The Australian, the tip off, the terrorists and careless talk

Biggest and best friend to terrorists in Australia?

How about the Murdoch press?

Well what would you do if you knew the cops were after terrorists? Why, break the story early, tip them off the cops were coming, and make sure that they had plenty of time to get rid of the evidence.

Unless of course terrorists aren't part of The Australian's demographic? Perhaps this is a way of boosting circulation, while promoting the rag as a 'must read' amongst terrorists.

Meanwhile, there's much tut tutting and nodding of sage heads about the virtues of the raid from the pundits at the rag.

If you can stand the sanctimonious stench, you could even read their editorial under the header Thwarting Jihad in our own back yard.

Wouldn't that have read better as Tipping off the Jihadists in our own back yard?

Small wonder the cops are hopping mad, as the tensions between the Victorian cops and the federal plods continue on their merry way.

Copies of the rag were available on the streets of Melbourne as early as 1.30 am. Jeeze, we're lucky the jihadists must love their sleep. So the fuzz brought their raid ahead of the planned time, and all turned out well.

Small wonder that the cops are now demanding that the Rudd government act to censor the media in future, and in particular by restraining them from publishing details about counter-terrorism operations, where the safety of cops is at risk.

Well no doubt the Murdoch press can go about boasting about their freedom of information initiatives to find out the truth of that rumor.

Meantime, the only silver lining to this particular cloud must be the way Malcolm Turnbull has lucked out. He must be down on his knees thanking the lord for jihadists taking utegate off the front page.

Hey wasn't it a Daily Terror reporter up to his neck in it when utegate broke as the story that would take down a government? Didn't Senator Abetz say he got his information from a journalist when it seems direct communication with a public servant was a much better source?

What is it with Murdoch rags? Are they so eager to sell papers, they'll act like an elephant in whatever shop they find themselves in at the time a story's going down?

And as for the AFP, and their "leak", once again the federal clod hoppers prove that they're the cloddiest coppers in the land. Is the culture of sucking up to the press and expanding the turf and generating hysteria about the peril - cultivated during the time of Mick Keelty - still firmly at home in the feds? Some kind of Eliot Ness syndrome?

The Murdoch rags talk the talk when it comes to Islamic fundies, but when it comes to acting as responsible citizens, they're just rags in the Hearst tradition ...