Down the Memory Hole

Oh dear! Greg (Jerusalem Prize) Sheridan, steamed foreign editor of The Australian is sooo sorry:

"Many readers were surprised, as I was, to read a headline in The Weekend Australian: Living under the cloud of Israel's cruel apartheid [by Middle East correspondent John Lyons]. The headline did an injustice to the story, which only used the word apartheid in reporting the comments of one person who was interviewed. The editor of this august journal has confirmed to me that the headline was a mistake, the sort that creeps into newspapers where staff are always battling the pressure of deadlines. The Australian believes, and certainly I personally believe, the word apartheid has no application to Israel, which is a democracy in good standing, which extends basic rights to all its citizens, whatever their race or creed. Too often the misuse of such a word is designed to demonise Israel, wholly unjustly. In this case, it was a mistake." (EU piggies won't go to market, 10/5/12)

You'll recall my 7/5/12 post Consensus At Last... in which I reported the above (100% correct) use by Murdoch's Australian of the 'a' word in relation to the world's whitest sepulchre.

You'll also recall The Australian's publication of several outraged (and outrageous) letters by the usual suspects, one of which I tackled in my 8/5/12 post The Other Side of Israel's Jewish Character.

And you'll recall the consensus achieved by Fairfax's Middle East correspondent, Ruth Pollard, in The Sun-Herald ('They want to destroy our village': Israel plans solar panel demolition, 6/5) in also invoking the 'a' word in relation to our whiter-than-white sepulchre.

Well, that rare consensus between the Murdoch and Fairfax press continues today, albeit with an interesting difference:

While over at The Australian, John Lyons' report has been retitled Living under a residency cloud in Israel,  wailing and gnashing of teeth are the order of the day, sackcloth and ashes are being distributed and donned, and (?) heads are rolling all over the floor, over at Fairfax, a deathly silence prevails, epitomised by the apparent disappearance of Ruth Pollard's report, 'They want to destroy our village': Israel plans solar panel demolition, from the Herald's website.*

All of which just goes to show that when the dogs of the Israel lobby bark, the corporate media caravan comes to a grinding halt!

[*I've just (7:09 pm) located a copy at aap.newscentre.com.au.]