Media
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The Voice: Newscorp’s dangerous zero sum games
As the wording of the Voice referendum question is released, the Murdoch media’s “news” drives resentment with propaganda as constant as drums of war. The pounding message for its audience is that every development is a zero sum game, one that only defrauds this “conservative” base. Continue reading »
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ASPI takes exception to media scrutiny
ABC’s Media Watch backs down, following complaint from Australian Strategic Policy Institute, after it aired a segment of Channel Nine political reporter Chris O’Keefe berating both ASPI and Nine Newspaper over the Red Alert series. Continue reading »
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Will there be a reprise of the White Australia Policy?
With the publication of the series, “RED ALERT” in the two leading newspapers in Australia, predicting that China will invade Australia in three years, the constant push from the ASPI, and the increasingly strident rhetoric from the China hawks in both major political parties, will the Australian security apparatus be encouraged to re-establish a “Chinese Continue reading »
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Does the ABC regard Palestinians as humans, equal to Ukrainians?
An open letter to the ABC, 22 March 2023. Continue reading »
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The AUKUS orchestra, Julian Assange and Iraq
On Saturday, March 18, a small rally to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War gathered in a park outside the Lismore Memorial Baths. Continue reading »
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Empire-funded think tanks are not valid sources: notes from The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
ATTENTION JOURNALISTS: It is never, ever acceptable, under any circumstances, to cite think tanks funded by governments and the military industrial complex as sources of information or expertise on matters of national security or foreign affairs. Continue reading »
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Goodbye to Ukraine? US prepares public for defeat
The New York Times report of 8th March that ‘Intelligence Suggests Pro-Ukrainian Group Sabotaged Pipelines, U.S. Officials Say’ elicited two sets of responses. Continue reading »
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Two decades on, history should condemn the real ‘butchers of Baghdad’
The warmongers in the Anglophone countries of Britain, the USA and Australia today cause great concern with their AUKUS treaty and the not very subtle stirring of frenzy against China. It was similar in 2003 except that Iraq was the country being demonised. Continue reading »
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The threat of war and the role of the propaganda machine
The relentless drive to war against China goes on. There is no longer any pretence that China is in the US sights and so Australia is prepared to spend whatever it takes to prove its fealty to Washington. No military outlay is too much, no threat to our economic future too risky for the Australian Continue reading »
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It’s good to be mean to war propagandists
Sydney Morning Herald editor Bevan Shields has published an article titled “We are not above criticism but these attacks go too far” tearfully rending his garments over criticisms his paper’s three-part war-with-China propaganda series “Red Alert” has received from former Prime Minister Paul Keating and from ABC’s Media Watch. Continue reading »
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Beating Keating and losing
But if we could communicate with the mosquito, then we would learn that he floats through the air with the same self-importance, feeling within itself the flying centre of the world. Continue reading »
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Paul Keating excoriates AUKUS as exercise in security policy stupidity
There are few who think as clearly, who are as articulate, and who are prepared to speak out in the face of incredible stupidity in Australian politics as Paul Keating. And, as he made clear in his address to the press club this week, AUKUS is nothing if not an exercise in security policy stupidity. Continue reading »
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Dear reader, are we unwelcome in this white man’s nation?
I am an Australian-born person of Chinese ancestry and have been disturbed by the alarmist fearmongering and drive to war with China from the media and the government. While I have been a faithful public servant and model citizen for many years, once again I am sadly returned to my childhood traumas and anxieties about Continue reading »
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“China threat” a distraction from climate change, economic inequity
Whilst much has been made of the extremely intemperate attempt by the Channel Nine newspapers to stir up fear against China, and their lauding of the AUKUS agreements and the massive amounts to be spent on nuclear submarines, little has been said about how this has been a distraction from fundamental issues the country is Continue reading »
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Red Alert: news media ‘Sleep-Walking’ into US war propaganda
One of the best-known writers on public opinion, Walter Lippmann, tells us that every conflict is fought on two fronts: the battlefield and the minds of people via propaganda. ‘We must remember that in time of war what is said on the enemy’s side of the front is always propaganda, and what is said on Continue reading »
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The Australian media cries wolf
The major Australian media, SMH and The Age, are crying wolf again. Whether they will lose their credibility depends on whether Australians’ rationale prevails over their prejudices. Continue reading »
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Championing war with China
In an extraordinary editorial that was labelled as warmongering by former prime minister Paul Keating, the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) called for China to be labelled a clear and present threat, argued for the reintroduction of conscription and for long range missiles armed with nuclear weapons, and urged Australia to prepare for war with China Continue reading »
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The SMH and Age Red Alert is unwarranted and dangerous
The articles published last week by the SMH and Age under the heading, Red Alert, are deeply flawed. The intent seems to panic us into war. But the many assertions are not supported by evidence or credible argument. Continue reading »
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We don’t need subs or war with China
The pussies in Labor are reluctant to differ by a millimetre from the coalition on defence, foreign affairs and national security lest they be accused of treason. Continue reading »
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Is Rupert running out of political clout and financial luck?
Rupert Murdoch may be running out of political clout and financial luck. Continue reading »
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The betrayers of Julian Assange
I have known Julian Assange since I first interviewed him in London in 2010. I immediately liked his dry, dark sense of humour, often dispensed with an infectious giggle. He is a proud outsider: sharp and thoughtful. We have become friends, and I have sat in many courtrooms listening to the tribunes of the state Continue reading »
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Who are the ‘gang of five’ pushing Australia to war?
The Age and Sydney Morning Herald have failed to publish, except in the most cursory sense, the current or recent past associations of their gang of five experts who apparently believe Australia could be at war with China in as little as three years. Continue reading »
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Combating ‘China is the real enemy’, MSM saturation messaging
Over many months now, when talking to relatives, friends, acquaintances and strangers about the current, parlous state of geo-politics and how the world is moving ever closer to world war, and a possible, uncontrolled nuclear conflagration, the retort I often receive develops something along the following lines: “Yes, we know the U.S. is a war-like Continue reading »
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Wave of war propaganda – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: War talk means uphill battle to mend ties with China. Plus: US avoids a truthful narrative; South Korea to pay for Japan’s wartime abuse; rich countries, energy giants throttle poor nations; new terms – active non-alignment and coalition of unwilling; ‘sorry’ now the easy word. Continue reading »
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Silent collaborator
Exclusive new Declassified Australia report details Australia’s official neglect of detained WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, revealed in Federal Government files obtained under FOI legislation. Continue reading »
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They work so hard to manufacture our consent because they absolutely require it
Australian media are awash with reporting on the war-with-China propaganda series by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that I’ve been writing about for the last few days. Which is really quite extraordinary, because it’s not an actual news story. Continue reading »
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Capital city newspapers urge nuclear war by Australia against China: God help us
The Sydney Morning Herald’s prominent series of provocations, urging Australia into a war with China, concluded its third instalment today. Continue reading »
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Unbalanced and unwise: Labor and the politics of warmongering
Where does Albanese stand when it comes to the latest attempts by The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald to manufacture a new wave of anti-China hysteria in Australia? Is he amenable to the beating of the drums of war? Or does he have the intelligence to resist this dangerous nonsense? The omens are not Continue reading »
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We are being led to war with China to satisfy American hegemonic interests
As the American Empire is attempting to open up another war front with China and dragging us into it, the Doomsday clock is now 10 seconds to midnight. Can we resist? Continue reading »
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The BBC: a giant propaganda unit promoting the Ukrainian cause
In 2015 a BBC documentary on You Tube showed us the remarkable scene of a Ukrainian military unit trying to enter the outskirts of Slovyansk in the Donbas. Continue reading »