So let's politicise the issue, courtesy of Miranda the Devine ...

You might well have woken up this morning to devastating news of a revelation and an expose of the activities of Scott Morrison, our minister for gulags, in the Murdoch press.

Then again you might have woken up delusional.

Remember the long gone days when the gorgon Conroy was going to suppress reporting and change the freedom of the media, including the press, with his onerous, burdensome legislation?

Now the reptiles at the lizard Oz have turned into lambs, and who knows what actually went on at Manus Island in the recent "incident", with Morrison's story changing by the day, with talk of misinformation and misreports, and cheekiest of all, a dressing down of journalists:

After the briefing, Mr Morrison was forced to put out a statement saying he had been misinformed about the Manus Island evacuation, specifically that staff had been moved to a nearby naval vessel, the HMAS Choules. 
In the statement, he said he had since been told no staff had been removed to the HMAS Choules. Despite this, Mr Morrison used the once-weekly briefing to admonish assembled journalists for misreporting asylum seeker issues, including the widely cited presence of an asylum seeker on Nauru who is expecting twins. 
"Again, this suggestion that there's a pregnant woman with twins on Nauru is simply not true, it's actually not true," he said. "There is not a pregnant woman with twins on Nauru. And this is why I'm stressing to you." 
 He added: "I strongly suggest that media should more thoroughly interrogate the sorts of claims that are being represented to you. I mean that is a classic example." (Manus Island detention centre staff evacuated after incident)

Yes, don't interrogate Morrison, interrogate the rumours arising from the silence of the gulags, as Morrison clamps down on information flow.

When not actually getting it wrong, he reduces briefings to once a week, and then berates the media for their ignorance, an ignorance he has cultivated, and what do the lambs do?

Why sweet bugger all, they take it like lambs, the silence of the lambs, reminding the world - if a reminder was needed - that these days resources are stretched, investigative activities are limited, and in any case Manus Island is a long way away, and most journalists tended to like their coffees in their inner city eeries, before sipping on a chardonnay at night, after a hard day replicating government press releases and weekly debriefings.

There was exactly the same numb, dumb response when Greg Hunt went on the warpath, as reported in Hunt deplores 'politicising' of a tragedy.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt has condemned attempts to link the bushfires to the need for greater climate action as politicising a ''human tragedy''. 
Amid concern among scientists and environment groups that the ferocious fires before the start of summer were part of a pattern of increasing extreme weather events, Mr Hunt's office dismissed questions about the need for a more ambitious climate policy.

Yep, shut up, be silence, say nothing, dismiss questions, answer nothing, consider nothing, and trust big brother and all will be well.

'Politicising' here has a special meaning.

You see, it's absolutely fine for the likes of the Bolter and Akker Dakker to rabbit on about their resolute climate science denialism, and kick the greenie can down the road one more time, and talk of burn offs not being done as the primary cause of everything, and provide space for tedious people to recite Dorothea Mackellar one more excruciating time ...

That's hunky dory, and certainly not 'politicising' anything.

But if you dare draw attention to the IPCC report, or climate science, or its implications, why you're politicising things, and never mind that the Daily Terror was front and centre in the politicising mayhem, before it realised it had done wrong and pulled in its horns.

Remember this?

So what do we get today, with the fires continuing? A story about adoption laws being relaxed to save kids ...

Now the pond doesn't mind people thinking of the children, and sometimes we get quite Maud Flanders about it ourselves, but here's what you cop on the front page of the Sun-Herald:

It's the logical front page, given a standard apocalyptic twist.

Meanwhile, remember all that righteous tongue clucking about not 'politicising' an issue?

Sure enough, in today's Terror, Miranda the Devine turns up, tearing herself away from her new life as a weekend shock jock, to deliver Greens policies igniting flames (behind the paywall so you can have a peaceful Sunday)

Never mind that it might have been an army ordnance exercise that might have ignited at least one set of flames (fears Defence started worst of NSW bushfires), and never mind climate science and never mind the demand for silence for fear of 'politicising' the issue, it's another classic bilious Miranda 'hang a greenie from the nearest lamp post' Devine outburst.

So Adam Bandt is despicably opportunistic, and never mind the despicable opportunism of the Devine, who can never resist kicking a greenie, when the nearest lamp post isn't available.

If you can't remember that lamp post routine, perhaps you weren't around in 2009, and this epic fit of rage, published, to their eternal shame, by the Fairfaxians, and risibly under a banner which reads "Environment", as if the Devine was an environmentalist with something useful and meaningful to say about the environment, apart from abusing environmentalists, and, worse still, the rant remains available online here:

Nothing has changed in Devine's rant - nothing at all - but by golly does she know how to politicise the issue:

Tony Abbott's plan is to abolish the carbon tax, for which he has a resounding election mandate. The carbon tax has zero impact on bushfires. Zero. It doesn't matter how much we charge ourselves for carbon dioxide, bushfires will occur.

Indeed. But what about their intensity? What about the settings? What about climate science? What about the climate, which the Devine insists on calling "the weather"?

What about the Daily Terror and Simon Benson daring to 'politicise' the issue here (behind the paywall because you have to pay to read about the danger):

Predictions of more extreme heatwaves came as Sydney last week recorded one of its hottest October days on record. 
As bushfires raged across the state yesterday, the report warns very high and extreme fire danger days will increase by up to 30 per cent by 2020 - and up to 100 per cent by 2050. 
"There is high confidence that increased incidence of fires in southern Australia will increase risk to people, property and infrastructure such as electricity transmission lines," it states.

What about the silly Daily Terror editorialist proposing that Cool heads should rule (inside the paywall), which was a response to the Benson story.

Yes, yes, it's a complete nonsense.

The idea that the rag has anything to contribute while it has crazy hotheads like Miranda the Devine, Tim Blair, Andrew Bolt and Akker Dakker on staff is a cosmic comedy of the first water.

Here's the editorialist trying to be a cool head:

There is almost no doubt that climate change is occurring, and very little that human activity is a contributor. The debate is what to do about it. 
Despite what some of the hysterical extremists on both sides of the argument try to suggest, for reasonable policymakers on the left and the right the question is how to mitigate the causes and effects of climate change while not sending existing industries to ruin and the national economy with them.

Yep, it's a comedy, with News Corp the home of hysterical extremists.

No wonder assorted people outside the tent get frustrated when they want to discuss the implications of climate science.

The result?

Well you get the likes of the Devine rabbiting on about a "cynical political interjection", as if her own remarks weren't a profoundly cynical political interjection, a form of irrational hysteria, complete with an heroic contrast of Adam Bandt and his dog at his home in Flemington, and brave Tony Abbott charging into the bush with his bushfire unit to save lives, a man of action who puts man of action Putin into the shade ...

It would be risible if it wasn't so pathetic, and if the the circumstances weren't so tragic ...

One thing's certain. The Terror seems to be going through some inner turmoil, some realisation that perhaps it has in the past fucked up, and in recent days, it has taken a few tentative steps towards a different culture and a different form of reporting ...

Miranda the Devine has stopped that nonsense in its tracks, with her proposal that climate change has nothing to do with anything ...

It's shameless, a politicising attempt to shut down debate and discussion, and in line with the new government's desire to shut down information and debate and awareness, and the media have fallen into line like lambs ...

If only Conroy had known how easy it would be ...