The Australian media are notorious pack-hunters. Much as they love to blither about ?editorial independence? and ?speaking truth to power?, the fact is that the Australian media are about as independently-minded as a gang of schoolchildren shouting, ?Fight! Fight! Fight!? as some hapless victim is pounded into the tan bark. They?re no less grovelling toadies.
So, when it comes to choosing between holding an international bully-boy to account, and a principled defense of journalistic ethics, or happily joining the jeering circle kicking one of their favourite targets, there?s no prizes for guessing which the Australian media chose. Quote:
It is a crime in Qatar to criticise its government, the ruling family or Islam for that matter, but as One Nation discovered to its detriment, [Qatari-owned] Al Jazeera is very big on holding the decadent West to account. End of quote.
And the useful idiots of Australian journalism are happy to take part. Quote:
The news organisation has faced constant accusations of being a mouthpiece for the Qatari government?[and] is now the subject of an investigation by Swiss police.
?Journalist Peter FitzSimons fawningly wrote on Sunday, ?Not for nothing is Al Jazeera such a respected news organisation?. End of quote.
Only in the left-media could the propaganda arm of a brutal, terrorism-sponsoring theocracy be considered ?a respected news organisation?.
It?s truly astonishing that such a fundamentally compromised source as Al Jazeera is not only lauded by the left-media, but actually partnered with Australia?s taxpayer-funded broadcaster. Imagine, say, Sky News partnering with InfoWars. As always with the left, it?s ok when they do it. Quote:
Compounding this is the media?s sudden indifference to fundamental breaches of journalistic ethics and a philosophy of the end justifying the means when it comes to pursuing One Nation.
Let?s begin with the covert recording and filming. The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance?s position on that aspect is clear. ?Use fair, responsible and honest means to obtain material,? its Journalist Code of Ethics mandates. ?Identify yourself and your employer before obtaining any interview for publication or broadcast?. End of quote.
This is unambiguous. These are the rules that Australian media are supposed to hold themselves to. But the ethical hypocrisy of the Australian media is top-down. Quote:
The Guardian columnist Van Badham was dismissive of the breach?It was an amateurish attempt using relativism to distract from the point at hand, but it was also gross hypocrisy. Badham is vice-president of the MEAA?s Victorian division and sits on the organisation?s federal council. What other requirements of the code does she think can be arbitrarily discarded to suit her political prejudices? End of quote.
Last year, a member of far-left bully group GetUp! was only barely prised loose from the Press Council. It demonstrates just how deep-rooted the media?s left-bias is, when a self-declared communist leads one of its supposed ethical flag-bearers. Try to imagine a self-declared Nazi or Fascist on the Press Council. Quote:
The other and far more concerning issue is entrapment?[Al Jazeera] look less observer and more agent provocateur. As former producer of ABC?s Media Watch Misha Ketchell wrote last week for The Sydney Morning Herald: ?This is the line that renders the gotcha story compromised. Journalists should not make the news, they should report it.? In creating the story, Al Jazeera is not a neutral scrutiniser but a player in the political process. ?Hanson and her colleagues have every right to be deeply upset at their treatment at the hands of Al Jazeera and the ABC,? wrote Ketchell.
That this was done at the behest of a foreign state-based broadcaster is also disconcerting, as Michael Stutchbury, editor-in-chief of The Australian Financial Review told ABC?s Insiders last Sunday?are commentators prepared to accept without question that Al Jazeera?s motive for devoting enormous resources and funds to target an Australian political party openly hostile to Muslim immigration was purely for professional reasons? End of quote.
The Australian
The irony is that, as they did with Fraser Anning, the legacy media have done their intended victim more good than harm. Pauline Hanson is never so popular as when the media and political elite are ganging up on her. Regardless of her policies, the obvious bullying, especially of a woman, rubs hard against Australians? sense of fair play. Ultimately, Al Jazeera?s unethical muckraking will surely turn out to be an own goal by the legacy media.