Sydney Morning Herald editor Bevan Shields has published an article titled “We are not above criticism but these attacks go too far” tearfully rending his garments over criticisms his paper’s three-part war-with-China propaganda series “Red Alert” has received from former Prime Minister Paul Keating and from ABC’s Media Watch.
Source: It’s good to be mean to war propagandists – Pearls and Irritations
The Age claims it’s not biased. But, if it hasn’t overstated Albanese gaffe for over a week and continued to understate Morrison’s several as simply slips or supported the proposition Albanese,a once Deputy PM and politician for 25 years, is “unknown” and therefore somehow a darker figure to back than warts, and all Morrison they now suggest falsely there’s an equivalency between the ALP and the LNP on Climate. The ALP for a start wouldn’t have had us be unsigned participants in a world agreed emissions target. Australia would today not be regarded as a global pariah on Climate and wouldn’t be threatened with trade sanctions.
To what extent did LNP attitudes bring about ease with which China has now gained a presence in the Pacific?
One only needs to compare Team ALP with Team NLP and one doesn’t need to be a genius to consider which is a Team and the other a discordant self seeking set of individuals who don’t trust each other.
The disconnect is jarring when you look closely. After years of drought, fire and flood – and in the wake of a series of United Nations reports spelling out in terrible detail the catastrophic costs of inaction – Australia’s major political parties are running cold on climate action.
Source: Australian climate change policy: What Liberal Party, Labor Party are offering
One of Scott Morrison’s closest political advisors is Nine Entertainment Chairman and former federal Treasurer Peter Costello and one of Scott Morrison’s biggest critics is former federal Liberal Party leader John Hewson who was sacked this week as a columnist by the Nine Entertainment owned papers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. John Hewson’s criticism of Scott Morrison is a lot more damaging to Morrison’s reputation and credibility with voters than most critics because Hewson is a former Liberal Party leader. And with Hewson having a national platform such as The SMH and The Age papers and their websites would have made Hewson one of the top targets for Morrison’s hit squad who work behind the scenes daily trying to manipulate the media.
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.
Fairfax Media has called on a Sydney Liberal Party fundraising forum to provide all documents regarding any involvement by federal Treasurer Joe Hockey in its activities as part of the defamation action brought by Mr Hockey.
The Treasurer is suing Fairfax for defamation in the Federal Court, claiming a series of articles published in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times last year conveyed a series of defamatory meanings, including that he “accepted bribes paid to influence the decisions he made as Treasurer”.
Among the articles was a front-page story in May last year that carried the headline “Treasurer for sale”, about Mr Hockey’s alleged involvement in a Liberal Party Fundraising group known as the North Sydney Forum.
Fairfax is defending the case, saying it was reasonable to publish details about the North Sydney Forum, which allegedly offered access to Mr Hockey in exchange for donations to the forum of thousands of dollars, as it was information concerning government and political matters
The Federal Court heard on Wednesday that Fairfax has issued the North Sydney Forum with a subpoena effectively requesting any and all documents relating to Mr Hockey’s involvement in its activities, as well as documents about the activities of the forum more generally.
The subpoena includes a request for any documents relating to:
It is possible that the forum will object to at least part of the subpoena, but it is yet to formally do so.
The court also heard on Wednesday that Mr Hockey has issued a subpoena to Pagemasters – the company which undertakes some sub-editing work for Fairfax Media.
It is understood that Mr Hockey is requesting all communications between Fairfax Media and Pagemasters in relation to the allegedly defamatory stories.
Mr Hockey is claiming that, as a result of articles published on May 5 under the headline “Treasurer for sale” he has been “greatly injured, shunned and avoided and his reputation has been and will be brought into disrepute, odium, ridicule and contempt”.
But Fairfax Media denies the articles and the headlines, including “Treasurer for sale”, are capable of defaming Mr Hockey in the way that he claims.
Further, it says the Australian public has a legitimate and significant interest in the implications of senior government ministers using the authority of their position to assist in fund-raising for a political party.
Mr Hockey said Fairfax Media’s “over-sensational, extravagant and unfair presentation” of the articles indicated an “intent to injure” him.
He is claiming aggravated damages, interest and costs.
Fairfax Media says the articles were based upon information obtained responsibly and fairly.
On Wednesday, Federal Court Registrar Michael Wall gave the North Sydney Forum until January 30 to formally object to the subpoena issued by Fairfax and ordered the parties to return to court on February 4.
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