When a friend asked me why I’ll read the Murdoch media if it’s left out on a bench when I know that it’s just full of illogical propaganda and hate-filled nonsense, I replied that I thought it good to hear what other people had to say even if I disagreed with them otherwise we’d simply be living in an echo chamber and nobody would ever change anyone’s mind.
“That’s ridiculous,” he replied.
“Why?” I asked. At which point he shouted that he didn’t have to explain himself to me and promptly blocked me on social media.
Ok, that’s not entirely true. I mean it didn’t actually happen to me but I’m sure that there’s someone out there who’s thinking that I must have been listening in to the argument they had with somebody they know.
I think it’s important to listen to all people for the simple reason that, unless somebody actually disagrees with them, they’ll go on thinking that everyone agrees with them… Apart from those idiots who should be shipped off to wherever it is that the people disagreeing with them should go.
At this point, I should add that there are people on both the left and the right are guilty of not considering the simple idea that they’ll be wrong about some things at some point in their lives. I know I’ve been wrong on at least two occasions but that’s a whole other story.
Anyway, I’ve heard people on the left proclaim that I shouldn’t accept something because I read it the mainstream news, and while that’s true, I also believe that it’s foolish to reject everything that I read in the mainstream news. It’s possible to pick up information that’s factual true even when it’s presented through the medium of a biased media. I can accept, for example, that the moon landing happened and still not see it as a triumph of capitalism, particularly when it was a government program. It’s also possible to believe that Scott Morrison actually made an announcement about providing funding to something without accepting the media narrative that this is the same as actually providing the money.
And so this idea that somehow the political correctness of the past few years has invented “cancel culture” and thanks to some humourless lefties, people are liable to have their lives ruined over the odd casual remark. Of course this completely overlooks how often the conservative forces have enacted their own form of cancel culture. They don’t need to boycott advertisers to get people taken off the air or removed from their jobs. Think Scott McIntyre who was sacked over his ANZAC tweets or Yassmin Abdel-Magied. Recall the furore over Annaliese van Diemen, Victoria’s Deputy Health Officer, comments comparing Captain Cook to Coronavirus which some on the right didn’t like because they didn’t think that Cook did that much harm, while others didn’t like it because it suggested that like Covid-19, the man was largely a myth created by people with a vested interest.
Whatever, we’ve had censorship for a long time and, while some may argue that they’re sovereign citizens and they have a right to do whatever they like including walk onto private property and tell people that they have no right to impose any conditions, it’s generally agreed that some things are just too offensive to be in the public arena. The only real debate is what these things actually are. Once upon a time a woman in a bikini would have been arrested for public indecency, but now we not only allow that, but there are even photos of Tony Abbott in speedos published in the newspaper where they made lead to nightmares in impressionable children… And while standards in this area have changed, we can all agree that a photo of Clive Palmer in budgie smugglers is argument for the return of the death penalty…
So, when Johannes (son of Bill) Leak has his offensive cartoon published in “The Australian” what should one do? I mean, it’s tempting to ignore it because he’s obviously trying to emulate his father and drum up a bit of publicity, and it’s hard to do that when you lack the talent to make perceptive observations with your cartoons so you have to resort to racism in the hope that you’ll actually attract the sort of outrage that will actually alert people to the fact that you are not your father even though you basically copying his style because you never developed one of your own.
Yes, it’s tempting to just ignore it because you feel that outrage must be what he’s after because nobody could be stupid enough to think that it’s acceptable. Still something about the standard you walk past is the standard you accept.
And, like I said before, unless someone disagrees, people might actually think that nobody thinks what they’re saying is wrong.
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Children resemble parents, right down to the anus. Masturbatory self indulgence taked many forms, tghe need for attention and notice being a big urge in misfits. And, the Un-Australian, a yankee controlled turd wiping tissue of fabrication, is ideal for attracting and retaining such vain colonic fragrant characters.
Imagine being this hysterically paranoid to be writing this tripe. If your own ignorance causes you to misread a cartoon by a country mile, that’s your problem, not ours.
Gee, Brett, you probably should look up the meaning of the word “paranoid”.
Parra 4) Its a little place called america, “the land of the free”
I’ve always found that reading the headlines is enlightening. It lets me know what is going on in the world.
FR – “Global Market Crash”
Aust – “Gillard Policies Cause House Price Crash and Market Spiral”
HS – “Richmond Star in Jeopardy for Training”
If we hadn’t heard about Covid19 on mainstream media, would it exist at all ? I mean, normal, sane people couldn’t make the shit that is happening up if we all took trumplike doses of hydroxywtf and heroin at the same time.
As you say, everything has its place. The problem is that too many people don’t know the difference between what is important, and what belongs in the toilet.
Imagine where they poo.
I have to admit I don’t see what’s funny about Leak’s cartoon. It is rude and offensive but not funny. Maybe Brett can enlighten me.
I have also been quite amazed at how Kamala Harris has been described in the media : not as a former California Attorney General or as a Senator but as a woman of colour or a black woman.
What an odd description for an intelligent woman who will make an excellent VP. I don’t remember Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Sate under George W Bush being labelled in this way.
Why isn’t Trump called a man of colour after all he sports a creepy orange glow !
Brett seems nice. 😁
None of Rupert’s publications could pass muster as being decent cage lining material or worse, arsewiping grade.. And what makes them even more useless is the non quality of the staff who work for them. This Leeky guy and his editor illustrate my point very well. The gutter press is alive and thriving.
Brett represents a whole “cohort” – notice? It’s not OUR problem, says he. Your paranoia that is, the meaning of which he obviously doesn’t know. But he understands the cartoon, or rather “reads” it. Hurray!
No, I always appreciate constructive disagreement and criticism. Brett has enabled to me to see that I’ve misread the cartoon which apparently wasn’t written by Leak but was written by “a country mile” which is obviously either someone whose yet to go metric or else spell check changed the word to “country” out of an unfamiliarity with quaint expressions.
As I said, discussion and being open to reading all points of view is a great step and clearly Brett must have read the whole thing because it’s only in the last part that I even begin to talk about the Leak without a name and surely he wouldn’t have just commented after only reading the title…
Surely…
Spot on Cuckoo
it is only funny if you think not to use ‘brown’ or ‘girl’ in this context is just a stupid politically correct stunt.
Can you see the cartoon hanging on lnp walls???
Dud: did you see the Da Vinci cartoon,
Pete?
Pete: yes Dud. I did. I don’t think it was funny.
People rarely recognise their own biases. My father , who once said I was not the marrying kind (in the end I was happily married for 60 years)once introduced his offspring to a guest. ” this is my older son, he is an engineer, this is my younger son, he is a geologist , this is my daughter and here is her husband ” . I also had a professional career and was the only 1 of the 3 with a post graduate degree.
I don’t think he ever realised how that came across.
@Terence Mills: You know the rules, everything done by the Republicans must be correct because they only have WASP leader while those nasty ”others” rely upon ability, talent and a commitment to public improvment for the benefit of all the people which must, by definition, reduce the exorbitant executive salary packages and corporate expense allowances that corporate executives pay themselves.
Perhaps this is Murdoch Media strategy of ”I don’t care what you write about them, make them look foolish” that has been employed in Australian MSM since 1974 when Murdoch was called to the Senate Bar to answer questions about overt political bias in News Ltd mastheads.
@Rossleigh: Surely a ”leak” is a urine deposit made by a pissant …
Cocky
It must have hit a nerve with Newscorp as The editor-in-chief of the Australian, Chris Dore, has called on his staff to rally around the poor misunderstood cartoonist Johannes Leak whose drawing of Joe Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, has been denounced as racist.
Chris Dore assured staff at the Australian that the intention of the cartoon was to ridicule US presidential candidate Biden’s “identity politics” but it had been misconstrued by rival media outlets.
So it’s us again, we have misconstrued the intent of the cartoon and calling Kamala Harris a “little brown girl” was not offensive if it succeeded in ridiculing Trump’s opponent.
I still don’t see the humour !
There is something very sick within Newscorp
Terence……What’s sick about Newscorp, is Murdoch and his minions, and the sort of politics he espouses, here and everywhere else.
The NewsCorp tactic appears to be to relentlessly denigrate those they don’t want to succeed rather than even try to make their preferred candidates look good – which can understandably be quite problematic. This can be taken to the extreme where they can honestly (but disingenuously) say they aren’t trying to make any particular candidate look good at all.
Ken
The odd thing about Newscorp is that they not only pander excessively to right-wing ideologies but they allow this pandering to hit their bottom line.
In the most recent financial year their total global revenues fell 11% to US$9.01 billion, giving them a net loss for the full year of US$1.55 billion (compared to net income of US$228 million in the prior year).
Wouldn’t you think that as a news organisation they could get the message that they are disenfranchising at least half the population by their owner’s insistence on right-wing ideology.
If they tried a little balance they might win us back !
Re the Australian: My dad once told me “Never touch shit, even with gloves on. The gloves get shittier … the shit don’t get glovier.”
I take it that Brett is white? in his 50’s or 60’s? comfortably off? unaware of the subtleties of a racial put down – definitely.
Brad Black: You have asked the right questions, but the answers are irrelevant. Such people don’t care for anything except the money they might make in the coming days. Subtleties, racial or not, be damned. Get the money!
Rossleigh,
Terrence,
totaram,
The “our” refers to the large subset of the population who are able to interpret simple cartoons without paranoid filters.
To “enlighten” those that need it: the (very uncomplicated) cartoon uses a quote from Joe Biden (who referred to “little black girls” in an online post) to paint him as patronizing to his running mate, Kamala Harris, who is a black woman, and stuck in the past on what is deemed an appropriate attitude towards, and language to refer to, PoC and women in general.
Brad,
I’m 31 and an Indigenous Australian, below average annual income. In other words, you’re a condescending scumbag.
Brett: You are indigenous, below average annual income, i.e. just the right kind of demographic that doesn’t fit what Brad said. And we should believe you?
And I am Chinese Australian whose great grandparents came to Australia before the “white Australia ” policy was put in place. So I can tell you that you still don’t understand the meaning of “paranoid”. You might be fluent in your indigenous language (Koori perhaps?) but your English is lacking. Oh, and Biden’s reference to “little black girls” was entirely in reference to “little black girls” i.e. when they are little (in age). Care to look it up? It did not reference Kamala Harris at all. So no go. You haven’t any clue. Nice try. You are not indigenous and I don’t care how much you earn. I hope your handlers pay you well enough for this “tripe” (as you put it. Actually tripe used to be a delicacy at once time) to help you get by and put food on the table.
Have a nice day.
Just for the record. This was Biden’s ‘tweet’
Thus it’s (strictly) correct to say that: It did not reference Kamala Harris at all. But it probably didn’t have to. The ‘message’ (in all likelihood) was positively received by Harris who had self-described as That little girl was me in reference to the benefits of ‘bussing’ (voluntary in her case) but not supported by Biden at that time.
But again – there’s no 100% accurate forecasting re meaning(s) that will be given by anyone (the other) to any viewing, seeing, reading, hearing etc. Humans are unpredictable. They make different choices. They come from different backgrounds. They have different histories. Accordingly They are different.
Alabama . . .Stralya . . . George Wallace . . . Scotty da Sharks Decant the Elders Aloha Sadist Good ol’ Boy Liar from the Shire MoScum Morrison & fellow slime crims.
Fug ’em. Bring on the tumbrels for these murderers and lying theiving spivs!!!
Stand up People or be trampled!!!! Stand on two feet!!!!
Brett says or ‘writes’: I’m 31 and an Indigenous Australian, below average annual income. In other words, you’re a condescending scumbag.
Or is that you Rupert? Did you copy that from your IPA colour book? Gee whiz was it difficult to spell condescending?
See if you can comprehend the following (probably not since you is most likely a bot generated Murdereroch troll)
“The purpose of propaganda is not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponds to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control.”
totaram, I’ll ignore the barely comprehensible and racist ramblings, and address the only relevant sentence: No one claimed Joe Biden was referring to Kamala Harris when he wrote the “little black girls” phrase. The cartoon takes phrase, which was seen to be awkward, and reuses it, in an attempt to highlight its awkwardness. I hope you’re clear now.
Jamie, until you can manage a reply that isn’t some kind of paranoid and childish fantasy about me not being real, or worse, some kind of racist attack to suggest I can’t spell, I suggest you crawl back into your hole.
Actually, Biden didn’t use the word “little”, so it might help if people stopped misquoting him. The cartoon was also ageist in that it suggested that he was going for a nap.
And Brett, you’ve done nothing but angrily attack people from your first comment. Now while I don’t think that all the comments about you are appropriate, it might help you to get your actual point across, if you calmed down and stopped being so aggressive and simple stated your ideas without sounding like a troll.
Re – not using ‘little’ – are you sure? Harris certainly did and I think his ‘tweet’ was in tune with her.
Not that I use twitter. Just what Google gives me,
Brett, cool down a bit, Bro.
From an Adnyamathanha bloke.
Rossleigh, I’ll concede calling you hysterically paranoid was hyperbole (par for course judging by most material here), but everything else I’ve said in my replies has been quite unemotional and substantiated, especially when I’m dealing with a commenter suggesting Indigenous Australians need “handlers”, among others. Shameful that they exist here in the first place.
Will also totally pay the ageist label against the cartoon. It’s inextricable with the general “out of touch” insults directed at Biden.
Michael Taylor, any reason you’re bothering to address me amidst all the vileness going on in here from some I won’t bother naming?
I don’t read The Australian because I know what to expect. Not reasoned reporting but predictable opinions. And I am not necessarily averse to reading contrary political opinion if the writing is literate and well-presented and reasoned, but The Australian does not by any measure present literate and well- reasoned points of view. I read The Spectator, for example, despite disagreeing with almost everything in it.
Brett clearly does not like what he reads in AIMN – it is presumably his version of my The Australian. Some of the writing is intemperate, certainly; but it’s from the heart. Not something you could say about the likes of the writings of Sheridan, or Bolt. Or maybe they do write ‘from the heart’, peanut-sized as theirs would seem to be.
Try writing to a Murdoch outlet criticising its output: it won’t be acknowledged.
Or Fox News, but I don’t watch that.
If you don’t like it, don’t read it.
Johannes Leak may or may not harbour racist views.
His father often demonstrated seriously racist themes within his work, such as suggesting that domestic violence and child abuse were endemic to Indigenous Australian culture.
However, I do not view this Leak cartoon as being particularly racist.
Joe Biden himself publicly spoke of little girls, black and brown, in reference to senator Harris’ achievements, thus the cartoon dialogue has relevant context.
As for agism, Senator Biden is of a vintage where, in Australia, people are required to undergo medical tests in order to retain their drivers license. The demonstrated declining cognitive abilities of the current president, who is a few years younger, is open to discussion, so I reckon Bidens faculties are of similar relevance.
All in all, not a hill I’d die for
Back to Brett, very briefly.
I am sure he knows what the letters to the editor pages of the Murdoch Press call ‘…32 year old indigenous men on below average incomes…’
I will say no more.
For the record, if J Leak published a cartoon that suggested/stated that the current POTUS had multiple rape claims laid against him, had bragged of committing sexual assault, had paid bribes to cover marital infidelities, had been banned from beauty pageants (including teen) for ‘inappropriate behavior’, had enacted racially discriminatory policies in his rental properties, had paid for advertisements lobbying for the killing of black men for crimes which they were exonerated, had publicly incited foreign interference in US elections, had employed random brutality, including chemical weapons, against his own citizens and had buddied up to a hostile leader who was not only blatantly complicit in electoral interference but had put blood bounties on US troops, I would not say that Leak was being racist, sexist or ageist, just surprisingly honest.
Jack Cade,
Kindly GFY. Do you point out to every Indigenous person to come across “hey you, letters in newspaper XYZ would call you a ****…”? Completely unnecessary, almost as if you enjoy shoving racial abuse in the faces of its victims. You aren’t much better than those you’re quoting.
Cartoons are not only intended to be amusing – sometimes they are intended to make you feel uncomfortable. In this case, I thought Leak was merely highlighting the statements made by both the Democratic candidates for the POTUS and VP positions in the forthcoming elections. Leak may or may not have intended it To be a racist comment, but Bill Leak was frequently guilty and perhaps the assumption is that Leak the lesser may be similarly tainted (not a PC word to use in the circumstances.)
I didnt see Biden’s words as racist, merely reflecting what Harris said.
Brett
I’ve never fucked myself. Tell me, what’s it like?
Brett, “GFY” is not language we appreciate around here.
Michael Taylor again choosing to focus on an initialism while there are commenters who seemingly revel in their flirting with racism against Indigenous Australians. How grotesque.
Brett,
I am kinda with you regarding the J Leak cartoon of Biden and Harris.
As someone identifying as Indigenous Australian, what do you think of his dad’s work?
I particularly refer to 2 pieces:
a- 2 caricatures of Aboriginal men sitting around, one holding a tinnie, looking at a a paper referencing Brough’s intervention, with one saying “rape’s out, bashing’s out, this’ll set our culture back by 2000 years”.
b) 2 caricatures of Aboriginal men sitting around, both holding tinnies, beside a prone Aboriginal woman, obviously badly beaten, with one man saying “Sheilas! Ya give ’em a culturally enriching experience and what thanks do ya get??!! “.
I realise that these are separate cartoons by a different ‘artist’, but methinks there is a bit of a pattern of Murdoch’s ‘srayan’ publishing racially loaded Leak cartoons for the sake of baiting controversy.
Disagree?
On a test for the SAS, one man passed all
the tests except the last one, where they
stripped him naked and sprayed him with
Ice cold water while firing questions at him.
Afterward, they told him that he had failed the course, because he failed the interrogation. He was incredulous – ‘I told you nothing!’
‘You told us everything.’
He was almost in tears. ‘All I said was ‘Yes. And no!’
‘Do you have any idea what we can do with your ‘Yes and No?’
That was the point I was making in my post about Brett’s self-description. The troglodytes’ stereotypical opinions of people he described are set in concrete. People who saw nothing wrong with Bill Leak’s cartoons as described by Corveus. People who believe that saying ‘Sorry!’ was shameful.
And I am not in any way a racist. I played soccer with Charlie Perkins, my footy team is and has always been built around the talents of Indigenous players. I doubt that any Port fan has EVER subjected an Australian indigenous player to the appalling treatment that Goodes and others copped.
Jack Cade,
Point of pedantry (Idoodat).
By current linguistic convention, the place of a person’s origin usually precedes their geography of birth (or country of adoption) when attempting to pigeon-hole ethnic groupings within national demographics.
Thus I am probably best categorised as a European Australian, in this case meaning an Australian born person of traceably European descent (thus relatively pale)
Indigenous (meaning ‘much longer term local’) similarly precedes nationality (adjective before noun).
Convention also gives a capitalisation to Indigenous, to recognise the concept of country existing before the official recognition of country.
Hope that clarifies.
Corvus
I usually capitalise Indigenous. But typing on a mobile phone with irritating Autocorrect induces typos.
But… point taken.
There are exceptions …
This plant is indigenous to the island …
Usually, indigenous people in various countries …
… etc
I only ever use the word when applying to Australian native people because it has become the identifier.
One thing that always pissed me off, Jack, was that no matter what you used …
Aborigines
Aboriginals
Indigenous Australians
First Australians
First Nation People
… someone would be quick to jump on me saying I should have said Aborigines, Aboriginals, Indigenous Australians, First Australians, or First Nation People.
Someone always knew better.
In the Flinders Ranges we only used one word: Mob.
Jack Cade,
I didn’t say you were a racist per se, but next time you disagree with someone non-white, maybe don’t sidestep what they’re saying a respond with something dismissive like “well if you were reading a Murdoch paper, they’d be calling you a *****”.
I’m meant to be grateful I’m not being called that here, am I?
It’s not the debating technique of a lot of non-racist people I know, I’ll put it that way.
corvusboreus,
Thanks. It’s quite unbelievable how a simple case of The Australian attacking Biden by taking his words out of context and making him say something offensive to women and PoC can be so badly misunderstood. Even accepting the correct interpretation doesn’t equate to giving a positive endorsement to the cartoon or newspaper.
I’m not familiar with your two examples. I actually can’t tell what the first one is trying to say exactly, but neither are defensible, both offensive and quite horrifying they were printed in a mainstream Australian paper (assuming they were). I think you’re right that the examples you gave were published for the sake of baiting controversy, but disagree if you’re claiming that’s why the Joe Biden one was published. The massive difference between that and your examples would indicate they didn’t expect much reaction at all to this recent one.
Brett,
I have been following the conversation.
“I’m meant to be grateful I’m not being called that here, am I?”
I have said before that I found Biden’s original tweet uncomfortable/offensive so adding in the “go for a nap” part just added to my angst.
Will we ever have a society where you don’t need to tell me about your ancestry and I don’t need to tell you about my gender and, regardless of our age, we will listen to each other before we decide if each other may have something worthwhile to contribute?
Now is my cue to say you could only understand if you were a woman/person of colour/gay/dismissed because you are too old or too young/all the other labels we perpetuate to divide us.
We are all people. We are all different. We are not defined by any one thing about us.
Soooooo….the thing that REALLY pissed me off is that politicians still think “little girls” are held back by their own lack of ambition as opposed to a society that does not allow them to achieve their potential, a society that still thinks what they look like is the most important thing. Girls don’t start out that way. Life teaches them lessons, not always good.
We hurt our children and our society by our segregation.
Gender, colour, age…..these are not the descriptors we should use when deciding who to vote for.
Michael Taylor
I absolutely agree!
But so far, we haven’t sunk to the appalling, mealy-mouthed and to my ears patronising US ‘people of colour’ ( now sodding Autocorrect has imposed the ‘u’ six times when it usually opts for American spelling) yet. I assume it will. What effect does that have on the phrase ‘a colourful personality’? Does that phrase come to mean a
‘Person of colour’ sooner or later? The thing is that you can make any word into an insult if you try.
Brett,
Glad you thought that such cartoons were indefensible
They were both cartoons drawn by Bill Leak, father of Johannes Leak, and published in ‘The Australian’, the exact same Rupert Murdoch owned paper that published the less offensive Leak jnr cartoon that you chose to initially defend with such intemperately vociferous language
By the way, in case you were unaware, this is a branch of the same media megalith that gives a megaphone to serial race-baiters like Andrew Bolt and Allen Jones,as well as giving a sympathetic platform to white supremist neo-nazis like Blair Cotrell.
If you wish to view the original cartoons that I referred to, just type ‘bill leak racist cartoons’ into Google images, this will lead you straight to the examples I referred to, as well as numerous other examples of derogatory racio-cultural caricatures from the same source.
I am idealistic enough to believe in benefit of the doubt, but cynical enough to realise that consistent patterns of malicious behaviour should not be ignored.
MT, 7:24,
Yeah, fair enough, your house, your rules.
Cheers for the sermon about what really pisses you off.
This know-better will, in future just STFU & PO.
Yaarri yarraang.
Everyone has a,context that nobody else fully understands, but as I said about the cartoon before several dozen comments: “ Yes, it’s tempting to just ignore it because you feel that outrage must be what he’s after because nobody could be stupid enough to think that it’s acceptable. Still something about the standard you walk past is the standard you accept.
“And, like I said before, unless someone disagrees, people might actually think that nobody thinks what they’re saying is wrong.”
And, I was wrong about that too…