When we talk about “fake news”, it’s important to keep in mind that fake news isn’t just “making things up”. In fact, the most damaging types of fake news are those which tell some of the truth, but leave out key information, over-emphasise others, in order to push a particular narrative.
Australia’s taxpayer-funded broadcaster is a dark master of that art. Its climate change coverage, for instance, skews nearly 100% to a narrow, alarmist narrative. When it comes to crime, as well, the ABC is very selective in what it chooses to report — with a notable bias.
As Twitter user The Roadknight recently noted, in just one day, the ABC selectively highlighted the race of the subjects of two of its news items, but conspicuously failed to mention it in two others. See if you can spot the pattern.
First, probably the most egregious:
A man is in custody after firing multiple shots in the check-in area of Canberra Airport […]
Detective Acting Superintendent Craft said police believed the man acted alone and that there was no ongoing threat to the community.
“We have no idea of any motivation,” he said.
ABC Australia
About that…
A man arrested for allegedly opening fire with a handgun inside the Australian capital of Canberra’s main airport has been named as Ali Rachid Ammoun.
Ammoun is described as a 63-year-old “Australian man” from the state of New South Wales by the Associated Press, with no information on any religious affiliation or migration background provided.
Breitbart
We do know — thanks to sources other than the ABC — that he was on parole after serving a 16-year jail term for attempted murder.
Then there’s this:
A woman charged with child abduction in relation to the disappearance of five-year-old Grace Hughes has faced court, as police continue to search for the Darwin girl.
Juliet Oldroyd, 50, was on Saturday charged with one count of abducting a child under 16 and one count of attempting to abduct a child under 16.
Police allege that the girl is being “actively hidden” by members of “the community”. Which community? Who knows, it’s all a mystery. The only other information the media will give us is that Oldroyd is supposedly a “conspiracy theorist”.
Anything else, we have to work out for ourselves.
The accused was supported in court by a group of people who stood and applauded after she was escorted back to the cells when the case was adjourned.
ABC Australia
On the other hand, when it suits a particular narrative, the ABC falls over itself to hammer home the race of the subjects.
A coronial inquest examining the deaths of three Indigenous women in the north-western Queensland town of Doomadgee has begun its next stage in Cairns today, with family members saying “systematic, ingrained racism” was a contributing factor.
Woo-hoo! Not just race but “systematic racism” — it’s a twofer that no ABC journalist could possibly resist.
How do we know it was “racism”, though?
Alec Doomadgee, who was a father figure to Kaya, said she was very responsible with her health and he was sure systemic racism played a part in the women’s deaths.
Ah, the good old, “I Just Reckon”. Who can argue with that?
Especially when health workers are so damn racist that they volunteer their own time.
The court also heard from several medical staff including paediatric cardiologist Robert Justo, who said the screening process for RHD in north-west Queensland was largely run on a voluntary basis.
He said he and several other medical staff took personal leave several times a year to visit communities and attempt to screen children for the disease.
ABC Australia
What a racist!
An Indigenous teenager whose arrest resulted in a NSW Police officer being charged with assault has told a Sydney court he fell unconscious after being “tripped” and was spitting blood because his face hit the ground […]
Part of the interaction was filmed on a mobile phone, showing one of the teenagers, then 16, speaking to Constable Barlow before saying he would “crack” the officer in the jaw.
ABC Australia
Yet, when Victorian police slammed a non-aggressive anti-lockdown protester onto the concrete floor of Flinders Street Station, in January 2022, the ABC described the victim as just “a man”. No racial descriptors added. Why was it necessary to harp on race in one alleged police assault, but not another?
As The Roadknight says:
They craft a narrative of victimhood for non-Caucasian, non-Christian people by stating their race and religion when the victim of a crime.
When they are the perpetrator, they do not.
This perpetuates a disproportionate perception of victimhood at the hands of Caucasians
Twitter
As scholar Wilfred Reilly has shown, this distorted narrative permeates the entire media, from news to entertainment. They are lying to our faces, and they know it.