In which the pond joins the reptiles of Oz in media navel-gazing and fluff gathering ...

Monday is media day at the pond, thanks to the reptiles of Oz, and once again the Terrorists are at it ... though their recent front page outings attracted some ire ...

Really is it up to the pond to suggest better tabloid front pages?

What happened to "Shameless Sheik Shirkers Cause Shrieks" ...?

Poor old Matthias Cormann was the designated dumb bunny who was trotted out to deal with the flak arising from the Terrorist shrieks, which the pond understands could be heard at Scrubby Creek.

In their usual way, the reptiles of Oz didn't actually correct their kissing cousin Terrorist Surry Hills 'leet bunker kin, they just ran Cormann at the bottom of the story, while featuring Cory and the onion muncher at the top ...

And so another faux Murdochian exercise in truth manipulation - and they dare to talk of social media - got its day in the sun.

Anyone who wants Cormann on Sky can head off here, but what's the point? The reptiles aren't interested in nuance, they just do the smear, and having done the smear, they move on to the next smear ...

And speaking of Murdochians, what better way to segue to the Major Mitchell at work?

Now diligent pond readers can write this one in their sleep. Fairfax yadda yadda, ABC yidda yidda, Insiders hiss boo, and so forth and so on and on ...

As we're speaking of climate change, might the pond just interrupt for a moment. 

The pond has already linked to The Rockefeller Family Fund Takes on ExxonMobil and we should link to the earlier first part of the yarn here, both happily outside the paywall for the moment, and we thought we should just mention to the Major Mitchell that there's a big scoop waiting there, seeing as how he's such a major expert at Order of Lenin hunting.

Has he thought about using that expertise in Order of Friendship hunting?

Or maybe in this post-Trumpian world, Order of Lenin hunting has lost its gloss and its charm ... seeing as how the Major Mitchell is at one with Exxonmobile and Order of Friendship wearers on the matter of climate science...

Now back to the usual yadda yadda and the climate denialism ...

Well there's nothing more to do here than for the pond to award its prize galah of the year award. 

Though perhaps not strictly a galah, the Major Mitchell knows how to gnaw uselessly at twigs ...

But wait, there's more, because the pond mentioned sheer cheek, gall and effrontery, which arises when an organisation which routinely corrupts news and betrays facts, dares to blame it all on social media ...

Poor old Mark Day, still doddering on in the wake of the Major Mitchell ...

In reality of course, the echo chamber of the mainstream media faithfully saw all of the Donald's online abuse and bullying reported and amplified. 

Talk of regulation in this context is meaningless and spineless, on a par with the spine Fox News showed in its dealing with the Donald ...

And what better way to end than with a pitiful plug for mainstream newspapers delivered in facsimile. The pond was immediately on high alert, smelling a quisling and treachery in the ranks.

Is this the first crack in the Murdochian wall holding that tree killing editions will endure until they become trendy with bearded hipsters again, like LPs and eight tracks and Polaroid cameras?

Ah well, at least it allows the pond to provide a link to The New Yorker's Factory of Fakes, currently outside the paywall ... so that anyone who made it this far can head off somewhere else ...

... while the pond contemplates that truly sinister final sentence ...

No mention of Xmas? A complete incapacity to wish his readers a happy, relaxed, safe, and possibly even merry Xmas?

Instead it was "a festive season"? That's nearly as bad as wishing happy holydays in the war on Xmas, just when the pond thought that the Donald had ended the campaign.

Let us ignore that festivus allusion as a pitiful attempt at camouflage, here surely is a covert leftist stooge, someone undermining Judeo-Western civilisation in ways outlined only this very morning by the Oreo and desiccated coconut Henry, the hole in the bucket man...

Ah well, that's the way it would be reported in reptile la la land, while at the same time suggesting it was all the fault of social media ...

And so, credit where credit is due. Fox joined with the Ruskis to do their best to get the Donald elected, and it worked a treat,  and now he's all yours bro  ...(and there's more Wilcox here ...)