Last week in the Tamed Estate, ICAC’s inquiry into former politician Daryl Maguire whose revelations about NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian completely overshadowed Kevin Rudd’s spectacular petition to set up a royal commission into the Murdoch press. Also, international propaganda efforts by the UK and US are being swept under the rug.
Gladys’ ICAC Appearance
The revelations of Gladys’ five-year relationship with Daryl Maguire caught everyone by surprise. Mainstream media were left scrambling for a proper narrative to explain why Gladys found herself caught up in this situation.
What they found was that Gladys was a poor girl who ‘fell in love with the wrong guy” as the Guardian reported.
In fact, the only fault the Sydney Morning Herald found was that Gladys was too upstanding, routinely blaming her boyfriend and decrying that such a steadfast woman could find herself love struck.
On Tuesday, News.com.au found little fault with Gladys, instead of holding Andrews to account for not quite meeting his lockdown targets.
It relegated their Gladys coverage, at that time, to a comment piece written by Berejiklian herself. “I have always put the people first,” she wrote.
The ABC’s 7.30, despite the Victorian Covid crisis dragging on for months, managed to spend more time focusing on the old story of Dan Andrews in Victoria than it did with the breaking drama over Gladys.
With all this lame coverage of the NSW Premier by mainstream media, she is a good chance of surviving the ICAC scandal.
Kevin Rudd’s Murdoch Royal Commission
The Murdoch press ran a complete shut-out on Rudd’s royal commission campaign. Nine newspapers, on the other hand, addressed the issue seemingly in defence of Murdoch, by pointing out Rudd’s former ‘chummy’ relationship with the media mogul and former Editor in Chief of The Australian Chris Mitchell.
The campaign received positive coverage by The Guardian and relatively unbiased coverage from the ABC.
UK & US Anti-Syria Propaganda revealed in leaked documents
Revelations of a massive propaganda campaign waged by the US and the UK governments to stimulate support in the West for Syria’s political and armed opposition regarding the contractors was revealed in leaked UK foreign ministry documents.
The documents reveal that the UK and US governments engaged in widespread media manipulation, carefully crafting English- and Arabic-language media coverage of the war on Syria.
US and European contractors trained and advised Syrian opposition leaders at all levels, from young media activists to the heads of the parallel government-in-exile. These firms also organized interviews for Syrian opposition leaders on mainstream outlets such as BBC and the UK’s Channel 4.
The story has not been covered in the Australian press, which, as John Menadue points out, is usually far more interested in trans-Atlantic news then it is in our own region.
Callum has a honours degree in political science from the University of Sydney which examined the influence key players in Australia's financial services industry exert over government. He is a sub-editor for P&I.
Contributions to Pearls and Irritations
Your contribution will fund quality independent comment and analysis in Pearls and Irritations
Contribute
