At this point, I’m wondering exactly how many people will comment on the title without reading what I actually write. I imagine at least one person will write: “You idiot, the ABC are INDEPENDENT and won’t be siding with anyone!”
Which is sort of my point. I don’t know about anyone else but when I hear an ABC journalist asking one of the “Voices of” candidates who they’ll be supporting in the event of a hung parliament, I want them to say that because they’re independent they can wait and see – but given that both parties strongly support climate change action and an integrity commission, we’ll wait and see which party proposes the best way to make that happen with actual legislation AFTER the election. If the journalist persists and suggests that they can’t claim to truly be independent because they won’t declare who they’re siding with, they should reply with something along the lines of why the ABC is claiming to be independent when they won’t tell us who they’re siding with.
Yes, it would be quite silly but just about everything that the media are doing is quite silly.
I mean, Albanese does an in-depth profile on his life and the media complain that Labor are a small target and aren’t releasing policies. Then Labor release policy and the media talk about how we don’t know who Anthony Albanese is. Then we’re treated to a detailed discussion of who the various journalists think will win the election followed by a discussion of the preferred PM and how this is somehow significant.
How often is the Opposition leader the preferred PM? Was Tony Abbott?
Then, when discussing things like Albanese’s disapproval rating, they completely ignore the fact that at least part of that figure includes people who disapprove because he hasn’t attacked the government enough and wouldn’t vote for the Liberal candidate if it were a choice between them and Clive Palmer.
So it’s pretty clear that the independents have certain candidates more worried about them than the Labor Party which is why I find their whole strategy about as clever as Barnaby Joyce running on a platform of: “I’m so into family values that I have two families.” The first difficulty any independent has is getting noticed. If I were to run in Kooyong, I’d be lucky to attract a handful of votes but if Josh were to say publicly that you shouldn’t vote for me, I’d probably get more votes than if he ignored me.
Similarly, Timmy Wilson’s dummy spit about Zoe Daniel’s signs means that I know who’s the “Voices Of” candidate for Goldstein even though I’m not in that electorate.
Let’s be real, it’s thanks to the Libs that Monique Ryan is being interviewed here, there and everywhere. It’s thanks to the Libs that a large number of the people in the endangered electorates know who the teal candidate is and what they stand for.
I haven’t seen incompetence like that since Frydenberg suddenly realised that his figures were out by $60 billion but that’s ok because it was $60 billion less so let’s all have a party. As for the campaign decision to put posters about a strong economy on shops that have gone out of business, one has to wonder whether that’s a case of irony or whether it’s the fact that even his own party want him to lose.
And still, Josh doesn’t get it. His announcement that Monique Ryan’s mother-in-law told him that she’d vote for him may go down a treat at Liberal functions but take a step back and consider how it plays in the wider community.
For a start, one has to ask if he took any steps to ascertain that it was, in fact, a relation of “that fake independent”. I mean, I’m pretty sure that nobody would be irresponsible enough to quote me if I were to say that I was Josh’s best friend from childhood and that I was voting for Monique without first checking with him. But even if I was, so what? I mean, has anybody checked how Barnaby’s ex-wife is planning to vote this election?
Yes, that’s right – families are meant to be off-limits. But in any case, how desperate must he be that he thinks that he needs this? I know that his justification was that Rob Baillieu was working for Monique Ryan, but I’d argue that there’s a difference between someone who makes a public statement and someone who tells you who they’re intending to vote for. After all, I frequently tell people who bail me up in the street during election campaigns that I’m voting for their candidate even though I’m not. Just as I tell Jehovah’s Witnesses who come to the door that I’m a Satanist looking for a virgin to sacrifice and if they know any…
It saves a long conversation that won’t result in anything positive for anyone.
But when it comes to the idea that somehow what one’s mother-in-law thinks…
I mean that’s about as relevant as we should vote Josh back because he’s a real nice guy… who likes bringing relatives into the campaign but families are off-limits.
Anyway, I started composing a list of things to ask which were reasonable and which were unreasonable. What do you reckon about the following?
- Person told that they did well in the job interview and the references all checked out, but the job is going to someone else because the boss bumped into the person’s mother-in-law who said that they were a bit sloppy round the house.
- Art student announces that they will vote for Josh because he can’t trust the Independent candidates owing to the fact that they’re claiming that they dress in teal when the colour is “turquoise”.
- Politician visits nursing home where resident says that he’ll definitely be voting for him/her because they don’t want Peter Costello to become PM and that Kevin07 is a great slogan. They tell everyone that John Howard has endorsed them because the man insisted that he was.
- Man tells his wife that she’s wrong because his mistress tells him that he’s really great in bed and that’s the reason she’s with him and not because of the car he bought her.
- Jane Hume tells Patricia Karvelas that Labor have the equivalent of a carbon tax because even if businesses use technology to offset Labor’s policy that will add to costs and doesn’t mention the Liberal policy is the slogan, “Technology not taxes”!
- Murdoch paper runs story showing candidate for election with happy family with lots of photos of father happily playing with kids. Should people vote this person out of office so that he doesn’t miss the best years of his kids’ life?
- Pauline Hanson insists that she is Pauline Hanson and nobody has a right to tell her that she can’t do anything she wants and it’s all wrong since it was her who gave the ignorant a voice and now there are so many choices that she may not get elected again.
I could go on, but I’m not sure that Josh can.
[textblock style=”7″]
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be greatly appreciated.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
[/textblock]
Rossleigh …..just VOTE LABOR AND STOP THE LIES
Am I right in thinking Emma Alberici was eased out of a job at The ABC because she knew more about economics than the treasurer?
She was not the only one to be purged and I believe apart from the Tory plants i.e. Speers etcetera, that the rest live in fear of their jobs except perhaps Laura Tingle.
If we get the expected result on May 21 it will be interesting to see who changes their tune.
The Libs must getting desperate when one just received an email, via the AEC rolls, begging for help with social media transmission and donations:
‘Dear Andrew,
Last week, our puppet show video warning Victorians that Anthony Albanese’s weak leadership means he won’t stand up to Daniel Andrews was a hit!
It has now been seen by hundreds of thousands of Victorians thanks to people like you who donated.
We can’t stop now! Our goal is to have over a million people see the video by the beginning of pre-poll this coming Monday.
We need your help in the next 24 hours to put it on TV.
Can you donate $20 towards airing it on TV?
We would also love it if you could share the video on your Facebook page so more people can see it.
Now is not the time for weak leadership.
With only 18 days left until the federal election, don’t miss out on making an impact.
MAKE A DONATION
Kind regards,
Sam McQuestin
State Director
Liberal Party of Australia (Victoria Division)
The ABC is from far left to too much lnp depending who is talking. I have never considered it anything but centre right.
ps
I love the way pollies tell us they miss their children’s growing up years.
Funny coming from someone who never sits in school holidays or weekends and have been pinged, on working trips, taking kids to Uluru, the vatican, europe, asia, africa, america antarctica
No need to keep going on about the ABC being left when we have a Federal ICAC.
Someone needs to side with the truth and expose the torts.
ABC sides with the truth
Apparently who broadcasts the leaders debates is the prerogative of the prime minister and he has declared that he will not debate on the ABC or at the National Press Club.
He insisted that the first debate go to Rupert Murdoch’s pay television channel SKY and the second and third debates go to Channels Nine and Seven.
This says a lot about the character of this man and, worryingly, his hatred of our national public broadcaster.
Democracy deserves better !
The bias from the ABC is quite evident, because it ws on News24 last weekend where I saw the “article” from the labor BBQ in WA, at which the rt hon member for the tongs was asked “What is the price of Sausages?”
As he did on Day 1, Albo stumbled with his answer of “These ones are free”, when everyone knows that the correct reply is
“Are you asking about gourmet Lamb and Rosemary, Beef and Cheese, Pork-Barrelled, or the murdoch media sponsored hack reporter silly-sausages which are as cheap as they come, but are not worth the paper they are wrapped in”
I had a mother in law once. I first knew her as my English teacher at High School. I should have learned from that lesson, too.
The one thing both our major parties agree on, via ABC or direct, is that we must not vote for a hung parliament.
Now on a daily basis all these pollies are trying to scare the crap out of me, so this is my chance to scare them.
My dream is for a house occupied to independants entirely. In 2022 its time we found some alternative to the Westminster system because these guys are all simply using the system for their personal advantage.
Vive La Revelution.
Seriously the ABC climbs onboard with keeping the independants at bay, as well, and maybe thats because they are beholden to the 2 party system for their funding
The ABC is no different to other Murdoch media stations,you only have to listen to Stan Grant,Fran Kelly,afternoon briefing, and insiders,disgusting so called journalism
There is nothing – absolutely NOTHING – independent about the new, LNP/Murdoch-influenced ABC which ONCE impartial taxpayer-funded TV station is now running scared of being defunded into oblivion by the unspeakably depraved fascists in the LNP! The LNP have threatened, intimidated and infiltrated the ABC to the point where it has now become just another vacuous, totally gormless, right-wing mouthpiece for LNP propaganda and right-wing extremism! In between remaining DEAD SILENT about the increasing level of shameless corruption, blatant nepotism, pathological lies and inhumanity pushed out by the worst, most non-achieving and depraved regime in our history, the ABC are now joining the rest of the nauseating “gravy train” of self-serving, right-wing, LNP-supporting media sycophants and stooping to new low levels in their campaign to openly denigrate, character-assassinate and defame the ALP, the Greens or any other party (or individual) that has the integrity and credibility to question, interrogate and condemn the appalling level of corruption, hypocrisy and inhumanity so prevalent right throughout the self-serving ranks of the LNP – at Federal and State levels!
Now we have the appalling situation where EVERY SINGLE FORM OF MEDIA in this nation is shamelessly controlled – and undeniably corrupted – by the undemocratic LNP/Murdoch/IPA Alliance! What we have in Australia, right now, is a media that has been internationally condemned as one of the most biased in the western world; a national broadcasting network (our taxpayer-funded ABC) that is now on par with the rest of the simpering right-wing media in this nation, spewing out non-stop, blatantly biased support for an unspeakably depraved government overflowing with lying, conniving, totally corrupt, callously inhumane political parasites!
Australians should learn from history and NEVER FORGET that when a nation’s publicly-owned media is totally controlled and infiltrated by a criminally-corrupt regime that plans to CONTROL THE NARRATIVE and attempts to edit, vet and manipulate EVERYTHING citizens hear and see, it comes under the heading of FASCISM. This was one of the first steps Hitler made in order to seize power because EVERY fascist knows that when a regime has ruthless CONTROL over what many gullible people see and hear in blatantly biased media, they attain and maintain some control over how they think! The LNP/Murdoch Alliance have been masters of this form of deceit and malevolent, autocratic dominance over our media for decades. The ROT set in when Gough Whitlam had the integrity to tell Murdoch to “go to hell” back in 1975 when Murdoch tried – and failed – to unduly influence him! This was the nano-second when the megalomaniacal, power-obsessed predatory sociopath, Murdoch, decided to stroll into the offices of News Limited and gave the order “Kill Whitlam!” – this undemocratic demand was accomplished in record time in the Z-rated Murdoch rags that abused their malevolent power by instigating a political campaign against the ALP overflowing with malignant, totally false, character-assassinating lies, ramped-up baseless scandal and political subterfuge in order to push through the unspeakable, divisive, undemocratic and criminally corrupt act of dismissing a democratically-elected Prime Minister who, history has shown, was the most foresightful, highest achieving PM in our history!
In the same manner, Murdoch (now an American citizen) went out of his way to elevate, openly support and prop up the appalling, self-serving, despotic and corrupt Howard/Costello regime which – history has shown and the IMF have confirmed – to be the most wasteful regime in our history (see link below)! The appalling LNP/Murdoch/IPA Alliance have been using this form of unscrupulous behaviour – by denigrating and lying their way into ignominious power – ever since! What we have now is the LNP/Murdoch/IPA Alliance SO EMBOLDENED and arrogantly self-assured of their dictatorial control over this nation, they are now parachuting carefully selected right-wing sycophants like Ita Buttrose, and Z-rated LNP-supporting hacks like David Speers, Patricia Karvelas and the appalling Fauziah Ibrahim into powerful positions on the Board and into influential seats hosting panel shows on OUR taxpayer-funded ABC (and just about every free-to-air channel) in order to CONTROL THE NARRATIVE!
The autocratic, undemocratic control the LNP/Murdoch/IPA Alliance have over just about every form of media in our nation can only be described as a level of terrifying fascism that can be compared with a corrupt third-world nation! The undemocratic alliance between the LNP, Murdoch (and the unelected parasites in Murdoch’s IPA) go on and on denigrating the ALP or ANY individual or organisation who have the integrity and credibility to condemn them! What we have now is our Australian Broadcasting Company infiltrated, depleted and completely corrupted by the worst, most undemocratic regime in our history. The LNP have now parachuted the absolute worst, most talentless, kowtowing LNP/Murdoch-supporting hacks on to OUR taxpayer-funded ABC in order to appease the LNP and keep them propped up at the expense of democratic impartiality, freedom of speech and fair, even-handed and factual reporting of the news!
The smirking, bone-idle Sloth Morrison, is not just a corrupt, self-serving, non-achieving political parasite, he and the ruthless, power-obsessed sociopaths in the LNP regime are very dangerous to EVERYTHING Australians value and THAT includes what Australians perceive as an egalitarian democracy, our expectations to have access to impartial media, free speech, the right to public protest without police intervention, a level of compassion and support towards our most vulnerable citizens and our international reputation (now in freefall)! The LNP have destroyed ALL of these things and, believe me, if these political elitist psychopaths in the most depraved and inhumane regime in our history, are voted back into power again, they will destroy, defund and annihilate EVERYTHING they didn’t get time to destroy, defund and annihilate up until then!
At the next federal election, kick the callously inhumane, totally corrupt, smug and UNDEMOCRATIC political psychopaths in the LNP to the gutter because you just KNOW that THAT is where they really belong!
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australias-most-wasteful-spending-came-in-howard-era-finds-imf-study-20130110-2cj38.html
Well said, Katherine
Kathyryn, the latest weapon against the ABC from corrupt government is to sue the ABC for defamation when they release public truths about the undemocratic LNP/Murdoch/IPA Alliance.
It gives more money to their cosy private school lawyers and silences any debate or public comments to further hide the truth and increases their lack of accountability.
Only thing I have to say about your headline is that I’ll get around to reading the article when I’ve recpvered from the extended bout of hysterical laughter that the phrase “Independent ABC” provoked.
Kathryn, today I posted a comment on the online “contact us” ABC news site.
My question to the Editor; why does the ABC simply relay the American narrative about the war in the Ukraine/Russia stoush?
I advise all the readers of my comment that the ABC international news reports are little other than relayed American lopped and chopped news events.
So, I have discovered that the American international news relayed to Australia, is indeed created or architected by America’s spooks to confine the truth content and to store it in the realm of oblivia, which pertains to almost all their hacked and fuched delusional news reports.
I myself gain my international news from “out of Australia” online news sources..
Ask me why? I will tell you that the USA narrative concerning the war in Ukraine/Russia is chock full of fake & false news, & CIA created military propaganda news.
Readers are asked to consider or to realize Australia’s mighty US military alliance will not save Australia from its American aggressive military offence forces.
To trust anything issuing out of the USA as fact, is something that only a false-purposed Lib/Nat Party Australian government would do.
The Yanks want to control the holus bolus of Australia, replete with its huge magnitude of variant mineral resources.
Williambtm, oh what a relief to know there is sanity in this country.
We are muzzled, handcuffed, and chained to satan himself, and this is freedom?
To the point. I am absolutely convinced I heard on ABC, Leigh Sales talking to some acknowledged expert in USA, on the day that Putin put his military plan into action, and the words coming out of my TV said “this is a massive error created from a failure in US foreign Intelligence”
Or words to that effect.
Rarely do I hear on ABC an criticism of US, and especially their foreign policy. So I expected to hear some expansion on the subject during later broadcasts, but that is one that slipped through the net.
The dastardly plan you outline moved into action PDQ.
We are daily guided through a sophisticated propaganda machine, and it takes just a little effort to verify this