First a word of explanation. Inevitably the Porter matter will turn up below in the usual columnists the pond relies on for its Sunday meditations, but one item won't be at hand ... the one that featured at the top of the lizard Oz page at the start of the digital weekend.
The pond expects nothing better from Dame Slap, but the role of the oscillating fan in that piece is truly contemptible and appalling ...
Where to begin? Well not so long ago, the oscillating fan was writing a piece for the lizard Oz titled ...Christian Porter and a chilling, disgraceful denial of basic rights.
It began:
The way the allegations against Attorney-General Christian Porter crescendoed this week was utterly extraordinary. The denial of natural justice; the trial by media; the lost presumption of innocence; the mob mentality of convicting someone whom police didn’t even charge with a crime — I have never seen anything like it in Australian politics.
The reptiles have, of course, been yammering on endlessly about trial by media and how wrong it is, and yet in the piece noted above by "Slap and the Fan" (movie title rights patented) came this ...
...Her life and death are a tragedy. Especially for her family, who have expressed concerns that, perhaps due to mental illness that included a bipolar disorder, she may have imagined the rape. They didn’t want Kate’s claims to go public.
And no one wants to add to their grief. Or the grief of former high school friends, though many of them appear to have lost contact with Kate for most if not all of the past 30 years.
But the vicious, often hysterical and emotional public sham trial of Porter ignores why we have a legal system — to test very serious accusations such as rape by amassing evidence to determine guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
We detail below far more material than has been disclosed to date by any other media organisation, despite many inside the political and media beltway having access to it. Now readers can judge for themselves.
Just roll that one around on your tongue for a moment, before the stench of hypocrisy and the nausea makes you rush to the toilet to vomit ...
Now readers can judge for themselves.
Even when they kept it lower down the page, they kept that tagline ...
That's how you do it. Trot out sanctimonious, righteous self-serving bullshit about the victim, and not wanting to add to grief, and deplore a public sham trial, and celebrate the legal system, then offer your very own trial by media, in which subscribers can be the judge and the jury and whatever else, and then dress it up as "in her own words", when it turns out that this pair of hypocrites have a lot of their own words to add ...
Well, the pond judges the oscillating fan as a hypocritical, self-pitying, bullshit artist, and is reminded of his bullshit routine on The Insiders last week ...
David Speers: We’re joined this week by Katharine Murphy, Annabel Crabb and Peter van Onselen. Welcome to you all. I think it’s important to start this conversation with a quick disclosure. Annabel, you knew the woman at the centre of this allegation against Christian Porter?
Annabel Crabb: Yeah, I knew her, well, probably nearly 30 years ago. And I haven’t spoken to her I would say in 20 years….
David Speers: …And Peter, you’ve been friends with Christian Porter for a long time?
Peter van Onselen: Yeah. Since before he entered politics at State or Federal level. And good friends.
David Speers: Yeah. Okay. Just to get that on the table. So that – and Katharine?
Katharine Murphy: I have no declarations.
Peter van Onselen: I’m also not, nor have I ever been, a member of the Communist Party.
David Speers: Right. Why do you say that?
Peter van Onselen: I just feel the need to – full disclosure.
David Speers: You have some reluctance in disclosing?
Peter van Onselen: Oh, not at all. I mean, I’ve tried to disclose my friendship with Christian Porter since the moment he entered politics. I disclosed it in an article I wrote calling for him to resign when he was in State politics because of a policy decision he made. So, I don’t have a problem disclosing it. What I have a problem with is the assumption that because you know somebody, as a commentator, it changes your view. I disagree with him on a number –
David Speers: I don’t think that. But I think it’s, you know, it’s just important to make sure viewers don’t think there’s anything being hidden in the conversation.
It goes without saying that there's no mention of van Onselen's friendship with Porter in the hit piece published yesterday (nor, to clarify, his failure to join the Communist Party). But the hit piece ended this way ...
The question readers might now want to ask themselves is does Kate’s dossier raise doubts about what has been alleged against Porter?
The question readers might want to ask themselves is "what's all this reptile bullshit about trial by media?"
What, for example, to make of this self-pitying tweet by the oscillating fan?
Yes, by all means, don't pass it on to Porter, just publish it in the lizard Oz, and invite readers to act as judge and jury in a trial by media ... no doubt it will make interesting reading for Porter during his break.
What a contemptible chappie this Fan is, and it reminded the pond of a comment by Guy Rundle at Crikey at the end of one of his pieces... (paywall affected)
...Ironically (not ironically) if any organisation has finished Porter as a public figure, I would argue that it’s News Corp. Jamie Walker’s recent story in The Weekend Australian gave a degree of detail from Kate’s account that tipped over into old-school sex crime reporting.
While The Weekend Oz‘s editorial fulminated about trial-by-media, Walker’s piece was like an old two-pager rape-trial special from Truth in the 1970s. For obvious commercial reasons: The Weekend Oz supports the weekday Oz losses, and needs blockbuster sales.
Others hadn’t included this level of detail in their stories, likely out of concern for the posthumous dignity of the woman and the young girl she was. News Corp felt no such compunction. Christian Porter is now the bloke accused of anally raping a 16-year-old girl while she slept, having previously forced here to perform oral sex.
Porter could resist the ABC’s coverage. I’m not sure he can survive his friends at News Corp. This is politics now. Politics is many things, but one thing it ain’t is a debating society.
It all fits. The Weekend Oz needs blockbuster sales, so Dame Slap of the IPA and the oscillating fan team up to deliver a dossier full of salacious details, upping Walker's ante, so that they might invite a trial by media, with readers to judge ...
And that's why the pond won't touch it with a barge pole. The pond routinely covers the gutter press, but there's no need to get so far down in the gutter with Dame Slap and the oscillating fan ... so far into the mud that the stars vanish from view ...
Instead the pond will get down in the gutter in its usual way with prattling Polonius ...
Polonius is as predictable as a broken clock, and as surely as the sun rises, and the broken clock realises it must gong the time, the Pellist matter will be mentioned.
But there is good news. Polonius has changed his viewing habits, and instead of the ABC, he has found a new enemy to excoriate ... Don Lemon ...
Yes, it's pretty funny, but it allows Polonius to raise saucy doubts and fears, because as an alleged republican, Polonius did but see the Queen passing by, and hoped that he might love her till he died ...
Of course, Polonius is just as much in the dark as everybody else when it comes to the truth of the matter, but that doesn't stop him from proposing, in a negative phrasing, that Meghan's account was untrue ...
By the way, isn't it wonderful how Polonius is on a first names basis with Meghan? None of that Ms Markle malarkey for him ... it's all about the commonly known Meghan, just like any hippie trippy fashion columnist ...
And so to more saucy doubts and fears, and the raising of them thereof ... followed inevitably, as night follows day, the Pellist affair ...
Well the pond did warn that the Pellist grievance would air yet again, but at least there's no mention of long suffering victims of the Catholic church, nor how the ABC doesn't have a single conservative on its various forms, which is to say that they've left out Polonius, and not because he's a tedious old fart who keeps on harping on and on about the same old things, but because it's just not fair ... and Polonius should have had his share ...
Indeed, indeed ...
And so the alleged republican falls into line with the palace, because that's what Ming the Merciless himself would do, and as for public debate?
...Her life and death are a tragedy. Especially for her family, who
have expressed concerns that, perhaps due to mental illness that
included a bipolar disorder, she may have imagined the rape. They didn’t
want Kate’s claims to go public.
And no one wants to add to their
grief. Or the grief of former high school friends, though many of them
appear to have lost contact with Kate for most if not all of the past 30
years.
But the vicious, often hysterical and emotional public sham
trial of Porter ignores why we have a legal system — to test very
serious accusations such as rape by amassing evidence to determine guilt
beyond reasonable doubt.
We detail below far more material than has
been disclosed to date by any other media organisation, despite many
inside the political and media beltway having access to it. Now readers
can judge for themselves.
And now, before the pond retreats from the nauseating stench of hypocrisy on parade, a relieving cartoon ...
Ah, the prince and the showgirl ... it's ever been thus ...
And now to a matter which of late has come to perplex the pond every weekend.
Whatever happened to our Gracie?
Was it a knock on the head, or a bump in the night, or just a jolly big Dr Seuss fright? Yet here she is again, ready to perplex the pond ...
Indeed, indeed, but everyone now knows, no thanks to News Corp ...
While The Weekend Oz‘s editorial fulminated about trial-by-media,
Walker’s piece was like an old two-pager rape-trial special from Truth
in the 1970s. For obvious commercial reasons: The Weekend Oz supports
the weekday Oz losses, and needs blockbuster sales.
Others hadn’t
included this level of detail in their stories, likely out of concern
for the posthumous dignity of the woman and the young girl she was. News
Corp felt no such compunction. Christian Porter is now the bloke
accused of anally raping a 16-year-old girl while she slept, having
previously forced here to perform oral sex.
Porter could resist the
ABC’s coverage. I’m not sure he can survive his friends at News Corp.
This is politics now. Politics is many things, but one thing it ain’t is
a debating society.
But do go on, Gracie, even if we can no longer pretend that the fix wasn't in from day one, even if it was a fix that was botched and mishandled from day one, and patently full of holes, evasions, equivocations, distortions and outright lies ...
Or alternatively, the employer could delegate the whole messy business to his friendly propaganda arm, and hope that will take care of business ...
We detail below far more material than has been disclosed to date by any other media organisation, despite many inside the political and media beltway having access to it. Now readers can judge for themselves.
In this scenario, no one bears the risk, but the dead might be freely judged and defamed, because what the heck ...
The question readers might now want to ask themselves is does Kate’s
dossier raise doubts about what has been alleged against Porter?
Just in case the jurors might misread the evidence, and come to the wrong conclusion.
But at the very end our Gracie holds out a glimmer of hope ...
And so to end on a lighter note, with First Dog in outraged mode and in full here ... and the pond hears what First Dog is saying, and yet the pond's son is already $25k up on Dogecoin, which he took up long ago simply because of the lolz ... and might well pick up another 25k if Musk tweets again.
What a weird world it is, from contemptible reptiles to art markets ...
Well that shades 25k and the pond knew from the get go it was in the wrong game taking up reptile studies. We are all in the gutter, but some are looking up at the digital stars.
Have at it, First Dog ...
Lord Chesterfield put it well:
ReplyDeletePeople will, in a great degree, and not without reason, form their opinion of you, upon that which they have of your friends; and there is a Spanish proverb, which says very justly, tell me who you live with, and I will tell you what you are. One may fairly suppose, that a man, who makes a knave or a fool his friend, has something very bad to do, or to conceal.
"The pond routinely covers the gutter press, but there's no need to get so far down in the gutter with Dame Slap and the oscillating fan ... "
ReplyDeleteA certain expression about leopards and spots comes readily to mind. And "it was only a matter of time" - and precious little time at that - but I do wonder, apart from having a "female" countersign the Fan's shvt, what part The Slappy played in this.
But that bullshvt about "readers can judge for themselves" is truly appalling, even though it's just stock-standard for the reptiles. But no, the readers can't "judge" for themselves, can we. And now it's too late to do anything decent or civilised about any of it - that should have been done 30 or more years ago.
Oh, and just a little gun and fames over "they said, we didn't" and the war on China:
ReplyDeleteChina reports Australia to UN body over 'violated' human rights
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/mar/13/china-reports-australia-to-un-body-over-violated-human-rights
Well its about time somebody did, isn't it.
So, moving right along to the preposterous Polonius: "In days of old, when most journalists were reporters, a degree of scepticism prevailed with respect to claims by individuals." Well now, that must have been a very great many "days of old" ago because I'm older than Polonius, and I've been reading the Australian press (including, but not limited to, the Australian) longer than Polonius has been writing for it - long enough ago to have read The Argus anyway - ie for about 65 years - and there has never been a time in which "most journalists were reporters" and in which there was any "scepticism" about what the people whose side they were on, said. And that side was almost exclusively "right wing".
ReplyDeleteOh, the relief when the Nation Review started printing (and it was all 'ink on paper' printing back then) and some genuinely sceptical analysis and faithful journalism actually made an appearance in Australia.
All back to square one with the Murdochrat 'press' and it's 'reporters' now though.
But now on to "the strange turn that our Gracie has been taking ..."
ReplyDeleteHmmm. Yep, it is indeed. "A gross miscarriage of justice has occurred," she opines, "against both our Attorney General and an unnamed complainant now deceased." But, butt Gracie, our Attorney General hasn't been anywhere near the forces of "justice" for it to be 'miscarried' for him - he's only been in the hands of a Daggy Dad masquerading as a Prime Minister who has basically declared our Attorney General is not guilty of any wrongdoing. And our "unnamed complainant since deceased" hasn't been subjected to injustice, she's been subjected to a gross and unforgivable criminal act.
However, when she opinionates that: "If Porter didn't ask to see the allegations, then he went on the record to issue denials while complaining that he hadn't even seen the allegations. Readers should ask themselves why someone would do this." then I went on to ask myself that. And the answer came back that Porter was aware that the allegations were concerned with him having sex, consensual or otherwise, with the complainant.
Now if Porter insists that, in fact, no sex at all took place then what do the details of the supposed sex mean to him ? Does he have to go through an itemised list of the sex acts that supposedly took place and deny each one of them individually ? Would that actually clarify anything ?
Then: "We know our Prime Minister is an extreme optimist." Well, he's got God on his side, hasn't he ? And "Still it requires even the most magical thinking to see a situation where Porter returns to work, and all is forgotten." Which is just exactly the kind of thinking that our god-favoured "extreme optimist" PM engages in on a daily basis. Just in case you hadn't noticed.
God and Soapy Morrison are very good friends. They have known each other for a long time. They went to school together.
ReplyDeleteI rarely bother with anything on ‘Twitter’, but Tony Windsor (former independent MP) maintains a useful site, often with entertaining items on life in the country, and useful commentary from people who used to be recognised as actual journalists - before they were cast out in the name of ‘efficiency’.
ReplyDeleteA few weeks back he reminded the Oscillating that he - the Fan - had written that, in 2010, people in Windsor’s electorate were spitting on him. Windsor challenged him; and apparently the PvO tried to laugh it off as ‘media hype’.
There were further exchanges - PvO trying to justify himself, without success, so, being the spirited commentator he claims, he - blocked Windsor from his ‘Twitter’ site.
A search for ‘TonyHWindsor’ and ‘Twitter’ should deliver for you.
We've had one or two good federal independents like Tony Windsor over the years - remembering back to the days of Ted Mack, for instance.
DeleteAll of the good ones these days are women, and a good thing that is too. Thinking back to Edith Cowan and later, federally, Enid Lyons and Dorothy Tangney - neither of which were independent, but you can't get everything all at once.