From Rita Panahi’s ‘exclusives’ that are just her ripping stories from Qanon websites in America, to Chris Kenny’s crying about ‘ABC virtue signallers’, to Andrew Bolt’s ramblings about ‘the woke brigade’, to Paul Murray yelling about the ‘mad left’, to Peta Credlin’s constant name dropping of Tony Abbott, to Cory Bernardi’s hosting with all the sense and charisma of a wet Klan hood, to Piers Morgan’s nightly rants about Meghan Markle, to Joe Hildebrand existing; I suffered through it all.
The mainstream media in Australia is currently whitewashing fascist politics. It is not just sycophantic, or lazy, journalism. It is dangerous.
Without a strong news media, Australia faces a clouded future. Albanese’s government may be able to repair our Rule of Law protections adequately to protect us into the future from the international right’s authoritarian games. The radical right might lose their hold on the Liberal and National parties. We have seen in America, however, that this form of the right is prepared to play the long game. Journalists that help them whitewash their cruellest actions aid them in this plan.
Imagine, all those Sky After Dark urban cowboys have now turned to a National-Liberal coalition with Barnaby their hero? No! Peter Dutton has to be the leader of the new N-LP and go regional, according to Murray, Credlin, Bolt, and Dean who have got on their imaginary horses turned red-faced, and become country/city Nationals.
Their claim the “moderates lost the election even though not One Nation, UAP candidate won a seat and the Greens even made history in country Qld. In fact, while the Right went backward not forward everywhere the bozos at Sky now claim the road to recovery is back to Climate denial. Rowan Dean was even seen on The Outsiders trying to show us how the planet was really “cooling” and has been since 2015. None of these idiots would ever dare be seen telling farmers that Climate Change is just an urban hoax. Andrew Bolt keeps telling me he has raised in country Australia and fell out of a tree and has never climbed back up to where he belongs.
Its cast of “after dark” shock jocks, fresh from supporting Scott Morrison, have quickly turned carnivorous as the Coalition’s post-election bloodletting hits fever pitch.
Moderates such as NSW Treasurer Matt Kean and Senator Andrew Bragg – a “fool” in the view of host Andrew Bolt – are now nightly targets for derision as a stream of conservative leaders and party apparatchiks appear on the channel for polling post-mortems.
In the world curated by these Fox-News inspired talk shows, last week’s election drubbing (the worst result for the Liberals in 70 years) wasn’t a sign that the Coalition must finally get serious about climate policies.
Rather, despite being thrown out of every seat with a view of Sydney Harbour, conservatives like Mr Bolt, Peta Credlin and Paul Murray argue the Coalition must actually swing to the right and chase regional voters.
ABC kills the Commercials
Slow and steady wins election ratings
The ABC’s election coverage has emerged triumphant, winning the competitive Saturday night race against the commercials by a huge margin as well as getting a significant bump in audience on Sunday and Monday as audiences looked to Aunty for post-election news and analysis.
Antony Green, who is a large part of the ABC’s election appeal, has admitted he was a bit cautious to call the result on the night as a result of the complexity of vote.
The ABC’s election analyst told the Age: “We probably should have said earlier on the night that the government couldn’t win.”
Meanwhile, on Murdoch’s SKY NEWS’s OUTSIDERS,little ROWAN DEAN was spruiking up a 4.71% swing AGAINST LNP candidate Katherine Deves, Morrison’s Captain’s pick, as a great victory for the LNP in Warringah. These sideshow scripts Murdoch salespeople are expected to parrot to an audience really do beggar belief. But in a Paul Murrayesque unconvincing style DEAN, the unmade bed, actually promised 3 years of PR support for Dutton and Deves going forward, no matter what,to bring the LNP back and in government in 2025. He was immediately followed by a Harvey Norman ad.
Warringah, NSW On this page Two Candidate Preferred First Preferences First Preferences By Vote Type Two Candidate Preferred By Vote Type Polling places Two Candidate Preferred By Polling Place Declaration Vote Scrutiny Progress Profile of Warringah
As much as it pains me and no doubt Andrew Bolt he’s only runner up to the worst of the worst at Sky. He never seems to get a gong for anything. The 80-year-old from Sydney beat him by lengths and Rown Dean was also near to making him an also-ran.
Sky News has just spent the Day 2 of News Corp’s climate action campaign showing worrying statistics that suggest an alarming number of Australians are misinformed on climate change and the facts regarding the importance of climate action, leading to the network asking how the so many Aussies could be so misinformed on such a serious issue?We know it could be hard for Sky News to find these since they have scrubbed the pushback against climate action from the transcripts of their coverage, here are our picks of some of the best possible culprits to blame for this situation.
Tucker Carlson and Sharri Markson on Fox News Sharri Markson says YouTube suspension of Sky News Australia is ‘cancellation of free speech’ Markson and Carlson are both paid Murdochians. Well paid, millionaires in fact but nevertheless still simply workers working for the billionaire and claiming they’re “fair and balanced” (ODT)
Rudd told Acma that claims broadcast on Sky included: “Covid-19 is not a pandemic; the vaccinated are more likely to die than the unvaccinated; hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin are proven, safe treatments for Covid-19; the medical profession are concealing these treatments from the public for political purposes and face masks do not inhibit the spread of Covid-19.” “While it is unrealistic to believe that we can ever stamp out misinformation, especially in the age of social media, it is especially alarming that so much of this content has been crafted and distributed by the country’s largest media company, News Corporation, principally through Murdoch’s Sky News,” Rudd wrote.“Freedom of expression is essential to the functioning of our democracy, but Australians expect that opinions will have a reasonable basis in fact.” The Guardian has approached Sky News Australia for comment. Hanson-Young said she wanted to ask the media watchdog why the spread of misinformation wasn’t allowed on the internet but appeared to be OK on TV. “G
At least six videos from Sky News Australia hosts Alan Jones, Rowan Dean and Rita Panahi have been deleted for violating YouTube policies by advocating the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin as treatments for Covid-19. YouTube and Sky News have both refused to reveal which Sky News content was removed when the search engine imposed a seven-day ban on the Murdoch-owned broadcaster. However, Guardian Australia has uncovered six videos which Sky uploaded to YouTube during the pandemic but have since been deleted “for violating YouTube policies”. Sky News has been banned from uploading any new content to YouTube or live streaming until Wednesday after violating the social media site’s medical misinformation policies.
Federal MPs Craig Kelly and George Christensen have claimed YouTube’s week-long ban for Sky News Australia is “censorship”, while the channel slammed the tech giant for a “disturbing assault on freedom of thought”. As The New Daily reported on Sunday, YouTube has restricted the account of Sky News – one of the biggest channels in Australia, with more than 1.86 million subscribers – for a week and deleted several of its videos, as part of a crackdown on COVID-19 ‘misinformation’.
If Rowan Dean were Katy Hopkins he wouldn’t be kicked out of the country he’d be kicked on to the Bolt Report to help Andrew Bolt out.
A Chinese ship that approached the Queensland coast in the hopes of undermining Australian democracy has packed it in after accidentally catching an episode of Outsiders. “We were planning to weaken the fabric of Australian democracy, but then we heard Rowan Dean do a segment on Dr Suess books and we thought, what’s the point? We might just leave you guys to it,” the commander said as he steered the boat around and headed back to Beijing.
Three years ago, Sky was trumpeting this larger footprint when it signed the historic deal with Win to launch in 30 markets to a potential audience of 8 million people. But along came Nine Entertainment last week to ruin the party by inking a new seven-year deal to broadcast its metropolitan free-to-air television channels 9, 9GO!, 9GEM and 9Life into the regional markets, displacing Sky because it has no room. Sky News did not respond to a request for comment.”
Asked by senators about the proliferation of rightwing views, Miller said Sky News covered “a range of opinions” and “often asks a range of people to appear”. He was responding to earlier claims by the star witness at the inquiry, Kevin Rudd, who claimed Sky News had the potential to build an “alternative political ecosystem out there on the far right”. There’s the “archdeacon of hard-right conservatism in this country, Alan Jones”, Rudd said. “My concern is: where does this land over time – because I’ve seen the ecosystem unfold in the United States.”
The legislation which covers broadcasting in Australia, the Broadcasting Services Act (1992), was framed at a time when pay TV was beginning and no one imagined how the internet would be harnessed to destroy the idea of truth. It has left the regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), with no power over digital websites. ACMA is now playing catch-up by working with digital platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, TikTok, Apple and Amazon to halt the spread of disinformation online with a voluntary code of conduct. Yet it was a similar self-regulation approach which allowed misinformation and baseless conspiracy to flourish on subscription television in the first place.
Andrew Bolt denied he had any influence on the Christchurch shooter however he certainly promoted the European Identitarian movement by giving air time to the likes of Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux. Bolt also gave air time to Blair Cotteral head of the UPF all influencers of the NZ mass-shooter. On the occassion of the aftermath of that massacre Bolt literally went to ground for 3-4 days as if told to be extremely careful about how he was to respond to the event given Sky News was cut off by the NZ government for attempting to continue to broadcast it live when asked not to..
It’s about time that the use of free speech as a feeble justification for the right to commercial profitability carried with it some responsibility as does the sale of other dangerous products in our so called “free market” Some accountability is needed to prevent the damage that flows from irresponsible broadcasting and the selling of right-wing ideology as fake news or merely opinion that allows Bolt to get away with inspiring murder mayhem and chaos.
Let’s face it after the bombings in Barcelona he said he “admired” the commitment to cause the young terrorists hand and wished young Christians were the same and not “gutless” If thats not throwing down a challenge what is? (ODT)
From the document the perpetrator posted online before the shooting, the messages he scrawled on the weapons he used and his links to the European Identitarian movement, it was clear he wanted to brand himself as a member of a larger global community. Certainly the links to the far right in Australia were real enough. After the shooting, the leader of an Australian white nationalist group said he had previously approached the Christchurch shooter to join his Lad’s Society, and an investigation by the ABC found he had posted online comments supporting another Australian far right group, the United Patriots Front, as early as April 2016. Advertisement He also praised the UPF founder, Blair Cottrell, as the “true leader of the nationalist movement in Australia” and dubbed him “Emperor” on the night of Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 US election. Cottrell has said he did not know the gunman and recently described him as “an idiot”.
Far-right e-celeb Lauren Southern is on the comeback trail. And Australian conservatives are more than happy to offer her a helping hand.
Her bid to be taken seriously as a journalist and commentator was given a small boost recently with a slot on Sky’s Fox News mini-me culture war platform, Outsiders.
The hosts of that program – both the ignominiously departed and those that remain — have never met a rightwing chancer they didn’t like.
But they seem to have a particular affection for Southern, now resident in Australia, who is coming off a curious hiatus from her frenetic work as a far-right influencer.
Australia’s national firestorm tragedy has driven many of the usual right wing, Newscorp, coal lobby, anti-science climate change denialists back into their caves.
Stark factual reality has a way of subverting ideology and belief, no matter how strongly we cling to our chosen “views”. It’s hard to argue that climate change is a greenie conspiracy when its impacts are so evident: lives lost, homes destroyed, dreams shattered. Extreme weather events are now occurring on a global scale.
Where are Malcolm Roberts, Alan Jones, Andrew Bolt, Peta Credlin, et al? Where’s that guy who regularly rings ABC Radio talkback regurgitating the dodgy claims of Rupert Murdoch’s opinionators?
The battlefield of climate change debate is now littered (figuratively) with the bodies of the denialist fallen.
Who shall fight the good fight on behalf of the billionaire class to repel those hordes of scientists, with all their researched facts and evidence, before they take the castle of the plutocrats?
Don’t worry, Gina. Don’t worry, Rupert… you still have Tony Abbott and Craig Kelly, those staunch legionnaires, out there proslytising on your behalf: “Reality be damned!” they cry. “Facts don’t matter, it’s how you interpret them.”
a dreadful piece of misleading Right-wing propaganda that it requires a response.
It portrays an arrangement between the mutual Bank Australia and the campaigning organisation GetUp!, where a contribution is made by the bank to GetUp! when members of that campaigning organisation become members of the bank, as a shabby and deceitful deal. It is as though GetUp! was a money-grabbing capitalist with poor ethics and Bank Australia a fly-by-night dodgy shadow bank, to read the account in The Australian.
Bank Australia is not a ‘little-known bank’. It is the former Members and Education Credit Union. It has 130,000 customers. It is a mutual. It is owned by its members, who are its customers. It has not just been crucified by the banking Royal Commission, unlike the Big Four. It is one of those Australian mutuals which have a commitment to ethical banking.
GetUp! is not particularly “Left-wing”, it just isn’t Right-wing, so it doesn’t support the current government.
Trying to link this arrangement to the report of the Banking Royal Commission, which was for so long resisted by the LNP of Gerard Benedet and the Liberal Party nationally, is contemptible. Laughable and contemptible.
Thanks to The Australian, though, for sharing the valuable information that people can contribute to Australia’s leading campaigning organisation by banking with this ethical mutual bank.
A 50-year-old driver injured Syrian and Afganistan migrants and shouted racist comments as he was being arrested.
A 50-year-old man has been arrested after driving his car into a crowd of people in Germany in what police say appears to be a racist attack.
A group of migrants from Syria and Afghanistan was attacked in the town of Bottrop, an area of western Germany. According to official reports, the driver shouted xenophobic and racist comments while he was being arrested.
In the early hours of January 1, the driver had first tried unsuccessfully to hit a pedestrian. He then headed downtown, driving into a crowd of Syrian and Afganistan migrants, injuring four.
Why did they rush to take it down and disguise the fact? (ODT)
“You can say Sky News at night is a Liberal echo chamber,” Murray said. “I will wear that badge if you will also attribute that badge to others.”
It’s a candid admission, but Murray didn’t realise his comments would inadvertently be made public. During a commercial break on Paul Murray Live, he was shooting the breeze – and dropping copious F-bombs – with his guests, the Western Australian Labor MP Matt Keogh and the former New South Wales Liberal leader Kerry Chikarovski.
It was nothing unusual, except that someone left the microphone on and their five-minute chat was uploaded as part of the Paul Murray Live podcast. Until someone realised and took the entire episode down.
Rumour Andrew Bolt is taking Ross Cameron’s place because the ratings of the Outsiders are better than his Bolt Report and he want’s to call it his show with Rowan Dean. (ODT)
Informed Comment on the ignorance of Sky News efforts to equate Socialism and Fascism in an effort to promote the latter. Why appearing to be “nice” is dangerous. (ODT)
Fascism can only thrive if the streets are flowing with the blood of working-class militants and socialists.
That is why the lies conflating Left and Right being spread by Professors of Political Science are so insulting to real socialists and to anyone who actually understands the dangers of flirting with fascists.
You only have to read this poem by the German Protestant priest, Martin Niemöller, to know that van Onselen and others who promote the “Left are just like the Nazis” golden lie need to be challenged over every stupid tweet and mis-statement.
First, they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.
The question remains what damage does this blind chase for dollars do to social cohesion when a corporation is bent on portraying the world no the nation we live in in such negative terms simply to improve their bottom line. It’s like watching a game of cricket where one side threw away the rule book and simply came out with knuckle dusters encouraging the audience to join in. Because the ulimate prize was even bigger than simply witnessing that. Where that prize was agreed to behind locked doors. Murdoch’s in town (ODT)
Media analyst Steve Allen, of Fusion Strategy, believes Sky’s right-wing brand makes commercial sense. “They have to fight harder at nighttime because free-to-air networks take the lion’s share of viewers,” he says. “Unless you’re to the right of what’s being offered, you’re not going to get an audience.” There’s no point targeting progressives, Allen adds, because they’re likely to be younger, with less money to spend on Foxtel subscriptions – and many are loyal to the ABC.
Anchors David Speers and Laura Jayes criticised their employer on Twitter while commentator Craig Emerson quit in disgust. American Express, Huggies and Specsavers pulled their ads. And Victorian transport minister Jacinta Allan ordered Sky’s removal from Melbourne train platforms (though commuters only saw its news and weather bulletins, not its commentary).
Of course, Sky is no stranger to controversy. Since adopting its “right at night” strategy – replacing news with conservative opinion in prime time – it’s endured public criticism, bitter in-fighting and dramatic staff departures. One wag suggests Foxtel could edit these highlights into a reality show: The Real Housewives of Sky News.
Andrew Bolt tells us their ratings are HUGE off a small base. Reality Bytes (ODT)
“This could easily happen at any time,” one Sky insider said. “We’ve got hosts who aren’t journalists and people are just trying to get the programs to air. There’s no time to have a think about whether this is a good guest or not.”
Outside the Sky News studios, there is a view management manufactures outrage in a bid to grow the 24-hour channel’s relatively small audience. But staff say this isn’t the case.
Andrew Bolt’s gloss in fact turns out to be 1.65% national rating on any single night over 6 states. But lets face it that’s O.13% of the whole population of 24,000,000. That’s rocketing isn’t it. Waleed Aly has an audience x 25 times larger and the ABC nearly X 19. Now this is a Bolt record but it’s not Aly’s or the ABC’s. The production costs of The Bolt Report are so high he can’t make a profit,something Bolt doesn’t tell you. That as a loss we actually subidize the twat. ( ODT)
Broadcaster puts the gloss on Andrew Bolt’s audience. Plus, Media Watch has fun with the gossip mags
Southern’s far-right associations, her promotion of the key ideas of white ethnonationalism, and her willingness to become directly involved in racial provocation should give us pause.
So, too, should the willingness of News Corporation’s daily newspapers to promote her.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that Andrew Bolt railed about her visa problems. Nor that Miranda Devine had Southern on her podcast to talk about how antifa and Muslims cause her immigration woes.
But earlier puff pieces about her visit, and op-eds defending her in regional newspapers, suggest that News has a disturbing inability to distinguish between ordinary, conservative provocateurs, and those adjacent to white nationalist or fascist movements.
This fits with a pattern on the Australian right. Nevertheless, should News later condemn those who protest against Southern’s appearances, we should remember their role in defending Southern, and advertising her shows.
This is what Sean Hannity’s Fox News show is like on a daily basis. It’s pure propaganda, an effort to support the president at every turn, while castigating his enemies — particularly the press. His viewers are living in an alternate reality — one that he’s carefully crafted to benefit Trump.
Media Matters, in partnership with global activism group Avaaz, submitted a report to U.K.’s chief broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, detailing the risks Rupert Murdoch’s desired takeover of British satellite broadcasting company Sky poses to British broadcasting standards. On March 16, U.K. Culture Secretary Karen Bradley had referred Murdoch’s take
Sky News has apologised “unreservedly” to broadcaster Wendy Harmer and its own employee Kristina Keneally after Mark Latham made on-air claims about both women.
Peta Credlin’s wish to be able to use her own voice is about to come true with one of the most talked about figures of the Abbott set to join Sky television as an election commentator.
olddogthoughts 