Show Notes
Today we bring you a very special deep dive into the murky waters of corporate skulduggery. My guest is Paul Barry. He’ll be known to many of you as the long-time presenter of ABC TV’s Media Watch, but in fact he has a long and distinguished career as an investigative journalist specialising in uncovering bad behaviour by big business.
Paul Barry’s latest book is called The Big Steal, published by Allen and Unwin. It’s about a couple of scoundrels called Sanjeev Gupta and Lex Greensill. Gupta pulled a series of scams around the world by promising to rescue rundown steelworks, power stations and smelters in places where these operations were the lifeblood of the community. Greensill was his banker.
For years, the real story was comprehensively missed by the media, but Paul Barry has nailed it and is here to tell us why and how.
You can find Paul's new book here: https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Paul-Barry-Big-Steal-9781761473517 Support independent journalism Become a member Or go to: buymeacoffee.com/truthliesandmedia
Our Socials Facebook BlueSky X Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Truth, Lies and Media
We look at the Murdoch media shamelessly weaponising the horrific attack on Helen Haines to bash the left - even as she fights for life in hospital - and ignoring the PMs call to lower the temperature on political hate. [from 7:20]
BRUTALISING THE WORLD ON A LIVESTREAM The Trump administration wants to livestream the firing squad execution of a radicalised US soldier according to a gleeful US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth - triggering global disgust. The broadcast risks traumatising and brutalising countless people around the world in order to satisfy the Trump administrations lust for vengeance as a public spectacle. We contrast Hegseth's relish for unleashing “murder porn” on the public with the historic practice of asking journalists to witness and report on closed executions - the last time this happened in Australia was the hanging of Ronald Ryan. [from 4:00]
NOTE TO MEDIA: VIOLENT AUTHORITARIANISM IS NOT NORMAL Someone needs to tell Pauline Hanson this isn’t Saudi Arabia or China after One Nation threatened to jail political rivals during its Victorian election campaign launch. Vindictive politicians don’t decide who goes to jail. The courts do. It’s called the rule of law. Once news outlets would have instantly called out threats that come straight from the fascist playbook. This time they covered a flagged assault on our liberal democracy as if it were business as usual - an omission Denis Muller describes as “an epic fail” [from4:20]
Why don’t the media hound Hanson about her racist policies? Four Corners did a great expose on One Nation - but no mention in interviews with her supporters about why they are attracted by promises to persecute migrants, Muslims, foreign students and Indigenous Australians. [from 7:00]
The ABC is strangled by floods of complaints from hard right attack dogs - so we look at new reports that most of those whinges are really mass generated AI bots - you know - ACTUAL FAKE NEWS. So Denis asked one of the faker complainers if their behaviour was ethical. Still waiting .. [from 3:25]