Show Notes
If splashy headlines tell you what’s important then this week they’re telling you damage to a footy team is more important than damage to the alleged sex assault victims. We take a look at the way the media has downplayed the alleged sexual assault of exotic dancers by Swans football players while saturating us with coverage about the “tragedy” of a premiership club now being distracted from the finals.
Plus .. the White House is enraged at the sudden media interest in Natalie Harp, a young personal assistant who follows Donald Trump everywhere printing out positive news stories for him to see on a portable printer (he can’t use his smartphone?) but also leaving what author Michael Wolff describes as “love letters” in his papers.
And only journo-haters need apply - Pauline Hanson is advertising for a press secretary promising you’ll “have fun and make history” while one assumes you terrorise the ABC, demonise migrants and fly around in Gina’s $2m plane while screeching loudly that you are the voice of the battler. Support independent journalism Become a member Or go to: buymeacoffee.com/truthliesandmedia
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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]
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.
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]