GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG

ISSUE – NO. 712

24 January 2025

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ELLIE’S BACK

Ellie Australia Day

As avid readers know, Media Watch Dog commenced what journalists like to call a Well Earned Break on Friday 13 December 2024. It has returned on the eve of the Australia Day long weekend – with a little help from a deaf canine named Ellie. By the way, Ellie is a real Blue Heeler – unlike the ABC’s “Bluey” who is a fake Blue Heeler.

Meanwhile, over at the taxpayer funded public broadcaster, the word is that ABC TV’s Media Watch will return on Monday 3 February 2025 (after an eight-week WEB) and ABC TV’s Insiders on Sunday 2 February 2025 (after a similar WEB). Meanwhile, Sky News on Foxtel commenced its main opinion programs on 13 January. Which suggests that WEBs in the commercial media are less well earned than others.

Once again, this year, readers are encouraged to send in material – or, as the late Dean Martin was wont to say: “Keep those cards and letters coming, folks”.  All of it is read and as much as possible is used at some stage.  MWD is put together with a very small staff (all of whom work on other matters too) – unlike the taxpayer funded public broadcaster’s Media Watch which has a team of around half a score (in old-fashioned word usage) for a 15-minute program around 45 weeks a year.

Thanks to MWD’s avid (and avid-but-not-uncritical) readers.  Remember to Keep Morale High in 2025. And Happy Australia Day on 26 January.

  • THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD’S “THE SUMMER THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING” – STARRING SEAN KELLY, KATHY LETTE + NIKI SAVVA – BEARS LITTLE RELATION TO SUMMER

Is anyone reading The Sydney Morning Herald’’s series entitled “The Summer That Changed Everything”? For his part, Ellie’s (male) co-owner has glanced at some of the contributions by MWD faves.

  • On 15 January, Sydney Morning Herald and Age columnist Sean Kelly wrote about his 40th birthday party. Yawn. It seems to have taken place during a “damp and warm Spring evening” – in London. Which is a long way north of an Australian Summer – but there you go.

MWD is an admirer of Comrade Kelly since he managed to work for both Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard when each was prime minister – quite an achievement, don’t you think? He once wrote in The Game: A Portrait of Scott Morrison that he dreamt that he was – wait for it – Prime Minister Morrison himself. [Could this have been a nightmare? MWD editor] See MWD Issue 571. However, nothing much was to be learnt from your man Kelly’s (alleged) Summer experience – except that he is over 40 years of age and is not sure whether he can remain besties with those who attended his 40th party. Groan.

  • On 17 January author and Australia’s Punster Queen Kathy Lette wrote about the subject she knows best – namely the adventures of Ms Lette. It turned out that a long time ago her fiancé broke up with her and her sisters shouted Ms Lette a Summer holiday at Club Med in New Caledonia. Here the Punster Queen had an assignation with a Jason whose “tattoos were probably his only reading material” – but she returned home alone. And zzzzzzz – the heading was – “Poolside love god with serious pecs appeal.”
  • Then on 18 January Niki Savva – another Age and SMH columnist – wrote a piece titled “I missed meeting the Stones – but landed my perfect job”. In fact, Comrade Savva wrote about her early career as a journalist involving a train crash, entertainment and reporting on health – and, er, not meeting the Rolling Stones . With respect to health, she referred to seeing “Dr Joseph Santamaria, brother of B. A. Santamaria” who she described as a micro-surgeon at St Vincent’s Hospital. This would have surprised Melbourne readers who understood that Dr Joseph Santamaria worked at St Vincent’s Hospital in the area of alcohol and drug dependence, and was not a surgeon. Yet Comrade Savva described him as showing how his team had attached “severed fingers”. Could it be that Ms Savva has a clear “recollection” of an event that never happened?

By the way, the only connection between Comrade Savva’s Summer experience and Summer was that on 25 February 1974 she flew to Canberra to take up a job in the Canberra Press Gallery – there were only three days of Summer left at the time she departed the Melbourne Summer. All of which suggests that the Sydney Morning Herald’s “The Summer That Changed Everything” had little to do with Summer and more to do with Fake News. Can You Bear It?

  • IN WHICH ALASTAIR CAMPBELL ACCUSES ELON MUSK OF BEING A NARCISSIST – REALLY

Wasn’t it great to see former British Labour Party spinner Alastair Campbell back in action on ABC TV’s 7.30? The date was 9 January and 7.30 political correspondent Laura Tingle was in the presenter’s chair. The topic was the role British Prime Minister Keir Starmer played in handling the grooming of young British working-class girls by Pakistani British men in northern England some years ago. As La Tingle described the situation:

Laura Tingle: The British PM, Sir Keir Starmer, [was] forced to defend his record after tech billionaire, Elon Musk launched an explosive attack on his social media platform, X. One where he accused the Prime Minister of being “complicit in the rape of Britain”. The fierce row centres around Keir Starmer’s past. … Before entering politics, Starmer served as Director of Public Prosecutions. During that time, his office worked to prosecute members of criminal gangs which predominantly consisted of men of South Asian descent that had groomed, assaulted and raped young girls across England. But it was also criticised for not doing enough to help some victims. Following Musk’s recent posts, the decade-old scandal has re-emerged.

7.30 played a 12-word grab from the British Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch criticising Sir Keir. Then La Tingle criticised Elon Musk at some length. Quelle Surprise! Then it was time to hear from Alastair Campbell. He was provided with a platform to defend Prime Minister Starmer and attack Elon Musk.

Talk about a soft interview. Tingle did not challenge any of Campbell’s put-downs of Musk – even though Campbell did not directly address the grooming scandal. Let’s go to the transcript – with a leading question from Tingle about Musk:

Laura Tingle:  Well, does it amplify beyond the immediate headlines, does it amplify those far-right messages at some structural level? I mean we saw that interaction between him [Musk] and Nigel Farage. I mean is he likely to be pushing the far-right even further to the right?

Alastair Campbell: Well, he’s definitely – I mean, Rory Stewart, my podcast partner, openly says that he believes that Musk is a fascist. He’s got fascist tendencies. I think he’s a narcissist, I think he is a megalomaniac.

It seems that Rory Stewart has adopted the meaning of “fascist” as defining someone you don’t like. After all, Campbell did not say precisely why his colleague regards Musk as a fascist with – wait for it – fascist tendencies. So, according to Stewart, Musk is not only a fascist – he is a fascist with fascist tendencies. How about that?

And then there was Alastair Campbell’s description of Elon Musk as a “narcissist” and a “megalomaniac”. There you have it. Campbell is putting down narcissists and megalomaniacs. Which reminds Hendo of the Biblical reference to motes and beams in eyes. (Matthew 7:3-5, Douay version. Which is another way of saying with respect to the somewhat narcissistic Alastair Campbell – Can You Bear It?

  •  NINE’S JAMES MASSOLA GOES ALL MILLS & BOONISH BUT STILL FLUNKS ABOUT ELECTION DAY

Gerard Henderson AC (aka Always Courteous) was well brought up. As such, he rarely makes comments on the personal lives of others. Unlike James Massola – Nine Newspapers’ national affairs editor – who gets into personal matters despite himself being well brought up. As MWD readers might recall, Comrade Massola got somewhat emotional in recent times concerning the forthcoming nuptials between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Ms Jodie Haydon.

MWD abides by the saying that it is unwise to make predictions – especially about the future. So, Ellie’s (male) co-owner was surprised to read James Massola’s prediction – tentative, to be sure – about the next election. This is what he had to say about the forthcoming election in the Sydney Morning Herald under the heading “PM could set early poll (and wed soon after)”. The date was 2 June 2024:

The prime minister wants a domestic campaign to have as little crossover with the US election as possible, and the earliest Albanese can call an election is August 3. That means if there is to be a poll this year – if inflation is steady, if there is a chance of a rate cut in November or next February and if Trump looks set to win – there’s an outside chance that Albanese takes the short drive to Government House and rolls the dice on a December 7 election.

Doing so would leave the rest of December clear for the first-ever prime ministerial wedding on December 14 – and a couple of weeks honeymoon. A second election win would be quite a wedding present.

Alas, there was no election on 7 December, and no prime ministerial wedding on 14 December, and no honeymoon extending for a couple of weeks and no second election Albanese win (so far at least).

Which raises the question: why does the clever Mr Massola get all Mills & Boon-like in his political analysis? And here’s another question: Can You Bear It?

EDITORIAL

  • A YEAR INTO KIM WILLIAMS’ TERM AS CHAIR – AND THE ABC STILL LACKS VIEWPOINT DIVERSITY

The more things change at the ABC – the more they remain the same. It’s now close to a year since the high-profile Kim Williams took up the position of ABC chair in March 2024. Since then, Mr Williams has given many interviews (primarily to ABC staff) and delivered many a public lecture (too many in fact).

However, Williams has failed to address the key problem at the taxpayer public broadcaster in so far as content is concerned. Namely, the lack of viewpoint diversity within the organisation itself and also with respect to who ABC journalists interview and/or invite on to ABC panels.

In short, the ABC remains a conservative free zone – without one conservative presenter, producer or editor for any of its prominent news and current affairs programs. The ABC is in denial about this – even though neither Kim Williams nor outgoing ABC managing director David Anderson has been able to name one such conservative.

In one of his final programs, the former presenter of ABC TV Media Watch Paul Barry named Ian McNamara as the ABC’s conservative. McNamara presents a program on ABC Radio on Sunday mornings. It is rarely promoted by the ABC. Moreover, McNamara seems more of a bush socialist than a political conservative. In short, Paul Barry’s contribution to the ABC’s denial that it is a conservative free zone was just fudge.

Have a look at some of the “changes” that have taken place since Kim Williams has adopted a high-profile role as chair of the public broadcaster.

Media Watch Dog maintains that the ABC resembles the “plot” of The Eagles’ song “Hotel California”. In that, the ABC’s key personnel can check out any time they like – but they never leave. A few examples illustrate the point.

First, Fran (“I’m an activist”) Kelly checked out as presenter of the influential ABC Radio National Breakfast some time ago. She is now back presenting the daily Radio National Hour program. When Kelly left RN Breakfast she was replaced by Patricia Karvelas who has recently been replaced by Sally Sara. All left-of-centre types. Meanwhile Karvelas has moved to ABC TV’s Afternoon Briefing.

Last year, the left-of-centre Phillip Adams stepped down as presenter of the ABC RN Late Night Live. He was replaced by the left-of-centre David Marr. It’s possible that Mr Adams has finally left the ABC – but you never know. After all, Mr Marr returned to the ABC after serving time elsewhere.

Before Comrade Kelly returned to full time duties at the ABC, she was presenting Saturday Extra on RN. This role is now filled by the left-of-centre Nick Bryant. Meanwhile, the left-of-centre Paul Barry has now been replaced by left-of-centre Linton Besser.

Meanwhile the left-of-centre Sarah Ferguson, Laura Tingle and Louise Milligan still dominate ABC current affairs. When Comrade Ferguson is not able to present 7.30, Laura Tingle (7.30’s political correspondent) steps into the role.

As mentioned earlier, Paul Barry denies that the ABC is a conservative free zone. But the fact remains that there are left-of-centre presenters/contributors at Fox News in the United States and Sky News in Australia. But there are no right-of-centre presenters at the taxpayer funded public broadcaster in Australia.

Unless ABC management – under the leadership of Kim Williams and incoming managing director Hugh Marks – resolves to address the issue of the public broadcaster’s lack of viewpoint diversity and its propensity to “cancel” conservative talent with respect to interviews/panel slots, it will continue to lose its one-time conservative viewers/listeners. It is unlikely that they will be replaced with new left-of-centre audiences – since many will never regard the ABC as being sufficiently left. After all, the left is an intolerant entity – a fact demonstrated by the ABC’s lack of viewpoint diversity.

THE ABC’S LACK OF VIEWPOINT DIVERSITY IN ACTION – NOT A POLITICAL CONSERVATIVE AMONG THIS LOT OF COMRADES

MWD EXCLUSIVE (SORT OF)

  • RN BREAKFAST’S NEW FORMAT

It is Ellie’s (male) co-owner’s melancholy duty to monitor ABC Radio National Breakfast from Mondays to Fridays. It is notable that, towards the end of the week beginning Monday 20 January, presenter Sally Sara began asking listeners if they had any listener comments on the 2025 format. This would suggest that there has been some push-back in this regard.

Here is the new format, as interpreted by Hendo at Hangover Time.

Comrade Sara interviews A on a political matter. And then asks RN Breakfast’s political correspondent Melissa Clarke to comment on what A said. Then, Comrade Sara interviews B about a matter of business or economics. And then asks RN Breakfast’s economic correspondent Ian Verrender to comment on what B said.

Then Comrade Sara interviews etc etc etc. And asks Melissa and Ian etc etc etc.

Now, MWD just loves it when journalists interview other journalists. But RN Breakfast is resembling a cult of Sara/Verrender/Clarke/Troika. And then there is the fact that Ms Clarke (who, as MWD recalls, once made the ABC TV news bulletin when she finished second – or was it third? – in a road race somewhere in Tasmania) does not say much that is controversial.

Moreover, RN Breakfast no longer interviews other non-Melissa Clarke Canberra Press Gallery journalists along with Guardian Australia and Australia Institute leftists about politics in the slot after 8 AM. Over the years, the likes of Paul Bongiorno, Katharine (“Malcolm calls me Murpharoo”) Murphy, Nine’s David Crowe and the like have frequently provided great copy for MWD. So now all of this has gone. Let’s go back to the past.

ELLIE’S LEFTOVERS

Due to enormous popular demand, this segment returns after what journalists like to term a Well Earned Break. Or WEB. As avid Media Watch Dog readers know, mere mortals take holidays. But members of the Fourth Estate (or to use the pretentious French “le Quatrieme Pouvoir”) take WEBs.

There is so much hyperbole, fake news, literary and verbal sludge and more besides that Ellie’s (male) co-owner has enough material for a daily MWD edition – covering the gamut from Hangover Time on Saturdays to Gin & Tonic Time on Fridays.

Consequently, some material that warrants publication doesn’t make it. Alas. Hence the decision to re-launch “Ellie’s Leftovers” in which Ellie chooses material that was overlooked by her (male) co-owner. This issue looks back at some of the media gems that were not covered in 2024 – or Anno Domini 2024 (in pretentious Latin). Here are Ellie’s Leftovers for 2024 which earned post-anno-mortem gongs:

  • MOST OVER-THOUGHT ANALYSIS OF A WALK DOWN A HILL IN CANBERRA BY GLYN DAVIS – BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE MONTHLY’S JASON KOUTSOUKIS

Jason Koutsoukis is a special correspondent for Schwartz Media’s The [Boring] Saturday Paper. As avid readers know, TSP goes to print on Thursday evenings and appears in inner-city coffee shops on Saturday mornings. As such, it is the only print newspaper in Australia which carries no news. Hendo reads it at Gin & Tonic Time on Mondays – what’s the hurry? As for The Monthly, it’s like The [Boring] Saturday Paper – only with even longer articles. There are some exceptions, however.

In the November 2024 issue of Schwartz Media’s The Monthly, Comrade Koutsoukis wrote a perceptive and informative profile of Glyn Davis. Dr Davis (for a doctor he is) is not only Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, he is also a world expert on the ABC. Why? – MWD hears avid readers cry. Well, your man Davis not only wrote his BA (Hons) thesis on ABC Radio’s Triple J but he also did his PhD on the ABC. In other words, Davis is very much a Doctor of the Taxpayer Funded Public Broadcaster (i.e. Glyn Davis TFPB Doc).

Jason Koutsoukis commenced his profile, titled “In like Glyn”, with an account of how Dr Davis enters and leaves Parliament House in Canberra – on foot and through the front door. Frightfully interesting, don’t you think? Here is JK’s account of the learned doctor’s return from Parliament House to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet at 1 National Circuit Braddon – exiting, you’ve guessed it, on foot through the front door:

Davis returns to his department … sliding through the crowd of lobbyists, staffers and others with business before the parliament who tend to congregate outside Aussie’s Café. He then heads out the public exit and down the hill, his head bowed deep in thought.

What is he thinking about? The vast number of complex issues facing the Commonwealth? An upcoming session with the musicians he likes to jam with? A line of verse that caught his eye while browsing the poetry section at Readings bookstore in Melbourne? A Sydney art exhibition he dare not miss? Any one of a number of pieces he has promised to Australian Book Review or Meanjin? The latest Tom Stoppard play? His grandson? Such is the breadth of Davis’s passions and intellectual curiosity that all of the above are possible.

Well, that’s all true – to be sure. But perhaps your man Davis is thinking about (i) what’s for dinner or (ii) whether he should bore his colleagues by intellectual flashing concerning “such abstruse topics as French philosopher Michel Foucault” (about which as an undergraduate he was an expert – or so JK told readers of The Monthly – if readers there were) or (iii) going back to Melbourne for the weekend or (iv) perhaps admiring his own brilliance.

Which raises the point. Does anyone really care what’s on Glyn Davis’ mind as he walks down a hill in Canberra? Apart, that is, from Comrade Koutsoukis or perhaps your man Dr ABC himself? [No, not really – now that you ask. It’s a pity that you didn’t publish this last year in your hugely popular “Can You Bear It?” Segment. MWD editor]

  • EPPING MAN GEOFFREY ROBERTSON’S FAIL AS KEIR STARMER’S MENTOR

When it comes to pomposity, few can match Geoffrey Robertson KC, the London-based Australian-born lawyer and author. Your man Robertson has an Epping accent. What is an Epping accent? – a reader might well ask. Well, it’s the kind of frog-in-the-mouthism a London-based legal gentleman might develop when he does not want it to be known that he was born in Epping, a suburb in north-west Sydney.

But MWD digresses. Sir Keir Starmer became prime minister of Britain on 5 July 2024 after the election on 4 July 2024. On 26 June 2024, shortly before the UK general election, the Sydney Morning Herald carried an article by Geoffrey Robertson titled “I mentored Britain’s next PM. Here’s how he’ll do it.” Sure, the article was about Sir Keir. But it contained lotsa material on – yes, you’ve guessed it – Robertson KC HIMSELF, along with an attack on Peter Dutton. Here’s how the article commenced:

It is a racing certainty that Britain’s prime minister for the next five years – probably 10, given the wipeouts predicted for the Tories – will be Sir Keir Starmer KC …  As the Australian most closely connected with his career, I offer some thoughts about his likely governance. It will be based on principles that conservatives here vehemently reject, namely those that would be enshrined in a charter of human rights. Were Starmer to meet Peter Dutton, the incomprehension would be palpable.

Go on. Alas, he did. Your man Robertson went on to tell readers that, like Starmer, he had a bachelor of commerce law “and was in need of a bright junior”. Robertson then headed a chamber which he did not name but declared that it was also headed by John Mortimer (of Rumpole of the Bailey TV series fame). Impressed?

And so it came to pass that Starmer became Epping Man’s junior and Robertson and Starmer won a case against Denmark in the European Court of Human Rights. Well done, eh? Then Starmer joined Epping Man to “establish Doughty Street Chambers, now Europe’s largest human rights practice”.

Robertson went on to fang Tony Abbott. And also Rishi Sunak. And Nigel Farage (“the genial racist”) and wrote that Britain under the Conservatives was “run by amateurs, incompetents and some who are visibly corrupt”. What’s more, all the Conservatives looking to succeed Sunak after the election were depicted as “second rate”.

There was more. Robertson wrote that a Starmer government “will have much more respect for expertise and professionalism”. This is how the article concluded:

Starmer does not have the charisma of Boris Johnson or Tony Blair, but charisma in politicians is much overrated. He has something of the workaholism of former Labour PM Harold Wilson and the intense seriousness of another ex-PM, Clement Attlee, but dare I suggest that he has some of the qualities of that greatest of all liberal reformers, William Gladstone. That possibility should terrify the Tories. Gladstone was elected as prime minister four times.

There you have it. Epping Man commenced by predicting that Keir Starmer would be “Britain’s prime minister for the next five years – probably 10”. And he concluded by suggesting that Starmer might do a Gladstone by winning four five-year terms -suggesting that he might be at 10 Downing Street for two decades.

How’s that prediction going in early 2025? Not too well, it would seem. This is how Noah Keate handled the issue in Politico on 29 October 2024 under the heading “UK’s Keir Starmer suffers historic drop in approval ratings”:

Keir Starmer has suffered the biggest post-election fall in approval ratings of any British prime minister in the modern era. Just months after coming to office, the U.K. Labour leader is already languishing on an approval rating of minus 38, new polling of 1,012 adults by [the polling organisation] More in Common found. It marks a precipitous 49-point drop from the plus 11 rating Starmer logged just after Labour won its landslide general election victory in July… More in Common’s U.K. Director Luke Tryl told The Telegraph that Starmer’s collapse was “unprecedented” compared to past prime ministers …

More recently, on 1 January, City A.M. reported that the City A.M/Freshwater Strategy poll has found that “Keir Starmer is less popular among UK voters than Donald Trump”. The Prime Minister has an approval rating of minus 36 compared with conservative leader Kemi Badenoch’s rating of minus 7. By the way, the most popular political figures polled were – wait for it – King Charles on plus 27 and Jeremy Clarkson on plus 16.

It would seem that Epping Man was not around to mentor Sir Keir by advising the new PM that well-heeled ex-lawyers should buy their own suits and eye-wear and that it was not a you-beaut idea to junk the winter fuel allowance for some of the poorest Brits just before the onset of Winter. Clearly Epping Man needs to clean his crystal ball.

YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS

By popular demand, this once highly popular segment of Media Watch Dog makes a welcome return after what journalists like to call a Well-Earned-Break (WEB).

“You Must Remember This” is based on the chorus line in the song As Time Goes By which was popularised by the film Casablanca. It is devoted to reminding the usual suspects of what they and/or those they supported once wrote or said or did – or, indeed, what they failed to write or say.

  • LA TINGLE’S “THE END OF THE LIBERAL PARTY IS NIGH REMEMBERED”

There was enormous interest in Gerard Henderson’s inaugural appearance on Sky News’ The Media Show on Friday 17 January – talking to presenter Jack Houghton. Ellie’s (male) co-owner will make an appearance each week on the show – which runs at the new time slot of 9.30 pm on Sky News – Foxtel Channel 600 – on Fridays.

MWD readers who watched the show enjoyed being reminded of Laura Tingle’s prediction – made on ABC TV’s 7.30 on 23 August 2018 – about the forthcoming death of the Liberal Party. Let’s go to the transcript:

Laura Tingle: … With the destruction of Malcolm Turnbull’s prime ministership, we may be witnessing the end of the modern Liberal Party.

Clearly, Comrade Tingle is no Nostradamus. But she is still opining at large about the Liberal Party per courtesy of the Australian taxpayer. MWD hopes that you will remember this.

DOCUMENTATION

  • KYLIE MORRIS SHOWS GREAT CONCERN ABOUT FACEBOOK FACT-CHECKING SHORTLY AFTER LOBBING HER OWN HOWLER

On Tuesday 7 January Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would be ceasing its fact-checking operation in the United States. Instead, in the US, Meta’s social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Threads will rely on the user-generated community notes model like the one used on Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter).

During the week starting 6 January 2025, Kylie Morris filled in as presenter of Radio National Breakfast. Morris conducted several interviews related to the decision – on 8 January with Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young and also with Nicole Gill of advocacy group Accountable Tech. And then on 9 January with Valerie Wirtschafter of the Brookings Institution. A remarkable level of coverage for a decision that, so far, does not even apply to Australia.

Unsurprisingly, the mood of the interviews was one of alarm, with lots of discussion concerning the spread of misinformation and “harmful content”, whatever that means. There was also much time spent on the topic of Donald Trump, and whether Zuckerberg was making this decision to appease the incoming Presidential administration. Take this leading question from Morris during her interview with Senator Hanson-Young:

Kylie Morris: So, Mark Zuckerberg says, third-party moderators, he believes, are too politically biased and it’s time to get back to the roots of free expression. How do you interpret that, what’s that code for?

Sarah Hanson-Young: Uh, it’s code for: he’s been hanging out with Donald Trump, isn’t it?

It should be noted Morris said the terms “politically biased” and “free expression” with a tone of disbelief. Hanson-Young took the opportunity offered to her and spent most of the discussion ranting about tech billionaires, Donald Trump and Peter Dutton, with no pushback from Morris.

It is clear throughout the interviews that Kylie Morris is personally sceptical of the decision by Meta and is worried that without outside fact-checking misinformation will spread unhindered on Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

Coincidentally, the day before Zuckerberg’s announcement, Morris spread a little misinformation of her own. With 6 January being the 4 four-year anniversary of the riot at the US Capitol, Morris talked to Elie Honig, a former prosecutor and now legal analyst for CNN. Here is how Morris described the 6 January 2021 riot:

Kylie Morris: I mean, this was an extraordinary day in American life – to see masses of people bursting their way violently into what is a sacred space for most Americans. And to see the damage, the violence. We have to remember, of course, that there were 140 police officers assaulted. Five police officers died, four committed suicide. Four people in the crowd also died. I mean, this is something that’s kind of seared into most Americans’ memories.

The claim that nine people died because of 6 January, five police plus four in the crowd, is, to use a euphemism popular with fact-checkers, misleading. Or to put it another way, a howler.

The claim “Four people in the crowd also died”, is sorta true but Morris does not specify what crowd. On 6 January 2021 President Trump held a rally near the White House, after which some of the attendees at the rally walked around 2 miles to the US Capitol building to protest the certification of the 2020 election results. Some members of that larger crowd then attacked the Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the certification.

Ashli Babbitt was shot by Capitol Police while attempting to gain entry to the lobby outside the House of Representatives chamber. Roseanne Boyland died while participating in the riot. Although initial reports claimed she was crushed by the crowd, her autopsy concluded she had died of a drug overdose. Protestors Kevin Greeson and Benjamin Philips both died after suffering heart attacks nearby to the Capitol prior to the outbreak of violence.

So, only two people died while participating in the riot, while another two died while attending the larger protest. Kylie Morris did not make this distinction and may have left listeners with the impression that all four died during the riot.

As for the five police officers Morris claims died in relation to January 6th:

Brian Sicknick of the Capitol Police suffered multiple strokes hours after the riot and died on 7 January. At the Capitol he had clashed with the rioters and been pepper sprayed. The death was ruled to be natural, but the chief medical examiner clarified that “all that transpired played a role in his condition”.

Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood committed suicide on 9 January, after working almost continuously for three days enforcing the curfew and other restrictions imposed in Washington DC after the riot. DC Police Officer Jeffrey Smith, who was injured during the riot, committed suicide on 15 January after being told he would have to return to work. Eventually, after pressure from their families and members of Congress, both Liebengood and Smith were ruled to have died in the line of duty.

Two more DC Police Officers who were involved in the police response on January 6th, Gunther Hashida & Kyle DeFreytag, committed suicide in July 2021, six months after the riot. Democrats have tried to connect these deaths to January 6th but there is no evidence for this. Unlike Officers Liebengood and Smith, the families of Officers Hashida and DeFreytag have not claimed their suicides were related to January 6th.

There is certainly some room for reasonable disagreement about the number of deaths attributable to January 6th. But the figure of nine deaths advanced by Democrats (who are trying to pin as many deaths as possible on President Trump) is not used by most mainstream American news sources. Evidently though, it’s good enough for the ABC, where concerns about misinformation on social media are more important than checking their own “facts”.

HISTORY CORNER

  • JOURNALIST MEG POWELL WRONGLY ATTRIBUTES THE TASMANIAN FREIGHT EQUALISATION SCHEME TO THE WHITLAM LABOR GOVERNMENT RATHER THAN TO THE FRASER COALITION GOVERNMENT

Lotsa thanks to the avid Launceston reader who drew attention to this exchange which occurred between Bridget Brennan and Tasmanian-based journalist Meg Powell on ABC TV News Breakfast. The date was 10 December 2024. Let’s go to the transcript:

Bridget Brennan: Well, some say Bass Strait is the most expensive piece of water in the world to ship goods across – and the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme provides financial help to shippers to help cover the costs. It’s been under the microscope recently with a Senate enquiry. But how does it work? Well, Meg Powell explains it for us.

Meg Powell: Tasmania is surrounded by water. Like many islands, it’s expensive to ship things on and off. You could say that’s just the cost of doing business in a remote place. But in the 1970s, the Whitlam government introduced something called the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme. It ensured that Tassie businesses were paying the same amount to ship goods over the Bass Strait compared to driving them along a mainland highway. By all reports, the scheme worked well for a while – but, over the years, farmers say it got clunkier and didn’t keep up with true costs…

So, there you have it. Tasmania is not only an island. It’s surrounded by water. Who would have known? Moreover, Ms Powell’s history is absolute tosh.

The Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme (TFES) – under which subsidy payments are made on certain classes of freight moved by ship across Bass Strait – was introduced by the Fraser Coalition government in July 1976. Gough Whitlam’s Labor government ceased to be in office as of 11 November 1975.

In fact, the Labor Party had nothing to do with the TFES. The facts are as follows. Malcolm Fraser replaced Billy Snedden as Liberal Party leader in March 1975. Snedden had a body of support within the Tasmanian Liberal Party (which was in opposition) and with some Liberal senators from Tasmania (in particular, Senator Peter Rae).

Under Snedden’s leadership, the Coalition in opposition made significant promises to support the Tasmanian economy. When Fraser replaced Snedden, he promised that a government he led would continue the policy of support for Tasmania which had been announced by Snedden. As it turned out, the Liberal Party won five out of five seats in Tasmania at the December 1975 election.

The Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme was announced by Transport Minister Peter Nixon on 9 June 1976. Kevin Newman, the Liberal Party MP for Bass, based on Launceston, was the only Tasmanian in the first Fraser ministry. He held the roles of  Minister for Repatriation until 8 July 1976 and then Minister for Environment, Housing and Community Development.

Fraser assigned Newman to oversee the Department of Transport’s implementation of the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme. Newman spoke to Commissioner J F Nimmo, who authored the Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Transport to and from Tasmania (the Nimmo Report) which led to the TFES. In fact, the Fraser government’s TFES introduced a scheme that was more generous than that proposed by Commissioner Nimmo. All this had nothing to do with the Whitlam Labor government.

 

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Until Next Time

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