Romney people upset at me! Of course I want him to win, save us from socialism, etc but should listen to good advice and get stuck in!

(via the aptly named Twitter)

‘In February 2008, two newspapermen debated on Today, the BBC radio program that starts the day and sometimes sets the political agenda. One was Nick Davies, aGuardian reporter of the good old-fashioned kind who diligently ferrets out stories, the latest of which was “phone hacking,” by journalists and others. There had been rumors of tabloid reporters clandestinely accessing voicemails on the mobile telephones of public figures well before something happened to the cell phones of the young princes William and Harry in late 2005. Numerous messages on their cell phones and…’

Jeffrey Wheatcroft’s extensive article on ‘Dial M for Murdoch’, including background and chronology of hacking, political influence and more, can be freely accessed here at The New York Review of Books

The vast majority of the people of Australia, and for that matter, many people in many other countries are supportive of the work of Wikileaks.

Despite this, Julian Assange has been sacrificed by an Australian Government which like many of its predecessors puts the rights of Australians to know the truth a long way behind its subservient relationship with the United States of America.

There was a time when Australian Prime Ministers like John Curtin and Billy Hughes were prepared to stand up for Australia, not only against the demands of the United States, but also the whole world if that was necessary.The Gillard Government by contrast is hiding behind deceptive language trying to disguise its true position. It is clearly playing a part in a coordinated plan to have Julian Assange sent to the USA where he can be charged with espionage and face the death penalty. 

Our small neighbour New Zealand has shown that it has the courage to do what it believes right. Despite threats of economic devastation if they resist US pressure to conform to US military demands NZ refused to port US nuclear warships.

The Australian media is also lacking in courage, preferring to mount a campaign of character assassination against Assange rather than stand up for the principle of free speech they claim to adhere to. Perhaps they are ashamed they were champions of the illegal war in Iraq and that they failed to shine a light on war crimes that only Wikileaks had the guts or sense of human decency to expose.

The USA is an important ally, but many of their recent actions in the Middle East and Guantanamo Bay and also the illegal rendition of individuals to places of torture was an appalling breach of international law and a blot on the character of the USA. Especially as many of those tortured were innocent of any crimes. In the long term this behaviour is damaging to the United States and to all of us who silently acquiesce to this criminality. It also provides justification for retaliation that may also breach normal standards of engagement.

If we are to have a free society and a peaceful world we must always speak out against injustice and thuggery, whether it is done by our friends or by our enemies. Truth only wounds those who have acted badly and do not want their actions exposed. We the people need to ensure that those among us who have the courage to expose the truth, are protected from dishonest totalitarian governments if we want to live in a free society.

The author has no desire to prevent Julian Assange from facing a fair trial if he has broken the law, but is dismayed that the Australian Government has not demanded an agreement from the Swedish Government that it will ensure that Assange is not sent to face another of the US kangaroo courts that sentences people who have been tortured to force confessions.

I wanted to begin this article with a new group name that appropriately described Australian political reporters. I refuse to call them a “Pack”, even though it rhymes with hack, because a media pack sounds active and alert, not at all suitable for the aging and pathetic mob of name droppers, lobbyists and scandalmongers who constitute the Canberra media.

I have settled upon “Wallow”, a name that more accurately describes a group of gossiping dirt lovers who lethargically flop around on the muddy shores as a vast river of fundamental information flows past their uncomprehending eyes.

Why do the Wallow focus on the non events occurring in this country? How is it they are capable of extracting the finest nuances from a story with sexual connotations? They relentlessly pursue the Peter Sleeps and Craig Thompsons for some juicy gossip that  makes no difference to this country, and while they are doing so, they miss the real story.

The Wallow have concentrated their gaze on the personal imbroglios of both of these miscreants and attempted to widen the smear to their parties while missing the really important ramifications that could massively change the future direction of the Australian nation.  If both of these MPs are removed from the Australian Parliament there is a real chance that Tony Abbott can very quickly become our Prime Minister. Why is the possible impact of this invisible to the Wallow? Perhaps they have mud in their eyes.

By his own admission, and despite his relentless calls for the resignation of the Gillard Government, Tony Abbott is not ready to take over governing of this country. He has offered no clear idea of what he will do in government beyond reversing important reforms implemented by the Rudd and Gillard Governments. Abbott has refused to say what his reversal plans will cost the Australian taxpayers and is equally coy about the feasibility of the  few new programs he promised to implement in his budget speech. He said he didn’t need to reveal the cost until the next election is due. This means on the last day before the election when it is too late to calculate the true cost of his program socially and economically.

The last time Abbott ran for government his last minute budget was farcically exposed as being greatly flawed. Now there is a real possibility of Abbott becoming the Prime Minister long before the next election is due.  It is a disgrace that the Wallow has failed to pin him down on this fundamental issue.

On the day of his recent budget speech it was far too easy for Tony Abbott to get away with saying that because the next election is not due for over a year, that there is no need to outline his alternative plans or tell us what his budget will cost until then. Yet on the same afternoon Abbott repeated his demand for Prime Minister Gillard to resign her commission and go to an election immediately.

The media Wallow has no agenda to keep the populace informed on important public issues. They see themselves as media celebrities and performers and the providers and creators of gossip. In short they treat the public as short attention span fools to be manipulated by fear and envy. The Wallow no longer have a beneficial purpose in society above telling us what to buy and where to do our shopping. Not so much a fourth estate more a glorified advertorial posting board.

While the Wallow blindly flop in the murky shallows we seem destined to be led by a man who does not agree with science or with evidence based decision making; a man who plans to drag us backwards into a narrow prejudiced Tea Party style past. While trumpeting Christian values he seeks to turn back refugees seeking our help and shelter. He calls the Prime Minister a liar and yet he makes promises he knows he cannot and will not deliver. He then excuses himself saying we should not rely on the promises he speaks, only on the promises he has written down.

Tony Abbott has driven Australian politics to new low levels of nastiness. He has regularly put his own ambition above the public interest. He needs to be exposed before our country regresses into an ignorant, deeply divided winner take all battlefield, like that created by Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately we cannot rely on our largely foreign owned Australian media to shine a light on his deficiencies.

Nick Davies of the Guardian broke the ‘News’ (sic) phone hacking story and updates on the Murdochs at the Leveson inquiry as follows:

David Cameron could be in jeopardy if the alleged support for the BSkyB bid proved to be part of a deal with the Tories.

Critics of the Murdochs have often suspected that they have exploited their position as newspaper owners to win secret favours from governments – and the Murdochs and the politicians alike have denied it. Now, for the first time, courtesy of the volatile chain-reaction of the phone-hacking scandal, we have compelling evidence. (click here to go to Nick Davies @ the Guardian)

“From the beginning, (1990),  EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights…”

Capra-baldie-baddies WoOpert Murd and lil’ jimmy are to appear at the Leveson Inquiry in London Tues and Weds of next week, with a resonant focus upon their relationships with…POLITICIANS…

Ooo, err…ghosts of Christmas past spring immediately to mind and may haunt the father and son team…Thatcher and Woopert at Chequers for successive X-mas lunches…time for more crackers, Woopert! Now, put your hat on, man… Bliar, Bliar, pants on fire. Well, Dave Cameron and a certain Christmas lunch with Webeka Crooks and lil’ jimmy…The Leveson Inquiry menu for next week’s hearing reads as follows…

Module 3: The Relationship between Press and Politicians

                           2012

Monday 23 April – Aidan Barclay, Evgeny Lebedev ^[35]

Tuesday 24 April – James Murdoch ^[35]

Wednesday 26 April – Rupert Murdoch ^[35)

“China’s influential microblogs, which over the last few years have emerged as a challenge to the monopoly of the state media, have fallen silent for the first time after being penalised over the spread of coup rumours.

Two major Chinese microblogging sites, weibo.com and t.qq.com, known as Chinese Twitters with about 300 million microblogger subscribers have suspended comment functions after they were punished for allowing rumours to spread, state run Shanghai Daily reported.” DNA India.

more at www.dnaindia.com/world/report_china-s-microblog-media-falls-silent-for-first-time_1670182

China’s Death-Row Reality Show:

“Until it was taken off the air last December, one of the most popular television programs in China’s Henan province, which has a population of 100 million, was “Interviews Before Execution.” The presenter was Ding Yu, a pretty young woman, always carefully dressed with colorful scarves and blouses; in each episode, she would interview on camera a condemned murderer who was about to face a firing squad or a lethal injection….” New York Review of Books, March 2012.

This fascinating article at the New York Review of Books continues in full at: executionshOw@NYRevBks

the interpretOr will be exploring other aspects of media in contemporary China and we welcome any feedback, including focus suggestions.

Unfortunately the issue of Murdoch’s grooming of politicians on both sides of the Atlantic and on all sides of  politics, has been supplanted by the Pay TV scandal.

The latest disclosures about corporate skulduggery by News Corporation against its pay TV rivals comes hot on the heels of information showing that so pervasive and dominant was the influence of Murdoch’s media empire that senior British Ministers and Prime Ministers desperately sought Murdoch’s patronage and were fearful of his retribution if they did not give him what he wanted.

Lance Price, one of Tony Blair’s media advisers, has stated;

 “I have never met Mr Murdoch, but at times when I worked at Downing Street he seemed like the 24th member of the cabinet. His voice was rarely heard … but his presence was always felt.”

Tony Blair and David Cameron in the United Kingdom and George Bush in the USA were invited into Murdoch’s tent while Tony Abbott has clearly received the blessing of News Limited in Australia. Gordon Brown and Julia Gillard have clearly failed the compliance test.

Politicians and other elites inside the Murdoch bubble are treated gently and favourably by News Limited but those outside Murdoch’s circle of power are constantly harried and heckled by News journalists who beat up nothing stories to look like major crimes.

Carl Bernstein in an article “Murdochs Watergate”printed in “The Daily Beast,” wrote:

Murdoch associates, present and former—and his biographers—have said that one of his greatest long-term ambitions has been to replicate that political and cultural power in the United States.

In the same article Bernstein went on to say;

“Then came the unfair and imbalanced politicized “news” of the Fox News Channel—showing (again) Murdoch’s genius at building an empire on the basis of an ever-descending lowest journalistic denominator. It, too, rests on a foundation that has little or nothing to do with the best traditions and values of real reporting and responsible journalism: the best obtainable version of the truth. In place of this journalistic ideal, the enduring Murdoch ethic substitutes gossip, sensationalism, and manufactured controversy.”

 The Australian adherence to the above Murdoch methodology is well documented with Prime Minister Julia Gillard being put to the sword at every opportunity by “The Australian”, while the leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott, is portrayed as “having what it takes” as one simpering headline put it.

Equally those supporters of genuine action on climate change like “Australian of the Year” and ecologist Tim Flannery and the highly regarded peak scientific bodies like CSIRO and the IPCC, are ridiculed in articles in the “Australian”, usually by a series of long retired geologists who sit on mining company boards and economists with less knowledge of the environmental costs and impacts of global warming than primary school children.

It is clear that their unhealthy level of power combined with their unethical and biased reporting and criminal hacking activities has marked News Corporation a malevolent force in our society and democratic system. They should not be allowed to control the media industry here or in any country that values truth and justice.

We can hear you think, citizen pain.

Don’t you get it? We can hear you think.

No, not exclusively  through your tweets – though you are a twit, and a venal one at that.

You ooze malice.

An infinity of duchenne smiles will not negate your stain upon humanity.

You are an intercontinental menace. Yes, you’ve managed to destroy and fuck up lives across all continents. ‘Globalisation and it’s Discontents’, wrote Joseph Stiglitz.  He could have been talking about you.

What an achievement to run an organization of global media terror. To have prime ministers in waiting flying half way round the world to kneel before your podia.

A free market that you hold so dear. Free for you and yours. Us – no thanks and not a chance,
You are Citizen Pain

“proof you can’t trust anything in the Australian Fairfax papers unless you are just another crazy”

woopert’s thought for today via Twitter

interpretOrs are across other things as this story continues to unfold, but in the interim, why not google the following:

Austar, Foxtel, Jan Saggiori