Tabloid terror, will it never end ...

The pond was wondering when there'd be payback for the series of shameless political inquiries and witch hunts launched by the Abbott government  as soon as it got into power.

That they were politically motivated became clear when Abbott and company decided to hang the union movement out to dry, but decided that the outrageous behaviour of Commonwealth Bank employees could remain in a dark, dank cupboard ... not to mention sundry other bits of behaviour at the big end of town well worth a Royal Commission ...

Well payback's a bitch, and it couldn't happen to a nicer feller ...

Campbell Newman himself hasn't been adverse to politicising and gaming the system - as with the reptiles celebrating Campbell Newman strikes back at Clive Palmer in court (yes, you even get the begging letter of doom on news stories, so no link to these paupers of the press).

That was about a defamation action launched by Palmer, which saw Newman launch this wonderful legalese:

Mr Newman’s document states that the public has a right to information “that might lead them to ask questions” and “be better informed about the means by which a party” Mr Palmer founded was “securing the allegiance of persons elected to representative bodies”. 
His Supreme Court reply to Mr Palmer’s defamation proceedings states that his remarks about the tycoon were reasonable and would assist the public in trying to determine how “Mr Palmer in his capacity as a businessman sought to influence government decision-making in relation to his business interests”. (you know how to google if you want the source)

Well indeed, and no doubt the PUPsters are busy stating that the public has a right to information that might lead them to ask questions about the follies of Campbell Newman, ranging from his shameless deep north desire to imitate Arizona in the matter of prison gear to his government's maltreatment of the environment, most notably the GBR, to his ongoing frolics with appointments to Queensland's legal system.

Yep, payback's a bitch, and what do you know, there was the great big internet filter man pointing out the hypocrisy of protesting political inquiries as the best excuse ever for another politicised inquiry.

Yep, paybacks a bitch, but how much more righteous and justifiably indignant Abbott and company could have sounded if they hadn't erected the model and set it running ... to the cheers and the plaudits of the festering, rabid reptiles ...

As for the Currish Wail and its photoshopped front page, it's clear that the honourable tradition of demeaning journalism remains strong in the deep Murdochian north.

It's as if the rag wanted to show it was an ideological rag, because you'd be hard pressed finding a similar sort of monkey business cover aimed at Tony Abbott and gang's set of political inquiries.

Unprecedented politically motivated inquiry?

What shower did they come down in?

It's a totally precedented politically motivated inquiry, and it couldn't happen to a nicer feller ...

Naturally the reptiles at the lizard Oz were front and centre with outraged indignation, and who better to lead the way than the bouffant one?

(sorry, no link because that would lead directly to a begging, pleading subscription demand from the paupers of the press)

Oh go shed crocodile tears about Abbott's attempt to destroy for all time a woman who wasn't even in power when he mounted his belated assault ... an assault on a woman to prove he wasn't really a misogynist ... now there's an irony.

As for Clive Palmer wanting to destroy Campbell Newman, does it get any funnier coming from a rag which has attempted for years, and routinely demonstrated its priority was, courtesy Hedley Thomas, to attack and destroy Clive Palmer. And slow work they've made of it ... because there the gadfly still is, prancing about ...

Meanwhile, as the Currish Snail continues its valiant attempts to reduce Australian journalism to the level of Mad magazine ...

... yep, and the graphic art is still at the same mindless, clichéd level. And while speaking of monkeys, there might be a few who remember these:

Talk of click bait - head off to The Shocking True Tale Of The Mad Genius Who Invented Sea-Monkeys to be shocked ...

Meanwhile, as the pond joins the Currish Snail in a valiant attempt to reduce Australian journalism to childishness, as sure as clockwork, and with a few scientists daring to point out that things might not be altogether well with the climate, what's the response of the feral reptiles at the Oz?

Uh huh. Global warming might be a problem, but it's not a real problem, and climate science isn't a problem at all because it's all in the fevered brain of the Bureau of Meteorology ...

No links, because why waste another nanosecond of life on climate denialists while being assaulted by a begging 'please subscribe' missive from the paupers of the press ...

It's just a matter of going cold turkey, and it's amazingly easy. The pond scored four tree killer papers from the airport yesterday - the AFR, The Age, the HUN and the Oz and was through them like a dose of Epsom Salts in a half hour ...

Meanwhile, as the reptiles at the lizard Oz indulge in yet another valiant attempt to reduce Australian journalism to scientific ludditism - next up, expert scientist Maurice Newman on the flaws in the theory of evolution - a few journalists have slowly begun to wake up to the implications of the national security act wending its way through parliament.

Too late.

You won't find the reptiles getting agitated - they're too busy lazing on the hot rock in the sun with denialists like Newman - but a few have worked out that if they reported a decent story on Australian security, they might be off to the clink for years.

That's the sort of style of an Egyptian government, and Suelette Dreyfus gets agitated in The Graudian with The Coalition's national security laws herald a new era in the Australian security state. There was plenty of other coverage too, such as Paul Farrell's National security laws 'strike at the heart of press freedom'.

But the reptiles lie doggo, more concerned about 18C, and the right to defame anyone within earshot, and the right of the holy crusaders to carry on their sundry jihads.

Yes, wouldn't you know it, instead of getting agitated about this dangerous threat to press freedom, there's Greg "bromance" Sheridan getting agitated about the ABC:

Oh for fuck's sake, there's the federal government stealing the rights of the hen house to report on serious matters, in lieu of jail time, and perhaps in Newman preferred pink, and there's Sheridan getting his knickers in a knot about a couple of fuckwitted Murdoch tabloid chooks getting caught out by the ABC.

No link to Sheridan - you'd only cop a begging note from the paupers of the press, and anyway, you can read the fuckwitted chooks attempting their own defence in The Daily Telegraph responds to Media Watch's latest attack.

Lordy lordy these chooks are worth the cover of a Mad magazine. Their first feint?

A Daily Telegraph spokesman said: “Once again the ABC is desperately struggling to find a stick to beat The Daily Telegraph while the ABC’s fellow travellers at Fairfax are responsible for an error that has seriously affected a young man’s life. It will be interesting to see how much of the program tonight that matter commands.”

Ah a pre-emptive fatuous strike designed to evoke the depths of fatuity the chooks can reach.

Fellow travellers? Is that Mao speak from the 1950s, you silly kool aid drinkers you ...

You see, it's not just about Fairfax fucking up. It's about the tabloid hysteria of the Murdochian jihadists fearing mongering in a foaming fit of distorted front page paranoia ... day after tedious bloody day, cranking up the Islamophobia.

How fudgy do the chooks get?

The Daily Telegraph stands by its prison riot story — which was gathered and updated as events unfolded.

This is code for getting the facts wrong on an updated basis. You see, it wasn't as the event unfolded, that was done and dusted, it was as the Terror tried to work out how to maximise its jihad, as its jihad unfolded, altering the 'facts' as it went along.

For sheer hokum, you can't do better than this closing line:

The Sunday Telegraph front page did inadvertently imply there were inmate ‘sweepers’ in Goulburn Supermax, but it stands by its report that ‘sweepers’ do exist in other NSW prisons.

Stupid headless chooks. The entire point of the story was how it related to Goulburn ... but like most bullies they can't take a deserved licking ...

You see talk of Fairfax fucking up - and the pond talked more than enough about that - is no excuse for the Terror being a disgrace to journalism ...

Truly, looking at the state of the Murdoch press, you might wonder why anybody would worry about freedom of the press, unless that's the freedom to be fuckwitted headless chooks ...

But it does matter all the same, because there are consequences ...

The evil within?

Well George Morgan has his own interpretation of the evil, as you can discover by reading Islamophobia feeds on our fear of an evil within, but for the pond, the Murdoch tabloids will do as exemplary examples of the evil within:

The wider function of the whole operation was to legitimise both the decision to send troops back to Iraq and to sell the counter- terrorist laws by which ASIO will be allowed to break in to your personal computer and meddle with its contents even if you haven't been involved in criminal acts. The intense circumstances of a moral panic are required to overcome the political misgivings about such attacks on freedom. So the press conference, in the wake of the police raids, assembled the full misere: Prime Minister, NSW Premier and heads of both NSW and Federal Police, each singing from the same portentous songbook: extraordinary attacks were planned and extraordinary measures were required. 
Despite subsequent attempts at multicultural reassurance – politicians calling on the public to respect the rights of Australians from Middle Eastern backgrounds – the dog whistle has well and truly been sounded. The knee-jerk Islamophobes, like Cory Bernardi and Jackie Lambie – gave voice to their prejudices. Pictures appeared in social media of racist slogans spray painted on the property of Muslim Australians, and there were reports of strangers pulling headscarfs from women's heads in public places. When a man walked into an Islamic school wielding a knife no news outlet reported this as a potential act of terror. It is worth remembering that the most shocking massacre of recent times in the west was committed by an Islamophobe, Anders Breivik in Norway, who considered himself to be a soldier in a global war.

And the Terror did its very best to feed the frenzy.

But what will be the end result, as the new security laws wend their way through parliament, and the enormous capacity of government to legally intrude on private lives is set in stone?

No doubt some journalist doing their job will end up in the clink, doing a Peter Greste down under ..

The odds it will be a Murdoch journalist?

Small ... the quislings know the benefits of fellow travelling ...

By golly, after that rant, the pond needs a Bex and a lie down, or better still, a little human flesh and a Steve Bell cartoon.

It's been a long time since the pond has paid homage to Bell, and more Bell here.

Don't feel threatened. We have our dinkum zombies down under, and they're as good as any Pommy political zombie ... and if you subscribe to a Murdoch rag, you can join the zombie army ...

Just remember, say no to guns ...