In which the Murdochian reptiles spell out their digital lizard agenda ...

(Above: and more Rowe here).

The pond couldn't help but overhear Niki Savva - she of the reptiles - musing on The Insiders last Sunday (you can, thanks to the wonders of the digital world, cop the show online here, though not in the world order the Murdochians seek to impose).

... I think it was very difficult for ... Turnbull to go out and defend this because, look, everybody knows what the Prime Minister said, and everybody knows now that it was a lie. A lie is bad enough, but lying about a lie is even worse, and that's what they were trying to do, they were trying to cover over that, and I think what it really needs again is for the Prime Minister to come out and say 'well you know I probably made a mistake, I shouldn't have said that, whatever he says, and then to get it on to the issue of the ABC and how much the ABC … 
 Exactly, they shouldn't have done it. That was a mistake right, but if they allow this whole discussion to get bogged down in that mistake, then they will lose … 
It was a dumb interview to do the night before the election. The election was in the bag. Why go on SBS, no offence to SBS, but who's watching on a Friday night, and make that kind of declaration? That's the other thing they're saying within the government, why did this happen ...

Well that seems clear enough, even for a reptile.

Let's face it, Savva is no friend of the ABC or of Labor. She's a died in the wool reptile, a curious miscegenation of species, but even a reptile knows it's not possible for a wolf to hide in sheep's cloth.

It was a lie, and then they lied about the lie, and it was a dumb interview done by a dumb man who always likes to over-egg and now has egg on his face.

So how did the liar deal with being caught out in a lie? Did he do a Savva? Nope:

Yes, the liar doubled down and kept on lying about the lie. So now Abbott is just another lying politician, a liar who will carry that title until the day comes that he's kicked out of power and someone decides a Royal Commission into his behaviour in relation to Pauline Hanson is a worthwhile exercise ... since if he lies now, he probably lied then ... (and let's not begin to count all the other lies ...)

But look, that headline has already fled the reptiles' digital front page, just as you now have to look for it elsewhere, though it's easy enough to find, as in Dan Harrison's report here (with forced video):

For once it's worth hanging in on that forced video, just to hear the one trick pony go through his repertoire of tricks, which is to say three word slogans.

It becomes clear enough that four word slogans are just too much for the lumbering dinosaur to process ...

The liar even got a run on SBS, though, no offence SBS, who was watching, here:

Oh how they chortled with glee as the galumphing lad slashed and hacked and denied and lied.

But here's the thing, for those that bothered to read that very last bit about getting carried away, and how it's an exaggeration to say that Abbott's "engaging in an extremist, ruthless, right wing campaign to silence the ABC ..."

What's it really all about Alfie, or if you will, Tony?

Let us turn to the reptiles, who as per Savva know the truth of the matter, and who do indeed want to silence the ABC.

They want Mark Scott's scalp, and they want the ABC out of digital, and they want the ABC reduced to a rural service to shut up the agrarian socialists, and they don't want any competition while they pursue their extreme, ruthless kool-aid swilling Chris Mitchell agenda.

Here's how it's done. Look at the front page of the lizard Oz, and it seems like it's reporting matters with some solemnity and width:

But look a little more closely, and you'll be down the rabbit hole with Alice, reading stories like "Turnbull wears the blame for Scott's cuts".

Yep, the cuts are all Mark Scott's fault. Poor old big Mal had nothing to do with them ...

Now let's head off to the lizard Oz editorial, which - it's outside the paywall here - reveals all.

This is where, in a private, discrete way, the reptiles issue their marching orders to the puppet politicians.

Naturally the editorial is full of lies, distortions, half-truths, fears, bile and resentment and an abundance of crocodile tears. It's a reptile editorial, so that goes without saying.

But let's see if we can decipher the runes, read the tea leaves, discern the marching orders, and then do a Tony Abbott and reduce the verbiage to a few simple slogans:

Uh huh. Well that's easy enough:

1. Get the ABC out of digital (we can't stand the heat, we resent the competition, The Graudian's come to town, it's all too hard).

Hey nonny no, on we go:

Well as Humpty Dumpty would say, that's pretty straightforward and obvious:

2. Get the ABC back to servicing regional centres and parochial shit and all that other small town stuff. Let them piss money against the wall on inefficient parochial production outfits, and never no mind that the ABC has been outsourcing much of its production activity to the private sector for yonks. (It'll shut up the agrarian socialists. Let's face it, can anybody report the news like the reptiles of the Oz, and without any bias at all).

Hey nonny no, on we go:

Well yes, poor old Chris Kenny suffered dreadfully, since he isn't a dog fucker, just an ABC fucker. So it's clear how this pans out:

3. Sack Mark Scott.

So there's Abbott's marching orders in a nutshell, as delivered by the Murdochians pursing their hard line, extremist, kool aid sipping right wing agenda:

Let's see if the pond can dumb it down to three word slogans that even Abbott can hold in his noggin, unless asked a tricky question by SBS:

1. Stop teh digital;
2. Keep teh parochial;
3. Sack teh Scott

Perhaps there should also be an over-riding command, the sort that Asimov gave to his robots:

1. Degut teh ABC
2. First harm teh ABC

Oh okay, that's got four words, that last one, so it might be tricky for Abbott, but no doubt he'll muscle up and do what the reptiles require, nay demand and insist must be done.

Make it so, says the kool aid imbibing Chris Mitchell, and what's the bet the liar and his minions will do their level best to make it so ...

Now the battle lines will shift, and the attack will centre on the board, and on Scott and on senior management, and by magic, it will seem that the ABC has wilfully denied the Minister by daring to be efficient, rather than placate the likes of the whining Pyne and the agrarian socialists and the parochialists.

How parochial does it get? Well the 'Tiser had it just right:

Yes, the ABC might be leaving, and dozens of crow eaters might be facing the sack, but the Seven network moved on a newsreader, so that's top of the page ...

Now the pond is made of stern stuff, but around this time, the pond decided it couldn't do any more Murdochian mayhem.

Oh sure there was this:

Yes, because no one's protested in the streets, and nobody's noticed the cuts, and nobody cares, which is perhaps why sometimes the pond thinks Nobody's following the pond ...

Learn more from the Caterists? But the pond had already seen that movie:

And then there was this:

Yes, because it's all Mark Scott's fault. He was always going to do it, and outrageously, it involved an attempt to use the actual new digital world ... when everybody knows what should have happened to fast broadband and the NBN:

Was it only 2010, here?

Mission accomplished master. Are there any fresh orders?

Destroy Mark Scott, degut the ABC ...

Yes master ...

And the Turnbull robot lurches into action ...

(Below: more Wilcox here)