Friday 10 September 2021

Fighting Fake News with REAL 10/9/21; Tampa, Refugees, Morrison, Republican LNP; News Corp Chamelion ploy;

 

 

 

In 2001, conservative prime minister John Howard demonized 433 refugees who had been rescued at sea. It inaugurated an era of racist, abusive policies toward asylum seekers in Australia — and a movement that fights in solidarity with refugees.

 Twenty Years After the Tampa Affair, Australia’s Left Must Keep Standing Up for Refugees

 Liberal defence minister tried to promote his staffer to plum military post

The LNP has gone full bore Trump Republican

 The move by former minister Kevin Andrews was quickly thwarted, but defence chiefs are concerned that upcoming appointments must be free of political taint.

Liberal defence minister tried to promote his staffer to plum military post

Biden Booting Unqualified Trumpers From Military Boards

 Trump appointees such as Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer are throwing hissy fits over being removed from boards overseeing U.S. military academies.

Biden Booting Unqualified Trumpers From Military Boards


News Corp’s shift, if it sticks, could pave the way for both main political parties to support a more aggressive approach to reducing carbon emissions.

They don’t call it Fox for nothing. This is hardly a shift but a slight move sideways brought on by advertisers and the BCA. Murdoch has joined the Fossil fuel companies that now claim are leading the pack in new decarbonizing technologies. They are the new leaders of science moving forward. The new alchemists as the tobacco companies have claimed for years. Don’t expect any mea culpas from the likes of Andrew Bolt paid to confuse us with slinging bullshit.

But there is reason to be doubtful. Only a month ago, in response to the latest report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, News Corp commentator Andrew Bolt repeatedly chose to mock it with arguments that would not stand up in a high school science class, including the bizarre claim that “if a warming world is better for plants, why not for humans?” It’s hard to imagine him changing. As the COVID pandemic has shown, listening to the science can save many millions of lives. While there has been no shortage of fringe voices spreading coronavirus misinformation, they have largely been ignored and sidelined by the mainstream media. It’s to the enduring shame of News Corp that, on climate change, those voices were instead welcomed in.

 News Corp’s climate change shame

 

The High Court decision in the Voller case concerns whether a publisher can be held responsible for comments readers post on its website. Specifically, the decision applies to Facebook but would appear to apply equally to any social media publisher, potentially including this website. Indeed, The Conversation seems sufficiently concerned to shut down all comment and discussion on the case in question – an over-reaction perhaps.

 Careful What You Say ! - » The Australian Independent Media Network

The Nationals and Murdoch media support nuclear power ahead of COP26
 
 Murdoch has simply taken out the obvious and strenuous denials and will substitute them now for  change via Tech Alchemy by the Fossil Fuel Industry itself as the only thing that can save us. The shift is not a "real change" but an illusion of a softening which was no doubt brought on by the largest advertisers in the market place along with the likes of the BCA or Business Council of Australia. It's why Murdoch has appropriately labelled himself the Fox. If ever dragged in for questioning against his will he could even play Alan Bond again and claim early onset dementia and loss of memory.
 
As I write this comes the breathtaking news that the Murdoch media is changing its attitude to global warming. From a rather crude sort of climate denialism, they will likely move to supporting technical "climate fixes" spruiked by the fossil fuel industries. This is a more subtle way of sabotaging real climate action.
On 1 September 2021, Senator Matt Canavan called for Australia to boycott the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) to be held in Glasgow in November. 

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