Reading Murdoch's Australian is like watching a funnel web spider walking leisurely across your living room floor. You are so transfixed by the horror of it all that you just cannot look away.
By way of example, here are just two from the rag's letters page:
"Now that the Coalition has received a new mandate, Scott Morrison should follow up on the commitment he made at last year's Wentworth by-election to move Australia's embassy to Jerusalem. (Ari Hurwitz, Vaucluse, NSW, 27/5/19)
"I'm not buying Anthony Albanese's change of heart. A damascene conversion requires him to repent, and I suspect he still harbours the mortal sins of open borders, wealth redistribution, rampant taxation and class warfare deep in his breast. Belief in the discredited miracle of magic-pudding economics won't be sufficient to get him to the Pearly Gates of the Lodge." (Peter Raftery, Indoorroopilly, Qld, 27/5/19)
Showing posts with label Murdoch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Murdoch. Show all posts
Friday, May 31, 2019
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
News Corpse
Sky News Australia is owned by Murdoch's News Corp. The following testimony by a former employee tells you all you really need to know about this particular 'news' outlet:
"... I wasn't shocked [by the Christchurch terror attack] ... This is because for the past three years, I've worked at Sky News. More specifically Sky News 'after dark' - when the rolling coverage of the day's news makes way for conservative commentators to share the 'opinions you can't ignore'. As a young Muslim woman, I had many crises of conscience working here, but the events of Friday snapped me out of the endless cycle of of justifying my job to myself. On Saturday, I finally sent in my letter of resignation... I realised pretty quickly though that the Sky News I worked on wasn't focussed on reporting facts and informing the public. Rather, conservative media commentators came together with current and former right-wing politicians, disseminating misinformation which bordered on conspiracies. I compromised my values and beliefs to stand idly by as I watched commentators and pundits instil more and more fear into their viewers. I stood on the other side of the studio doors while they slammed every minority group in the country - mine included - increasing polarisation and paranoia among their viewers... I answered calls from viewers who yelled about immigrants and Muslims ruining Australia. They did not realise that the person on the other end of the phone was both of those things. And in the aftermath of Friday's terror attack, Sky's coverage also stood out. It was one of the few Australian media outlets who played the live stream footage from inside the mosque... Some nights I felt physically sick, others I even shed tears in my car on the way home." (As the Christchurch attacks unfolded, I knew I had to quit my job at Sky News, Rashina Farrukh, abc.net.au, 19/3/19)
"... I wasn't shocked [by the Christchurch terror attack] ... This is because for the past three years, I've worked at Sky News. More specifically Sky News 'after dark' - when the rolling coverage of the day's news makes way for conservative commentators to share the 'opinions you can't ignore'. As a young Muslim woman, I had many crises of conscience working here, but the events of Friday snapped me out of the endless cycle of of justifying my job to myself. On Saturday, I finally sent in my letter of resignation... I realised pretty quickly though that the Sky News I worked on wasn't focussed on reporting facts and informing the public. Rather, conservative media commentators came together with current and former right-wing politicians, disseminating misinformation which bordered on conspiracies. I compromised my values and beliefs to stand idly by as I watched commentators and pundits instil more and more fear into their viewers. I stood on the other side of the studio doors while they slammed every minority group in the country - mine included - increasing polarisation and paranoia among their viewers... I answered calls from viewers who yelled about immigrants and Muslims ruining Australia. They did not realise that the person on the other end of the phone was both of those things. And in the aftermath of Friday's terror attack, Sky's coverage also stood out. It was one of the few Australian media outlets who played the live stream footage from inside the mosque... Some nights I felt physically sick, others I even shed tears in my car on the way home." (As the Christchurch attacks unfolded, I knew I had to quit my job at Sky News, Rashina Farrukh, abc.net.au, 19/3/19)
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Team Australia's Best & Brightest
"It is a real honour to thank Frank Lowy - Companion of the Order of Australia, Australia's leading philanthropist, former director of the Reserve Bank of Australia, chairman of the Australian Football Federation, sometime head of the BRW rich list and dinky-di Australian - for his lecture and for his life."* Tony Abbott, 20/9/12
"The Australian newspaper is Rupert Murdoch's 'gift to our nation' Prime Minister Tony Abbott has told a gala dinner in Sydney to celebrate the publication's 50th birthday." (Tony Abbott praises The Australian as Rupert Murdoch's 'gift to our nation', AAP/Sydney Morning Herald, 16/7/14)
"A senior member of the Coalition has warned that corporate tax avoidance and the repatriation of profits overseas is 'the greatest financial challenge' facing Australia. Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan, a confidant of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, said the government must secure the tax revenue base before spending on essential services is not impacted. 'If you're willing to turn a blind eye to billions of dollars going out the door and offshore, you're doomed in terms of providing what people expect from government: roads, schools and hospitals. This is the greatest financial challenge facing the Western world and if not addressed it could redefine sovereignty in the Western world'." (Government senator says corporate tax avoidance threatens services, Heath Aston & Georgia Wilkins, Sydney Morning Herald, 30/9/14)
"The usual culprits top the list again this year: Rupert Murdoch's Fox, Frank Lowy's Westfield and the host of real estate trusts listed on the Australian Securities Exchange." (Leaners avoid paying their fair share of the company tax rate, Michael West, Sydney Morning Herald, 29/9/14)
The usual culprits?
Now that's not a very nice thing to say about two of Team Australia's best and brightest (even if one calls Israel home and the other's now a Yank).
[*Transcript of the Hon Tony Abbott MHR Vote of thanks at the Inaugural Australian Multicultural Council Lecture, Parliament House, Canberra]
"The Australian newspaper is Rupert Murdoch's 'gift to our nation' Prime Minister Tony Abbott has told a gala dinner in Sydney to celebrate the publication's 50th birthday." (Tony Abbott praises The Australian as Rupert Murdoch's 'gift to our nation', AAP/Sydney Morning Herald, 16/7/14)
"A senior member of the Coalition has warned that corporate tax avoidance and the repatriation of profits overseas is 'the greatest financial challenge' facing Australia. Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan, a confidant of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, said the government must secure the tax revenue base before spending on essential services is not impacted. 'If you're willing to turn a blind eye to billions of dollars going out the door and offshore, you're doomed in terms of providing what people expect from government: roads, schools and hospitals. This is the greatest financial challenge facing the Western world and if not addressed it could redefine sovereignty in the Western world'." (Government senator says corporate tax avoidance threatens services, Heath Aston & Georgia Wilkins, Sydney Morning Herald, 30/9/14)
"The usual culprits top the list again this year: Rupert Murdoch's Fox, Frank Lowy's Westfield and the host of real estate trusts listed on the Australian Securities Exchange." (Leaners avoid paying their fair share of the company tax rate, Michael West, Sydney Morning Herald, 29/9/14)
The usual culprits?
Now that's not a very nice thing to say about two of Team Australia's best and brightest (even if one calls Israel home and the other's now a Yank).
[*Transcript of the Hon Tony Abbott MHR Vote of thanks at the Inaugural Australian Multicultural Council Lecture, Parliament House, Canberra]
Monday, June 30, 2014
How Times Change
These days Murdoch's Australian has little appetite for Iraqi blood:
"With good reason, there is no appetite in Washington... for a return to boots on the ground in Iraq..." (Editorial, Jihad threat must be contained, The Australian, 28/6/14)
Back in 2003, however, the entire Murdoch pack were baying for it:
"What a guy! You have got to admit that Rupert Murdoch is one canny press tycoon because he has an unerring ability to choose editors across the world who think just like him. How else can we explain the extraordinary unity of thought in his newspaper empire about the need to make war on Iraq? After an exhaustive survey of the highest-selling and most influential papers across the world owned by Murdoch's News Corporation, it is clear that all are singing from the same hymn sheet. Some are bellicose baritone soloists who relish the fight. Some prefer a less strident, if more subtle, role in the chorus. But none, whether fortissimo or pianissimo, has dared to croon the anti-war tune. Their master's voice has never been questioned. (Speaking with their master's voice, Roy Greenslade, Guardian Weekly, 27/2/03)
How times change.
"With good reason, there is no appetite in Washington... for a return to boots on the ground in Iraq..." (Editorial, Jihad threat must be contained, The Australian, 28/6/14)
Back in 2003, however, the entire Murdoch pack were baying for it:
"What a guy! You have got to admit that Rupert Murdoch is one canny press tycoon because he has an unerring ability to choose editors across the world who think just like him. How else can we explain the extraordinary unity of thought in his newspaper empire about the need to make war on Iraq? After an exhaustive survey of the highest-selling and most influential papers across the world owned by Murdoch's News Corporation, it is clear that all are singing from the same hymn sheet. Some are bellicose baritone soloists who relish the fight. Some prefer a less strident, if more subtle, role in the chorus. But none, whether fortissimo or pianissimo, has dared to croon the anti-war tune. Their master's voice has never been questioned. (Speaking with their master's voice, Roy Greenslade, Guardian Weekly, 27/2/03)
How times change.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
The News Corp Fish...
... stinks from the head down:
"Rupert Murdoch has backed comments from Britain's chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, who says multiculturalism has 'had its day', with the media mogul adding that 'societies have to integrate. Muslims find it hardest'." (Rupert Murdoch attacked for 'irresponsible' tweets about Muslims, Oliver Laughland, theguardian.com, 20/8/13)
"Rupert Murdoch has backed comments from Britain's chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, who says multiculturalism has 'had its day', with the media mogul adding that 'societies have to integrate. Muslims find it hardest'." (Rupert Murdoch attacked for 'irresponsible' tweets about Muslims, Oliver Laughland, theguardian.com, 20/8/13)
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Under the Influence at The Australian
No one does Palestine/Israel editorials quite like Murdoch's Australian. Yesterday's editorial, After UN vote, Israel digs in: settlements are a provocative but predictable response, is a case in point.
Far out, man, you reflect, after imbibing, no reefer madness was ever quite like this. If altered states are your thing, Zionism beats psychedelics out of the proverbial strawberry fields... forever.
"It is all very well for Foreign Minister Bob Carr to join others across the world in denouncing Israel for pressing ahead with more Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, but they all would have done better to realise this is one of the consequences of the vote in the UNGA that granted non-member statehood to the Palestine Authority."
Right, so Carr and the rest of the world are responsible for Israeli settlements. Pretty trippy, eh?
"Certainly, the Israeli move appears short-sided and potentially self-defeating."
But not, apparently, when you're snorting Zionism:
"But, if it does nothing else, it underscores the foolishness of the Palestinian ploy in trying to achieve statehood through the back door at the UN rather than in negotiations with Israel."
Wow, the Israelis achieved statehood through the same back door at the UN in 1947, rather than in negotiations with the Palestinians, but far from underscoring their foolishness, that just underscores their brilliance, right?
Right... Did I not intimate that Zionism was pretty potent stuff?
Another thing it does is make you see double. For example, no sooner had I taken on board the current American foreign policy wisdom that there is no daylight between Israel and the US than I'm reading here in the Australian about two quite separate entities:
"The announcement of the new settlements is just the start of a range of retaliatory measures that the Palestinians now face, and not all from Israel. In the US Senate, for example, moves have begun to cut American funding to the PA by 50%, something that would cripple the Palestinian administration."
Now one of the downsides of inhaling Zionism is that the user can become markedly paranoid when contemplating even the most mundane of human activities, such as voting in the UNGA for example:
"A majority of the 138 'yes' votes came from countries who crowded into Tehran in August to acclaim Holocaust-denying Iran's accession to leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement."
Another is that the user loses all grip on reality, even projecting his own strange Herzlian life history - If you will it, it is no dream - onto those of other people:
"The UN vote has only served to encourage the PA in its adherence to a make-believe world in which it can achieve statehood through a so-called UN 'birth-certificate'."
But don't think that this kind of substance abuse is confined to just a few bad apples over at the Australian. No, the fish, as they say, stinks from the head down. That's right, Rupert Murdoch himself, who's been tripping out on Zionism for yonks, recently tripped up big-time over this particularly mind-bending little tweet: 'Why is Jewish owned press so consistently anti-Israel in every crisis?' (See Murdoch sorry for 'Jewish owned press' tweet, The Australian Jewish News, 30/11/12)
Better to stay well away from the stuff I reckon.
Far out, man, you reflect, after imbibing, no reefer madness was ever quite like this. If altered states are your thing, Zionism beats psychedelics out of the proverbial strawberry fields... forever.
"It is all very well for Foreign Minister Bob Carr to join others across the world in denouncing Israel for pressing ahead with more Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, but they all would have done better to realise this is one of the consequences of the vote in the UNGA that granted non-member statehood to the Palestine Authority."
Right, so Carr and the rest of the world are responsible for Israeli settlements. Pretty trippy, eh?
"Certainly, the Israeli move appears short-sided and potentially self-defeating."
But not, apparently, when you're snorting Zionism:
"But, if it does nothing else, it underscores the foolishness of the Palestinian ploy in trying to achieve statehood through the back door at the UN rather than in negotiations with Israel."
Wow, the Israelis achieved statehood through the same back door at the UN in 1947, rather than in negotiations with the Palestinians, but far from underscoring their foolishness, that just underscores their brilliance, right?
Right... Did I not intimate that Zionism was pretty potent stuff?
Another thing it does is make you see double. For example, no sooner had I taken on board the current American foreign policy wisdom that there is no daylight between Israel and the US than I'm reading here in the Australian about two quite separate entities:
"The announcement of the new settlements is just the start of a range of retaliatory measures that the Palestinians now face, and not all from Israel. In the US Senate, for example, moves have begun to cut American funding to the PA by 50%, something that would cripple the Palestinian administration."
Now one of the downsides of inhaling Zionism is that the user can become markedly paranoid when contemplating even the most mundane of human activities, such as voting in the UNGA for example:
"A majority of the 138 'yes' votes came from countries who crowded into Tehran in August to acclaim Holocaust-denying Iran's accession to leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement."
Another is that the user loses all grip on reality, even projecting his own strange Herzlian life history - If you will it, it is no dream - onto those of other people:
"The UN vote has only served to encourage the PA in its adherence to a make-believe world in which it can achieve statehood through a so-called UN 'birth-certificate'."
But don't think that this kind of substance abuse is confined to just a few bad apples over at the Australian. No, the fish, as they say, stinks from the head down. That's right, Rupert Murdoch himself, who's been tripping out on Zionism for yonks, recently tripped up big-time over this particularly mind-bending little tweet: 'Why is Jewish owned press so consistently anti-Israel in every crisis?' (See Murdoch sorry for 'Jewish owned press' tweet, The Australian Jewish News, 30/11/12)
Better to stay well away from the stuff I reckon.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Dinner With Tony
Spot the difference between this...
"David Cameron's government faces fresh scrutiny for its cosy relationship with Rupert Murdoch's media empire following a day of revelations at the Leveson inquiry. Critics have for decades accused the Murdochs of holding too much sway over British politics. Those fears have only been heightened in recent times by the close ties between British Prime Minister Cameron and controversial past and present Murdoch employees such as former spin doctor Andy Coulson and newspaper executive Rebekah Brooks." (Murdoch ties with govt revealed, Tom Wald, AAP, 25/4/12)
... and this:
"Dining in the heart of Greens MP Adam Bandt's seat, Tony Abbott might not have expected the support he got from Lygon Street customers last Sunday night. If Labor and the Greens are losing in Melbourne's Carlton, the government may be in for an electoral Armageddon. That strikes me as the only long-term political point to take out of an unpleasant little kerfuffle* in Melbourne last Sunday night, when I had dinner with the Opposition Leader. Dining with Abbott implies no particular partisanship on my part. In the course of several decades of journalism, I suspect I have had marginally more meals with Labor folks than with Liberals. Certainly Abbott is a good friend." (How the tables have turned: the night intolerance came to dinner with Tony, Greg Sheridan, The Australian, 19/4/12)
Partisanship and Greg (Jerusalem Prize) Sheridan, foreign editor of Murdoch's Australian? No!
Who could possibly believe such a thing? It's like saying, Love & marriage/Go together like a horse & carriage.
[*Occasioned, reports our Greg, by the appearance and chanting in the restaurant of a group of same-sex marriage activists.]
"David Cameron's government faces fresh scrutiny for its cosy relationship with Rupert Murdoch's media empire following a day of revelations at the Leveson inquiry. Critics have for decades accused the Murdochs of holding too much sway over British politics. Those fears have only been heightened in recent times by the close ties between British Prime Minister Cameron and controversial past and present Murdoch employees such as former spin doctor Andy Coulson and newspaper executive Rebekah Brooks." (Murdoch ties with govt revealed, Tom Wald, AAP, 25/4/12)
... and this:
"Dining in the heart of Greens MP Adam Bandt's seat, Tony Abbott might not have expected the support he got from Lygon Street customers last Sunday night. If Labor and the Greens are losing in Melbourne's Carlton, the government may be in for an electoral Armageddon. That strikes me as the only long-term political point to take out of an unpleasant little kerfuffle* in Melbourne last Sunday night, when I had dinner with the Opposition Leader. Dining with Abbott implies no particular partisanship on my part. In the course of several decades of journalism, I suspect I have had marginally more meals with Labor folks than with Liberals. Certainly Abbott is a good friend." (How the tables have turned: the night intolerance came to dinner with Tony, Greg Sheridan, The Australian, 19/4/12)
Partisanship and Greg (Jerusalem Prize) Sheridan, foreign editor of Murdoch's Australian? No!
Who could possibly believe such a thing? It's like saying, Love & marriage/Go together like a horse & carriage.
[*Occasioned, reports our Greg, by the appearance and chanting in the restaurant of a group of same-sex marriage activists.]
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Rupert's Raiders 2
The Australian Financial Review's investigation into Murdoch's raiders continues in today's edition:
"From Latin America, the United States and Canada, across Europe and Asia down to Australia and New Zealand. In every country, in every market, it was game on. They were on a mission and they had no rules - or rather, no one to call them to account. They were undercover. They would use funny code names and false money trails, secret informants, 'honey pots' and deep cover agents. They spoke of 'burning' the people they targeted. They called them 'flammable'. They had scorn for everybody who stood in their way and they expressed that scorn freely in encrypted emails to each other, secure that no one from outside their tight group would ever read them. There was no moral quality to doing this; it was a necessary part of the operation. It was part of the business. And what was that business? It's not terrorism, it's not suicide bombing, it's not weapons of mass destruction', says Jan Saggiori, a Swiss-Italian hacker who became a target of the underground operatives. 'It's pay television'." (Murdoch's inside job, Neil Chenoweth)
Hm... sounds like something out of the rogue entity that touts itself as the Middle East's only democracy and casually talks of 'lawn maintenance'* in Gaza. Maybe that's because it is:
"News Databank Systems (NDS) was an accident of history. In February 1998 an Australian technology consultant, Bruce Hundertmark, badgered Murdoch into shelling out $3.6 million to found a start-up company in Israel called News Datacom Research based on encryption technology developed by the Weizmann Institute, which took a 20% stake. (The details of the early history are airbrushed out of many accounts.)" (ibid)
According to Chenoweth, NDS went on to set up a special unit, staffed by former police and intelligence operatives, called Operational Security (OS) to fight the piracy of NDS pay TV smartcards. Based in Haifa, OS is led by Reuven Hasak, a former deputy head of Israel's domestic secret service, Shin Bet, and includes former US police and army intelligence operatives. Although working closely with law enforcement agencies to fight pay TV pirates, OS was also engaged in "recruit[ing] top hackers, turning them into informants and then using their expertise to learn how to reverse engineer or deconstruct the smartcards of their rivals." (ibid)
For the dirt on NDS/OS operations you'll need to consult Chenoweth's report. For our purposes, however, his backgrounder on Reuven Hasak makes interesting reading:
"Hasak had been slated for the top job at Shin Bet but his career was destroyed by revelations of perjury and cover-up over the murder of two Palestinian hijackers after they were captured in April 1984. They were killed by a Shin Bet agent, allegedly on the orders of Shin Bet chief Avraham Shalom. But, over 18 months of investigations, Hasak helped orchestrate a false story, coaching a string of Shin Bet agents to give sworn evidence that an army officer, Brigadier-General Yitzhak Mordechai, was the killer. Shortly afterwards the Landau Commission reported that perjured evidence and the torture of suspects had been a regular part of Shin Bet procedure, and introduced reforms. In October 1985 Hasak and two other senior Shin Bet officers went to then-prime minister Shimon Peres to reveal the cover-up and ask for Shalom to be replaced. Peres dismissed their concerns: 'Why did you just remember today? If wrongs were done, why didn't you prevent it a long time ago?' The three Shin Bet officers were forced to resign, and formed a security firm, Shafran. Ten years later, as three of Israel's most experienced spies, they were the logical choice when News Corp's general council, Arthur Siskind, needed to investigate a fraud at NDS."
[*See my 17/3/12 post Israel's Similes & Ours.]
"From Latin America, the United States and Canada, across Europe and Asia down to Australia and New Zealand. In every country, in every market, it was game on. They were on a mission and they had no rules - or rather, no one to call them to account. They were undercover. They would use funny code names and false money trails, secret informants, 'honey pots' and deep cover agents. They spoke of 'burning' the people they targeted. They called them 'flammable'. They had scorn for everybody who stood in their way and they expressed that scorn freely in encrypted emails to each other, secure that no one from outside their tight group would ever read them. There was no moral quality to doing this; it was a necessary part of the operation. It was part of the business. And what was that business? It's not terrorism, it's not suicide bombing, it's not weapons of mass destruction', says Jan Saggiori, a Swiss-Italian hacker who became a target of the underground operatives. 'It's pay television'." (Murdoch's inside job, Neil Chenoweth)
Hm... sounds like something out of the rogue entity that touts itself as the Middle East's only democracy and casually talks of 'lawn maintenance'* in Gaza. Maybe that's because it is:
"News Databank Systems (NDS) was an accident of history. In February 1998 an Australian technology consultant, Bruce Hundertmark, badgered Murdoch into shelling out $3.6 million to found a start-up company in Israel called News Datacom Research based on encryption technology developed by the Weizmann Institute, which took a 20% stake. (The details of the early history are airbrushed out of many accounts.)" (ibid)
According to Chenoweth, NDS went on to set up a special unit, staffed by former police and intelligence operatives, called Operational Security (OS) to fight the piracy of NDS pay TV smartcards. Based in Haifa, OS is led by Reuven Hasak, a former deputy head of Israel's domestic secret service, Shin Bet, and includes former US police and army intelligence operatives. Although working closely with law enforcement agencies to fight pay TV pirates, OS was also engaged in "recruit[ing] top hackers, turning them into informants and then using their expertise to learn how to reverse engineer or deconstruct the smartcards of their rivals." (ibid)
For the dirt on NDS/OS operations you'll need to consult Chenoweth's report. For our purposes, however, his backgrounder on Reuven Hasak makes interesting reading:
"Hasak had been slated for the top job at Shin Bet but his career was destroyed by revelations of perjury and cover-up over the murder of two Palestinian hijackers after they were captured in April 1984. They were killed by a Shin Bet agent, allegedly on the orders of Shin Bet chief Avraham Shalom. But, over 18 months of investigations, Hasak helped orchestrate a false story, coaching a string of Shin Bet agents to give sworn evidence that an army officer, Brigadier-General Yitzhak Mordechai, was the killer. Shortly afterwards the Landau Commission reported that perjured evidence and the torture of suspects had been a regular part of Shin Bet procedure, and introduced reforms. In October 1985 Hasak and two other senior Shin Bet officers went to then-prime minister Shimon Peres to reveal the cover-up and ask for Shalom to be replaced. Peres dismissed their concerns: 'Why did you just remember today? If wrongs were done, why didn't you prevent it a long time ago?' The three Shin Bet officers were forced to resign, and formed a security firm, Shafran. Ten years later, as three of Israel's most experienced spies, they were the logical choice when News Corp's general council, Arthur Siskind, needed to investigate a fraud at NDS."
[*See my 17/3/12 post Israel's Similes & Ours.]
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Rupert's Raiders
In my post The Silence of the Intellectual (6/9/11), I took Robert Manne to task for failing, in his critique of Murdoch's Australian in The Monthly Essay, to focus on the paper's extraordinary and unremitting support for the state of Israel.
It now transpires that Murdoch not only employs its dupes as journalists and gives its propagandists free run of the opinion pages, but he's even got its intelligence operatives helping out at the office:
"A secret unit within Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation promoted a wave of high-tech piracy in Australia that damaged Austar, Optus and Foxtel at a time when News was moving to take control of the Australian pay TV industry. The piracy cost the Australian pay TV companies up to $50 million a year and helped cripple the finances of Austar, which Foxtel is now in the process of acquiring. A four-year investigation by The Australian Financial Review has revealed a global trail of corporate dirty tricks directed against competitors by a secretive group of former policemen and intelligence officers within News Corp known as Operational Security... The issue is particularly sensitive because Operational Security, which is headed by Reuven Hasak, a former deputy director of the Israeli domestic secret service, Shin Bet, operates in an area which historically has had close supervision by the Office of the Chairman, Rupert Murdoch. The security group was initially set up in a News Corp subsidiary, News Datacom Systems (later known as NDS), to battle internal fraud and to target piracy against its own pay TV companies. But documents uncovered by the Financial Review reveal that NDS encouraged and facilitated piracy by hackers not only of its competitors but also of companies, such as Foxtel, for whom NDS sabotaged business rivals, fabricated legal actions and obtained telephone records illegally... Covert operations in Australia were directed by the head of Operational Security for Asia Pacific, Avigail Gutman. At the time Gutman was based in Taiwan, where her husband Uri Gutman was the Israeli consul, before she was promoted to be a Group Leader based in Jerusalem." (Pay TV piracy hits News, Neil Chenoweth, afr.com, 28/3/12)
It now transpires that Murdoch not only employs its dupes as journalists and gives its propagandists free run of the opinion pages, but he's even got its intelligence operatives helping out at the office:
"A secret unit within Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation promoted a wave of high-tech piracy in Australia that damaged Austar, Optus and Foxtel at a time when News was moving to take control of the Australian pay TV industry. The piracy cost the Australian pay TV companies up to $50 million a year and helped cripple the finances of Austar, which Foxtel is now in the process of acquiring. A four-year investigation by The Australian Financial Review has revealed a global trail of corporate dirty tricks directed against competitors by a secretive group of former policemen and intelligence officers within News Corp known as Operational Security... The issue is particularly sensitive because Operational Security, which is headed by Reuven Hasak, a former deputy director of the Israeli domestic secret service, Shin Bet, operates in an area which historically has had close supervision by the Office of the Chairman, Rupert Murdoch. The security group was initially set up in a News Corp subsidiary, News Datacom Systems (later known as NDS), to battle internal fraud and to target piracy against its own pay TV companies. But documents uncovered by the Financial Review reveal that NDS encouraged and facilitated piracy by hackers not only of its competitors but also of companies, such as Foxtel, for whom NDS sabotaged business rivals, fabricated legal actions and obtained telephone records illegally... Covert operations in Australia were directed by the head of Operational Security for Asia Pacific, Avigail Gutman. At the time Gutman was based in Taiwan, where her husband Uri Gutman was the Israeli consul, before she was promoted to be a Group Leader based in Jerusalem." (Pay TV piracy hits News, Neil Chenoweth, afr.com, 28/3/12)
Friday, July 22, 2011
First Mubarak, Now Murdoch?
Following the collapse of one of the main pillars of Israeli hegemony in the Middle East, could we now perhaps be witnessing the beginnings of the collapse of the central pillar of Israel's propaganda apparatus in the West?
It seems there's movement at the station:
"Pro-Israel leaders in the United States, Britain and Australia are warily watching the unfolding of the phone-hacking scandal that is threatening to engulf the media empire of Rupert Murdoch, founder of News Corp. Murdoch's sudden massive reversal of fortune - with 10 top former staffers and executives under arrest in Britain for hacking into the phones of public figures and a murdered school girl, and paying off the police and journalists - has supporters of Israel worried that a diminished Murdoch presence may mute the strongly pro-Israel voice of many of the publications he owns." (Supporters worry about muting of pro-Israel media voice, Ron Kampeas, The Jerusalem Post, 20/7/11)
Oh dear!
"His publications and media have proven to be fairer on the issue of Israel than the rest of the media', said Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice-chairman of the Conference of Major American Jewish Organizations. 'I hope that won't be impacted'." (ibid)
Fairer? Hello? Isn't this a bit like saying that Juliet was fairer on the issue of Romeo than her sister?
"Murdoch's huge stable encompasses broadsheets such as The Wall Street Journal, the Times of London and The Australian, as well as tabloids, most notably The Sun in Britain and the New York Post. It also includes the influential Fox News Channel in the United States and a 39% stake in British Sky Broadcasting, or BSkyB, a satellite broadcaster. Murdoch founded the neoconservative flagship The Weekly Standard in 1995, and sold it last year.* Jewish leaders said that Murdoch's view of Israel's dealings with the Palestinians and its Arab neighbors seemed both knowledgeable and sensitive to the Jewish state's self-perception as beleaguered and isolated." (ibid)
And this view was arrived at independently of those Jewish leaders, and only after an exhaustive and impartial study of the issue by Rupert!
"'My own perspective is simple: We live in a world where there is an ongoing war against the Jews', Murdoch said last October at an Anti-Defamation League dinner in his honor. 'When Americans think of anti-Semitism, we tend to think of the vulgar caricatures and attacks of the first part of the 20th century. Now it seems that the most virulent strains come from the left. Often this new anti-Semitism dresses itself up as legitimate disagreement with Israel'." (ibid)
And he wrote every word himself!
"Murdoch, 80, has visited Israel multiple times and met with many of its leaders. In 2009 he was honored by the American Jewish Committee. 'In the West, we are used to thinking that Israel cannot survive without the help of Europe and the United States', he said at the AJC event. 'Tonight I say to you, maybe we should start wondering whether we in Europe and the United States can survive if we allow the terrorists to succeed in Israel'." (ibid)
Apres Israel, le deluge!
And in case you were wondering what happens to those who go astray:
"When some Jewish organizational leaders complained that Fox talk show host Glenn Beck** was relying on anti-Semitic tropes in peddling discredited theories about liberal billionaire financier George Soros, Murdoch nudged Fox chief Roger Ailes into meetings with Jewish leaders. Beck left Fox last month." (ibid)
Will you listen to this tripe:
"Murdoch's affection for Israel arose less out of his conservative sensibility than from his native Australian sympathy for the underdog fending off elites seized by conventional wisdoms, according to Isi Liebler, a longtime Australian Jewish community leader who now lives in Israel. 'From my personal communications with him, it's something that built up', Liebler told JTA. 'He's met Israelis, he's been to Israel, he's seen Israel as the plucky underdog when the rest of the world saw Israel as an occupier'. Australian Jews noted the pro-Israel cast of Murdoch's papers as early as the 1970s, before he had established ties with the Jewish community. The word from inside his company was that Israel was an issue that he cared about, which helped shape its coverage in his media properties." (ibid)
Murdoch, champion of the underdog! The mind boggles.
[* "The steady beating of war drums by neoconservatives like William Kristol was, in the eyes of many, the most influential factor in the US decision to go to war against Iraq. Referring to Kristol's numerous articles and media appearances in support of the war, Washington Post syndicated columnist Richard Cohen even dubbed it 'Kristol's War'. One reason Kristol was able to help create this war was the fact that he had a ready-made platform, courtesy of the Australian press lord Rupert Murdoch, who underwrites Kristol's magazine, The Weekly Standard." (William Kristol: Using The Weekly Standard to push for war on Iraq, Richard H. Curtiss, wrmea.com, 6/03); ** Apparently Beck's also been deviating from the script in the Middle East's Only Democracy: "Right-wing US television host Glenn Beck yesterday endured an experience that must have been a new one for him: it was made clear to him he was not right-wing enough. On a visit to Jerusalem to express his support for Israel, the Fox presenter addressed a committee of the Knesset, where he said: 'I'm not against a Palestinian state'. But as The Jerusalem Post reported, 'some seemed to think he was not right-wing enough when it came to Israel'. It said several committee members challenged Beck, including National Union member Arye Eldad, who said, 'I believe in a two-state solution, because I remember there is already a Palestinian state in Jordan'. Beck also upset Mr Eldad when he said Arabs and Israelis were all 'people who want to live their lives and raise their kids'. Mr Eldad told him of an Arab suicide bomber he had known of." (Beck's Right too Left for Knesset, John Lyons, The Australian, 13/7/11) There really is no pleasing some people.]
It seems there's movement at the station:
"Pro-Israel leaders in the United States, Britain and Australia are warily watching the unfolding of the phone-hacking scandal that is threatening to engulf the media empire of Rupert Murdoch, founder of News Corp. Murdoch's sudden massive reversal of fortune - with 10 top former staffers and executives under arrest in Britain for hacking into the phones of public figures and a murdered school girl, and paying off the police and journalists - has supporters of Israel worried that a diminished Murdoch presence may mute the strongly pro-Israel voice of many of the publications he owns." (Supporters worry about muting of pro-Israel media voice, Ron Kampeas, The Jerusalem Post, 20/7/11)
Oh dear!
"His publications and media have proven to be fairer on the issue of Israel than the rest of the media', said Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice-chairman of the Conference of Major American Jewish Organizations. 'I hope that won't be impacted'." (ibid)
Fairer? Hello? Isn't this a bit like saying that Juliet was fairer on the issue of Romeo than her sister?
"Murdoch's huge stable encompasses broadsheets such as The Wall Street Journal, the Times of London and The Australian, as well as tabloids, most notably The Sun in Britain and the New York Post. It also includes the influential Fox News Channel in the United States and a 39% stake in British Sky Broadcasting, or BSkyB, a satellite broadcaster. Murdoch founded the neoconservative flagship The Weekly Standard in 1995, and sold it last year.* Jewish leaders said that Murdoch's view of Israel's dealings with the Palestinians and its Arab neighbors seemed both knowledgeable and sensitive to the Jewish state's self-perception as beleaguered and isolated." (ibid)
And this view was arrived at independently of those Jewish leaders, and only after an exhaustive and impartial study of the issue by Rupert!
"'My own perspective is simple: We live in a world where there is an ongoing war against the Jews', Murdoch said last October at an Anti-Defamation League dinner in his honor. 'When Americans think of anti-Semitism, we tend to think of the vulgar caricatures and attacks of the first part of the 20th century. Now it seems that the most virulent strains come from the left. Often this new anti-Semitism dresses itself up as legitimate disagreement with Israel'." (ibid)
And he wrote every word himself!
"Murdoch, 80, has visited Israel multiple times and met with many of its leaders. In 2009 he was honored by the American Jewish Committee. 'In the West, we are used to thinking that Israel cannot survive without the help of Europe and the United States', he said at the AJC event. 'Tonight I say to you, maybe we should start wondering whether we in Europe and the United States can survive if we allow the terrorists to succeed in Israel'." (ibid)
Apres Israel, le deluge!
And in case you were wondering what happens to those who go astray:
"When some Jewish organizational leaders complained that Fox talk show host Glenn Beck** was relying on anti-Semitic tropes in peddling discredited theories about liberal billionaire financier George Soros, Murdoch nudged Fox chief Roger Ailes into meetings with Jewish leaders. Beck left Fox last month." (ibid)
Will you listen to this tripe:
"Murdoch's affection for Israel arose less out of his conservative sensibility than from his native Australian sympathy for the underdog fending off elites seized by conventional wisdoms, according to Isi Liebler, a longtime Australian Jewish community leader who now lives in Israel. 'From my personal communications with him, it's something that built up', Liebler told JTA. 'He's met Israelis, he's been to Israel, he's seen Israel as the plucky underdog when the rest of the world saw Israel as an occupier'. Australian Jews noted the pro-Israel cast of Murdoch's papers as early as the 1970s, before he had established ties with the Jewish community. The word from inside his company was that Israel was an issue that he cared about, which helped shape its coverage in his media properties." (ibid)
Murdoch, champion of the underdog! The mind boggles.
[* "The steady beating of war drums by neoconservatives like William Kristol was, in the eyes of many, the most influential factor in the US decision to go to war against Iraq. Referring to Kristol's numerous articles and media appearances in support of the war, Washington Post syndicated columnist Richard Cohen even dubbed it 'Kristol's War'. One reason Kristol was able to help create this war was the fact that he had a ready-made platform, courtesy of the Australian press lord Rupert Murdoch, who underwrites Kristol's magazine, The Weekly Standard." (William Kristol: Using The Weekly Standard to push for war on Iraq, Richard H. Curtiss, wrmea.com, 6/03); ** Apparently Beck's also been deviating from the script in the Middle East's Only Democracy: "Right-wing US television host Glenn Beck yesterday endured an experience that must have been a new one for him: it was made clear to him he was not right-wing enough. On a visit to Jerusalem to express his support for Israel, the Fox presenter addressed a committee of the Knesset, where he said: 'I'm not against a Palestinian state'. But as The Jerusalem Post reported, 'some seemed to think he was not right-wing enough when it came to Israel'. It said several committee members challenged Beck, including National Union member Arye Eldad, who said, 'I believe in a two-state solution, because I remember there is already a Palestinian state in Jordan'. Beck also upset Mr Eldad when he said Arabs and Israelis were all 'people who want to live their lives and raise their kids'. Mr Eldad told him of an Arab suicide bomber he had known of." (Beck's Right too Left for Knesset, John Lyons, The Australian, 13/7/11) There really is no pleasing some people.]
Monday, October 18, 2010
One Incredibly Useful Fool
"[W]e live in a world where there is an ongoing war against the Jews... There are many people waging this war. Some blow up cafes. Some fire rockets into civilian areas. Some are pursuing nuclear arms. Some are fighting the soft war, through international boycotts and resolutions condemning Israel." (No ceasefire means no peace in war on Israel, Rupert Murdoch, The Australian, 16/10/10)
And some are just collecting gravel...
"The Israeli military has been urged to investigate the recent shootings of at least 12 impoverished Palestinian teenagers and young men collecting gravel in an effort to eke out an income within 800 metres of Gaza's heavily guarded northern border. The youngsters - including at least 2 under 15 - were shot and injured as they gathered the gravel to sell cement manufacturers struggling to meet a fraction of the demand for building materials still banned from entering Gaza through Israel. The shootings - highlighted in reports by two human rights agencies - are the latest development to come to light in a more general military enforcement of a 'buffer zone' inside Gaza's border." ( Israeli soldiers 'shot at children collecting gravel by Gaza border', Donald Macintyre, The Independent, 12/10/10)
But, hey, "[t]he peace we all want will come when Israel feels secure..." (No ceasefire)
And some are just collecting gravel...
"The Israeli military has been urged to investigate the recent shootings of at least 12 impoverished Palestinian teenagers and young men collecting gravel in an effort to eke out an income within 800 metres of Gaza's heavily guarded northern border. The youngsters - including at least 2 under 15 - were shot and injured as they gathered the gravel to sell cement manufacturers struggling to meet a fraction of the demand for building materials still banned from entering Gaza through Israel. The shootings - highlighted in reports by two human rights agencies - are the latest development to come to light in a more general military enforcement of a 'buffer zone' inside Gaza's border." ( Israeli soldiers 'shot at children collecting gravel by Gaza border', Donald Macintyre, The Independent, 12/10/10)
But, hey, "[t]he peace we all want will come when Israel feels secure..." (No ceasefire)
Friday, April 2, 2010
Murdoch's Arab Mates
"Any doubts that Rupert Murdoch has a god complex have been dispelled. Murdoch and his wife ,Wendi, have celebrated the baptism of their daughters Grace 8, and Chloe, 6, at what some reports say is believed to be the baptism site of Jesus Christ beside the River Jordan. Hello! magazine devoted 18 pages to the event, which was hosted by Queen Rania of Jordan. Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman were named as godparents..." (A big day for Grace & Chloe, Sydney Morning Herald, 1/4/10)
"Murdoch's newspapers and television stations have misrepresented and distorted news from the Middle East for decades. Yet here he is in Abu Dhabi being cossetted and flattered by Arab princes and businessmen, people who want to make money with or from him. They are Rupert's kind of Arabs. Like him they have no conscience. What they have in common is money and power. Murdoch already has extensive connections with the Saudis, especially with Prince Al Walid bin Talal, who owns 7% of News Corporation stock (& is therefore the largest single invester outside individual members of the Murdoch family). In return Murdoch has bought a 9.9% stake ($70 million) in Talal's Rotana media group: while in Abu Dhabi he announced a further deal, between Fox International Channels and the local twofour54 company in what was called 'a creative content initiative'.
"Herein lies the fatal weakness of the Arab world. The fundamental problem is not just Israel and the 'west'. It is certainly not the man and woman on the street. From Morocco to the Gulf they support the Palestinians wholeheartedly. The central problem is the lack of will and principle in the Arab state system, and underneath this, the lack of democracy. Almost all of the 'leaders' who speak for the Arabs on the world stage are unrepresentative, either because they have no elections or because they debauch the electoral process. They are the guardians of 'western' interests, not the interests and aspirations of their own people. Proper democratic processes would result in the election of governments that would give active support to the Palestinians. There would be no wall between Egypt and Gaza and there would be no negotiations or backdoor trade with Israel as long as it occupies and colonises Arab land. There would be no deals with a man whose media abuses the Arabs and supports their enemy. In the real world of international diplomacy states usually use their resources to achieve diplomatic and strategic ends. Only the Arab states (especially the Gulf States) give theirs away for nothing. While the people of the West Bank and Gaza are struggling to hold their ground, while their friends and supporters around the world rally and campaign for them, they are let down at every turn by their Arab 'brothers' holding positions of power and influence." (Murdoch's kind of Arabs: Sleeping with the enemy, Jeremy Salt, The Palestine Chronicle, 16/3/10)
"Murdoch's newspapers and television stations have misrepresented and distorted news from the Middle East for decades. Yet here he is in Abu Dhabi being cossetted and flattered by Arab princes and businessmen, people who want to make money with or from him. They are Rupert's kind of Arabs. Like him they have no conscience. What they have in common is money and power. Murdoch already has extensive connections with the Saudis, especially with Prince Al Walid bin Talal, who owns 7% of News Corporation stock (& is therefore the largest single invester outside individual members of the Murdoch family). In return Murdoch has bought a 9.9% stake ($70 million) in Talal's Rotana media group: while in Abu Dhabi he announced a further deal, between Fox International Channels and the local twofour54 company in what was called 'a creative content initiative'.
"Herein lies the fatal weakness of the Arab world. The fundamental problem is not just Israel and the 'west'. It is certainly not the man and woman on the street. From Morocco to the Gulf they support the Palestinians wholeheartedly. The central problem is the lack of will and principle in the Arab state system, and underneath this, the lack of democracy. Almost all of the 'leaders' who speak for the Arabs on the world stage are unrepresentative, either because they have no elections or because they debauch the electoral process. They are the guardians of 'western' interests, not the interests and aspirations of their own people. Proper democratic processes would result in the election of governments that would give active support to the Palestinians. There would be no wall between Egypt and Gaza and there would be no negotiations or backdoor trade with Israel as long as it occupies and colonises Arab land. There would be no deals with a man whose media abuses the Arabs and supports their enemy. In the real world of international diplomacy states usually use their resources to achieve diplomatic and strategic ends. Only the Arab states (especially the Gulf States) give theirs away for nothing. While the people of the West Bank and Gaza are struggling to hold their ground, while their friends and supporters around the world rally and campaign for them, they are let down at every turn by their Arab 'brothers' holding positions of power and influence." (Murdoch's kind of Arabs: Sleeping with the enemy, Jeremy Salt, The Palestine Chronicle, 16/3/10)
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Corrupting Serious Debate
Is that the truth? Or was your News Limited?
John Hartigan is the chairman and chief executive of Murdoch's News Limited, owner and publisher of The Australian, the foreign editor of which is Greg (Jerusalem Prize) Sheridan. Hartigan spoke yesterday to the National Press Club in Canberra. Among other things, he said, "several newspapers, notably the Wall Street Journal and The Australian... had prospered by investing in quality reporting." Just click on the 'Greg Sheridan' tag at the bottom of this post if you'd like to see what "quality reporting" means in action.
Hartigan had something else on his mind at the NPC: "Mr Hartigan... took aim at the blogosphere and so-called 'citizen journalism'. He said bloggers lacked the resources, training, skills and contacts to produce reliable news. 'Blogs and a large number of comment sites specialise in political extremism and personal vilification', he said. Mr Hartigan dismissed the claims often made by bloggers that theirs was a fresh, more democratic medium. 'Amateur journalism trivialises and corrupts serious debate', he said. 'It degenerates democracy into mob rule and rumour'." (Future of our newspapers is bright, Paul Maley, The Australian, 2/7/09)
Long live political extremism, personal vilification, the trivialisation and corruption of serious debate, mob rule, and rumour!
John Hartigan is the chairman and chief executive of Murdoch's News Limited, owner and publisher of The Australian, the foreign editor of which is Greg (Jerusalem Prize) Sheridan. Hartigan spoke yesterday to the National Press Club in Canberra. Among other things, he said, "several newspapers, notably the Wall Street Journal and The Australian... had prospered by investing in quality reporting." Just click on the 'Greg Sheridan' tag at the bottom of this post if you'd like to see what "quality reporting" means in action.
Hartigan had something else on his mind at the NPC: "Mr Hartigan... took aim at the blogosphere and so-called 'citizen journalism'. He said bloggers lacked the resources, training, skills and contacts to produce reliable news. 'Blogs and a large number of comment sites specialise in political extremism and personal vilification', he said. Mr Hartigan dismissed the claims often made by bloggers that theirs was a fresh, more democratic medium. 'Amateur journalism trivialises and corrupts serious debate', he said. 'It degenerates democracy into mob rule and rumour'." (Future of our newspapers is bright, Paul Maley, The Australian, 2/7/09)
Long live political extremism, personal vilification, the trivialisation and corruption of serious debate, mob rule, and rumour!
Monday, April 28, 2008
Anticipatory Compliance
"The thing about Murdoch is that he very rarely issued directives or instructions to his senior executives or editors. Instead, by way of discussion he would make known his personal viewpoint on a certain matter. What was expected in return, at least from those seeking tenure of any length in the Murdoch Empire, was a sort of 'anticipatory compliance'. One didn't need to be instructed about what to do, one simply knew what was in one's long-term interests." (Rupert's Adventures in China: How Murdoch Lost a Fortune and Found a Wife, Bruce Dover, 2008, p 149)
Anticipatory compliance (or self-censorship) is a reflex all too familiar to those in the mainstream media who write about the Palestine/Israel conflict. Apart from those at News Limited who actually believe their own pro-Israel propaganda, whenever the subject of Israel's decades-long abuse of the Palestinian people arises, editors and journalists will do what they do in the certain knowledge that, should they breach the red lines laid down by Israel lobby spinmeisters, there will be consequences: angry phone calls, letters, emails, even meetings with management. Is this kind of heat worth it? they'll be asking themselves. Punches will be pulled and difficult questions avoided. The result will be that our understanding of the underlying dynamics of the conflict will be compromised. We'll relegate it to the too-hard basket and concentrate instead on other, clearer, safer crimes, such as Tibet and Zimbabwe. And the relentless, bloody process of wiping Palestine off the map, Palestinian by Palestinian, dunum by dunam, begun in earnest by the Zionist movement in 1948, will continue apace.
Veteran BBC journalist Tim Llewellyn put it thus: "This [unconscious pro-Israel bias] is also evident in insidious self-censorship, in which a reporter senses a way of pre-empting the anxiety of his bosses or the ire of the Israelis or both by crafting his story in a bland and therefore misleading manner: 'Land which the Palestinians say is occupied...'; 'disputed' instead of 'occupied' territories, a phrase that still crops up on the BBC, though the circumlocution is legally and morally indefensible; the misrepresentation of the numbers of Jewish settlers on the West Bank and in Jerusalem; the failure to get into the public British consciousness the nature of the vast Separation and Enclosure Wall Israel is building around and into Palestinian territory, dividing and isolating its people and further damaging their already enfeebled economy. This is still called by the BBC 'a security barrier', conjuring up in the viewer's or listener's mind the image of a temporary structure the local police might put up to fence off a crime scene or to deter football hooligans." (Introduction to Publish It Not: The Middle East cover-Up, Christopher Mayhew & Michael Adams, 2006)
A text book example of anticipatory compliance cropped up in The Australian of 26/4/08:-
Sian Powell's Gaza power play was a feature article on the staging (Belvoir St Theatre, May 14) of the play My Name is Rachel Corrie. Its eponymous subject was callously murdered by an Israeli army bulldozer driver in 2003 while trying to protect, along with fellow activists in the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian home from demolition.
Right at the outset Powell feels compelled to play the faux balancing game: "Playwright Harold Pinter, among others, wrote to defend the play, while a website called Rachel Corrie Facts has been set up to correct the work's 'factual errors and myths'." Not even the qualifier 'alleged' is allowed to intrude on the fiction that RCF is anything more than just another tiresome pro-Israel propaganda site out to sow confusion. "The play has dipped into that most prickly subject," Powell writes, "Middle Eastern politics. Corrie drew derision and admiration during her short life: the play has had the same effect." "Derision" - whose derision? Powell dare not spell it out. The illusion that Corrie's detractors may have had a genuine reason for objecting to the play, as opposed to an axe to grind, is thus created. The play "is sure to draw fire," she adds.
But that's just for starters. Powell quotes an almost apologetic Shannon Murphy, director of the Sydney production: "I actually think it's been blown out of proportion... It's more a coming-of-age story." Although Murphy is described as being "so taken with the play," Powell says this is because it is "a play rather than as a political polemic."
In her gloss on Corrie's life, Powell notes that "as a college student she joined the International Solidarity Movement," parenthetically adding the words "dubbed a pro-Palestinian front." The identity and motives of the dubbers is left to the reader's imagination. Whoever they are, Powell must placate them. The vital and heroic work of the ISM is ignored and its integrity impugned.
She quotes Corrie, mere days before her death, saying, "I feel like I'm witnessing the systematic destruction of a people's ability to survive... Sometimes I sit down to dinner with people and I realise there is a massive military machine surrounding us, trying to kill the people I'm having dinner with." But this chilling insight into the dark heart of the matter is subverted when Powell goes on to quote Murphy (still in apologetic mode): "'Up until she died she was still trying to grasp what was happening between the Israelis and the Palestinians'... adding that Corrie was angrier with US foreign policy than she was with Israel." (But of course, who in their right mind could possibly blame Israel?)
"Trying to grasp what was happening between the Israelis and the Palestinians"? Really? Corrie knew exactly what was happening. A military machine, the IDF, Jabotinsky's implacable "iron wall of Jewish bayonets," was all around her, destroying Palestinian lives and livelihoods on a daily basis, and had been since 1947-8. To suggest that Corrie wasn't quite up to speed on this is either not to understand her words - or else an exercise in anticipatory compliance.
Powell can't even concede that Corrie was murdered: "She was killed in hotly disputed circumstances. It is certain, though, that Corrie was trying to prevent an armoured Israeli D9 bulldozer from working in Rafah... where she believed Palestinian houses were at risk. She was killed either by the bulldozer's blade or by rubble and debris moved by the machine."
So Corrie's death was an accident! An Israeli bulldozer (no human agency is indicated) was quietly working away minding its own business when Corrie, who only "believed" that some houses (whose houses?) were at risk, simply got in the way. Now where could she have gotten the idea that Palestinian homes were at risk? She couldn't possibly have gone to Gaza knowing that over 3,000 Palestinian homes had been toppled in the previous 2 years, or to Rafah knowing that the Israelis were busy bulldozing a 400m corridor separating Gaza and Egypt through people's homes, now could she? Let us hope that the silly girl didn't traumatise the poor driver too much.
And anyway, "an Israeli Defence Force investigation found that Corrie had not been run over by the dozer and that the driver probably had not been able to see her." Well, that's that then. End of story. The Israelis wouldn't lie now, would they? And this in spite of Powell's earlier claim that the circumstances of her death were"hotly disputed."
As if that wasn't enough to keep the Zionist media pack from the door, "Murphy believes Corrie's death was accidental... 'She slipped and she was trying to scramble up, and it crushed her. It was an accident... No charges have been laid, that's for sure'." This, if correctly reported, is bizarre. Here we have Murphy, described as "so taken" with the play and Corrie's story, apparently unaware of the eyewitness testimony of Corrie's fellow activist, Joe Smith: "Rachel [dressed incidentally in a bright orange jacket with reflective stripes] was kneeling 20 metres in front of the bulldozer on flat ground. There was no way she could not have been seen. We only maintain positions that are clearly visible. She had been doing this all day but this time the driver did not stop. Once she had fallen under the bulldozer, the driver stopped when she was under its middle section and reversed." (Israeli report clears troops over US death, The Guardian, 14/4/03)
Unaware too, it seems, of the words of ISM spokesman, Tom Wallace: "The conclusions are outrageous. If they found that the driver was not culpable what did they find to explain this? How could they find a driver who had run someone over in a slow and deliberate manner in no way responsible?" (TG, 14/4/03)
Anticipatory compliance. Anything to avoid drawing fire from you-know-who.
Rachel Corrie knew exactly what was going on around her and could have had no illusions whatever about the dangers of standing up to the uniformed thugs of the IDF. Whether shooting, shelling, firing missiles or bulldozing, she would have known that the Israeli military is committed to one thing and one thing only - the ethnic cleansing of Palestine - and that nobody, not even a white American woman, would be allowed to stand between it and its historic mission. Rachel Corrie may have been born in the US, but she was murdered in Palestine as a Palestinian.
The psychopathological mindset she was up against becomes clear when one reads the testimony of Moshe Nissim, the driver of one of the bulldozers that flattened the Jenin refugee camp in April 2002: "Do you know how I held out for 75 hours? I didn't get off the tractor. I had no problem of fatigue, because I drink whisky all the time. I had a bottle in the tractor at all times... For 75 hours I didn't think about my life at home, about all the problems. Everything was erased. Sometimes images of terror attacks in Jerusalem crossed my mind. I witnessed some of them. For 3 days, I just destroyed and destroyed. The whole area. Any house that they fired from came down. And to knock it down, I tore down some more. They were warned by loudspeaker to get out of the house before I come, but I gave no one a chance. I didn't wait. I didn't give one blow, and wait for them to come out. I would just ram the house with full power, to bring it down as fast as possible. I wanted to get to the other houses. To get as many as possible... Others may have restrained themselves, or so they say. Who are they kidding?...I didn't give a damn about the Palestinians, but I didn't just ruin with no reason. It was all under orders." (Quoted in Israel/Palestine: How to End the War of 1948, Tanya Reinhart, 2003, pp 163-164)
It's time the media - and the rest of us - stood up to the Israel lobby's bulldozing of honest reporting and freedom of expression. Acts of anticipatory compliance only reward the bully and diminish us as human beings. Rachel Corrie's courage, and that of her fellow activists in the ISM, is an example to us all.
Anticipatory compliance (or self-censorship) is a reflex all too familiar to those in the mainstream media who write about the Palestine/Israel conflict. Apart from those at News Limited who actually believe their own pro-Israel propaganda, whenever the subject of Israel's decades-long abuse of the Palestinian people arises, editors and journalists will do what they do in the certain knowledge that, should they breach the red lines laid down by Israel lobby spinmeisters, there will be consequences: angry phone calls, letters, emails, even meetings with management. Is this kind of heat worth it? they'll be asking themselves. Punches will be pulled and difficult questions avoided. The result will be that our understanding of the underlying dynamics of the conflict will be compromised. We'll relegate it to the too-hard basket and concentrate instead on other, clearer, safer crimes, such as Tibet and Zimbabwe. And the relentless, bloody process of wiping Palestine off the map, Palestinian by Palestinian, dunum by dunam, begun in earnest by the Zionist movement in 1948, will continue apace.
Veteran BBC journalist Tim Llewellyn put it thus: "This [unconscious pro-Israel bias] is also evident in insidious self-censorship, in which a reporter senses a way of pre-empting the anxiety of his bosses or the ire of the Israelis or both by crafting his story in a bland and therefore misleading manner: 'Land which the Palestinians say is occupied...'; 'disputed' instead of 'occupied' territories, a phrase that still crops up on the BBC, though the circumlocution is legally and morally indefensible; the misrepresentation of the numbers of Jewish settlers on the West Bank and in Jerusalem; the failure to get into the public British consciousness the nature of the vast Separation and Enclosure Wall Israel is building around and into Palestinian territory, dividing and isolating its people and further damaging their already enfeebled economy. This is still called by the BBC 'a security barrier', conjuring up in the viewer's or listener's mind the image of a temporary structure the local police might put up to fence off a crime scene or to deter football hooligans." (Introduction to Publish It Not: The Middle East cover-Up, Christopher Mayhew & Michael Adams, 2006)
A text book example of anticipatory compliance cropped up in The Australian of 26/4/08:-
Sian Powell's Gaza power play was a feature article on the staging (Belvoir St Theatre, May 14) of the play My Name is Rachel Corrie. Its eponymous subject was callously murdered by an Israeli army bulldozer driver in 2003 while trying to protect, along with fellow activists in the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian home from demolition.
Right at the outset Powell feels compelled to play the faux balancing game: "Playwright Harold Pinter, among others, wrote to defend the play, while a website called Rachel Corrie Facts has been set up to correct the work's 'factual errors and myths'." Not even the qualifier 'alleged' is allowed to intrude on the fiction that RCF is anything more than just another tiresome pro-Israel propaganda site out to sow confusion. "The play has dipped into that most prickly subject," Powell writes, "Middle Eastern politics. Corrie drew derision and admiration during her short life: the play has had the same effect." "Derision" - whose derision? Powell dare not spell it out. The illusion that Corrie's detractors may have had a genuine reason for objecting to the play, as opposed to an axe to grind, is thus created. The play "is sure to draw fire," she adds.
But that's just for starters. Powell quotes an almost apologetic Shannon Murphy, director of the Sydney production: "I actually think it's been blown out of proportion... It's more a coming-of-age story." Although Murphy is described as being "so taken with the play," Powell says this is because it is "a play rather than as a political polemic."
In her gloss on Corrie's life, Powell notes that "as a college student she joined the International Solidarity Movement," parenthetically adding the words "dubbed a pro-Palestinian front." The identity and motives of the dubbers is left to the reader's imagination. Whoever they are, Powell must placate them. The vital and heroic work of the ISM is ignored and its integrity impugned.
She quotes Corrie, mere days before her death, saying, "I feel like I'm witnessing the systematic destruction of a people's ability to survive... Sometimes I sit down to dinner with people and I realise there is a massive military machine surrounding us, trying to kill the people I'm having dinner with." But this chilling insight into the dark heart of the matter is subverted when Powell goes on to quote Murphy (still in apologetic mode): "'Up until she died she was still trying to grasp what was happening between the Israelis and the Palestinians'... adding that Corrie was angrier with US foreign policy than she was with Israel." (But of course, who in their right mind could possibly blame Israel?)
"Trying to grasp what was happening between the Israelis and the Palestinians"? Really? Corrie knew exactly what was happening. A military machine, the IDF, Jabotinsky's implacable "iron wall of Jewish bayonets," was all around her, destroying Palestinian lives and livelihoods on a daily basis, and had been since 1947-8. To suggest that Corrie wasn't quite up to speed on this is either not to understand her words - or else an exercise in anticipatory compliance.
Powell can't even concede that Corrie was murdered: "She was killed in hotly disputed circumstances. It is certain, though, that Corrie was trying to prevent an armoured Israeli D9 bulldozer from working in Rafah... where she believed Palestinian houses were at risk. She was killed either by the bulldozer's blade or by rubble and debris moved by the machine."
So Corrie's death was an accident! An Israeli bulldozer (no human agency is indicated) was quietly working away minding its own business when Corrie, who only "believed" that some houses (whose houses?) were at risk, simply got in the way. Now where could she have gotten the idea that Palestinian homes were at risk? She couldn't possibly have gone to Gaza knowing that over 3,000 Palestinian homes had been toppled in the previous 2 years, or to Rafah knowing that the Israelis were busy bulldozing a 400m corridor separating Gaza and Egypt through people's homes, now could she? Let us hope that the silly girl didn't traumatise the poor driver too much.
And anyway, "an Israeli Defence Force investigation found that Corrie had not been run over by the dozer and that the driver probably had not been able to see her." Well, that's that then. End of story. The Israelis wouldn't lie now, would they? And this in spite of Powell's earlier claim that the circumstances of her death were"hotly disputed."
As if that wasn't enough to keep the Zionist media pack from the door, "Murphy believes Corrie's death was accidental... 'She slipped and she was trying to scramble up, and it crushed her. It was an accident... No charges have been laid, that's for sure'." This, if correctly reported, is bizarre. Here we have Murphy, described as "so taken" with the play and Corrie's story, apparently unaware of the eyewitness testimony of Corrie's fellow activist, Joe Smith: "Rachel [dressed incidentally in a bright orange jacket with reflective stripes] was kneeling 20 metres in front of the bulldozer on flat ground. There was no way she could not have been seen. We only maintain positions that are clearly visible. She had been doing this all day but this time the driver did not stop. Once she had fallen under the bulldozer, the driver stopped when she was under its middle section and reversed." (Israeli report clears troops over US death, The Guardian, 14/4/03)
Unaware too, it seems, of the words of ISM spokesman, Tom Wallace: "The conclusions are outrageous. If they found that the driver was not culpable what did they find to explain this? How could they find a driver who had run someone over in a slow and deliberate manner in no way responsible?" (TG, 14/4/03)
Anticipatory compliance. Anything to avoid drawing fire from you-know-who.
Rachel Corrie knew exactly what was going on around her and could have had no illusions whatever about the dangers of standing up to the uniformed thugs of the IDF. Whether shooting, shelling, firing missiles or bulldozing, she would have known that the Israeli military is committed to one thing and one thing only - the ethnic cleansing of Palestine - and that nobody, not even a white American woman, would be allowed to stand between it and its historic mission. Rachel Corrie may have been born in the US, but she was murdered in Palestine as a Palestinian.
The psychopathological mindset she was up against becomes clear when one reads the testimony of Moshe Nissim, the driver of one of the bulldozers that flattened the Jenin refugee camp in April 2002: "Do you know how I held out for 75 hours? I didn't get off the tractor. I had no problem of fatigue, because I drink whisky all the time. I had a bottle in the tractor at all times... For 75 hours I didn't think about my life at home, about all the problems. Everything was erased. Sometimes images of terror attacks in Jerusalem crossed my mind. I witnessed some of them. For 3 days, I just destroyed and destroyed. The whole area. Any house that they fired from came down. And to knock it down, I tore down some more. They were warned by loudspeaker to get out of the house before I come, but I gave no one a chance. I didn't wait. I didn't give one blow, and wait for them to come out. I would just ram the house with full power, to bring it down as fast as possible. I wanted to get to the other houses. To get as many as possible... Others may have restrained themselves, or so they say. Who are they kidding?...I didn't give a damn about the Palestinians, but I didn't just ruin with no reason. It was all under orders." (Quoted in Israel/Palestine: How to End the War of 1948, Tanya Reinhart, 2003, pp 163-164)
It's time the media - and the rest of us - stood up to the Israel lobby's bulldozing of honest reporting and freedom of expression. Acts of anticipatory compliance only reward the bully and diminish us as human beings. Rachel Corrie's courage, and that of her fellow activists in the ISM, is an example to us all.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
On Taking Begging Bowls to Repressive Regimes
"Griffith University vice-chancellor Ian O'Connor has admitted lifting information straight from online encyclopedia Wikipedia and confusing strands of Islam as he struggled to defend his institution's decision to ask the repressive Saudi Arabian Government for funding." (Uni chief lifted Islam text from Wikipedia)
That was front page news in The Australian of 26/4/08. Murdoch's self-styled Heart of the Nation was waging another of its journalistic jihads "after it was revealed [last week] that Griffith had asked the Saudi embassy in Australia for a $1.37 million grant for its Islamic Research Unit."
The Australian's bloodhound, dedicated to sniffing out Muslims under the bed, Richard Kerbaj, had reported accusations, emanating from Clive Wall, a Queensland District Court judge and deputy judge advocate-general in the Australian Defence Forces, that Griffith University was akin to Pakistani "madrassas" [sic: madrasas] and an "agent" of the Saudi regime engaged in "propagating Wahabbism [sic: wahhabism], a hardline brand of Islam practised in Saudi Arabia and followed by al-Qa'ida." (Uni defends Saudi grant, 24/4/08) It was Professor O'Connor's "response to The Australian's revelations... published as an opinion article in the newspaper on Thursday [which] contained whole passages of text 'cut and pasted' from Wikipedia." To top it off, The Australian couldn't resist editorialising about how Professor O'Connor "has yet to justify his taking the begging bowl to a repressive regime that punishes by stoning, beheading and amputation, and bars women from driving and most forms of normal life." But more of that later.
Cutting and pasting Wikipedia, eh? If The Australian really wanted to run with a Wikipedia story, how about this one: "A pro-Israel pressure group is orchestrating a secret, long-term campaign to infiltrate the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia to rewrite Palestinian history, pass off crude propaganda as fact, and take over Wikipedia administrative structures to ensure these changes go either undetected or unchallenged." The "pro-Israel pressure group" referred to is CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) and the full report, from The Electronic Intifada, 21/4/08, can be accessed at http://www.electronicintifada.net/.
And if The Australian really wanted to chase up a story on universities receiving external funding for the propagation of extremist Middle-Eastern ideologies, it could perhaps investigate the phenomenon of Israel studies - what some may well perceive as an attempt to propagate political Zionism, a hardline brand of nationalism/tribalism practised in Israel and promoted by Israel lobbies in western countries.
Maybe this Jerusalem Post story would be a good place for Mr Kerbaj to start: "A coalition of 31 American Jewish organizations want to bring Israel studies to US campuses... Such a[n Israel studies] program, it is hoped, will help tell Israel's story on American college campuses." (Jewish organizations want to bring Israel studies to US campuses, 2/5/07)
Or maybe he could follow up on Mearsheimer & Walt: "To further counter perceived anti-Israel bias in academia, a number of philanthropists have established Israel studies programs at US universities (in addition to the roughly 130 Jewish studies programs that already exist), so as to increase the number of 'Israel-friendly' scholars on campus. NYU announced the establishment of the Taub Center for Israel Studies on May 1, 2003, and similar programs have been established at other schools, including Berkely, Brandeis, and Emory. Academic administrators emphasize the pedagogical value of these programs, but they are also intended to promote Israel's image on campus. Fred Lafer, the head of the Taub Foundation, makes clear that his foundation funded the NYU center to help counter the 'Arabic [sic] point of view' that he thinks is prevalent in NYU's Middle East programs." (The Israel Lobby & US Foreign Policy, 2007 p 181)
Israel studies has in fact already made it to these shores, without the Murdoch press showing a flicker of interest: "Monash University's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Richard Larkins, today announced the appointment of Professor Fania Oz-Salzberger to the Leon Liberman Chair of Modern Israel Studies in the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilization... Mr Liberman said: 'The Chair... will provide an opportunity to advance a rounded and multi-dimensional discourse with the Modern State of Israel... The Acting Director of the Centre for Jewish Civilization, Professor David Copolov, said that the appointment of Professor Oz-Salzberger would help strengthen Monash's reputation as a trusted source of expert, dispassionate commentary on key issues of contemporary international relevance." (Monash appoints Chair of Modern Israel Studies, 18/4/07, http://www.monash.edu.au/.) For Oz-Salzberger see my February 12 post Rotem's Revenge.
However, to fully appreciate the consummate HYPOCRISY of the Murdoch press taking Professor Ian O'Connor to task for "taking his begging bowl to a repressive regime," one had the happy option of turning to Murdoch's rival, Fairfax's Sydney Morning Herald of 25/4/08, and reading George Monbiot's wonderful essay, Strange case of Murdoch's lost empire.
Monbiot told the story of how, after buying up Hong Kong's satellite broadcaster Star TV and making a speech in 1993 about how satellite broadcasting constituted a threat to "totalitarian regimes" because it allowed "information-hungry residents of many closed societies to bypass state-controlled television channels," which provoked the Chinese to ban satellite dishes from China, "Murdoch spent the next 10 years grovelling. Within 6 months of [the] ban, Murdoch dropped the BBC from Star's China signal. His publishing company, HarperCollins, paid a fortune for a tedious biography of Deng Xiaoping, written by Deng's daughter. He built a website for the regime's propaganda sheet, the People's Daily. In 1997 he made another speech in which he tried to undo the damage he had caused 4 years before. 'China', he said, 'is a distinctive market with distinctive social and moral values that Western companies must learn to abide by'. His minions, Dover [Murdoch's former vice-president in China & author of Rupert's Adventures in China] reveals, ensured 'every relevant Chinese government official received a copy'. He described the Dalai Lama as a 'very political old monk shuffling around in Gucci shoes'. His son James said that the Western media 'were painting a falsely negative portrayal of China through their focus on controversial issues such as human rights'. Rupert employed his unsalaried gofer, Tony Blair, to give him special access: in 1999 Blair placed him next to the then Chinese president...at a Downing Street lunch. To secure limited cable rights in southern China, News Corporation agreed to carry a Chinese government channel... on Fox and Sky. Murdoch promised to 'further strengthen co-operative ties with the Chinese media, and explore new areas with an even more positive attitude'. Most notoriously, he instructed HarperCollins not to publish the book it had bought from the former governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten."
That was front page news in The Australian of 26/4/08. Murdoch's self-styled Heart of the Nation was waging another of its journalistic jihads "after it was revealed [last week] that Griffith had asked the Saudi embassy in Australia for a $1.37 million grant for its Islamic Research Unit."
The Australian's bloodhound, dedicated to sniffing out Muslims under the bed, Richard Kerbaj, had reported accusations, emanating from Clive Wall, a Queensland District Court judge and deputy judge advocate-general in the Australian Defence Forces, that Griffith University was akin to Pakistani "madrassas" [sic: madrasas] and an "agent" of the Saudi regime engaged in "propagating Wahabbism [sic: wahhabism], a hardline brand of Islam practised in Saudi Arabia and followed by al-Qa'ida." (Uni defends Saudi grant, 24/4/08) It was Professor O'Connor's "response to The Australian's revelations... published as an opinion article in the newspaper on Thursday [which] contained whole passages of text 'cut and pasted' from Wikipedia." To top it off, The Australian couldn't resist editorialising about how Professor O'Connor "has yet to justify his taking the begging bowl to a repressive regime that punishes by stoning, beheading and amputation, and bars women from driving and most forms of normal life." But more of that later.
Cutting and pasting Wikipedia, eh? If The Australian really wanted to run with a Wikipedia story, how about this one: "A pro-Israel pressure group is orchestrating a secret, long-term campaign to infiltrate the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia to rewrite Palestinian history, pass off crude propaganda as fact, and take over Wikipedia administrative structures to ensure these changes go either undetected or unchallenged." The "pro-Israel pressure group" referred to is CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) and the full report, from The Electronic Intifada, 21/4/08, can be accessed at http://www.electronicintifada.net/.
And if The Australian really wanted to chase up a story on universities receiving external funding for the propagation of extremist Middle-Eastern ideologies, it could perhaps investigate the phenomenon of Israel studies - what some may well perceive as an attempt to propagate political Zionism, a hardline brand of nationalism/tribalism practised in Israel and promoted by Israel lobbies in western countries.
Maybe this Jerusalem Post story would be a good place for Mr Kerbaj to start: "A coalition of 31 American Jewish organizations want to bring Israel studies to US campuses... Such a[n Israel studies] program, it is hoped, will help tell Israel's story on American college campuses." (Jewish organizations want to bring Israel studies to US campuses, 2/5/07)
Or maybe he could follow up on Mearsheimer & Walt: "To further counter perceived anti-Israel bias in academia, a number of philanthropists have established Israel studies programs at US universities (in addition to the roughly 130 Jewish studies programs that already exist), so as to increase the number of 'Israel-friendly' scholars on campus. NYU announced the establishment of the Taub Center for Israel Studies on May 1, 2003, and similar programs have been established at other schools, including Berkely, Brandeis, and Emory. Academic administrators emphasize the pedagogical value of these programs, but they are also intended to promote Israel's image on campus. Fred Lafer, the head of the Taub Foundation, makes clear that his foundation funded the NYU center to help counter the 'Arabic [sic] point of view' that he thinks is prevalent in NYU's Middle East programs." (The Israel Lobby & US Foreign Policy, 2007 p 181)
Israel studies has in fact already made it to these shores, without the Murdoch press showing a flicker of interest: "Monash University's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Richard Larkins, today announced the appointment of Professor Fania Oz-Salzberger to the Leon Liberman Chair of Modern Israel Studies in the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilization... Mr Liberman said: 'The Chair... will provide an opportunity to advance a rounded and multi-dimensional discourse with the Modern State of Israel... The Acting Director of the Centre for Jewish Civilization, Professor David Copolov, said that the appointment of Professor Oz-Salzberger would help strengthen Monash's reputation as a trusted source of expert, dispassionate commentary on key issues of contemporary international relevance." (Monash appoints Chair of Modern Israel Studies, 18/4/07, http://www.monash.edu.au/.) For Oz-Salzberger see my February 12 post Rotem's Revenge.
However, to fully appreciate the consummate HYPOCRISY of the Murdoch press taking Professor Ian O'Connor to task for "taking his begging bowl to a repressive regime," one had the happy option of turning to Murdoch's rival, Fairfax's Sydney Morning Herald of 25/4/08, and reading George Monbiot's wonderful essay, Strange case of Murdoch's lost empire.
Monbiot told the story of how, after buying up Hong Kong's satellite broadcaster Star TV and making a speech in 1993 about how satellite broadcasting constituted a threat to "totalitarian regimes" because it allowed "information-hungry residents of many closed societies to bypass state-controlled television channels," which provoked the Chinese to ban satellite dishes from China, "Murdoch spent the next 10 years grovelling. Within 6 months of [the] ban, Murdoch dropped the BBC from Star's China signal. His publishing company, HarperCollins, paid a fortune for a tedious biography of Deng Xiaoping, written by Deng's daughter. He built a website for the regime's propaganda sheet, the People's Daily. In 1997 he made another speech in which he tried to undo the damage he had caused 4 years before. 'China', he said, 'is a distinctive market with distinctive social and moral values that Western companies must learn to abide by'. His minions, Dover [Murdoch's former vice-president in China & author of Rupert's Adventures in China] reveals, ensured 'every relevant Chinese government official received a copy'. He described the Dalai Lama as a 'very political old monk shuffling around in Gucci shoes'. His son James said that the Western media 'were painting a falsely negative portrayal of China through their focus on controversial issues such as human rights'. Rupert employed his unsalaried gofer, Tony Blair, to give him special access: in 1999 Blair placed him next to the then Chinese president...at a Downing Street lunch. To secure limited cable rights in southern China, News Corporation agreed to carry a Chinese government channel... on Fox and Sky. Murdoch promised to 'further strengthen co-operative ties with the Chinese media, and explore new areas with an even more positive attitude'. Most notoriously, he instructed HarperCollins not to publish the book it had bought from the former governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten."
Monday, February 18, 2008
Imad Mughniyah: Allegation as Fact
Senior Hezbollah military leader, Imad Mughniyah, was killed in Damascus on 12/2/08 when his vehicle exploded. A persistent Israeli/US charge for many years has been that Iran/Hezbollah were behind the bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires in 1994, and that Mughniyah had "orchestrated" the attack.
Contrast the different approaches to the allegation by Fairfax and Murdoch:
Fairfax: "Israel blames him for bomb attacks against its embassy and a community centre in Argentina in 1992 and 1994." Israel braces for retaliation after Hezbollah chief killed, Ed O'Loughlin, SMH, 15/2/08
Murdoch: "Mughnieh had been a high profile Israeli target since he led two attacks on Israeli interests in Argentina in 1992 and 1993." Divided Beirut turns out to mark death of slain leaders, Martin Chulov, The Australian, 15/2/08; "In 1993, Mughnieh orchestrated the attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and a later bombing of a Jewish centre in the Argentinian city." Slain terrorist stayed in shadows, Martin Chulov, The Australian, 16/2/08
O'Loughlin merely reports the allegation. Chulov reports the allegation as fact.
[Notice too the discrepancy between O'Loughlin and Chulov when it comes to dates. Predictably, Chulov's dates are wrong. The bombing took place, not in 1993, but 1994. In addition, he gets the year of the earlier bombing of Israel's embassy in Buenos Aires right (1992) in his first report, but wrong (1993) in his second. Where pro-Israel propaganda trumps factual reporting, however, as it generally does in the Murdoch press, screwing up dates is a mere bagatelle.]
The allegation will, of course, continue to be presented as fact in the Murdoch press and myriad other pro-Israel propaganda outlets, especially on the internet. For what it's worth, however, anyone interested in the truth should consult Gareth Porter's 18/1/08 investigation for the The Nation, Bush's Iran/Argentina Terror Frame-Up. Porter's is a model of investigative journalism. The entire article can be accessed at:- http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080204/porter
Here is Porter's introduction to whet your appetite:-
"Although nukes and Iraq have been the main focus of the Bush Administration's pressure campaign against Iran, US officials also seek to tar Iran as the world's leading sponsor of terrorism. And Team Bush's latest tactic is to play up a 13-year-old accusation that Iran was responsible for the notorious Buenos Aires bombing that destroyed the city's Jewish Community Center, known as AMIA, killing 86 and injuring 300, in 1994. Unnamed senior Administration officials told the Wall Street Journal January 15 that the bombing in Argentina 'serves as a model for how Tehran has used its overseas embassies and relationship with foreign militant groups, in particular, Hezbollah, to strike at its enemies'.
"This propaganda campaign depends heavily on a decision last November by the General Assembly of Interpol, which voted to put 5 former Iranian officials and a Hezbollah leader [Imad Mughniyeh] on the international police organization's 'red list' for allegedly having planned the July 1994 bombing. But the WSJ reports that it was pressure from the Bush Administration, along with Israeli and Argentine diplomats that secured the Interpol vote. In fact, the Bush Administration's manipulation of the Argentine bombing case is perfectly in line with its long practice of using distorting and manufactured evidence to build a case against its geopolitical enemies.
"After spending several months interviewing officials at the US Embassy in Buenos Aires familiar with the Argentine investigation, the head of the FBI team that assisted it and the most knowledgeable independent Argentine investigator of the case, I found that no real evidence has ever been found to implicate Iran in the bombing. Based on these interviews and the documentary record of the investigation, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the case against Iran over the AMIA bombing has been driven from the beginning by US enmity toward Iran, not by a desire to find the real perpetrators."
Now, Mughniyeh might not have had anything to do with the AMIA bombing, but did you know about his "alleged role as the terrorist 'mastermind' behind the planning for Hezbollah's July 2006 war with Israel..?" (Chulov again, 16/2/08) No? Neither did I!
Let us deal with this (unsourced, of course) sweeping allegation that Mughniyeh had planned a war against Israel in 2006: Hezbollah had planned to abduct Israeli soldiers - but for a prisoner exchange, not a war. In fact, Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, is on record as saying that "We had not forseen, not even to one-hundredth, that the hostage taking would lead to a war of that scope...it was not possible that a reaction to a hostage taking reaches such proportions." [Quoted in The 33-Day War by Achcar & Warschawski, p 33] Tragically, it seems Nasrallah wasn't aware of Moshe Dayan's dictum: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother." No, the planning for a war with Hezbollah was actually the other way around. In the words of Ron Pundak, Director-General of the Peres Center for Peace: "Hezbollah gave them a wonderful option to do something the army was already prepared to do, with a well-constructed operational plan on the shelf." (Achcar & Warschawski, p 35)
Contrast the different approaches to the allegation by Fairfax and Murdoch:
Fairfax: "Israel blames him for bomb attacks against its embassy and a community centre in Argentina in 1992 and 1994." Israel braces for retaliation after Hezbollah chief killed, Ed O'Loughlin, SMH, 15/2/08
Murdoch: "Mughnieh had been a high profile Israeli target since he led two attacks on Israeli interests in Argentina in 1992 and 1993." Divided Beirut turns out to mark death of slain leaders, Martin Chulov, The Australian, 15/2/08; "In 1993, Mughnieh orchestrated the attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and a later bombing of a Jewish centre in the Argentinian city." Slain terrorist stayed in shadows, Martin Chulov, The Australian, 16/2/08
O'Loughlin merely reports the allegation. Chulov reports the allegation as fact.
[Notice too the discrepancy between O'Loughlin and Chulov when it comes to dates. Predictably, Chulov's dates are wrong. The bombing took place, not in 1993, but 1994. In addition, he gets the year of the earlier bombing of Israel's embassy in Buenos Aires right (1992) in his first report, but wrong (1993) in his second. Where pro-Israel propaganda trumps factual reporting, however, as it generally does in the Murdoch press, screwing up dates is a mere bagatelle.]
The allegation will, of course, continue to be presented as fact in the Murdoch press and myriad other pro-Israel propaganda outlets, especially on the internet. For what it's worth, however, anyone interested in the truth should consult Gareth Porter's 18/1/08 investigation for the The Nation, Bush's Iran/Argentina Terror Frame-Up. Porter's is a model of investigative journalism. The entire article can be accessed at:- http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080204/porter
Here is Porter's introduction to whet your appetite:-
"Although nukes and Iraq have been the main focus of the Bush Administration's pressure campaign against Iran, US officials also seek to tar Iran as the world's leading sponsor of terrorism. And Team Bush's latest tactic is to play up a 13-year-old accusation that Iran was responsible for the notorious Buenos Aires bombing that destroyed the city's Jewish Community Center, known as AMIA, killing 86 and injuring 300, in 1994. Unnamed senior Administration officials told the Wall Street Journal January 15 that the bombing in Argentina 'serves as a model for how Tehran has used its overseas embassies and relationship with foreign militant groups, in particular, Hezbollah, to strike at its enemies'.
"This propaganda campaign depends heavily on a decision last November by the General Assembly of Interpol, which voted to put 5 former Iranian officials and a Hezbollah leader [Imad Mughniyeh] on the international police organization's 'red list' for allegedly having planned the July 1994 bombing. But the WSJ reports that it was pressure from the Bush Administration, along with Israeli and Argentine diplomats that secured the Interpol vote. In fact, the Bush Administration's manipulation of the Argentine bombing case is perfectly in line with its long practice of using distorting and manufactured evidence to build a case against its geopolitical enemies.
"After spending several months interviewing officials at the US Embassy in Buenos Aires familiar with the Argentine investigation, the head of the FBI team that assisted it and the most knowledgeable independent Argentine investigator of the case, I found that no real evidence has ever been found to implicate Iran in the bombing. Based on these interviews and the documentary record of the investigation, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the case against Iran over the AMIA bombing has been driven from the beginning by US enmity toward Iran, not by a desire to find the real perpetrators."
Now, Mughniyeh might not have had anything to do with the AMIA bombing, but did you know about his "alleged role as the terrorist 'mastermind' behind the planning for Hezbollah's July 2006 war with Israel..?" (Chulov again, 16/2/08) No? Neither did I!
Let us deal with this (unsourced, of course) sweeping allegation that Mughniyeh had planned a war against Israel in 2006: Hezbollah had planned to abduct Israeli soldiers - but for a prisoner exchange, not a war. In fact, Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, is on record as saying that "We had not forseen, not even to one-hundredth, that the hostage taking would lead to a war of that scope...it was not possible that a reaction to a hostage taking reaches such proportions." [Quoted in The 33-Day War by Achcar & Warschawski, p 33] Tragically, it seems Nasrallah wasn't aware of Moshe Dayan's dictum: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother." No, the planning for a war with Hezbollah was actually the other way around. In the words of Ron Pundak, Director-General of the Peres Center for Peace: "Hezbollah gave them a wonderful option to do something the army was already prepared to do, with a well-constructed operational plan on the shelf." (Achcar & Warschawski, p 35)
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